tajima dgml by pulse software version 2009 setting up...

Tajima DGML Software 2009 Going Through The Basics

1 | ©Joyce Jagger, The Embroidery Coach

Tajima DGML by Pulse Software Version 2009 Setting Up The Software

Before we start to learn anything about the software, I will show you how to set up your screen to work with ease. Before we actually start setting up the screen we need to go over some basics of your Screen.

Title Bar

The Blue Title Bar is at the top of your screen. This Title Bar tells you what level of software you are using, the name of your design, what Recipe you have used, if any, the size of your design and the stitch count.

Menu Bar

The Menu Bar is just below the Title Bar. It gives you a list of menus specific to your program.

Properties Ribbons

This Properties Ribbon is only active when you have text lettering selected. Left clicking on the black down arrow will open up the properties and segments settings menus.

This Properties Ribbon is only active when you have a digitized segment selected. If you have converted a text to segments it will also be active. Left clicking on the black down arrow will open up the properties and segments settings menus.



Tool Ribbon

These are the Tools on the Tool Ribbon. We will go over these tools individually in another segment.

Color Bar / Status Bar / Ruler The Color Bar is located just above the Status Bar. The color squares on the left side are the active colors in the current design on the workspace. If you have no design, you will see the standard color palette. If you need to add another color, left click on right side of the Color Bar to choose another color. The color will then move to the left side of the Color Bar and can be used within your design. The Status Bar is located at the bottom of your screen. Along the bottom of this bar is information such as the dimensions of the selected segment, the segment number, type of stitch in that segment, scale of zoom, and etc. Just above the Color Bar is the Ruler. You can drag a guide line up from the ruler to be placed in at a specified spot on your workspace.

Now it is actually time to set up your screen for ease in learning. If you will set it up as I instruct you, it will make it much easier to learn the program. Once you know the program and know all of the tools and what their particular functions are, you can set it up however you feel most comfortable.


Setting Up Your Screen

This is how your finished screen will look after you have it all set up if you have a tool cabinet. Some versions of Pulse by Tajima 2009 has the option of a Tool Cabinet. This is your Workspace. As you can see, I have a Tool Cabinet with Tool Drawers that are organized with my tools for each function in their proper place. Each one of those tools has a name. You can quickly learn what these tools are and learn their functions.


I have my favorite tools that I use a lot at the top of the screen. They are still in the Tool Cabinet, but I can quickly grab what I need. Once you learn what are the tools are and what their functions are, you can add your favorite tools anyplace around the screen. You can also close the Tool Cabinet if you no longer need to use it with the names displayed by each tool. This will give you more room on your workspace.



This is what the screen will look like as soon as you have your program installed. The Icons for the tools are all on the left side of the screen. They look very clean this way and it does give you more space on your actual work surface, but it makes it harder to learn what each tool is used for. When they are organized in the Tool Cabinet and have a name beside them, as on the previous page, it really helps to speed up the learning process. If you do not have the tool cabinet option you can organize your tools in the same order as they are laid out in the Tool Cabinet. In the “Going Through The Tools” Section, I will go over each tool and you can see the picture of each tool Icon. This will help to

Tajima DGML Software 2009 Going Through The Basics Set Up Tool Cabinet With Names On All Tools

Go to the Menu Bar and click

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on the Tool tab – Scroll down to Configuration. Click on Configuration and scroll down to Toolbars.

Uncheck the tools that are not necessary for you to have around the screen at this time. Check the Tool Cabinet.

e Tool Cabinet will appear and all of the Tool Drawers will be underneath in a very ganized manner. After you know what all of your tools are used for, you can change s feature to suit yourself.

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Set up Names by the Icothe tools in a Tool Drawthe names will appear n

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ns.-Right click on any one of er- select Show Names and

ext to each tool.


Change the size of your Icons in the Tool Drawers if you like larger Icons. Right click again on one of the Icons, and choose Large Icons instead of the Small Icons. The default setting is Small Icons.

User Settings Go to the Menu Bar


and click on the Tool tab – Scroll down to Configuration-Then chose User Settings. This will bring up all of the User Settings. First one is General Settings. Fill in your Company name and choose your Drawing Mode. I find that Quick Draw is the easiest. You can choose another drawing

mode in the process of your drawing. The default for the Cost Setting is $1.00 per 1000 stitches. If you do not want this to show up on your worksheet, you can delete that number from the box. You can type in any number that you are comfortable with or you can leave it blank.


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Environment Auto save timer 10 Min. Leave Defaults settings as is. This will save your design every 10 minutes. If the computer decides to shut down on you, you at least have your design to the last save. You must have already saved your design and given it a name before this feature will work. If you have started a design and have not save it yet, you will not have the design if the computer or software does shut down.

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©Joyce Jagger, The Embroidery Coach

use Wheel Behavior

is is your choice-how you want to set it. My preference is Scroll Up/Down as in the ture on the left.

eck the boxes as I have them on the screen. These can be changed as you become ther advanced and learn more about the software. I set it up for the easiest and fastest y to learn.


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Display

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n the Display setting you can choose the boxes to check as you like. The ones that I ve checked are the way that I like to have my workspace behave.

he Draw Crosshairs when moving segments may be very annoying to you when you e first starting out. You may choose to deselect this box. To me this is a very helpful ature but it does have a crosshair on the screen at all times. This allows you to see if mething is perfectly lined up. I find it very useful!

he Override selected stitch color is very helpful if you have to do some editing. diting is done on a daily basis with each design as you are creating it. This allows you see at all times exactly what stitched are selected for editing.

Tajima DGML Software 2009 Going Through The Basics Print Settings

On the Images page, it will give you a choice of the print size you’re the design on your worksheet. Actual print size,(works best for most applications but can be changed as you see your needs change). Check the Company Name, Creation Date, Design Name, Customer Name, uncheck Estimate Cost (this depends on your customer whether they are a wholesale or a retail customer). You may not even want

your employees seeing what you are charging.


Check all of your settings as I have them set above. You can change them later if you find that you have a different need. This will give you a lot of information on your actual Worksheet. At the left, you can see what a Worksheet looks like when it is printed out. This is a necessary tool as you are taking your design to the machine to program it into the machine. It gives you all of your color sequences, stitch count, trims and a Customer Name if you have added that to your Worksheet.

Tajima DGML Software 2009 Going Through The Basics Text Area

The Bridge Rise is a flexible
setting. I changed the bridge rise to 40%. The default setting is 25%. When you are working with Envelopes it looks better, at least that is my opinion. I will show you how to use the Envelopes in one of the lessons. To the left is a picture
showing you some of the Rises as I


changed the Bridge Rise setting. This will give you a better idea as to what effect it can have on the total appearance of the basic lettering design you are creating. You can see how much deeper the curve is on the 50% as compared to the 25% setting. You cannot change this setting when you are in the process of creating your design. If you want to make the change you will have to close the software and reopen before the change will be effective. Within each Envelope you have make changes in your rises and shapes as you are working with them.



Units of Measurement

Units of Measurement- You can set it to Imperial or Metric – Imperial is easier for most people to understand, but I find that Metric is more precise when you are using

the segment settings, such as Pull Comp and Underlay. You will achieve better results.

Units of Density-Stitches per inch, my preference. Embroidery Settings Units-My preference millimeters. If you are familiar with Points, you can select the Points option. Metric Conversions Stitch Lengths Millimeters to inches- mm x .039 Points to inches – points x 0.0039 Inches to Millimeters-inches x 25.4 Inches to Points-inches x 254 Density Stitches per Inch (SPI) to Points - 254/spi = points Points to stitches per inch (SPI) - 254/points = spi We have completed the most important settings for now. The rest of the settings you will learn about as you gain more experience.


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Grid Settings

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Go to View on the Menu Bar and scroll down to Grid. When you hover on Grid, the fly out menu will show up. Scroll down to Settings and it will bring up the Grid Settings box.

I am going to set the grids to one inch squares. If you are using Imperial you will set it at 1 inch. If you are using Metric, you will set your Horizontal & Vertical spacing in the Minor grid box to 25.4 mm. (equals 1 inch.) You can physically see as you are doing your design work, how large your design or letters are by looking at your squares. You can also specify what color you would like your grid lines to appear. Screen should look like this if you are using Imperial. If using Metric type in 25.4mm. Make sure that your Snap to Grid is not checked. Your Screen set up is now complete.



Types of Design Files Learning the basics and having a basic understanding of the different types of files is a must before you can actually begin creating any designs. There are four basic types of design files.

1. Outline File – (Examples are POF, PED, KWK, and CND) This is the file that is used to create your designs. It does not contain any stitches. It is only the outlines of your design. The POF, PED, KWK are all outline file extensions from the earlier versions of the Pulse software. The CND extension is from the DOS and Melco Condensed versions of software. The DOS condensed and Melco Condensed is considered the same type of file. This is the extension that you would want to order if you are purchasing Stock designs from any stock design companies such as Dakota Collectible or Great Notions.

2. Stitch File (Examples are PSF, PCH, EMB, SEW and PES ) Once your design

is created in an outline format it is then turned into a stitch file format. This is how all of the earlier versions of the Pulse software worked. First you created in the outline format, then you had to manually turn it into the stitch file. The stitch file contains all of the information that is associated with the design. This is not applicable to the 2009 version of the Pulse software, I just want you to have a basic knowledge of what a stitch file is and be able to recognize another file extension for a stitch file in case you happen to be faced with that working with customers that want to bring in stitch files to you that they had digitized by someone else.

3. Stitch File that goes to the machine (DST) This should not to be confused with

the other stitch file types. This is the file that the Tajima embroidery machines will read. They will not read any other stitch file information. Once you have your design created you then write it to a disk or to the machine and it creates its own DST file for the machine to read. If you have another type of embroidery machine you will output it or write it into whatever format your machine will read.

4. Unified File-Combination of Outline and Stitch files (PXF)-This is a

combination of both the outline file and the stitch file and basically the only file format that you will be using as you start learning the software. This is a much easier type of file to understand and work with. This is the default file of the


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Tajima DGML 2009 software. You can see what your stitches will look like as well as your outlines in one single file. When you open your saved file to do any editing it is exactly as you left it and you do not have to bother turning it into a stitch file after it is finished, the system automatically does it for you as you are creating your design. The older versions of the Pulse software required that you saved two files into your design file. You had both the outline file, (POF) and the stitch file (PSF). That is no longer applicable, but if someone has an old POF file (outline file) of their design, you can open it in your software and save it as a PXF file. The PXF file that contains both the outline and stitch information is the only file that you will be working with or concerned with. After you have your design finished and saved into the PXF format, you will then write it to your disk (floppy drive A), or directly to the embroidery machine. It will automatically turn it into the DST format for the Tajima machine to read or into whatever format your embroidery machine will read as you go through this process. If you need to save your designs on a USB Flash Drive, you will save them as a .dst file. You cannot write them to the Flash drive the same way that you do to a Floppy drive.

Create A Design Folder

Before you begin it is imperative that you create a specific folder that you save all of

your designs into as you

| ©Joyce Jagger, The Embroidery ach

are creating them. There is a design folder within the software program but it is quicker if you create this folder directly into your Documents folder on the hard drive. Select the Documents folder, Right click inside of the white space and the menu that is on the right will appear.



Scroll down to New and then the menu on the left will appear. Scroll up to Folder. Type Designs in the highlighted space that says New Folder. You now will have a set file for all of your designs. You can organize them inside of this folder, but you do not want to have to go all over your computer looking for a design file that you have saved. This is a huge time waster and very frustrating.

How To Open A Design

In this version of software you can open any of your design files of type. You will notice in the “Files of Type” software window, that you have many choices. You must choose the file type that you are working with. Sometimes customers will bring you files that someone else has already digitized for them and you will select from the list the file extension that you are trying to open. Some of the formats are from home embroidery machines. In earlier versions you could only open your outline file and you had to input your stitch file. This was very often quite confusing to new users. We will go through the 4 ways of opening files.

1. Open a design from the Design Folder that is located on the hard drive (drive C) 2. Open a design from the Floppy Disk, (A drive) 3. Open a design from a CD. For this purpose, we will be using the Pulse Design

Organizer CD to open a design. Any type of stock design CD would be opene in the same manner.

4. Open a design from a USB Flash Drive.


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To Open From The Design Folder: Go to File at the top left corner of your Menu Bar. Scroll down to Open. Click on Open.

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This will bring up your Open Design dialog menu.

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ok in: box. Scroll through your e until you find the design that you oking for. We have chosen nghamton.pxf. The picture of the at you have chosen will show in the e left bottom corner. You must e box checked where it says Icon eview.

the files of type box you will notice thsign that you are looking for is not a P thru the list until you find the type och as POF, PSF etc.) that you are look

someone has given you a design diskur Files of type and click on All Desie disk if it is compatible at all with thbroidery design files that can be open

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at it says Pulse Embroidery Files (PXF). If the XF file you must click on the Black arrow and f file (the right extension on the end of the file, ing for.

and you do not know what it is, scroll down in gn Files. This will bring up the design that is on e software. There are many different types of ed with this software.

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e click on the file (Binghamton.pxf) and your ll open up and be displayed on your workspace.


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Open Design from Floppy Disk (Drive A:)

Go to File at the top left corner of your Menu Bar. Scroll down to Open. Double click on open. Click on the black down arrow in your Look in: box to find Floppy Disk (Drive A:)

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Double Click on 3 ½ Floppy (A:). This will bring up your Floppy Drive A: into your Look in: box. After you scroll through the Floppy Drive A: for the file that you want, double click on that file and it will appear on the screen or your workspace as in the previous section.


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Open Design from a CD

Place the CD into your CD Rom drive in your
computer. Go to File at the top left corner of your Menu Bar. Scroll down to Open. Double click on open. Click on your black down arrow in your Look in: box to find the drive letter of your CD Drive. It is not always the same drive letter on all computers. On this computer it is Drive D. On another one of my computers it is Drive F. Double Click on your CD Drive and it will appear in your Look in: box. You will then scroll down until you find your design or Designs folder. I am using the Pulse Design Organizer CD.
| ©Joyce Jagger, The Embroidery ach

Double click on the Designs Folder and it will appear in the Look in: box.

This will bring up a lot of different design folders. You will notice that in the Files of type: box it says Pulse Embroidery Files (*.PXF). On this CD we do not have any PXF files. This CD was made previous to this version of software. You will have to click on your black down arrow in that box to choose either POF(Outline) files or PSF (Stitch) files. For this example

Tajima DGML Software 2009 Going Through The Basics we are going to choose POF files. When we choose the POF file we can edit or resize it. You cannot do this in the PSF file.

Choose the design file Children.
Double click on file and it will bring up many designs in the Childrens Folder. You can click on the button that says Icons preview and it will show all of the pictures for the designs in that file.

Scroll thru the pictures and find the one that you want to work with. You can then double click on it and it will appear on your workspace. I want to caution you about working with a stock design that you have opened up from a Design CD. You must first save it to your hard drive into your Design folder or onto a Floppy disk or


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USB Flash drive before you make any changes to it in any way. You cannot make changes or save any new files to your Design CD’s. If you have purchased a Design CD from one of the Stock Design companies such as Dakota Collectibles or Great Notions, it is best to ask for the Condensed version. They will ask you what type of machine you are using. Instead of telling them what machine you have, tell them that you want the Condensed version. If you tell them the name of the machine that you have, they will want to send you the expanded version or the DST version. These are stitch files, you want the Condensed version so that you can resize and edit them. You cannot do this with the Expanded version or the DST version. To open a Condensed version, scroll down to choose Melco Condensed in the Files of type: box. If you are using the Expanded version, scroll down and choose Melco Expanded. If it is in the DST format, you will scroll down and choose the DST format. Follow the same procedure as in the other Design CD.

Open Design From A USB Flash Drive Place the USB Flash Drive into the USB port on your computer. Go to File, Click on Open and Select the name of you UPS Flash drive. Some will be called Flash Drive,

some will be called Removable


Disk. Click on the Icon and it will bring up the files on the Flash Drive. Scroll down thought the list and select the file that you are looking for. When you click on it, it will open up on your Workspace.



How to Save The Designs Saving the design is very important as soon as you start to put any information onto the workspace. In this version of software, it is best to save all of your designs in a PXF format. The PXF format contains all of the outline and stitch information in each file. I will show you how to save files and how to create new folders within your Design folder to organize your designs by categories or dealers. You will save all of your designs directly into the Design folder. If you do not want to save your designs onto your computer, you must save them onto an external drive or onto a Flash Drive. You must always save that original file that you create for future edits and changes. They will come up. Always save it in the .PXF format. I know that I am repeating myself, but it is that important. If you make the mistake of saving the file with the extension of the design, .dst, you cannot do any edits on this file.

Save Into The Design Folder Go to File on the Menu Bar. Scroll down to Save as: This will bring up your Save as: dialog box. Go to Documents and Select the Designs folder and it will open. Go down to Save as type: (the default if PXF) This is the recommended file of choice. If you save it in this file type, you can go back and bring up your original file if you want to do any editing. Give your File a name in the File name: box. Click Save. Do not save it in the .DST format. This is the stitch file that goes to the machine. Once

it is in this format, you will lose your original file and it will be very difficult for you to edit this file. All of your original information will be lost.


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If you would like to organize your designs by categories or by dealers, there is an added step here. This will help you to easily find a design that you have done for a certain customer without having to scroll thru all of them.As in the previous step, go to the Documents folder and select the Designs folder. Double click on Design to open it into the Look in box.

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While your are in the Design folder, Right click on the New Folder Icon

and a New Folder will be created for you to name. While the word is highlighted you can change

he name of the folder from New Folder to whatever name you want. This all depends n how you are going to organize your designs. I have one called Dealers for all of my ealers. I have another one for My Designs, those are my personal designs.


It will open up and you can save you design in that folder. Once you close it this folder it will show up at the beginning of

your designs in the Design folder. You can have as many folders within your design folder as you would like. You can also go thru this process again and create folders within the Dealers folder that you just created with the names of each dealer that you work with. I find this a very effective way to keep track of designs for each customer.

Tajima DGML Software 2009 Going Through The Basics There is a Pulse program called Librarian that you can purchase to keep track of your designs and carry this process even further and be able to pull up your designs by size, dealer, category and etc., but until you have that program this system will work to get you started. I have used this method for many years very successfully.

To Save Designs onto a Floppy Disk (Drive A:)

Go to File on your Menu Bar. Go down to Save as: This will bring up your Save as: dialog box. If

you are currently working within the program on the Hard drive or C drive, it should automatically bring up your Design folder. You will have to click on your Black down arrow in your Save in: box. You

will choose 3 ½” Floppy (A:) It will open up and you can save you design on the Floppy disk.

To Save A Design Onto A Flash Drive For Taking To The Embroidery Machine

If you have an


embroidery machine that reads the design through a Flash Drive you will need to save that in a different manner. You cannot output the design as you can with a Floppy disk. You must save it as a .dst file directly onto the Flash Drive. From the Save As: window - Go to Computer and select the Flash Drive.



Make sure that you have the Save as type: set to .DST file before you save it. If you are using a USB Flash Drive as a storage device for your original files, save it as the .PXF file along with the .DST file. You do not want to lose any of your original information.



Recipes /Styles

In this chapter I am going to show you how to use an existing Recipe/Style, change the Recipe/Style and create your own Recipes/Styles (type of fabric or garment that you are going to be using to apply your design). It is best if you start right from the beginning using the Recipes/Styles that are preinstalled. It will save you’re a lot of frustration trying to figure out what type of settings that you should use to give you the results that you are trying to achieve. The preinstalled Recipes/Styles provide all of the proper settings for the different fabrics, but they are designed for one inch letters. These settings are automatically applied to your design as you are creating it. Sometimes adjustments are needed depending on the size and style of letter you are using and the weight and texture of your fabric. There are many different weights for every type of fabric and these different weights cannot be treated the same. A lot of this will come with experience, but you will need to do some experimenting with your different fabrics to see what is going to work best. A lot depends on the effect that you are trying to achieve. Go to File-Click on New- This brings up your Recipe Dialog box.

Scroll down thru the file and choose the fabric that you are going to be using. For this example, I have chosen Sweatshirt. After you have highlighted your choice, click on it and it will appear in the box that now says Normal. Then click OK. This will bring up your new page or workspace ready for you to create your design. Do not bother with the Presets box at this time. That will be for more advanced Users. If you have Presets in your version of Software, you will work with them at a later time.

Leave the Start/Stop Location set at Center unless you have a reason not to have the design start in the center.



If you do not have a Tajima machine you will need to scroll down and select the correct Machine Format.

Changing a Recipe/Style

You can also apply a Recipe/Style to your design after you have created it or you can change a Recipe/Style if you want to create a design for two or three different types of fabrics. This is done by the following method. Click on Select in you Edit Tool drawer and select your design (put a box around it) or Select the section or area of your design that you want to apply the Recipe/Style to. It is very important to note here that you never apply a Recipe/Style to a design that has been previously digitized or any type of a stock design. These pre-digitized designs have the settings digitized into them already and you will create a lot more stitches and problems if you try to apply a Recipe/Style to them. You only apply it to the section or lettering that you have added to that design.

Right click to bring up the Transform menu. The Shortcut key for this is Control E. Scroll down the menu and choose Apply Style (same as a Recipe). This will apply the Recipe to whatever section of your design that you want.

If you have already applied a Style/Recipe and you want to change it, first you must select Reset and then go back and apply the new Style/Recipe. If you do not, it may not remove all of the old settings before applying the new ones. After you have made your changes, select the G key on your keyboard to make sure that the change was made. Some times you have to generate the change yourself.



Creating your own Recipes/Styles

You can also create your own Recipes/Styles to apply to a certain type of fabric. This will save you a lot of time and guess work when you have a certain application that you want to use frequently such as working with the Performance Knit Fabrics. We will go thru and create a Recipe/ Style Performance Knit Fabrics so that you can see how easily it can be done. Once you have your Recipe/Style completed, it will appear in your Recipe/Styles pulldown menu.

Go to Tools on your Menu Bar: Scroll down to select Styles. This will bring up a wide narrow box with all of the previously created Recipe/Styles and this same box is used to create your new Recipes/Styles.

Click on Styles. This will bring up the Style & Recipes Dialog box.

In the Name area box appears the word NORMAL, click on the drop down arrow and select a style that is close to what you want to create. For this sample I will choose the Pique Recipe.

In the Name box, it displays, Pique. Highlight the word Pique and type in Performance Knit Fabric. Click on Save. This will save your new Recipe or Style. We will also add a Hot Key so that you can create your design for the Performance



Knits in the Normal setting and then apply the Recipe/Style that we have created instantly.

After you save it, you will have to go back and scroll down to find the Performance Knit Fabrics recipe.

Click Add to Style in the lower right corner of the box to the left. This will bring up the Segment Settings box. At this point you will be able to

add the information that you want and make any adjustments to the standard settings.

On this first page, I will not add any information because I am not locking it into any one



font. The only changes that I will make to this Recipe or Style is the Density on the Satin tab, the Underlay and the Pull Comp.

Even though I have created this Recipe/Style, I can still go into the Segment Settings and make changes as I am creating the designs, if this is something that I want to do.

Click on the Underlay tab and add the settings. Click on the Pull Comp tab and change the setting from .40m Absolute to .30m Absolute. Click on the Satin tab and change the Density to -7 SPI. Click the OK button on the lower right corner. Your new Recipe or Style is now created. When you start your new file to create your Design for your Performance Knit Fabrics, Click on New and when the Recipe Dialog box comes up, Scroll down and Select your new Recipe, Performance Knit Fabrics.


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f you decide that you want to use one Recipe/Style and then edit your design for nother fabric type or another Recipe/Style, don’t forget you must choose Reset before pplying the new Recipe/Style. If you do not, all of the settings may not be removed efore applying the new ones.

his recipe that I just created was developed for small letters about 5millimeters or arger. Increase your settings for larger letters, decrease your settings for smaller etters. This is going to take some experimenting and experience in order to know mmediately what the correct settings will be.