Digitizing Assistant only applies to users who have the Digitizing Assistant Option.
You can skip any section of the Digitizing Assistant Help by clicking on the subject below:
This is an overview of the Digitizing Assistant module, how it works, and its intended use.
Digitizing Assistant is an advanced automation software module, which allows custom artwork (either from a scanner or paint program) to be directly converted to embroidery design data for EDS IV. More specifically, Digitizing Assistant has been designed to dramatically reduce the amount of time and expertise needed to create sophisticated embroidery designs from original artwork. To accomplish this design goal, Digitizing Assistant incorporates state-of-the-art image processing and artificial intelligence technologies that effectively duplicate the operations that an expert digitizer would perform when punching artwork by hand. For the digitizer, this translates into tremendous time savings, in some cases allowing work that would normally take hours, to be completed within minutes. Alternatively, for the small embroidery shop, Digitizing Assistant may allow users to forgo the cost and time required to send out basic artwork for custom embroidery punching. Digitizing Assistant software does not eliminate the need for expert digitizers. However, for typical business logo artwork or basic clipart the software can provide an enormous savings in time and effort and can significantly reduce the amount of training or expertise required to quickly create custom embroidery designs.
The remainder of this chapter covers the general principles that must be understood in order to use Digitizing Assistant for EDS IV most effectively. This includes an explanation of the type and quality of images that should be used as input, as well as some common pitfalls that you may encounter when using an automation system such as this. After this overview is presented a basic tutorial is provided that allows you to become familiar with most of Digitizing Assistant's features while working on real designs. After completing all of the tutorials, a user should be fairly proficient using the system. Finally, you will find references that contain detailed descriptions of all program features and their intended use.
Digitizing Assistant will only import 24-bit color graphic files or scanned images that are scanned using 24-bit color (i.e. millions of colors). Images must be of a high resolution for the software to work properly, usually at least 300dpi (dots per inch). Within these restrictions, the software is designed to convert two classes of images, "clean" images or "noisy" images. Clean images require less processing and typically originate as clip art or some other machine generated artwork (i.e. they are not scanned or if they are scanned, they have been cleaned of all noise prior to processing). Clean images do not have half-toning, dithering, anti-aliasing or any other feature that may make the image appear blurry or imprecise. Thus, clean images basically consist of clear large well-defined regions of solid colors. What follows below are more specific descriptions of these two classes of images and how to distinguish between them. Knowing about the quality and type of source image that one is working with will allow a user to determine what types of operations need to be performed such that high quality embroidery may be generated. Also note that the examples directory (installed with your EDS IV software; default: C:\Designs\Graphics) contains some complete examples of noisy and clean images (all Floral designs and Earthday are noisy, others are clean). You may want to review some of these examples in order to gain a better idea of the differences between these types of images. In terms of using Digitizing Assistant with these types of images, clean images typically require less processing and can be automatically converted to embroidery using a simple three-step process. Alternatively, noisy images must undergo some additional processing by the system that effectively transforms them into clean images first. Or if a user prefers, an image may also be cleaned using third party photo editing or paint programs.
As briefly described above, noisy images may have several distinct features which distinguish them from clean images. In many cases, the differences between these two types of images are more clearly seen by zooming in on (or magnifying) the image. The Figure below highlights some of these distinctions.
Noisy versus Clean Image Samples. The left side is the original (noisy) image as it was acquired using a 24-bit color scanner. The right side is the same image after cleaning was performed. The lower two pictures show magnified sections of the images above. Notice that colors in the noisy image are not solid (e.g. the red appears to have darker gold polka dots - an effect caused by half-toning in the original image). Also notice that the boundaries between different colors are not sharp. This "blurriness" is commonly attributable to a process known as anti-aliasing. Thus, in the clean image on the right, the effects of half-toning and anti-aliasing have been completely removed.
The images that Digitizing Assistant converts must be stored at a high resolution in order for optimal results to be achieved. To understand what this means, it is useful to discuss how scanned pictures are stored in a computer and what is meant by the term high-resolution.
When a picture is loaded into the computer via a scanner, it is broken down and stored as a series of colored dots (termed picture elements or pixels for short). As seen in the magnified portions of the above figure, each pixel can be viewed as a small square dot of a single color that corresponds to a specific location within the original image. However, the number of dots (i.e. pixels) that are scanned and stored for any given picture is dependent on the resolution at which the picture was scanned. Specifically, the resolution specifies how many dots (i.e. pixels) are generated per square inch (or per square millimeter). In order for humans to see a sharp image (i.e. without noticing these small dots), an image must have a high resolution. For example, at a resolution of 300 dots per inch (dpi), the dots become so small that they typically go unnoticed when viewed by the human eye. Alternatively, a low-resolution image, for example stored at 100 dots per inch, may appear jagged or unclear because the individual dots are much larger and become more noticeable. Thus as expected, in order for Digitizing Assistant to be effective in generating accurate embroidery designs that do not appear jagged, the source image must be relatively sharp and must be stored at a high resolution.
The total number of dots (or pixels) needed to accurately store a specific image depends on the resolution (dpi) and on the desired output size of the image. For example, a 2 inch by 1 inch picture stored at 300 dpi (dots per inch), should have a width of 600 dots and a height of 300 dots. The bare minimum dpi resolution that Digitizing Assistant requires when generating artwork of a desired size is approximately 250 dpi, which roughly corresponds to the inherent resolution at which condensed data points are stored. If all of this talk about dpi, pixels, and resolution is a bit confusing, don't worry, this information is only provided to help you understand the requirements of Digitizing Assistant. If this information doesn't help, forget it and simply follow the general guidelines presented in the next section.
1. You need to have relatively clean and reasonably sized source material. The size of the logo present on a typical business card may not be sufficient source material, especially if the logo on the card is 0.2" x 0.1" and you want embroidery that measures 5.0" x 2.5". Thus, it is generally recommended that at least letterhead sized artwork be obtained and used with Digitizing Assistant. Ideally, you would like to have a large clearly printed logo (camera ready) before you employ the use of Digitizing Assistant. However, we realize that in reality, this is not practical. Hence, most logos or artwork taken from business letterhead are typically large enough to be scanned and used with Digitizing Assistant. The basic idea to remember here is that you can't start with very tiny artwork and expect to generate large accurate embroidery because when you blow up or enlarge the artwork it will become extremely blurry.
2. Important: Keep the target resolution in mind when you are scanning the source material. If the logo measures approximately 2"x1" and you want embroidery that measures 4"x2" you should consider scanning the image at 600 dpi to produce the equivalent of a 300 dpi 4"x2" image. This is where scanner resolution becomes a factor. If your scanner supports 4800dpi X 4800dpi scanning but has a specification stating that it only has a 300dpi x 300dpi optical resolution, this will produce a blurrier image than if you had a scanner with a true 600 dpi optical resolution. The biggest things to remember here are: A) you need a decent quality scanner, and B) there are limits to how much you can blow up (or enlarge) an image. If you only have .5" x .25" artwork, even if you scan it in at 1200dpi, it is going to become extremely blurry and produce poor results.
3. When scanning an image and deciding upon the optimal scan resolution, there are two factors that are always in opposition to one another. The first factor is to reduce noise and blurring (attributable to features such as half-toning) when scanning. One way of accomplishing this is to scan at a low resolution or a low dpi (e.g. 100dpi). Unfortunately, the second factor requires that a large enough design be produced so that the design is processed at the correct scale. To provide for this second factor, it is often necessary to scan at a high resolution (e.g. 600dpi). Hence, there are two opposing considerations that must be balanced when picking a scan resolution. The larger the source material, the more flexibility one has in balancing these considerations. Thus, it is always better to have large artwork (i.e. from advertising materials, etc.), versus having small artwork (i.e. from business cards, etc.). For example, if you have a 6"x3" logo and you only need to produce embroidery that measures 3"x1", you may be able to scan the logo in at as little as 150dpi. Besides effectively reducing the size of the logo, this allows much of the noise or half-toning that may be present in the image to be reduced even before cleaning is performed from within Digitizing Assistant.
4. Clipart: All of the information mentioned in items 1 and 2 above also applies to clipart. It is most favorable if the clipart is in a vector format like that used in Corel Draw (e.g. a cdr file). In this case, all you need to do is think about what size image you need (e.g. 2"x1" logo = 600 x 300 pixels), and then just export the clipart as a bitmap image of this size. If the clipart is not in a vector format (e.g. pcx, bmp, etc.), you are basically limited to the size it was saved as, since if you try to enlarge it a lot, it will become blurry. For example if the clipart was saved at 100dpi and measures 2"x1" (i.e. 200 dots x 100 dots), this really means that you could only produce a .66"x.33" design. Since .66"x.33" is, in most cases, an impractical size for embroidery, you would have to conclude that this clipart image is not usable. Other considerations when generating images to be processed from clipart include making sure that paint program features such as anti-aliasing and super-sampling have been turned off or disabled. While these features, in many cases, make the image appear clearer to the human eye, they actually distort the appearance of an image from the computer's perspective.
As far as obtaining all of this information about dpi, size, etc. from a stored image file, the information is usually stored with the image and can be viewed using most paint programs. For example, if you open the image in Microsoft Photo Editor (included with Microsoft Office), you can go to Page/Properties and look at the resolution and size tabs in the dialog box that opens and this will tell you the specs for the image.
A good rule of thumb that may be used to decide whether an image has a high enough resolution is to view the image at a zoom factor of 50% on screen. At this zoom factor the image should still appear quite large, consume almost the entire screen area, and appear relatively sharp. Oppositely, to determine the presence or amount of noise within an image, it is often useful to zoom in or enlarge an image to more than 200% for close examination (as shown in the noisy vs. clean figure). Quite often, parts of an image that need to be adjusted or eliminated may only be visible when the image is viewed at this enlarged scale.
As with any tool, through continued experience scanning images and using Digitizing Assistant, the user should be able to gain an intuitive feel for how an image should be scanned without having to spend any significant amount of time thinking about or computing sizes and dpi. Hence, most of the information that has been provided in this section has been intended to simply supply a foundation for this intuition.
1. Start EDS IV and load desired graphic - meeting requirements discussed in previous chapter (e.g. select one from \Designs\Graphics).
2. Scale and position graphic, if necessary.
3. Invoke Digitizing Assistant by clicking one of the following icons on the toolbar
Digitizing Assistant (full) will allow you to trace the whole image;
If you want to trace only a selected region of the graphic then click the following icon:
Digitizing Assistant (partial) will allow you to trace the selected part of the graphic. After partial mode is selected you have to click on the area you would like to trace.
As mentioned previously, Digitizing Assistant operates upon both clean and noisy images. Noisy images (images which contain various types of noise as explained earlier) must undergo some additional preprocessing steps which effectively transform them into clean images before they are converted to embroidery. Thus, there are fundamentally two different processes that the user may perform when using Digitizing Assistant. The first is a cleaning process and the second is the process of converting a clean image to embroidery. What follows below is a brief overview of each of these two processes.
The three pictures shown above indicate the three buttons used to clean images. These buttons also represent the first three basic steps that must be performed in order to process a noisy image.
The Clean Image Button - The first button (depicting a picture of a scrub brush) is pressed immediately after a noisy image is loaded or scanned. The processing performed after pressing this button attempts to rid the image of various types of noise that may be present as well as to determine the number of unique solid colors that compose the image. At the completion of this processing a dialog box is displayed that indicates the number of solid colors detected. This number may be corrected by the user (if desired) to reduce the number of colors used to create a clean version of the image. Once the dialog box is closed, a rough outline of the image is also created which delineates contiguous shapes within the image. Note that at any point, view controls may be used to hide or display the generated outline and/or bitmap. After the image has been processed using the clean image button, additional "touch-ups" may be required. Hence, one or more of the image editing tools may be used to further correct any inaccuracies or noise remaining within the image. In this case, temporarily hiding the image's outline may be useful if pixel editing around the boundary of an object is required. It is also at this point that any objects which are particularly small or of a very fine thickness should be removed (if they haven't already been eliminated during the cleaning step). The paint can flood fill tool is often useful for performing this task if required. One other common "touch-up" that may be required is the use of the line tool such that those objects that have bled into one another or merged may be properly divided.
The Re-Segment Image Button - This button should be pressed after the bitmap is cleaned and any touch-up image editing is complete. Pressing this button effectively generates a new, more precise outline of the processed image. Additionally, if curve fitting has been enabled, smooth curves along the boundaries of regions within the image are automatically detected and appropriate arcs are generated. After pressing this button, the user may adjust the positioning of outline points using the mouse cursor. Additionally, the point/arc add and delete tools may be used to add or remove points from the image's outline.
The Regenerate Image Button - This button should be pressed after all outline editing has been completed. Processing performed here effectively "regenerates" the artwork by filling in the specified outlines with the appropriate solid fill colors. After this step is completed, the bitmapped artwork that is produced should be clean, sharp, and free of all noise. At this point, the user may proceed convert the clean artwork into an embroidery design. Or alternatively, the user may save the cleaned graphic to disc.
This is a tutorial designed to familiarize you with the program's main features.
Step 1: Invoke EDS IV and start new project by pressing the New button.
Step 2: Press the Open button and click on the file type drop down menu and select "All Graphics".
Step 3: Browse to \Designs\Graphics and open "Fun Hat.bmp".
Step 4: Invoke Digitizing Assistant (full) , which will allow you to trace the whole image.
Step 5: Click on the Punch Design button to generate the final embroidery information. A simulation of the file is displayed on the screen. It is more noticeable that the stitching is only simulated for fill-stitch objects (not shown here) since no complex fill routines are generated.
The light blue color of the FunHat object indicates that it will be generated using satin stitches. Larger red circles at the centers of column intersections indicate control points that may be clicked upon to provide alternatives to a chosen intersection's interpretation. Also, displayed are the detected outlines of the objects. A segment containing a circle indicates a detection of the smooth arc (curved input point), while small squares indicate straight line segments (straight input points).
Step 6: Click on the Send to EDS IV Button. Embroidery data will be sent to EDS IV. You can now work with this as any other project in EDS IV where the digitizing was done manually.
Note: your embroidery data, created by tracing, will not be saved if you select "Exit" from the file menu.
This is a tutorial designed to familiarize you with the program's main features.
Step 1: Invoke EDS IV and start new project by pressing the New button.
Step 2: Press the Open button and click on the file type drop down menu and select "All Graphics".
Step 3: Browse to \Designs\Graphics and open "Floral1.bmp".
Step 4: Invoke Digitizing Assistant (full) , which will allow you to trace the whole image.
Step 5: For the purposes of this tutorial, it will be useful to ensure that curve fitting has been enabled. Hence, after the image has loaded, open the processing settings dialog box by clicking on the button displayed to the left and make sure the check box at the bottom of the dialog is checked. Then, click OK to close this dialog box.
Step 6: Click on the Clean button which will attempt to remove noise from the image and segment the picture into well-defined solid regions. After processing you will be asked for the number of colors in the image (as a double check compared to what the software has determined).
Step 7: Click on the Re-Segment button to re-outline the image. If curve fitting is enabled, this will also prompt the system to detect the presence of smooth curves along the edges of objects. Detected curves will be shown as sections of green arcs containing small green circles at their centers.
Step 8: Click on the Regenerate button to fill in the outlines extracted. Slight adjustments may be made to outline vertices by clicking and dragging them before clicking the regenerate button.
Step 9: Click on the Punch Design button to generate the final embroidery information. A simulation of the file is displayed on the screen. It is more noticeable that the stitching is only simulated for fill-stitch objects (not shown here) since no complex fill routines are generated.
Step 10: Click on the Send to EDS IV Button. Embroidery data will be sent to EDS IV. You can now work with this as any other project in EDS IV where the digitizing was done manually.
Note: your embroidery data, created by tracing, will not be saved if you select "Exit" from the file menu.
After Punching Design, you can edit the points. To move, click and drag. To insert a point left click over the outline. To insert a curved (arc) point, hold down the "Ctrl" key and left click.
Save Bitmap - Saves current bitmap and over writes existing bitmap if it was changed by Digitizing Assistant.
Copy to Clipboard - Copies selection to the clipboard to pasted later.
Undo/Redo - Can undo actions and redo actions after they are undone.
Processing Settings - Modifies the default settings used to convert images into embroidery design data. Specifically, clicking on this button will open up a dialog box containing various user adjustable settings. These settings include various thresholds that determine how closely an outline will follow the exterior edge of a bitmap region. Also included here is a setting that determines the default amount of overlap that occurs when embroidery objects are adjacent to one another. Lastly, at the bottom of the settings dialog box is a check box indicating whether curve fitting should be used during the conversion process.
Clean - Cleans an imported bitmap. This button (depicting a picture of a scrub brush) should be pressed immediately after a noisy image has been loaded or scanned. The processing performed upon pressing this button attempts to rid the image of various types of noise that may be present and also attempts to determine the number of unique solid colors that compose the image. At the completion of this processing a dialog box is displayed that indicates the number of solid colors detected. This number may be corrected by the user (if desired) to reduce the number of colors used to create a clean version of the image. Once the dialog box is closed, a rough outline of the image is also created which delineates contiguous shapes within the image. Note that at any point, view controls may be used to hide or display the generated outline and/or bitmap. After the image has been processed using the clean image button, additional "touch-ups" may be required. Hence, one or more of the image editing tools may be used to further correct any inaccuracies or noise remaining within the image. In this case, temporarily hiding the image's outline may be useful if pixel editing around the boundary of an object is required. It is also at this point that any objects which are particularly small or of a very fine thickness should be removed (if they haven't already been eliminated during the cleaning step). The paint can flood fill tool is often useful for performing this task if required. One other common "touch-up" that may be required is the use of the line tool such that those objects that have bled into one another or merged may be properly divided.
Re-Outline - Re-Outline bitmap and create outlines after modifying pixels. This button should be pressed after the bitmap is cleaned and any touch-up image editing is complete. Pressing this button effectively generates a new, more precise outline of the processed image. Additionally, if curve fitting has been enabled, smooth curves along the boundaries of regions within the image are automatically detected and appropriate arcs are generated. After pressing this button, the user may adjust the positioning of the outline points generated using the mouse cursor. Additionally, the point/arc add and delete tools may be used to add or remove points from the image's outline.
Punch Design - This button performs the final processing step that creates the actual condensed embroidery data file from the interpreted objects. This button should be pressed after the cleaning and Re-Outline process has completed and the user has made any necessary changes or corrections. Upon completion of generation, the screen will display a simulated stitch output of the artwork. Note that this is not an actual stitch file, rather it is simply a simulated view that allows the user to quickly see the fill angles and general directions of stitching specified by the condensed data. This simulation may be animated using the View Stitching button. This animation, for example, allows one to view the specific sequences or paths that were generated to create satin or fill stitching. After clicking this button, the final embroidery design may be saved to disk as a condensed data file or directly imported into a compatible embroidery design system.
If an object has a light blue color that indicates that it will be generated using satin stitches. If an object has a pink color that indicates that it will be generated using fill stitches. Larger red circles at the centers of column intersections indicate control points that may be clicked upon to provide alternatives to a chosen intersection's interpretation. Also, displayed are the detected outlines of the objects. A segment containing a circle indicates a detection of the smooth arc (curved input point), while small squares indicate straight line segments (straight input points).
Send to EDS IV - After converting the graphic into embroidery, the next step is to send the data to EDS IV by pressing the Send to EDS IV button. Your embroidery data will not be saved if you exit from the file menu without sending the data to EDS IV.
Zoom In - Allows the user to zoom in on a specific location within an image. To use this tool, first click on this button (the button will then be shown as depressed). Then, position the mouse cursor at the upper left-most point of the area that you wish to view enlarged (notice the mouse pointer changes its appearance to a magnifying glass). Finally, while holding down the left mouse button, drag the magnifying glass cursor to the lower right-most point of the area to be viewed enlarged and then release the left button. Notice as you drag the magnifying glass that a rectangle is drawn showing the enclosed area that will be magnified.
Zoom Out - Zoom out to view an image at a smaller scale. After clicking on the Zoom Out button, more of an image should be viewable within the document window if parts of that image were hidden previously (i.e. if the image was too large to fit within the window previously). The design currently being viewed should appear smaller.
Zoom Last - Zoom the image using the most prior selected zoom setting. This tool is useful it is desired to momentarily zoom in on a particular area of an image for closer examination. Then, upon completion of this examination, the user may simply click the Zoom Last button to again view the design at the scale that was selected prior to the zoom in operation.
Zoom to Fit - Automatically zooms the image such that it is displayed to completely fit within the boundaries of its window. Pressing this button is useful if one wishes to see an image or design in its entirety without using the window's scroll bars.
View Bitmap - Displays or hides the current bitmap image being processed. It is often useful to hide or show the original bitmap image being processed when the user is adjusting, adding, or removing outline points. This allows the user to ensure that the outlines appropriately match the underlying bitmap artwork. When this button is shown as being depressed, the bitmap image should be visible.
View Edges - This button (depicting a picture of a sharp edged sword) displays or hides the detected edges (i.e. outer outlines) of objects contained within a design. When this button is shown as being depressed, the outline (or edges) of objects should be visible.
View Stitching - Displays or hides a simulation of the generated embroidery design stitching. When this button is shown as depressed, simulated embroidery stitching should be viewable on screen if condensed data has been generated. If the simulated stitching is hidden (by un-pressing this button) and then the View Stitching button is depressed again (via a second mouse click), this will cause an animation of the stitching to be re-displayed. The speed of this animation may be controlled via the Stitch Slower and Stitch Faster buttons. This animation gives a general indication of the order and direction of stitching for objects that have been generated.
Stitch Slower - Decreases the rate at which stitch animation occurs. See the description of the View Stitching button above to learn how to trigger a simulated stitching animation.
Stitch Faster - Increases the rate at which stitch animation occurs. See the description of the View Stitching button above to learn how to trigger a simulated stitching animation.
Level - Levels an image by aligning it with an imaginary line drawn or indicated using the cursor. This tool is useful when it is necessary to slightly rotate a scanned or loaded image so that its orientation is level or straight in the horizontal direction. To use this tool, first depress this button. Then, move the mouse cursor to a point somewhere on the far left side of the bitmap image (notice that the mouse pointer changes to indicate that the level tool has been selected). Then, press and hold down the left button while dragging the mouse to the right. The line that is generated while you are dragging the mouse should be positioned such that it is aligned with an imaginary line that would appear to be perfectly level with items contained in the bitmap image. When such a line is indicated, release the left button and the image should be automatically rotated such that this imaginary line is perfectly level or parallels the horizontal window boundaries
Eye Dropper - Selects the color of an area clicked upon with the mouse as the new current drawing color.
New Color - Opens a color selection dialog box that allows the user to choose a new drawing color. This tool is useful when the current drawing color needs to be changed to a color not already contained within the image (in which case the eye dropper tool may not be used).
Fill - Fills an area clicked upon with the mouse using the currently selected drawing color. For information on how to select a drawing color see the descriptions of the Eye Dropper and New Color buttons.
Pencil - Marks pixels with the currently selected drawing color when they are clicked upon with the mouse cursor. For information on how to select a drawing color see the descriptions of the Eye Dropper and New Color buttons.
Line - Draws a user-specified line using the currently selected drawing color. For information on how to select a drawing color see the descriptions of the Eye Dropper and New Color buttons.
Fill Rectangle - Fills a rectangle drawn with the mouse cursor using the currently selected drawing color. For information on how to select a drawing color see the descriptions of the Eye Dropper and New Color buttons.
Brush - Colors groups of pixels clicked upon with the mouse cursor using the currently selected drawing color. For information on how to select a drawing color see the descriptions of the Eye Dropper and New Color buttons.
Regenerate - Regenerate color segments by filling within outlines. This button should be pressed after all outline editing has been completed. Processing performed here effectively "regenerates" the artwork by filling in the specified outlines with the appropriate solid fill colors. After this step is completed, the bitmapped artwork that is produced should be clean, sharp, and free of all noise. At this point, the user may proceed to "Punch the Design", which converts the clean artwork into an embroidery design. Or alternatively, the user may copy the image to the Windows' clipboard to paste and save within other Windows paint programs. This may prove useful if the conversion to embroidery will occur at a later time, in which case, the cleaned image can be quickly reloaded into Digitizing Assistant eliminating the need to perform the cleaning process again.
Order Objects - Alters the sewing sequence of objects by repositioning them on the object bar in the order in which they are clicked upon with the mouse. This tool provides a quick way of specifying the precise order in which objects should be sewn. Note that as objects are clicked upon and repositioned on the object bar, they also become selected. This is to allow easy movement of a block of objects that have been precisely ordered to another location on the object bar (e.g. so this block of objects sews after another block of objects).
Digitizing Assistant shows an objects entry point by displaying a icon at the needle entry location and an objects exit point is indicated by an icon. It may be useful to modify these entry or exit points to change the way an object is sewn. Thus, these icons may be dragged with the left mouse button to any newly desired location along the edge of the associated object. To undo such a modification, the user may simply open the objects properties dialog box and re-select the closest point option (under entry exit point connections) to have the system re-adjust the entry and exit points for the object so that they lie closest to the objects sewn before and after the current object respectively.
The Object Properties Dialog Box. Shown above are both pages (i.e. tabs) of the object properties dialog box. The General page is displayed allowing settings that are applicable to all types of objects to be modified.
The Fill page is displayed allowing settings that are applicable to fill stitch objects to be modified.
The object properties dialog box may only be opened if there are one or more objects within the current document window that are selected. After selecting one or more objects, this dialog box may be opened by selecting Object | Properties from the menu bar. Settings that may be modified once this dialog box is opened include:
Stitch Type: This setting is located on the left side of the general page and allows the user to select what type of stitching should be used to sew the selected object(s).
Auto-Overlap Depth: This setting is located on the right hand side of the general page and specifies the degree to which adjacent objects overlap one another. For example, if a fill stitch type object is sewn prior to another adjacent (touching) object, the fill stitch boundary at the location where this adjacency occurs will be automatically extended by the amount specified here. Then, when the second object is sewn it will actually overlap or sew on top of the previously sewn fill such that accurate registration is guaranteed. This setting works similarly for satin stitch type objects and also controls the degree to which satin columns extend underneath one another at column intersections.
Entry/Exit Point Connections: This setting is located in the lower right side of the general page and allows the user to select how entry and exit points should be calculated for the selected object(s). The initial value for this setting is Closest Point; however, when modifying a starting or ending point for an object manually, this setting is automatically changed to Custom (user-defined) for that object. Choosing the Default setting will allow the software to arbitrarily place entry and exit points for the selected object(s).
Enable Lock Stitches: This setting is located below the entry/exit point connections settings in the lower right side of the general page. It specifies whether a series of lock stitches are sewn near the exit point of an object before proceeding to the next object to be sewn. If this option is not checked, no lock stitches are generated.
Fill Direction: This setting is located on the right hand side of the Fill page. To access this page simply click on the tab at the top of the dialog box labeled Fill. There are two main choices relating to fill direction that may be selected here. The first choice, labeled Minimize # of simple fill regions, causes the system to automatically select a fill stitch direction that appropriately blends with surrounding adjacent regions while attempting to minimize the complexity of the fill that will be generated. The second choice, labeled Angle (degrees), allows the user to override the automatic settings and specify a desired fill angle in the text box to the right. There is also a preview area shown below these two choices which graphically illustrates the selected stitch direction.
Other items displayed on the general and fill pages (including the preview area in the lower left corner) are reserved for future use.
The processing settings dialog box may be opened whenever there is an open document window displayed within Digitizing Assistant. To open this dialog box, simple click on the Processing Settings button or select Process Settings from the menu bar. Typically, most of the settings contained within this dialog box will never require modification. They have already been set to produce optimal results in the most common situations. However, expert users may have a need to gain additional control over how images are processed. The top slider is still reserved for future use and will allow more precise control over the degree to which an image is cleaned during initial image processing steps. The middle two sliders control the accuracy with which outlines are generated. The lower the number (or the further left the slider is moved), the closer the outlines will match their associated bitmap areas. Note, too much accuracy can actually have a negative impact on final results since there will be little or no tolerance for slight noise that is common around region boundaries.
The bottom slider within this dialog box determines the default auto-overlap setting applied to all objects generated. This setting may also be set or overridden on a per object basic as described previously in the object properties section.
The small check box at the bottom of the first tab in this dialog box (labeled Curve Fitting) allows the user to enable or disable curve fitting. If this box is checked, the system attempts to automatically fit curved arcs to boundaries that appear curved within an image. Curve fitting is useful for a variety of image types, however, it may be useful to disable this feature in certain cases where curves are known to be absent. There are also similar check boxes which allow other features (e.g. closest point connection processing & lock stitches) to be enabled or disabled. Closest point processing organizes stitching to minimize thread cuts. Specifically, this feature is responsible for choosing suitable entry and exit points (displayed via the and markers) for embroidery objects. The lock stitches check box indicates whether or not lock stitches should be generated automatically at the entry/exit points of embroidery objects.
The user should always adjust the settings displayed here with care since inappropriate settings may produce undesired results. Lastly, the second small check box at the bottom of this dialog determines if closest point processing will be enabled or disabled. The View tab displays the current colors used to display the various types of stitching. These colors can easily modified by clicking once on the color to be changed, bringing up a dialog box, and selecting the new color from this dialog box.
A default object ordering is determined automatically after punching a design . During this step, Digitizing Assistant will try to produce a reasonable ordering taking into consideration which objects touch each other as well as each object's stitch type and their relative locations. However, it is certainly possible that this ordering is not optimal or that the system may have made some "mistakes" in determining object ordering. In this case, there are several ways a user may easily override the chosen object ordering depending on how much re-ordering is necessary.
If only one object seems to be ordered inappropriately, the user may simply select that object and then drag its associated button on the object bar to a new location. This technique also works when selecting multiple objects. Specifically after several objects are selected (while holding the CTRL key to do multiple selections), the user my drag the group of object buttons to a new location on the bar. At the new location, all selected objects will be inserted while maintaining their ordering relative to one another. Oppositely, buttons on the object bar may be clicked upon and their associated objects will be shown selected in the design window. This is a quick way of seeing what object corresponds to a particular button in the sewing sequence.
If more drastic re-ordering is required, the Order Objects tool button may be used. After this button is depressed, objects will be ordered precisely in the order that the user clicks upon them. Note that while clicking the objects, they are ordered on the object bar and also selected. Thus, after ordering a small group of objects in a particular order, the user may then drag this group of objects to a new position in the sequence by dragging their buttons on the object bar (as mentioned above).
In general, modifying object ordering in Digitizing Assistant has been designed to be very easy and intuitive. Even with large designs, the user should be able to completely change sew order within a few seconds with a minimal amount of mouse clicks and/or drags.
The corner mitering feature is used to improve how certain columns that connect at sharp angles are sewn. Examples include the tops of letters such as As, Ms, Ns, or others shapes that contain sharp corners. Specifying a corner miter allows these sharp corners to be sewn using a constant angle satin stitch within and around the connection. The order in which these connected columns are sewn does not matter since the software will automatically ensure that the appropriate sections of the miter are sewn in the correct order (i.e. the portion of the column that should be underneath the other column is always automatically sewn first).
Follow the instructions on the following screen shots to understand how corner mitering is done.
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Here is an 'A' after loading the image and going through the step of "Punch Design" for an already cleaned artwork. |
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Inserting a junction |
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Inserting a junction |
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Setting the miter angle |
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Setting the miter angle |
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Completing the miter |
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The finished miter |