Brother PE-DESIGN User Manual Ver.432

PE-Design iii

cd-book

Addendum to update the Multimedia Step-by-Step Guide

for PE-Design®, DecoWizard® and Paletté® to V3.0

Loes van der Heijden

Addendum to PE-Design II CD Book

All about the Version 3 software

I N T R O D U C T I O N

elcome to this addendum to my PE-Design II CD-Book. Here you will learn all about the new features of the version 3.0 PE-Design® / DecoWizard® / Paletté® software, to

keep your CD-Book up-to-date! The most outstanding new features are the ability to use every True Type Font installed on

your computer for your lettering-designs and the possibility to export to *.hus, *.pcs, *.dst and *.exp-format. But also those other tiny little things are worth mentioning here: to be able to use the arrow keys of your keyboard to move selected parts of a design, which gives you more control. And using your Tab-key in Layout & Editing is a turbo-way of checking the sewing order or reaching parts of a design covered by other parts! Or how about absolute control over resizing and rotating objects by typing in numerical values, or the Realistic Preview, that can even be changed to your own preferences, or….

Well, I know you don’t want a list of the new features; you want to use them. So, let’s start! Print this document and follow the step-by-step exercises in the next chapters to learn all

about the new version 3 features in the best possible way to learn anything: by using it! If you are a beginner in this software, don’t let the amount of text in the following chapters scare you off! In the chapters I am explaining the how, why, when and where of the various options. Once you have read all of the text, you will understand the features and then using them is a breeze!

Enjoy! April 2000, Loes van der Heijden http://www.artistitch.com

personal use only and may not be copied, shared, or sold without the written permission of the author

Addendum to PE-Design II CD Book

All about the Version 3 software

All names of software and hardware products in this document are at the same time (copyrighted) trademarks and have to be treated as such. “PE-Design” is a trademark of Brother International Corporation, registered a.o. in the U.S.A. “Deco Wizard” is a registered trademark of Bernina / Fritz Gegauf AG. “Paletté” is a registered trademark of Tacony Corporation. “Microsoft”, “Windows” and “Paint” are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. The screen captures displayed are used with the permission of the owner of the screen captures out of the PE-Design software: Brother Industries, Ltd. Japan.

personal use only and may not be copied, shared, or sold without the written permission of the author

Addendum to PE-Design II CD Book

Chapter 1 – True Type Fonts

C H A P T E R 1 - T r u e T y p e F o n t s

ayout & Editing has now access to two types of fonts: the 35 fonts that come with the software, plus every True Type Font (TTF) that is installed on your computer. There is a

difference between those 2 types:

1. The first 35 fonts, installed with the PE-Design software, contain stitch information and were manually digitized for you, character by character, practically stitch by stitch, where the stitch angle of most fonts will follow the shape of the letter.

2. The True Type Fonts are Windows fonts, that are installed on your computer, outside the embroidery program. Windows itself has a number of fonts, and installing a word processor or graphics program, or even a printer, will also add True Type Fonts to your computer system.

These True Type Fonts do not contain stitch information, but the Version 3 software is capable of generating stitch information from these installed fonts. The incredible thing is that the stitch direction runs along with the shape of the letters, without any digitizer telling the computer how to set the stitch angle – amazing!

Well, knowing the difference: 35 fonts digitized by professionals, character by character, setting the stitch direction in an optimal angle, or hundreds of fonts digitized by your computer “on the fly”, will make you understand that not every TTF you have on your computer will be suitable to convert into stitches. So, always, always sew a sample of your text designs first!

Exercise 1 – Digitizing a text with a transform effect for the Jumbo-Hoop

For this exercise I am assuming that you are familiar with digitizing text in the previous version of the software. After all, this is an addendum to my CD-Book and I do hope that you all read that, followed the exercises and watched the movies J So we’ll move on to make a text with a transform effect for the Jumbo-hoop, to be sewn in 2 parts.

Step 1 - Setting up the work area Start Layout & Editing and choose Option – Design Page Property. Select the jumbo-hoop

(marked with *) suitable for your machine, in landscape orientation. Click the A-button in the Tool box to start digitizing a text-object. Click the spool in the Sewing Attributes bar and select a color. Click the little arrow next to the Font-list and choose one of the True Type Fonts on your computer – you will find these by scrolling down the Font-list. Select a font by clicking it’s name.

personal use only and may not be copied, shared, or sold without the written permission of the author

Addendum to PE-Design II CD Book

Chapter 1 – True Type Fonts

Step 2 – Type the first half of the text Click in the design page area; the Edit text box pops up. Remember: you want this text to be

real big, bigger than your machine can sew in one part – that means that your machine needs two separate design-parts, so first thing to do is to digitize the text in two parts. In this example the text is “Amsterdam”. Type the first half of the text: AMSTE, click OK. In the status bar (lower part of your screen) you will see the stitch generation process – the True Type Font is being transformed into stitches at this moment.

Step 3 – Type the second half of the text Click in the design page area, next to the first part of the text and type the second half of the

text in the Edit Text box. Note: the first half was 5 characters, and the second half is only 4. Normally this is no problem, but when applying two combined text transform effects it is better to have two objects of the same size. Therefore, press the spacebar 3 times, to make up for the extra character, and type RDAM. Click OK.

Step 4 – Move, line-up and resize the two parts

To do this, use some of the other new features in Version 3: Activate the Selection tool and select one of the objects. Use the arrow keys of your keyboard to move the object and align it to the other part. With both objects selected together, choose Edit > Numerical Setting > Size. Click the radio button in front of the inch or mm size and type the desired value in the box at the right (make sure that a check mark is placed in the aspect-box to resize the objects proportionally). Click Preview to see if the size you entered fits the

personal use only and may not be copied, shared, or sold without the written permission of the author

+ 11 hidden pages

Brother PE-DESIGN User Manual Ver.432

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual