Buzz Tools BUZZEDIT User Manual

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BuzzEdit

User's Manual

Version 1

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Manual Part Number – BTBE-200-W

The manual and the software described in this manual are copyrighted. All rights are reserved. No part of the manual or the described software may be copied, reproduced, translated or reduced to any electronic medium or machine readable format without prior written approval of Buzz Tools®, Inc.

Buzz Tools is a registered trademark of Buzz Tools®, Inc. BuzzEdit is a trademark of Buzz Tools®, Inc.

Baby Lock is a registered trademark of Baby Lock USA. Bernina is a registered trademark of Fritz Gegauf AG, BERNINA

Sewing Machines. Brother is a registered trademark of Brother® International.

Microsoft, Windows are registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. Hoop-it-All™ is a trademark of Hoop-it-All™ Corp. Other products and company names mentioned herein may be the

trademarks of their respective owners.

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Welcome

The Buzz Tools® programs were created by a

hobby embroiderer like you who got tired of

doing the same routines over and over

again. My search for quick and accurate

design conversions and printable design catalogs led to the development of the first Buzz Tools® program, Buzz Tools® Plus.

Once I was able to convert and catalog the

designs the way I wanted, I found I wanted

an easier and more powerful editing tool that

would allow me to analyze and modify my

stitch-based designs. I like my designs to sew cleanly, with a minimum of stitch jumps and thread cuts. Moreover, I wanted to use the newest and largest multiple-position hoops available.

With BuzzEdit™, you have a way to quickly correct many simple design flaws. The patent pending Stitches-in-Time™ display will help you analyze and edit your designs by giving you information about your design in a novel way. In addition, you will be able to split designs or combine them to create designs for use with multipleposition hoops.

It has been exciting creating this new tool, and we love using its many features. We hope that you enjoy it, too.

Happy stitching!

and the folks at Buzz Tools®, Inc.

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ABOUT THIS GUIDE........................................................... 11

Part One: Getting Started

INTRODUCTION TO BUZZEDIT™....................................... 15

About BuzzEdit™........................................................................15

BuzzEdit™ is… ...................................................................................15

BuzzEdit™ is not… .............................................................................16

Design Samples.........................................................................17

Prerequisites..............................................................................17

Notational Conventions............................................................17

About Buzz Tools products....................................................18

In a Hurry?..................................................................................18

INSTALLATION................................................................... 19

System Requirements...............................................................19

Install BuzzEdit™........................................................................19

Remove BuzzEdit™....................................................................22

Part Two: BuzzEdit

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User's Guide

CHAPTER 1 | BUZZEDIT™ BASICS .................................. 25

The BuzzEdit™ Workspace .......................................................25

Selecting Stitches...............................................................................27

Stitches-in-Space Windows......................................................28

Stitches-in-Space Reference Window................................................28

Stitches-in-Space Window .................................................................29

Stitches-in-Space Selection Indicators...............................................30

Selecting Stitches in the Stitches-in-Space Window ..........................31

Stitches-in-Time™ Window .......................................................32

Zooming In on the Stitches-in-Time™ Window....................................33

Selecting Stitches in the Stitches-in-Time™ Window..........................33

Stitch Color Bar..................................................................................34

Stitch Length Graph ...........................................................................34

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Stitch Angle Graph.............................................................................35

Time Reference Bar...........................................................................37

Time Scroll Bar...................................................................................37

Time Zoom Out Button.......................................................................38

Time Zoom In Button..........................................................................38

Multiple-Section Bar...........................................................................38

Adjusting Your Selection..........................................................40

CHAPTER 2 | MANIPULATING STITCHES........................ 41

Changing Stitch Attributes.......................................................41

Change Stitch Type............................................................................41

Change Thread Color.........................................................................42

Basic Editing Commands.........................................................43

Cut Command....................................................................................43

Copy Command .................................................................................43

Paste Command ................................................................................43

Build New Designs.............................................................................44

Space Tools...............................................................................45

Move ..................................................................................................45

Rotate.................................................................................................45

Flip .....................................................................................................46

Resize................................................................................................47

Stretch................................................................................................49

Convert Design Format.............................................................50

Colors During Conversions ................................................................51

Reorder Stitches........................................................................53

Drag Colors........................................................................................54

Drag Stitches......................................................................................54

Duplicate Stitches ..............................................................................55

Sort Colors.........................................................................................55

Reverse Stitch Order..........................................................................56

Stitch Editing..............................................................................57

Insert Stitches ....................................................................................57

Move Stitches.....................................................................................58

CHAPTER 3 | MULTIPLE-SECTION DESIGNS.................. 59

BuzzEdit™ Manager File ............................................................60

Multiple-Section Bar..................................................................62

Embroidery Machine File Limitations......................................63

Sewing Your Multiple-File Designs.....................................................65

Multiple-Position Hoops ...........................................................65

CHAPTER 4 | MULTIPLE-HOOP DESIGNS....................... 69

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What to Expect...........................................................................69

Creating Multiple-Hoop Designs..............................................72

Getting Ready....................................................................................73

Build a Multiple-Hoop Design

by Merging Smaller Designs or Elements .....................................75

Create a Multiple-Hoop Design by Subdividing

an Oversized Design into Hoop Sections......................................77

Check the Design...............................................................................79

Managing Hoop Sections..........................................................79

Delete Section Breaks........................................................................79

Add New Hoop Sections ....................................................................80

Change Hoop Positions......................................................................81

Re-order Hoop Sections.....................................................................81

Opening Multiple-Hoop Designs from Other Sources..........82

Multiple-Hoop Printouts............................................................86

Tips for Better Multiple-Hoop Designs....................................87

While Editing......................................................................................87

Before You Sew.................................................................................88

Ready to Sew.....................................................................................89

CHAPTER 5 | HOW DO I…................................................. 95

Start Editing an Existing Design..............................................96

Start BuzzEdit™ from Buzz Tools®, Buzz-Catalog.................97

Select an Entire Thread Color..................................................99

Select a Portion of a Design.....................................................99

Change Thread Colors............................................................100

Create a New Design from Part of an Existing Design.......101

Save a Design ..........................................................................104

Magnify the Stitches in the Space Window .........................104

Magnify the Stitches in the Time Graphs.............................105

Select a Single Stitch ..............................................................107

Change Stitch Types...............................................................108

Duplicate a Selection ..............................................................109

Move a Selection in Space......................................................110

Move a Selection in Time........................................................112

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Part Three: BuzzEdit

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Reference

BUZZEDIT™ WORKSPACE .............................................. 115

Principle Parts..........................................................................115

Main Toolbar ............................................................................116

Stitches-in-Space Toolbar......................................................120

Status Bar.................................................................................127

BUZZEDIT™ COMMAND REFERENCE ............................ 128

File Menu..................................................................................128

File > New Design… .......................................................................128

File > Open Design…......................................................................129

File > Insert Design…......................................................................131

File > New Workspace….................................................................132

File > Close Workspace..................................................................134

File > Save......................................................................................135

File > Save As.................................................................................135

File > Print Summary…...................................................................136

File > Print Template… ...................................................................136

File > Print Setup.............................................................................136

File > Recent Files List....................................................................136

File > Exit........................................................................................136

Edit Menu..................................................................................137

Edit > Undo.....................................................................................137

Edit > Redo.....................................................................................137

Edit > Cut........................................................................................137

Edit > Copy......................................................................................138

Edit > Paste.....................................................................................138

Edit > Delete ...................................................................................138

Edit > Select All...............................................................................138

Edit > Select None ..........................................................................138

Edit > Select Stitches......................................................................139

Edit > Lasso....................................................................................139

View Menu................................................................................140

View > Show Hoop..........................................................................140

View > Stitches-in-Time™ Graphs ...................................................140

View > Design Information…...........................................................141

View > Hoop Properties…...............................................................142

View > Multiple File Settings…........................................................144

View > Color Conversion Settings…...............................................144

View > Preferences… .....................................................................145

Tools Menu...............................................................................146

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Tools > Convert Design Type…......................................................146

Tools > Center ................................................................................147

Tools > Move…...............................................................................148

Tools > Rotate….............................................................................149

Tools > Resize….............................................................................150

Tools > Stretch… ............................................................................151

Tools > Flip .....................................................................................152

Tools > Change Thread Colors…....................................................154

Tools > Sort Colors .........................................................................155

Tools > Reverse Stitch Order..........................................................155

Tools > Insert Section Break… .......................................................156

Tools > Sew Simulator….................................................................158

Help Menu.................................................................................159

Help > Contents ..............................................................................159

Help > What’s This?........................................................................159

Help > About BuzzEdit™..................................................................159

Appendixes

A | BUZZEDIT™ SHORTCUT KEYS.................................. 161

General ............................................................................................161

Editing..............................................................................................161

Space & Time...................................................................................162

B | SUPPORTED FILE TYPES & HOOPS ........................ 163

C | COMMON MULTI-HOOPS........................................... 167

Three Position Hoops.......................................................................167

Giant Multiple-Position Hoops..........................................................168

BuzzEdit™ Custom Multi-Hoops........................................................170

D | PRODUCT INFORMATION.......................................... 171

E | GETTING HELP ........................................................... 173

Technical Support ...................................................................173

Enhancements.........................................................................174

Join the BuzzEdit™ Information List.....................................174

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Back Matter

GLOSSARY....................................................................... 177

INDEX ................................................................................ 183

LICENSE AGREEMENT.................................................... 189

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About This Guide

Welcome to BuzzEdit™– a software package for editing and laying out your stitch-based embroidery designs. BuzzEdit™ is a Windows 95/98/NT/2000 based program and has many of the same familiar features as other Windows applications.

This guide is divided into chapters that apply to the various features of BuzzEdit™.

Part One: Getting Started

! Introduction to BuzzEdit™ – Provides an overview of

BuzzEdit™ and basic product capabilities.

! Installation – Provides system requirements, installation and

removal instructions.

Part Two: BuzzEdit™ User’s Guide

! Chapter 1 | BuzzEdit™ Basics – Provides information about

the BuzzEdit™ Workspace, the stitch graphs that you will find there and how to select stitches in the various windows.

! Chapter 2 | Manipulating Stitches – Provides information

about the various tools used to manipulate and change the stitches that you have selected.

! Chapter 3 | Multiple-Section Designs – Introduces the

concept of multiple-section designs and how BuzzEdit™ manages them. This chapter also introduces two types of multiple-section designs: a multiple-file design and a multiple-hoop design.

! Chapter 4 | Multiple-Hoop Designs – Provides specific

information about how to create and sew designs in multiple-position hoops.

! Chapter 5 | How Do I… – Provides step-by-step instructions for

many common BuzzEdit™ tasks.

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Part Three: BuzzEdit™ Reference

! BuzzEdit™ Workspace – Identifies the principle parts of the

BuzzEdit™ workspace and describes the tools available from the toolbars.

! BuzzEdit™ Command Reference – Describes the menu items

and commands available in BuzzEdit™ and how to use them.

Appendixes

! A | BuzzEdit™ Shortcut Keys – Lists shortcut keys used by

BuzzEdit™.

! B | Supported File Types & Hoops – Includes a list of

currently supported embroidery file formats and the supported embroidery hoops.

! C | Common Multi-Hoops – Includes information about the

most common multiple-position hoops.

! D | Product Information – Includes information on the

embroidery equipment manufacturers and how to contact them.

! E | Getting Help – Describes how to obtain technical support

and enhancements for Buzz Tools® products.

Glossary

Defines many general terms used throughout the manual. Most BuzzEdit™ definitions are already included in the manual and can be found by using the index.

License Agreement

Describes the agreement between you and Buzz Tools®, Inc.

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Part One:

Getting Started

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Introduction to BuzzEdit™

Congratulations on your purchase of BuzzEdit™. BuzzEdit™ allows you to easily edit the stitch-based designs in your embroidery design collection, doing anything from simple color changes to more complicated operations with a new ease you have come to expect from Buzz Tools® programs.

About BuzzEdit

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BuzzEdit™ is…

BuzzEdit™ is a full-featured stitch editor. It works like a text editor in that you read in a file, make changes to it and save out the file. Of course, BuzzEdit™ works on embroidery design files rather than text files. BuzzEdit™ can read and write most stitch-based home embroidery file formats. See Appendix B | Supported File Types & Hoops on page 163 for a list.

Note: BuzzEdit™ saves only stitch data – not object data.

When a design containing both objects and stitches is saved in BuzzEdit™, the object data is lost. For example, if you draw a circle in Layout & Editing (part of Brother®'s P.E. Design) and save it, the PES file will contain both an object definition for the circle and the circle's stitches. Now you edit the PES file with BuzzEdit™ and then read the file back into Layout & Editing. You will see the stitches of the circle, but you will no longer be able to modify object properties of the circle such as fill style or line width.

You can make simple changes, such as modifying design colors or resizing and rotating designs. But that's just the beginning. The patent pending Stitches-in-Time design as it is stitched out over time. It makes it easy to select different elements of your design, whether the element comprises a

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

display of BuzzEdit™ shows your

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complete color break or just a portion of one. You can then manipulate the element independently from the rest of the design.

BuzzEdit™'s Stitches-in-Space tools allow you to move, resize, mirror, rotate and stretch elements in any conceivable way. The insert and move stitch tools allow you to insert and move individual stitches. And of course, you can cut and paste elements to merge parts of different designs together.

In addition, BuzzEdit™ gives you layout capabilities for extra-large designs. BuzzEdit™ allows you to create extra large design areas for jumbo designs comprised of more than one design file or design section. These designs might fit into one of the supported embroidery machine's multiple-position hoops or one of the supported Giant Hoop-it-All™ hoops, or the design may require re-hooping the fabric by hand.

The powerful BuzzEdit™ editing capabilities give you the ability to split oversized designs to sew in your embroidery machine's hoop area or to combine designs to create extensive embroidery scenes.

BuzzEdit™ also includes a sew simulator that allows you to "see" how your design will stitch at the sewing machine. This allows you to see common design stitching problems, such as excess thread jumps between design areas that would need to be cut by hand. If desired, you can then use this information and the BuzzEdit™ editing capabilities to improve how your designs sew.

BuzzEdit™ is not…

BuzzEdit™ is not a digitizing program. It does not allow you to add shapes or letters to your design. You must start with a stitch-based design.

BuzzEdit™ is not a smart resizing program. When you resize a design or part of a design with BuzzEdit™, the number of stitches does not change. Therefore, you can only safely resize a design by about 10-20%.

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Design Samples

Some of the designs shown throughout the manual have been included with BuzzEdit™. The designs can be used to duplicate some of the examples in the manual and may have stitching faults that can to be corrected with BuzzEdit™. If you installed BuzzEdit into the default directory, you will find the design samples in the following directory:

C:\Program Files\Buzz Tools\BuzzEdit\Samples

Other free designs are available for download from the Buzz Tools® web site: www.buzztools.com

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Prerequisites

Before beginning to use BuzzEdit™, you should have a working knowledge of your Microsoft Windows operating system and its conventions. You should know how to use a mouse, standard menus and commands. You should also know how to copy, open, save, print and close files. If you need to brush up on these techniques, please see your Microsoft Windows documentation or a beginning Windows book. There are many wonderful basic Windows guides already written that can be located at any computer store.

Notational Conventions

Throughout this manual, we use the following conventions: Menu and submenus are displayed together in the order that you will

need to select them. Menu and submenu items are separated by a > character. For example, File > Print. In this example, you first open the File menu and then select the Print option.

Dialog box titles are italicized and begin with uppercase letters. For example, Open Design dialog box.

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About Buzz Tools products

Additional information about Buzz Tools products is available from the following sources:

! Your local Buzz Tools reseller ! The Buzz Tools web site: www.buzztools.com

Information about Buzz Tools technical support is in Appendix E | Getting Help beginning on page 173.

In a Hurry?

We know that you are anxious to get started using the powerful features of BuzzEdit™. But before you begin, it is important for you to become familiar with the BuzzEdit™ workspace, as it has many unique features and tools.

Below are some important areas of the manual that can quickly assist you in using the program.

! Installation instructions – page 18. ! Chapter 1 | BuzzEdit™ Basics, page 25, gives you an overview

of the BuzzEdit™ workspace and defines many of the terms used in the rest of the manual.

! Chapter 2 | Manipulating Stitches, page 41, teaches you how to

manipulate stitches.

! Chapter 5 | How Do I…, page 95, gives you detailed instructions

for many common BuzzEdit™ tasks.

Another excellent way to learn to use BuzzEdit™ is to run it and use the "What’s This?" button to get a description of

different parts of the BuzzEdit™ screen.

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Installation

System Requirements

You can install BuzzEdit™ on any computer that satisfies the following requirements:

! Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT or Windows 2000

operating system installed

! 8 MB RAM; however, 16 MB RAM is recommended ! 4 MB available space on your hard drive ! Colors set to 256 Colors or better

RECOMMENDED: Although BuzzEdit™ can run on a small 640 by 480 pixel screen, you will have better results at screen resolutions of at least 800 by 600 pixels.

Install BuzzEdit™

To install BuzzEdit™ onto your hard drive:

1 Exit all Windows programs before installing BuzzEdit™. 2 From the Windows Start menu, select Settings > Control

Panel.

3 From the Control Panel, double-click the

Add/Remove programs icon. The Add/Remove Program Properties dialog box opens.

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Use to install BuzzEdit™ onto your computer.

4 Click INSTALL . 5 When prompted, insert the BuzzEdit™ Installation CD into the

appropriate drive. Give the CD drive a minute to initialize. Click NEXT .

6 Microsoft Windows locates the setup.exe installation program

and the Run Installation Program dialog box opens.

Use to launch the BuzzEdit™ Installation program.

Click FINISH to start the BuzzEdit™ Installation process.

7 The Software License Agreement dialog box opens. This dialog

box displays the License Agreement between you and Buzz Tools, Inc. You must accept the License Agreement before you

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can install BuzzEdit™. If you do not accept the terms of the License Agreement, you should promptly return BuzzEdit™ for a refund. For your convenience, the license agreement is also included in this manual starting on page 189.

Click YES to accept. The User Information dialog box opens.

Use to type in your name and serial number.

8 When asked, type in your name, company name (required – you

can enter "none") and serial number. The serial number is located on the CD sleeve. Do not lose the serial number! You must use it every time you install or upgrade BuzzEdit™. So be

sure to store the CD sleeve in a safe place. Click NEXT > to continue.

9 The Select Components dialog box opens (shown on next

page). On it, you will be asked what components you want to install. The sample designs are optional and may be installed later or not at all.

You can also change the installation directory The default program directory is C:\Program Files\Buzz Tools\BuzzEdit. This default setting is the recommended one. If this is not the location you want to use, you may use the browse button to locate another directory, or you may type the directory name in the text bar on the dialog box. If the directory you chose does not exist, you will be prompted and, if you wish, the directory will be created for you.

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Use to select the components to

install and the installation directory.

10 Setup will add program icons to the program folder Buzz Tools.

This is the recommended location for the BuzzEdit™ program icons. Click NEXT > .

11 Follow the directions on the remaining BuzzEdit™ installation

dialogs to install BuzzEdit™ onto your computer.

12 At the end of installation, the Buzz Tools® program group

displays, and a BuzzEdit™ icon is visible on your computer desktop. Be sure to check the BuzzEdit Readme file for any late-breaking news.

Remove BuzzEdit™

1 From the Windows Start menu, select

Settings > Control Panel.

2 From the control panel, double-click the Add/Remove programs

icon. The Add/Remove Programs Properties dialog box opens.

3 Using the scroll bar, locate the program name BuzzEdit and

click on it to select it.

4 Click ADD/REMOVE… . 5 On the Confirm File Deletion dialog box, click YES .

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Part Two:

User’s Guide

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Chapter 1 |

BuzzEdit™ Basics

We know you are anxious to get started using the powerful features of BuzzEdit™. But before you begin, it is important for you to become familiar with the BuzzEdit™ workspace as it has many unique features and tools.

In this chapter, you will get an overview of the BuzzEdit™ workspace, learn how to select stitches in the various windows, and learn many of the terms used in the rest of the manual.

After you read Chapter 1, you will want to read Chapter 2: Manipulating Stitches, where you will learn some of the stitch manipulations that are available and the commands used to perform each one. When you have finished reading these first two chapters, you may want to jump ahead to Chapter 5: How Do I… (beginning on page 95), which will give you detailed instructions for many common BuzzEdit™ tasks. Or you may want to use the BuzzEdit Reference (beginning on page 115) to find out more information about a specific command or tool.

™

Note: This User’s Guide assumes that you have a basic

understanding of working with your Windows 95, 98 or NT operating system. If you do not have this basic knowledge already, you may need to consult a basic Windows manual before proceeding.

The BuzzEdit™ Workspace

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Basics -

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When you start BuzzEdit™, you are presented with the BuzzEdit Welcome dialog box, which lets you open an existing design or start a new design. After you select one of these options, you see the main application window, which is called the BuzzEdit™ workspace.

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The BuzzEdit™ workspace displays your design in three different windows. The windows each present a different view of your design and work together to allow you to select and manipulate runs of stitches. Although you have three separate views of your design, you are still only working on one design per workspace.

The BuzzEdit™ Workspace

The window on the upper right of your workspace is the Stitches-in-Space Reference window (or Space Reference window). This is the visual reference for your design. It displays

your design as it will be sewn and always shows the entire design in color.

The window on the upper left of your workspace is the Stitches-in-Space window (or Space window). This is the spatial work area for the spatial tools such as the Lasso.

The window at the bottom of your workspace is the Stitches-in-Time™ window (or Time window). This window shows your design as it is stitched out in time; it is composed of several bars and graphs that will be discussed later in this chapter. The Time window allows you to analyze various aspects of your design in a new manner, and it gives you a powerful and easy way to select various segments of your design.

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You can change the relative size of the three windows by dragging the vertical and horizontal bars separating the windows.

Changing the

window size

If you want to work on multiple designs at the same time, you can open several BuzzEdit™ workspaces. You can cut, copy and paste pieces of designs from one workspace to another.

Selecting Stitches

Before you can use BuzzEdit™ to modify a design, you must first select the stitches you want to modify. For example, if you want to change the first color in your design from blue to red, you must first select the stitches contained in the first color break. Later in this chapter we will show you just how easy it is to select a consecutive run of stitches in BuzzEdit™

In BuzzEdit™, a selection always consists of one or more consecutive needle points and stitches. The smallest selection you can make is a single needle point (does not include the associated stitch). The largest selection you can make is the entire design.

The last needle point of your selection is called the stitch cursor. The stitch cursor can be found in both the Space and the Time windows. If you insert new stitches into your design (done with either the Edit < Paste command or the Insert Stitch tool), they will be inserted after the stitch cursor.

If you have any stitches selected in your design, your Space window will fade out the unselected stitches so that you can easily identify and work with your selection.

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Note: The BuzzEdit™ workspace contains only one

selection at a time, regardless of whether you create the selection in the Stitches-in-Space window or the Stitches-in-Time™ window. That is, if you create a selection in the Stitches-in-Space window, that same selection is highlighted in the Stitches-in-Time™ window and vice versa.

Stitches-in-Space Windows

Stitches-in-Space Reference Window

This window is used as a visual reference for your design. It displays your design as it will be stitched out. This window always shows the entire design in color.

The Stitches-in-Space Reference window shows the entire design, even when only a small area of the design is shown in the Stitches-in-Space window. The area of the design that is currently being displayed in the Space window is surrounded by a dotted line.

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Stitches-in-Space

Reference Window

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You can use the Space Reference window to zoom in on a portion of the design in the Space window. To zoom in, hold down the primary mouse button, which is usually the left mouse button, and drag out a rectangle around the region of interest.

Zoom in on a portion

of the design

Stitches-in-Space Window

The Stitches-in-Space window displays your design as it is sewn out in space. This window contains tools for manipulating your design in space, including tools to move, rotate, flip, resize, and stretch your entire design or a selected portion of your design.

Stitches-in-Space Window

You will use this window to view and manipulate the selected stitches in your design. If you have zoomed into an area of the design, only the zoomed into area will display here.

You can use the scroll bars to move the area of the design that is displayed. The plus and minus buttons located in the upper right corner of this window cause

Space Scroll

Bar and

Zoom

the current selection to zoom in or out.

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buttons

Stitches-in-Space Selection Indicators

When you first open a design in BuzzEdit™, the Space window displays your design in color and selects the first starting needle point only (note, no stitch is selected, only a needle point).

After you select some of the stitches in the design, the selected stitches are shown in color, whereas the unselected stitches are shown in a faded ghost color.

A selection indicator is drawn around the entire selection. The Space selection indicator highlights the current selection in the Space window. The shape of the selection indicator depends on which tool button is depressed. Rotate, Flip and Resize tool button modes have a

Selection Indicator

circular selection boundary. In other modes, the selection is indicated by a rectangular selection boundary.

The first and last needle points of the selection are also marked. The first selected needle point is marked with a small box. The last selected needle point, the stitch cursor, is marked with a small triangle pointing in the direction of the last stitch.

If only a single stitch is selected, you will see the stitch followed by its needle point. This is the stitch cursor and it is marked accordingly with a small triangle. Because only one needle point is included in the selection, the box indicating the first needle point and the selection indicator are not displayed. This allows you to see the stitch clearly against the other stitches, which are

Single Stitch Selected

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now displayed in ghost color.

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When a single needle point is selected, all of the stitches are drawn in color in the Stitches-in-Space window. The selected needle point, the stitch cursor, is highlighted with a small triangle

Single Needle Point

Selected

When you have only one stitch or needle point selected, you can move forward and backward in your design by using the arrow keys.

Remember: When you first open a design in BuzzEdit

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the Stitches-in-Space window displays your design in color because only the first starting needle point is selected (note that no stitch is selected, only a needle point).

Selecting Stitches in the Stitches-in-Space Window

You create a selection in the Space window with the Lasso tool.

Click on the Lasso/Move tool button in the Space toolbar to

activate the lasso tool. Position your mouse in the Space window outside of any previous selections and then draw a lasso around the area of interest. BuzzEdit™ selects the longest run of contiguous stitches within the lassoed area, which often turns out to comprise just the element you want to select.

The lasso is dragged

around the lid of teapot.

The lid of the teapot

is selected.

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If the area selected is not what you need, you can use the Select Next Lassoed button located on the main toolbar (or press Ctrl + L) until the run of desired stitches is selected. This command is also available from the Edit menu.

Select Next Lassoed was

used and now the outline is

selected.

You can select a single needle point in the Space window by clicking on or near the needle point with the Lasso tool. If the wrong needle point is selected, click the Select Next Lassoed button until the desired needle point is selected, or use the left and right arrow keys to move forward and backward needle point by needle point.

Stitches-in-Time™ Window

The patent pending Stitches-in-Time™ window shows your design as it is stitched out in time. This window allows you to analyze various aspects of your design in a new manner, and it also gives you a powerful and easy way to select various segments of your design.

Stitches-in-Time™ Window

Horizontally, the stitches are displayed from left to right in the order in which they are sewn. Various properties of the stitches are displayed in the form of graphs.

From top-to-bottom the Time window is composed of the Stitch

Color bar, the Stitch Length graph, the Stitch Angle graph, the Time Scroll bar, and the Time Reference bar.

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Zooming In on the Stitches-in-Time™ Window

Sometimes you will need to zoom in on an area of the Stitches-in-Time™ window before you can effectively select stitches in it.

To zoom in on an area, locate the Time Reference bar at the bottom of the Stitches-in-Time™ window. Hold down the primary mouse button and drag the mouse cursor along the Reference bar. When you release the mouse button, this new area will fill the Stitches-in-Time™ window.

You can then use the Time Scroll bar to move forward or backward in time to change what is displayed in Stitches-in-Time™ graphs. Scrolling the

Use Scroll bar to

change what is

displayed

Time window does not change what is displayed on the Stitches-in-Space windows.

Drag along the Reference

bar to zoom in on an area

Selecting Stitches in the Stitches-in-Time™ Window

You create a selection in the Stitches-in-Time™ window by dragging the mouse horizontally to encompass the desired stitches. The selection is highlighted with a pair of vertical lines delimiting the selection.

Drag along the graphs

to select stitches

When you hold down the primary mouse button and drag along the Time window, depending on which graph the mouse cursor is in, the start and/or end of the selection may “snap” to particular stitches. This behavior is described later in this chapter.

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Stitch Color Bar

The Stitch Color bar makes it easy to select a run of stitches comprising one thread color or several adjacent thread colors. The thread colors of your design are shown in the order in which they are sewn. The length of each color bar is proportional to the number of stitches in the color break. When the mouse is clicked or dragged on the Stitch Color bar, the selection will “snap” to the nearest color break, making it easy to select a complete color break.

Drag on the Stitch Color

bar to select whole

color breaks.

You can also select a color by double-clicking on its thread color on the Stitch Color bar.

Stitch Length Graph

Using the Stitch Length graph, you can easily see the length of your stitches. Each stitch is displayed as a vertical line whose height is proportional to the length of the stitch. Depending on the number of stitches shown, the vertical lines may touch each other. [The top of each vertical line is marked with a dot so that short stitches can be detected even if the lines touch.]

The longer the line,

the longer the stitch.

Long stitches appear as

vertical spikes

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To see the individual stitches you may need to zoom in on an area of the Stitch Length graph (see Zooming In on the Stitches-in-Time™ Window on page 33).

Long stitches stand out on this graph and appear as vertical spikes. Selection is easy between any two long stitches.

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Just position your cursor between two long stitches and double-click. Your selection will snap to these boundaries. And since long stitches generally delimit different elements within your design, the Stitch Length graph makes it easy to select different individual elements of your design.

You can also select a run of stitches in the Stitch Length graph by holding down the primary mouse button and dragging the mouse cursor horizontally. As long as you stay within the Stitch Length graph, each boundary of the selection will snap to the next stitch that rises above the vertical position of the mouse cursor. Thus, by positioning the mouse cursor above the majority of stitches in this graph but below

When dragging

on the Stitch

Length graph,

the selection

snaps to long

stitches

the long stitches (shown as vertical spikes), you can easily select a run of stitches between any two long stitches. In general, this is a great way to select a distinct element of your design.

Cursor is in position ready to select a run of stitches

by double-clicking

Stitch Angle Graph

Use this graph to analyze your stitches and to easily select a run of a specific type of stitches.

The angle is plotted near the bottom of the graph around zero degrees if the following stitch runs in the same direction (as in a running stitch). The angle is plotted near the vertical center around plus or minus 90 degrees if the following stitch turns left or right. And the angle is plotted near the top around 180 degrees if the following stitch

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Use this graph to easily

locate specific types

of stitches

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makes a U-turn (as in a satin stitch).

Each different stitch type – running, zigzag, satin, etc. - has a characteristic appearance in the Stitch Angle graph. When you are editing your designs, look for other patterns that may indicate a change of stitch type.

A run of fill stitches

Typical Fill Stitch

tend to vary back and forth in a regular pattern.

A run of running

Typical Running Stitch

stitches tend to hug the bottom of the graph.

Typical Satin Stitch

A run of satin stitches tend to hug the top of the graph.

Base your selection

on the Stitch Angle

graphs appearance

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Select a run of stitches in the Stitch Angle graph by holding down the primary mouse button and dragging the mouse cursor horizontally along the graph. Base your selection on the appearance of the graph. For example, to select a run of satin stitches look for a region where the run of stitches hug the top of the graph and then select those stitches by dragging the mouse across them.

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Time Reference Bar

The Time Reference bar is used in conjunction with the Time Scroll bar to zoom the other Stitches-in-Time™ graphs in on a subset of the stitches in the design. The Time Reference bar always shows the entire design, even when only a small area of the design is shown in the Stitches-in-Time™ graphs.

The area in the Time Reference bar below the scroll bar button is the area that is currently being displayed in the Stitches-in-Time™ graphs.

Hold down the primary mouse button and drag the mouse cursor horizontally over the portion of the bar that represents the stitches you are interested in. When you release the mouse

Drag along the Reference bar to zoom in on those

stitches

button, the Stitches-in-Time™ graphs will zoom in on that portion of stitches.

Use to zoom the other

Time graphs

Time Scroll Bar

This scroll bar works in conjunction with the Time Reference bar to allow you to zoom the other Stitches-in-Time™ graphs in on a subset of the stitches in the design.

Scroll bar works with

Reference bar

When you first open a design, the Stitches-in-Time™ graphs display all of the stitches; therefore the scroll bar button spans the entire length of the Time Reference bar.

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After zooming in on a subset of stitches, the scroll bar button indicates which stitches in the Reference bar are displayed in the other Stitches-in-Time™ graphs. By dragging the scroll bar button, you can scroll the stitches displayed in the other Stitches-in-Time™ graphs.

Time Zoom Out Button

Click on the Time Zoom Out button (the button marked with a -) to fully zoom out the Stitches-in-Time™ graphs.

Time Zoom In Button

Scrolls the

Stitches-in-Time

graphs

Zooms out the

Stitches-in-Time™

Window

™

Click on the Time Zoom In button (the button marked with a +) to zoom the Stitches-in-Time™ graphs in on the current selection.

Zooms in the

Stitches-in-Time™

Window

Multiple-Section Bar

BuzzEdit™ supports multiple-file designs and multiple-hoop designs. You might have a multiple-file design to get around a file restriction, such as the number of stitches or color breaks a design can contain. Or you might use multiple-hoop sections in your design to support a multiple-position hoop, thereby getting around a physical design-size restriction.

BuzzEdit™ allows you to view and edit these multiple sections concurrently in one workspace. When required by the file format,

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these separate sections are saved into a series of files so that each file keeps within the limits imposed by the file type.

When you are editing a design made up of multiple sections, your Stitches-in-Time™ window displays one additional bar graph, positioned above all the other time graphs. This is the Multiple-Section bar, which

Marks the individual files and/or

hoops that make up your design.

delimits the individual sections that make up your current design.

The Multiple-Section bar is only displayed if your design is made up of multiple sections. The sections that make up your complete design are displayed in the Stitches-in-Time™ window in the order in which they are sewn.

Each section starts with a Section Break flag.

Each section starts with a Section Break flag and is followed by a description of the section. Sometimes this description is only a file name, but when your design is for a multiple-position hoop the description may also include the hoop position for the specific section. You may need to zoom in on an area of the Stitches-in-Time™ window before you can read these descriptions (see Zooming In on the Stitches-in-Time™ Window on page 33).

When the mouse is clicked or dragged on the Multiple-Section bar, the selection will “snap” to the nearest section break, making it easy to select all of the stitches in an entire section. You can click directly on top of the descriptive text. If you click near the beginning of a section, the selection will "snap" to the beginning of the section. If you click near the end of a section, the selection will "snap" to the very end of the section. You can also select all of the stitches in a section by double-clicking between Section Break flags.

You will find an entire chapter dedicated to multiple-section designs beginning on page 59. Please refer to this chapter for more information on this topic.

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Adjusting Your Selection

You can adjust the starting and ending stitches of a selection by using the arrow keys, much as in a text editor.

To adjust the first stitch of a selection

(marked by a small box in the Stitches-in-Space window)

To adjust the last stitch of a selection

(marked by a small triangle in the Stitches-in-Space window)

To move to next needle point

To move to the previous needle point

To move to the last needle point of the design

To move to the first needle point of the design

To select the next color

To select the previous color

Hold down the control key and press the left # or right $ arrow keys.

Hold down the control key and click the mouse in the Stitches-in-Time™ window.

Hold down the shift key and press the left # or right $ arrow keys.

Hold down the shift key and click the mouse in the Stitches-in-Time™ window.

Press the right $ arrow key.

Press the left # arrow key.

Press the end key.

Press the home key. The home needle point is not actually sewn. It is displayed at the top-left corner of the hoop. Positioning the stitch cursor at the home needle point allows you to insert stitches at the start of the design.

Press the tab key.

Hold down the shift key and press the tab key.

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Chapter 2 |

Manipulating Stitches

Now that you have learned how to select stitches, you are going to want to modify them. The changes you make to a design can be as simple as changing a thread color or as involved as improving the sewing of a design.

All of the commands and tools introduced here are covered in the BuzzEdit™ Reference beginning on page 115. You may also find step-by-step directions for using several of these commands in Chapter 5: How Do I… which starts on page 95.

Changing Stitch Attributes

One of the most common changes made to a design is to change the stitch attributes of a selection. The stitch attributes that can be changed with BuzzEdit™ are stitch type and thread color.

Change Stitch Type

Use the Change Stitch Type drop down combo box to change the stitch type. This is located on the main

BuzzEdit™ toolbar. You can choose from Stitch or Jump. Most commonly, you will use this command to change a single, long

jump stitch to the matching stitch type Jump. Many embroidery formats treat jump stitches differently than other stitches by either displaying them differently or changing how the stitch is sewn at the machine. Your design will usually stitch correctly even if a few of the stitches are incorrectly typed.

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Normally you will want to select a single long stitch whose type you want to change. One easy way to do this is to first click on the long stitch in the Stitches-in-Time™ window. This will select the first needle point of the stitch. Then hold down the shift key and press the right arrow key to select the stitch itself. Finally, choose the stitch type from the drop down combo box.

Change Thread Color

Use the Change Thread Color button on the main toolbar (or choose File > Change Thread Color) to change the color of

the selected stitches.

The Choose Color dialog box displays a color palette of all of the available thread colors for the design file type you are currently editing. To change colors, click on

the new color and click OK . (Or just double-click on the desired

color to change it quickly and at the same time close the dialog box.)

Click near a long

stitch to select its

needle point.

Alternatively, you can also locate a color using the drop down

Thread color palette of

available thread colors.

dialog box where the thread colors are listed in alphabetic order.

Note: If more than one color palette is available for the

design file type you are editing, you can change the palette using the drop down box on the Choose Color dialog box.

You can also bring up the Choose Color dialog box by clicking on the current color name displayed on the bottom status bar.

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Basic Editing Commands

BuzzEdit™ provides the basic editing commands Cut, Copy and Paste. These commands can be used to move or copy selections to a new Stitches-in-Time™ location within the current BuzzEdit™ workspace, or to move selections to a different BuzzEdit™ workspace.

Cut Command

The Cut command can be used to move a selection to a new workspace or to a new location in time. The selected stitches are removed from the design and placed on the BuzzEdit™ clipboard.

Use the Cut button located on the main toolbar (or choose Edit > Cut) to cut the selected stitches.

Copy Command

The Copy command can be used to copy a selection to a new workspace or to a new location in time. The selected stitches are copied and placed on the BuzzEdit™ clipboard.

Use the Copy button located on the main toolbar (or choose Edit > Copy) to copy the selected stitches.

Paste Command

The Paste command places a copy of the stitches in the clipboard into current BuzzEdit™ workspace. This can be from the same design where the stitches originated or from a different design.

When you paste a selection, it is pasted after the stitch cursor in the Stitches-in-Time™ window. Therefore, to change when a selection is sewn, first cut the selection from your design. Then click the mouse

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in one of the Stitches-in-Time™ graphs at the location you wish the stitches to be sewn.

Use the Paste button located on the main toolbar (or choose Edit > Paste) to paste the stitches into their new location in Time.

When you paste stitches from a different design with a different file type, the stitch colors are converted to match the current palette.

Note: The Cut, Copy and Paste commands provide one

method for changing the sewing order of your design or for duplicating stitches. You can also change the sewing order of your design by dragging selected stitches along the Stitches-in-Time™ graphs. Stitches may also be duplicated using the dragging method. More information about dragging selections can be found beginning on page 54.

Build New Designs

Use the Open > New Workspace command to open additional BuzzEdit™ workspaces in order to copy and paste selections from one design to another. You can create a new empty design in one workspace, then build up the design by copying runs of stitches from designs in other BuzzEdit™ workspaces.

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Space Tools

Once you have made your stitch selection, you can use the Stitches-in-Space tools to move, rotate, flip, resize or stretch the selected stitches. There are also similar tools, accessed from the Tools menu that provide dialog-based versions of these commands.

Move

You can move your selection using the Lasso/Move tool located on the Stitches-in-Space toolbar. Your selection can be as small as a single needle point or as large as the entire design.

Click on the Lasso tool; then move your cursor into the center of your selection. Drag your selection to the desired location. If your selection is a single needle point, drag the Space stitch cursor to the desired location.

Dragging a Selection

You can also move your selection using the Tools > Move… command. This procedure is described in the BuzzEdit™ Command Reference on page 148.

Rotate

You can rotate your selection using the Rotate tool located on the Stitches-in-Space toolbar.

BuzzEdit™ allows you to change the center of the rotation. By default, you rotate your selection on its own center. However, perhaps you want to rotate your selection away from another object, or around the center of the design. Move the center of rotation by dragging the cross to the desired location. The numeric value of your custom center is displayed on the status bar.

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Drag the cross to change

the center of rotation.

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Note: The numeric value of the custom center may be a

negative number as this is an offset from the center of the hoop.

You can toggle between a custom center and the center of the selection by clicking on the Custom Center toolbar button located on the main toolbar.

Rotate your selection by dragging the circular boundary of your selection. The percentage rotation is displayed on the bottom status bar.

Rotate your selection by

dragging the boundary

You can also rotate your selection using the Tools > Rotate… command. This procedure is covered in the BuzzEdit™ Command Reference on page 149.

Flip

You can flip your selection using the Flip tool located on the Stitches-in-Space toolbar.

You can change the center of the mirror during a flip operation. This behaves in the same manner as the custom centers of the Rotate tool that we have already discussed. Move the center of the mirror by dragging the cross to the desired location. The numeric value of your custom center is displayed on the bottom status bar.

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Drag the cross to change

the center of the mirror.

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You can toggle between a custom center and the center of the selection by clicking on the Custom Center toolbar button located on the main toolbar.

You can change the angle of reflection for your selection by dragging the circular selection boundary. This changes the angle at which your selection is flipped so that you can flip your selection diagonally. The angle of the mirror is shown by the line dividing the circular selection boundary. The percentage rotation is displayed on the bottom status

Rotate the angle of mirror by dragging the boundary

bar. In this example, the angle of mirror is set to 45 degrees clockwise.

Flip your selection by clicking on the mirror shown by the line that bisects the circular selection indicator.

Click on the mirror to flip

your selection

You can also flip your selection using the Tools > Flip… command. This procedure is described in the BuzzEdit™ Command Reference on page 152.

Resize

Is your design a little too big to fit in the embroidery hoop? Perhaps the design would sew better if the stitches were not quite so close together. In BuzzEdit™, resized designs and selections contain the same number of stitches as the original. Shortening the stitches reduces the physical size of the selection and lengthening the stitches increases the physical size of the selection. If you reduce an area too much, the stitches will be too close together to sew properly. If you increase the physical size of an area too much, the area will be sparsely sewn.

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Stitches Before Reducing Stitches After Reducing

On most designs, you can resize selections up to ten percent without any adverse stitching affects. You may be able to resize by a value greater than ten percent if you also change the thickness of the thread used to sew the design area. Use a finer thread for areas you have reduced and a thicker thread for areas you have enlarged.

You can resize your selection using the Resize tool that is located on the Stitches-in-Space toolbar.

Change the center of your resize operation by dragging the cross to the desired location. The numeric value of your custom center is displayed on the bottom status bar. Remember that the center of your hoop is location 0, 0.

In the example shown, the center of the resize operation has been set to the tip of the beak.

You can toggle between a custom center and the center of the selection by clicking on the Custom Center toolbar button

Drag the cross to change

the center of the resize.

located on the main toolbar.

Resize your selection by

dragging the boundary

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Resize your selection by dragging the circular boundary of your selection. The percentage enlargement is displayed on the bottom status bar.

In the example shown, the design moves away from the resize center; that is, the bird's beak.

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If you exceed the maximum recommended resize percentage of twenty percent, the cursor will include an exclamation point to alert you of a potential problem.

You can also resize your selection using the Tools > Resize… command. This procedure is described in the BuzzEdit™ Command Reference on page 150.

Stretch

In addition to resizing your selection, you can stretch or shrink your design along an arbitrary direction. In BuzzEdit™, a stretched selection contains the same number of stitches as the original.

Just as with the resize operation, you can stretch selections up to ten percent without any adverse stitching affects. You may be able to stretch by a value greater than ten percent if you also change the thickness of the thread used to sew the design area. Use a finer thread for areas you have reduced and a thicker thread for areas you have enlarged.

You can stretch your selection using the Stretch tool located on the Stitches-in-Space toolbar.

The line that bisects the stretch selection indicator is the area of your selection that does not move during the stretch operation. Change the location of the line by dragging the center cross to the desired location. The numeric value of your custom center is displayed

Drag the cross to change the

center of the stretch.

on the bottom status bar.

You can toggle between a custom center and the center of the selection by clicking on the Custom Center toolbar button.

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Note: The ability to change the center of your stretch is

very handy. For example, if you need to stretch an area of your design a bit to eliminate a gap between regions of your design, you would position the center of the stretch on the stationary edge. As you stretch your selection, you will see it growing away from this center.

Change the angle of stretch for your selection by dragging the circular arrow arms that are attached to the selection boundary. The percentage rotation is displayed on the bottom status bar.

Drag the circular arrow arms to

change the angle of stretch

Stretch your selection by pulling on the dashed portion of the selection boundary. When your cursor is positioned correctly, your cursor will look like the one in the example to the right.

Stretch selection by

pulling on dashed portion

of selection boundary.

You can also stretch your selection using the Tools > Stretch… command. This procedure is described in the BuzzEdit™ Command Reference on page 151.

Convert Design Format

Different embroidery machines require different design file formats. If you are going to use another machine's designs, you will need to convert the design to a format your embroidery machine can understand. BuzzEdit™ will convert stitched-based design files from one design file format to another.

You can convert your current design to the file format of your choice by choosing Tools >Convert Design Type…

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Colors During Conversions

Each embroidery file format comes with certain standard colors and restrictions. Some design formats have only a few color choices and some have a plethora. Moreover, some designs don’t contain color information at all, only color stops to let the embroiderer know it is time to change threads.

Embroidery Software

Brother® PE-Design Baby Lock® Palette Bernina® Deco-Wizard

Dos Expanded Tajima

Janome Easy Scan V 1 Janome Easy Scan V 2 Elna EnVision Scan PC Personalizer 2000 Customizer 2000

POEM Singer EU Viking Huskygram

Singer PSW Compucon

Pfaff PC-Designer PCS

Viking Customizing HUS 29 Not Restricted

EXT Possible

Color Values

PES 65 63

EXP DST

SEW

CSD

XXX

No color values, only color breaks.

12 Standard in Ver 1 35 Standard in Ver 2 78 Standard in Ver 2000

80 if complete color palette is used

16 default colors or BuzzEdit

palette of 65 colors 16 Standard or BuzzEdit

palette of 65 colors 16 Standard or

BuzzEdit palette of 65 colors

™

extended

™

extended

™

extended

Maximum Colors per Design

Not Restricted

14 Wraps colors if

over 14

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When design files are converted using BuzzEdit™, the best possible match is made from the colors available. In some cases, this may involve selecting a secondary color choice in order to preserve color stops.

This PCS file was converted from a DST that contained only

color stop information. Therefore, the colors displayed represent

color stops and not the colors you would choose to sew.

DST and EXP files do not contain any color information. They do have color breaks, that is, markers in the file that tell the machines to stop sewing, but no actual color values. Therefore, when these are opened in a program, such as BuzzEdit™, the color stops are assigned an arbitrary color value. You will have to change the thread colors in BuzzEdit™ to get an attractive picture.

When EXP or DST designs are converted to another file format that requires the color value, BuzzEdit™ does not know what color the digitizer intended for the color breaks. Should color break one be green (for a tree) or blue (for sky)? Therefore, when the file is converted, BuzzEdit™ assigns arbitrary color choices to the file. These choices do not relate to an actual color value but represent the color break present in the original file. You will have to change the thread colors in BuzzEdit™ to get an attractive picture.

When BuzzEdit™ converts a design that contains color values into an EXP or a DST file, BuzzEdit™ preserves the color information in an auxiliary file. EXP and DST files with BuzzEdit™ auxiliary files will display in color within BuzzEdit™, but may only display color breaks when opened in other programs.

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NOTE FOR JANOME & ELNA USERS: Depending on

your settings (see View > Color Conversion Settings), BuzzEdit™ may convert designs to the SEW format using the entire SEW color palette. Although these converted designs may not display correctly in versions 1 and 2 of the Janome New Home software, they will display correctly in Buzz Tools programs, and your sewing machine will ask for the correct color. This is because versions 1 and 2 of the Janome software display all colors that are not in its regular palette as black, even if the color is a valid Janome thread color. Newer versions of the Janome New Home software (2000 and up) support the majority of thread colors.

The colors used by Buzz Tools programs to represent the Janome New Home colors were created by matching the actual thread color to the Janome New Home SEW color code.

This information also applies to users of the Elna Envision Scan PC as they also use the SEW design file format.

Reorder Stitches

Several of the tools available primarily change how your stitches are sewn in time; that is the order in which stitches are sewn. These changes include sorting colors and reversing stitch order. Depending on how these are applied, you may find that your design DOES sew differently than before you applied the modification. Therefore, these tools must be used with caution, and you should always carefully check your work when using one of these time-related stitch tools.

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Drag Colors

You can change the sewing order of your design by dragging a selected color horizontally left or right along the Time graphs and dropping the selection at the desired position.

To change the sewing order of the colors in a design, first select an entire color by double-clicking on it in the Stitch Color bar. To grab your selection, position your mouse cursor on the Stitch Color bar inside of your selection. When your mouse cursor is correctly positioned, it will change to a pointing finger. Hold down the

Drag a Selection

to Move it

Since you are rearranging entire color breaks in this example, you will want to insert the selection on a color boundary. It is easy to do this by moving your cursor horizontally along the Stitch Color bar. Your insertion point will snap to a color boundary, making it easy to rearrange the colors in your design.

primary mouse button and drag your selection in Time.

Drag Stitches

Just as you can change the sewing order of an entire color, you can also easily change the sewing order of any selected run of stitches. Make your stitch selection using any of the methods previously mentioned in Chapter 1; for example, drag along any of the Time graphs or use the Lasso tool in the Space window.

You will always start dragging your selection from the Stitch Color bar. Once you have "picked up" your selection as described above, you can drag your selection down into any of the other

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graphs to take advantage of one of their particular features or snap characteristics.

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Drop a selection into any other

graph to take advantage of

their snap characteristics

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Duplicate Stitches

You can also duplicate selected stitches when you drag them along the Time graphs. Hold down the control key while dragging to make a copy of the selection. The cursor will display a + indicator to let you know that you are moving a copy of the selection.

Hold down the control key

while dragging to make a copy of the selection.

Sort Colors

Sometimes a design will have the same color repeated. For example, you might duplicate an apple in your design several times to fill the design with apples. When you duplicate the apple, you also duplicate the color breaks for the green leaf and the red apple.

In this example, the colors of the leaves and apples are not sewn on top of one another so you could sew all of the apples first, followed by all of the leaves. This is the perfect time to use the Color Sort command. At other times you can obtain better results by manually merging colors by dragging them along the Stitches-in-Time™ graphs.

Before color sort, the design

fiveapls.csd has sixteen color breaks.

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After color sort, there are

four color breaks.

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Use the Sort Colors tool (or choose Tools > Sort Colors) to sort the colors in your current selection or for the entire design.

Note: Sometimes a design will have the same color listed

in two locations due to the required layering of the stitches. This is often done for outlines or to produce some other advanced effect. Whenever you sort the colors in your design, examine your design closely and do a test sew of the design to ensure that your results are those that you desire.

Reverse Stitch Order

You can reverse the sewing order of a selection by using the Reverse Stitch Order command. This is most often done to shorten or reduce jump stitches in an area.

Use the Reverse Stitch Order command to reverse the order that a selection stitches.

This heart was created by duplicating

and flipping the left half. We are left

with a jump stitch across the middle.

Selecting the right half and reversing the

stitch order eliminates the jump stitch.

When you use the Reverse Stitch Order command, you need to be aware of whether your selection includes understitching. [Understitching is sewn before a fill area to stabilize the area or to travel from one embroidery area to another.]

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Before reversing the sewing order of this block, you cannot see the understitching.

Before Reversing the

Sewing Order

Afterward, the understitching would be sewn on top of the fill area. [The understitching in this example is shown in black so that you

After Reversing the

Sewing Order

can see it.]

In order to avoid this type of problem, you have two different options available to you. You can:

1 Delete the understitching prior to using this command 2 Do not include the understitching in your selection. If you

choose this option, you can select the understitching in a separate operation and reverse its sewing order so that both sections sew correctly in relationship to each other.

Stitch Editing

You can do sophisticated stitch editing by inserting or moving individual needle points.

Insert Stitches

You can use the Insert Stitches tool to bury a jump stitch by breaking the jump stitch into smaller stitches that are sewn underneath other areas of stitching.

Position the stitch cursor in the Stitches-in-Time™ display. If you are going to reroute a jump stitch, position your stitch cursor directly in front of the long jump stitch you are going to reroute.

Click on the Insert Stitches tool. Each click in the Stitches-in-Space window will now add a needlepoint and divide the current stitch into two stitches. Before each click,

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position the mouse cursor to place the new needle point underneath other areas of stitching. You may find it easier to place the new stitches if you first zoom in on your Stitches-in-Space window.

Move Stitches

Use the Move Stitch tool in the Stitches-in-Space window to move a stitch or a group of stitches in the design one at a time. This tool is very useful when you have a run of stitches you want to move, one after another. For example, perhaps you need to adjust an outline on your design and need to move stitch after stitch to a new location.

Position the stitch cursor at the first stitch you need to move.

Click on the Move Stitch tool. Each click in the Space

window moves the last needle point of the current selection (the stitch cursor) to wherever you clicked. The stitch cursor then advances by one needle point, thereby allowing you to progress through a run of stitches, moving each of their needle point locations in turn.

Before editing with BuzzEdit™ After editing with BuzzEdit™

Before this design was edited with BuzzEdit™, there were many jump stitches to cut. Rerouting jump stitches underneath other areas of stitching eliminated most of these jumps. The remaining few jump stitches were eliminated on the veins of the leaves by reversing the stitch order of those areas.

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Chapter 3 |

Multiple-Section Designs

In this chapter, we will talk about multiple-section designs and a little bit about how BuzzEdit™ manages these designs. In the next chapter, we will give you specific information about multiple-hoop designs, which are a type of multiple-section design. In order to understand these topics, it is important that you read both of these chapters.

Most embroidery machines have file restrictions such as the number of stitches or the number of color breaks a design can contain. However, because BuzzEdit™ allows you to edit multiple design files concurrently in one workspace, your full embroidery design may bypass design file restrictions such as these. Each design file is treated as a separate section of the complete design.

Most embroidery machines also restrict the physical dimensions of a design. Many sewing machine manufacturers have even created multiple-position hoop frames (sometimes called multi-hoops) to get around this restriction. The full multiple-hoop design is sewn in overlapping sections so that the finished design may be larger than the standard design area. Usually, each hoop section is saved in a separate file.

BuzzEdit™ allows you to concurrently view and edit designs with multiple sections in one workspace. When required by the file format, these separate sections are saved into a series of files so that each file keeps within the limits imposed by the file type.

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Sew each design file in sequence onto the same

piece of fabric in order to create the full design.

When BuzzEdit™ saves a series of files, it also saves a manager file, so that you can read back in the whole series of files at a later time in order to edit or view the overall design. When you are ready to sew the design, you sew each of the design files in sequence onto the same piece of fabric in order to create the full design.

Note: The PES (version 2.5 or greater) format supports

their three-position multi-hoops. When you edit and save one of these files, BuzzEdit™ will not save a manager file unless it needs to do so for some other reason. However, because your design is still separated into separate design sections, your BuzzEdit™ Stitches-in-Time™ window will still display the section breaks.

BuzzEdit™ Manager File

Most multiple-file and multiple-hoop designs created in BuzzEdit™ take advantage of a BuzzEdit™ manager file. This manager file contains important information including the name of the design files used in your complete design, the hoop you are using and the hoop positions of the design sections. In addition, BuzzEdit™ saves your stitch information if you need to stop editing your design before all of the design sections are placed correctly in a hoop.

The manager file's name is always the name of the original file or the name you selected when you saved your design. Each design file used for sewing your full design is assigned a new name. The new files are named the same as the manager file with a letter appended to the end. The first file sewn is appended with the letter A; the second file sewn is appended with the letter B and so on.

Note: The manager file is used by BuzzEdit™ to allow you

to read the multiple-file design back into BuzzEdit™ and is not sewn. The letter appended to the end of the file name corresponds to the order in which it is sewn and is NOT the hoop position.

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When you open a multiple-file design that uses a BuzzEdit™ manager file, you should choose the manager file name from the BuzzEdit™ Open Design dialog box. This causes all of the associated design files to be opened and ensures that they are positioned correctly.

This twelve-part Giant Hoop-it-All™ design is opened

easily by choosing the BuzzEdit™ manager file.

If you have a multiple-file design (or a multiple-hoop design that uses multiple-files) created by a program other than BuzzEdit™, you can read the design into BuzzEdit™ by checking the Multiple-file

Design checkbox in the Open Design dialog box.

Check the Multiple-File Design checkbox to let

BuzzEdit™ know this is a Multiple-File design.

This action brings up the Open Multiple-File Design dialog box that allows you to specify a series of files to open and which hoop to use. This procedure is described on page 82. Many PES (version 2.5 or greater) multi-hoop designs can be opened directly and do not require any special procedure.

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The Open Multiple-File Design dialog box helps

you open existing multiple-file designs.

Multiple-Section Bar

When BuzzEdit™ displays a multiple-file or a multiple-hoop design, the Stitches-in-Time™ window displays the Multiple-Section bar that is designed to help you understand and manipulate your multiple-file and multiple-hoop designs. This bar displays a series of section breaks. Each new section break marks the location in time (or stitch number) at which a new file or hoop will begin.

The file name of the new file is displayed along with the Section Break flag. When your design is for a multiple-position hoop, the description also includes the hoop position for the specific section. You may need to zoom in on an area of the Stitches-in-Time™ window

Marks the individual files and/or

hoops that make up your design.

before you can read these descriptions.

When the mouse is clicked or dragged on the Multiple-Section bar, the selection will “snap” to the nearest section break, making it easy to select all of the stitches in an entire design file. You can also select all of the stitches in a design file by double-clicking between section break flags. You can click directly on top of the descriptive text.

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Embroidery Machine File Limitations

As we have already mentioned, each embroidery file format comes with certain file limitations and restrictions. Typically, these limitations are on either the number of stitches a design may have or on the number of color breaks. The limitations are specific to the design format you are using and are usually not negotiable.

For example, a Pfaff ".pcs" design file can contain a maximum of sixteen thread changes. However, in BuzzEdit™, you can create a design with more than sixteen thread changes. When you save the design, BuzzEdit™ creates multiple ".pcs" files, each with no more than sixteen thread changes. The file names of the saved designs are appended with a letter of the alphabet.

Open the BuzzEdit manager file

to edit all parts of the design.

When you sew

your design, stitch

design A first.

Continue stitching all

design parts to sew

the complete design.

Let's say you create a design with nineteen thread changes and save the design as Heart.pcs. You will create three files. BuzzEdit™ will save a manager file named Heart.pcs as well as two design files named Heart-A.pcs and Heart-B.pcs. To sew the design, you sew each design file in succession on the same fabric; that is, you first sew Heart-A.pcs, then Heart-B.pcs. The result is a design containing more than 16 color changes. The manager file Heart.pcs is used by BuzzEdit™ to allow you to read the multiple-file design back into the program. That is, when you open the manager file Heart.pcs with BuzzEdit™, it automatically reads back in all the design files, which

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in this example, are Heart-A.pcs and Heart-B.pcs. The manager file is not sewn.

To adjust the place at which BuzzEdit™ splits a design into a new file, choose View > Multiple File Settings. This command brings up a dialog box that allows you to specify the maximum number of thread changes and maximum number of stitches for the file type you are currently editing.

Change these settings to adjust where

BuzzEdit™ will split your design.

If you wish, you can manually insert new section breaks into your design to force your design to split at a specific location. First, position the stitch cursor in the desired location on the Stitches-in-Time™ window. You can click on any of the graphs to take advantage of their unique snap characteristics. Once the stitch cursor is positioned as desired, choose Tools > Insert Section Break.

Use to add new section breaks into your design.

You can also decide to set all of the splitting locations manually. To do this you must first set your file type settings to have a high maximum number of thread changes (Tools > Multiple File Settings).

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You are then free to adjust the actual number of thread changes per file by manually inserting new section breaks (Tools > Insert Section Break).

Note: When you have a multiple-file design or a

multiple-hoop design, BuzzEdit™ locks your design in the appropriate hoop area so that the design sections do not shift out of alignment at the machine. BuzzEdit™ usually accomplishes this by inserting several locking stitches into the two corners of the design area which are sewn last.

Sewing Your Multiple-File Designs

To sew a multiple-file design, first mount the fabric in the hoop as you would for any design. Then transfer the sewing files, the files appended with a letter, to the embroidery machine. Mount the hoop as usual. Then sew files in the order of the appended letters, -A first, then –B, etc. Depending on the file type, after sewing each design section you may need to remove the two locking stitches that BuzzEdit uses to lock your design in position. Of course you should not move or adjust the hoop between design sections because then the sections will not align correctly.

Multiple-Position Hoops

BuzzEdit™ allows you to create designs larger than the largest design area supported by your design file type. It does this by supporting the use of multiple-position hoops.

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Multi-hoop designs are comprised of multiple pieces, which are usually saved in different files. By moving and possibly rotating the fabric at the sewing machine between sewing the different pieces, it is possible to create a design larger than the default hoop size.

Normally you use a special hoop that is designed to sew multi-hoop designs. When you are using one of these specialty hoops, the fabric is set into the multi-hoop one time.

This multi-hoop design has

two overlapping sections.

The large hoop is mounted on the embroidery arm in any number of positions in order to sew on different areas of the fabric. Usually the design fields have significant overlap, but together they cover a much larger area of the fabric than you could reach with a conventional single position hoop.

Multiple-position hoops are made by many sewing machine manufacturers and by other companies such as the Hoop-it-All™ corporation, which makes the Giant Hoop-it-All™ line. For more information on the common types of multiple-position hoops and their usage,

The Janome 5 hoop is a

multiple-position hoop frame

please refer to Appendix C on page 167.

In the absence of a special hoop, you can still use BuzzEdit™ to create a multi-hoop design, but you will have to re-hoop the fabric for each hoop section.

When you create a multi-hoop design that uses a BuzzEdit™ manager file, each hoop section is saved as an individual file. BuzzEdit™ uses the same naming convention as it does with other multiple-file designs.

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This complete design scene was created for

the Viking PLUS multiple-position hoop.

Therefore, if you created a design scene called Holly.hus for the HUS Plus multi-hoop that utilized all three positions of the hoop, you would create four files. The manager file would be named Holly.hus. The additional files created in this example would be Holly-A.hus, Holly-B.hus and Holly-C.hus that correspond to the three design files used to create the complete design.

!CAUTION: Some hoop manufacturers assign the letters A,

B, and C to identify their multi-hoops various positions. If you have one of these hoops, it is important to remember that the letter appended to the end of the file name corresponds to the order in which it is sewn and NOT the hoop position. Print the template from BuzzEdit™ (choose File > Print Template) to see which file is sewn in which hoop location.

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BuzzEdit™ Manager File

and Multi-Hoop Designs

Holly.hus

Manager File is NOT sewn.

The manager file contains important hoop information and points BuzzEdit™ to the

associated design files.

Holly-A.hus

Design File One

This design section is sewn first

using the Viking multi-hoop

in hoop position P3.

Holly-B.hus

Design File Two

This design section is sewn second

using the Viking multi-hoop

in hoop position P1.

Holly-C.hus

Design File Three

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This design section is sewn last

using the Viking multi-hoop

in hoop position P2.

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Chapter 4 |

Multiple-Hoop Designs

In the last chapter, we discussed multiple-section designs and a little about how BuzzEdit™ manages these designs. In this chapter, we give you specific information about multi-hoop designs (a type of multiple-section design). In order to understand this chapter, it is important that you have read the previous chapter and are familiar with the concepts presented there.

What to Expect

You have a multiple-position hoop that you want to create a design for, or perhaps you have an oversized design that you want to separate into smaller sections for a multi-hoop. You may even already own a program that separates your design into sections, but you want more control over how your stitches are assigned to the hoop positions. Whatever your motivation, YOU want to be in charge of how your design is placed in the various hoop positions.

BuzzEdit™ provides you with the means to do just that. However, some work must be done by you to position your stitches correctly in both Space and Time. BuzzEdit™ does not currently have any automatic tools to assist you in this process. Creating multi-hoop designs by either subdividing an oversized design or by merging together smaller design components is done manually.

For oversized designs, you will select stitches based on their position

in space and drag them in time into the correct hoop section.

A certain amount of skill is needed for this task. However, once you are comfortable with dragging stitches along the Stitches-in-Time™ graphs and understand the graphs' unique snap characteristics, you should find the process straightforward. In most cases, creating

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and/or laying out a multiple-hoop design with BuzzEdit™ takes less time than it would take you to lay out and sew your design without it.

You control what hoop you want a portion of your design to stitch in, and BuzzEdit™ takes care of locking the design in the hoop area. In addition, BuzzEdit™ rotates each design section as required to sew correctly in the multi-hoop so that you do not have to rotate design sections at the embroidery machine.

A printed template helps you position your design

on the fabric and at the sewing machine.

BuzzEdit™ also lets you print a template to help you in positioning your design on your fabric. The template can be used for marking the center of each hoop section for any final positioning that may be required at the embroidery machine.

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the basic steps required to

create a multi-hoop design.

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Creating Multiple-Hoop Designs

Creating and sewing multiple-hoop designs is not easy and should probably not be attempted by a novice. However, at some point, every embroiderer will want to be able to create a larger design than his or her default hoop allows. At this point the effort involved in creating and sewing a multiple-hoop design will be worth the effort. Fortunately, BuzzEdit™ makes creating multi-hoop designs easier and even tries to protect the embroiderer from problems such as multi-hoops with reduced-size hoop sections.

When you create a multiple-hoop design, you need to make sure that the stitches of the design are correctly placed. You will use the Stitches-in-Space window to lay out your design, and you will use the Stitches-in-Time™ window to place the stitches in the correct hoop sections.

There are two basic strategies for creating a multiple-hoop design in BuzzEdit™. One strategy is to create a multiple-hoop design by merging smaller designs and/or elements from other designs together. The other strategy is to create a multiple-hoop design by subdividing a larger design into hoop-sized sections. Although we will discuss each of these strategies in turn, a specific multiple-hoop design may need to use both of these techniques.

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This multi-hoop design was made by inserting

designs and pasting in other design's elements.

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Getting Ready

Although it is certainly not required, it is often best to start with a new empty design. This is especially true if you are inserting designs and/or pasting in other design elements.

On the BuzzEdit™ Welcome dialog box, choose Start a New Design and then choose the file type for your new design from the Choose File Type dialog box.

When your empty workspace opens, change the hoop of the design to the multi-hoop of your choice (choose View > Hoop Properties). The Hoop Properties dialog box opens.

A multi-hoop is selected from the list of available hoops.

Select one of the built-in multiple-hoop types or create your own regular grid of hoops (Click the CREATE CUSTOM HOOP… button and then set the custom hoop characteristics).

Multi-Hoop Section Breaks

When you choose a multi-hoop from the Hoop Properties dialog, BuzzEdit™ displays a Multiple-Section bar and inserts a series of new hoop section breaks into it. You then use the Multiple-Section bar to assign stitches to the appropriate multi-hoop sections.

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Empty New Hoop Section Breaks

The stitches in each hoop section will later be sewn at the designated physical hoop position. For most file types, BuzzEdit™ will save each hoop section into a separate design file. When the design is saved, BuzzEdit™ will automatically move and/or rotate each hoop section so that it will sew correctly in the designated hoop.

Stitch cursor is placed

at the Top Hoop section flag…

…and the associated hoop area is

highlighted in the Space window.

Click on a Section Break flag to place the stitch cursor at the new hoop section break. The particular hoop position will be highlighted in the Stitches-in-Space window. Hoop positions will also be highlighted when you drag a selection of stitches horizontally along the Stitches-in-Time™ window. This makes it easy to locate a specific hoop section when dragging and dropping stitches.

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Note: If you are editing a design and change its hoop type

to one of the multi-hoop types (choose View > Hoop Properties…), the hoop section breaks are placed after all of the design's stitches, and none of those stitches are assigned to hoop sections. As you work on the multi-hoop design, you will need to select stitches and drop them into the appropriate hoop sections in the Stitches-in-Time™ window.

Build a Multiple-Hoop Design by Merging Smaller Designs or Elements

Often you will build a large multi-hoop design by combining smaller pre-existing designs or design elements to create a larger scene or collage of designs. When you create a multi-hoop design in this manner, you usually have an idea where you are going to place elements visually. Thus, you can usually identify the hoop section to which an element belongs to prior to inserting or pasting it.

Therefore, you should position your stitch cursor within the correct hoop section in the Time window before you insert the design or paste the stitches from the BuzzEdit™ clipboard. This places design elements correctly in Time. Once they have been inserted or pasted, you can drag the stitches within the Stitches-in-Space window until positioned where you want them in the appropriate hoop section.

Find the Appropriate Hoop

Use the arrow keys or the mouse to move the stitch cursor into the various hoops in the Stitches-in-Time™ window. Look at the positions of the hoops in the Stitches-in-Space window, and decide which hoop position you want to use for your design element.

Insert an Existing Design

With the stitch cursor correctly positioned in the hoop section of your choice, choose File > Insert Design. This brings up the Insert Design dialog box. Navigate to the design of your choice and click

OK . A dialog box asks you where to insert the design.

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You can insert a design at the end of the

current design or at the stitch cursor.

In this example, you should choose the Insert at the Stitch Cursor option.

The stitches are added to the design in the correct hoop location in the Stitches-in-Time™ display and are positioned in the current hoop of Stitches-in-Space display.

Bunny.pcs is inserted into the center

hoop of this HUS multi-hoop design.

If you would like to move the stitches from this position, select the Lasso/Move tool if it is not already active. Then drag the selected stitches in the Space window until they are in the desired location. However, be sure to keep the stitches within the highlighted hoop.

If you later move them spatially into a new hoop boundary, you will also have to drag the stitches to the appropriate hoop in time. This is very easy to do as the stitches are still selected.

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Paste a Design Element Use the Open > New Workspace command to open additional

BuzzEdit™ workspaces in order to copy and paste selections from one design to another. You can then build the multiple-hoop design by copying runs of stitches from designs in other BuzzEdit™ workspaces. With the stitch cursor correctly positioned in the hoop section of your choice, choose Edit > Paste. This will paste the contents of the BuzzEdit™ clipboard into the active design.

Pasted stitches are always inserted following the stitch cursor and they are also always pasted to the same spatial location from which they were cut or copied from. If you want to move them from this position, select the Lasso/Move tool if it is not already active and drag the selected stitches within the Space window until they are in the desired location. Or you can center the stitches in the current hoop by choosing Tools > Center Both.

The pasted stitches are being dragged in space

to the desired location in the correct hoop section.

Create a Multiple-Hoop Design by Subdividing an Oversized Design into Hoop Sections

Let's say you have an oversized design that was created for a different embroidery machine whose embroidery field is larger than

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the area supported by your machine. Often these designs may be subdivided into hoop sections that fit into standard multi-hoop boundaries.

You will select stitches in space and drag them in

time until they are in the correct hoop location.

First, open the oversized design in BuzzEdit™. Often you will need to convert the design at this point to match the file type required by your embroidery machine. To do this, choose Tools > Convert Design… Now pick the appropriate multiple-hoop type (View > Hoop Properties…). The hoop Section Break flags will be appended to the stitches in the design.

Find the Appropriate Hoop

With that hoop position highlighted in the Stitches-in-Space window, use the Lasso tool to select stitches that fit within the boundaries of the hoop. You may want to refine your selection as required.

You have now selected the stitches in space that are within the hoop boundary, but these stitches will probably not be in the correct hoop section in the Stitches-in-Time™ display. Therefore, you must drag the selected stitches along the Stitches-in-Time™ graphs.

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The hoop section frames will be highlighted in the Stitches-in-Space window as you drag. Once the stitches are located in the appropriate hoop section, drop them into place. You may need to perform this operation several times for each hoop section because the Lasso may not select all layers of the design at the same time.

Note: The Lasso tool selects the largest contiguous run of

stitches that lie within the lasso border. This selection is not necessarily the stitches that need to be sewn first. Try to identify which stitches are sewn earliest prior to moving them into the hoop sections. Choose Edit > Lasso > Select Next Lassoed command to cycle through the possibilities. Alternatively, you can drop them into the correct sewing order as you move them into hoop sections but this method is more prone to errors.

Check the Design

Run the Sew Simulator (Tools > Sew Simulator…) before you stitch your design. Using this tool, you can often identify problems with a multiple-hoop design before you invest the time to sew it.

Managing Hoop Sections

Each hoop section is composed of a Section Break flag followed by its stitches. When you define a multi-hoop design, BuzzEdit always inserts one Section Break flag for each hoop position. By manipulating the Section Break flags, you can create a design with any number of hoop sections and have them sew in any order you wish.

For example, let's say you are using the PES vertical multi-hoop. By default, BuzzEdit™ creates top, middle and bottom hoop sections, in that order. You may want a design that sews a middle hoop section, a bottom hoop section and second middle hoop section. You can do this by using the following methods:

Delete Section Breaks

You can remove unwanted section breaks from your design.

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Click once on the Section Break flag to select it. The stitch cursor is correctly positioned when the staff of the Section Break flag changes color…

Click on the Section

Break flag to select it.

…and the section break type is displayed on the main toolbar.

The section type is shown

on the main toolbar.

To delete the section break choose Edit > Delete or just press the delete key on your keyboard.

If you delete a Section Break flag from a section that contains stitches, those stitches are not deleted but merge with the previous section.

Add New Hoop Sections

You might want to add a second section of a particular hoop position or replace a hoop section that you have previously deleted.

With the stitch cursor correctly positioned in the Time window, choose Tools > Insert Section Break (or use the Insert Section Break toolbar button). This action brings up the Insert Section Break dialog box.

Stitch Cursor in position

ready for new section break.

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Use to insert a section break into your design.

Choose the correct hoop location from the Section Type dropdown and click OK .

Change Hoop Positions

You can change the hoop position for a specific section break in your design.

Click on the Section Break flag to select it. The stitch cursor is correctly positioned when the section break type is displayed on the main toolbar and the staff of the Section Break flag changes color.

To change the hoop position, choose a new position from the dropdown list located on the main toolbar.

Choose a new hoop position

from the dropdown list.

Re-order Hoop Sections

If you wish to change the sewing order of a hoop section, you must first select all of the stitches in a section by double-clicking between Section Break flags. You can click directly on top of the descriptive text. In order to include the Section Break flag, hold down the Ctrl key and press the left

arrow one time. The selection is expanded one space to the left. Your selection includes the Section Break flag when the selection indicator on the Time display crosses a Section Break flag. You may have to zoom in the time display to confirm your selection.

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When you drag and drop this selection, you will change the sewing order of the design file for that hoop section.

Drag and drop entire hoop sections.

Opening Multiple-Hoop Designs

from Other Sources

If you have a multiple-hoop design created by a program other than BuzzEdit™, you can read the design into BuzzEdit™ by checking the Multiple-file Design checkbox in the Open Design dialog box. (Not required for version 2.5 or greater PES multiple-hoop designs, which can be opened directly.)

Multiple-hoop design created by other programs can be read into BuzzEdit™

Click OPEN and the Open Multiple-File Design dialog box displays.

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Set the correct hoop for the design.,

When the dialog box opens, the Hoop Properties settings are displayed. You then need to set the correct hoop for your multiple file design. As you select various hoops, the preview area of the dialog box is updated with the correct hoop layout. When you are finished setting the hoop, click on the File Properties tab to display the File Properties settings.

Set the sewing order and position of the design files.

Use this dialog box to add files to your multi-hoop design, change the sewing order of the files, and change the hoop positions of the files. The preview area is updated as you make your changes. When

you are finished, click OK .

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Your design opens in BuzzEdit™ and it is positioned as expected.

Your design opens, and your design is positioned just as expected. When you open a multiple-hoop design in this manner, you are not required to move any stitches in the Stitches-in-Time™ or Stitches-in-Space windows. Since the design was already set up for the multiple-position hoop, BuzzEdit™ just needed to know where to put each section of the design. Notice that the Stitches-in-Time™ window displays a Section Break flag at the start of each new hoop section.

If you click on the Section Break flag for one of these sections, the Stitches-in-Space window highlights the hoop indicator for the section.

You can check that the stitches are correctly positioned in their hoops by double-clicking between Section Break flags. You can click directly on top of the descriptive text. This causes two things to happen.

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The stitches in the left hoop are selected.

First, all of the stitches in the section are selected and displayed in color in the Stitches-in-Space window. Stitches that are not selected will fade to the ghost color. Second, the hoop indicator for your selection is highlighted in red in the Stitches-in-Space window. This allows you to quickly check that all of the stitches in the particular hoop section fall correctly within the boundaries of the hoop in the Stitches-in-Space window. This is important because most embroidery file formats will not allow you to save or sew your design unless these stitches are correctly positioned. Fortunately, BuzzEdit™ saves your stitch information in a BuzzEdit™ manager file if you need to stop editing your design before all of the design sections are placed correctly in a hoop. See page 60 for more details about the BuzzEdit™ manager file.

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Multiple-Hoop Printouts

From BuzzEdit™ you can print a template of your design using the File > Print Template command. The template is printed in actual size. It may span several pages in which case you will need to tape the pages together.

The template is used for positioning the complete design on your fabric and for marking the center needle point of each design section. This center needle point

The template is printed in actual size and may need

to be taped together.

In addition, you can print a work list for the full design using the File > Print Summary command. This printout lists the order in which your design must be sewn and the position of the hoop for each section.

is used for any final positioning that may be required at the sewing machine.

The summary printout lists

the design order and the

hoop position for each section.

Note: Normally, BuzzEdit™ will only print hoop sections

that contain stitches. To print an empty template that shows all available hoop sections, create an empty design for the multiple-position hoop of your choice. Then choose File > Print Template.

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Tips for Better Multiple-Hoop Designs

These tips have been included to help you produce high quality designs in your multi-hoops.

While Editing

1 Often your designs will sew better if you leave a small margin

around sections and avoid having your design sections touch

the edges of the hoop section. Therefore, do not overfill the design areas if you can avoid it. When BuzzEdit™ locks your designs within a hoop segment for you, it only locks the design as much as is required to prevent the automatic centering at the embroidery machine.

This design section will not have any room

to fine tune placement because it is

too close to the edges of the hoop section.

In this example, the design section is very close to the edges of the hoop section. Once BuzzEdit™ locks this design to prevent centering, there is little or no space in which to fine-tune the design placement at the embroidery machine.

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2 Whenever possible, position the stitches of design elements

into the correct hoop locations when you create them or

when you import them rather than waiting until the entire design is created. It is often easier to select and grab design elements when the design is uncluttered.

Pasted or inserted stitches are placed at the stitch cursor.

3 Do not use the Color Sort command on your design until

you have finished moving all of the design's stitches into the

appropriate hoops. If you sort prior to that, you may find it difficult to select the design elements that you desire.

When you are ready, the Color Sort command may be

used to reduce the number of thread changes in each section of the multiple hoop. The Color Sort command does not cross hoop boundaries and can be used safely on multiple-hoop designs.

Before You Sew

1 Be sure you have read all directions

that come with your multiple-position hoop frame and follow them closely.

Many hoops require special procedures to be followed in order to obtain satisfactory results.

For example, some embroidery machines such as the Pfaff require that your multiple-position hoop frame be removed from your embroidery machine before selecting the pattern to sew.

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Read and follow all

directions that came with

your multi-hoop.

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2 For Giant Hoop-it-All™ designs, purchase and use the Giant

Hoop-it-All™ extension table appropriate for your embroidery

machine. This ensures that your hoop can move freely and easily during the embroidery process.

The Viking 1+ shown with the Giant Hoop-it-All™ table.

Make sure that your extension table is absolutely flat and is not resting on any other items such as electric cords or fabric scraps that can change its angle. Any change in the angle of the table may cause your Giant Hoop-it-All™ frame to catch and could ruin your embroidery. You need to check this every time you sew!

3 Be sure you have adequate clearance on all sides of the

embroidery machine to allow for the free and easy movement of the hoop frame during embroidery.

Ready to Sew

1 Print out a sewing summary (File > Print Summary). You will

use this later as a work list for sewing out your design.

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2 Print out a sewing template

(File > Print Template) and use it to position your design onto your fabric. Once the template is positioned in the correct location on your fabric, mark the center location of the hoop onto your fabric using a water soluble fabric marker or other appropriate, temporary fabricmarking pen. If you are using the Giant Hoop-it-All™, you may also want to mark the outer perimeter of the hoop as provided on the BuzzEdit™ template.

Use the printed template

for fabric and machine

positioning.

Do not mark your starting needle positions at this time. Wait until your fabric is set in the embroidery hoop. These starting locations must be very accurate in order for your design to sew correctly.

3 In step 5, after you have mounted your fabric in the hoop, you

are going to mark the starting needle position of each design area. On the BuzzEdit™ template, each starting location is marked with a small cross hair. When you mark your fabric, you need a hole in the center of each crosshair for the tip of the fabric-marking pen.

Remove the template from your fabric and place it onto a sewing mat or other similar cutting surface. Using an eyelet punch, punch a small hole in the center of each of these cross hairs.

An eyelet punch

4 Follow the manufacturer's recommendations when setting

your fabric into the hoop frame. Check that the fabric is secure and correctly positioned in the hoop frame. Since

you will be sewing multiple design pieces that combine into one large design, you will not be able to adjust the overall design's position as it is stitched out in the hoop. Therefore, you need to

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make any adjustments prior to stitching by correctly positioning the fabric in the hoop frame.

5 Once your fabric is in the embroidery hoop frame, carefully

position the sewing template in the embroidery hoop,

checking that the center marks of the BuzzEdit™ template match the center marks of the sewing areas on your hoop frame. You may need to locate and mark these center marks on your hoop frame manually prior to this step. On some hoop frames, this is marked on a template supplied by the hoop manufacturer. On other hoops frames, such as the Giant Hoop-it-All™, you may need to measure this center location and mark it yourself. Tape down your template so that it doesn’t shift during the marking of your fabric,.

6 Use a fabric marker of your choice and place a dot in the

eyelet hole for each design section. This is the starting needle

position and is used at the sewing machine to do any final fine adjustments.

Air and water erasable marking pens

are available for marking fabric.

You may now remove the template from your fabric. If desired, transfer the embroidery file extension (i.e. A, B, C, etc…) to an area adjacent to the starting location for each section so you can more quickly locate which design goes in each location.

7 Make sure you have a full bobbin

loaded in your embroidery machine and a few extra full bobbins on hand just in case you need them to complete the design. You don't want to be winding bobbins during the middle of this design!

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Have extra full bobbins ready.

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8 Be sure to use plenty of stabilizer as oversized designs may

pull the fabric more than smaller designs. For Giant Hoop-it-All™ frames, the stabilizer is not secured in the

hoop frame but rather placed loose under the embroidery hoop. This can sometimes cause the stabilizer to catch on the edge of the Giant Hoop-it-All™ extension table, which will affect the stitching of your design. To avoid this:

! Make sure that your stabilizer is cut just large enough to

cover the entire bottom of the Giant hoop. You want the stabilizer to cover the entire sewing area but not get in the way of the embroidery arms movement or table edges.

! Try taping the bottom edges of the stabilizer just out of the

way of the embroidery field area and the embroidery arm. It is important that you be entirely out of the sewing area so that your needle will not puncture the tape adhesive and jam your needle. If your stabilizer catches on the edges of your extension table, your embroidery will not stitch correctly.

%WARNING: If you are using the Giant

Hoop-it-All™ or another multi-hoop that uses a sliding mount mechanism, be sure to screw down the slider securely! If you do not, there is nothing to prevent the hoop from sliding out of position. Sometimes the hoop can slide to a location where the embroidery machine will sew onto the hoop frame! This will certainly ruin your design and may cause serious damage to your machine, to your hoop or even to yourself!

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9 Using your printed work list, load the

embroidery designs you are using onto your machine. Please refer to your embroidery software owner's manual for specific information on how to do this.

Use the summary printout

as your work list.

10 Mount your embroidery hoop on the first position as shown on

the template and your printed work list. If your hoop has a sliding mount, you can slide the hoop to fine-tune the vertical position. You want your needle down position (the starting center needle position of your design) to match the center hoop mark on your fabric. If you need to adjust the needle position horizontally, use the embroidery machine controls to fine-tune this position.

In addition, when you attach the hoop to your machine, notice if your hoop has any horizontal play. If it does, be sure to attach the hoop to your machine the same way each time to reduce design placement inaccuracies. When we mount our Giant Hoop-it-All™ to our embroidery machine, we always push the hoop frame toward the embroidery arm at the same time that we tighten the mounting screws. If needed for correct design placement, the hoop frame can be pulled away from the embroidery arm. The amount of play in the mounting bracket can give you up to one millimeter of adjustment. Just beware that you do not pull the front and push the back part of the hoop, or you could tilt your design slightly out of alignment.

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The Giant Hoop-it-All™ is

being sewn in the first

position.

The hoop bracket is

moved and the hoop

frame rotated as needed

to sew the various

design segments.

Here is the complete

design after all twelve

design segments have

been sewn.

11 Before you stitch each segment of your design, use the test

button on your embroidery machine to ensure that your hoop moves correctly in all directions and that the embroidery machine needle clears all edges of the hoop frame.

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The Giant Hoop-it-All™ design is finally finished

and the design sections line up perfectly!

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Chapter 5 |

How Do I…

The following step-by-step directions are included in this chapter to help you:

Start Editing an Existing Design....................................... 96

Start BuzzEdit™ from Buzz Tools®, Buzz-Catalog............ 97

Select an Entire Thread Color.......................................... 99

Select a Portion of a Design.............................................99

Change Thread Colors................................................... 100

Create a New Design from Part of an Existing Design .. 101

Save a Design ................................................................104

Magnify the Stitches in the Space Window .................... 104

Magnify the Stitches in the Time Graphs........................105

Select a Single Stitch......................................................107

Change Stitch Types ......................................................108

Duplicate a Selection...................................................... 109

Move a Selection in Space.............................................110

Move a Selection in Time ...............................................112

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Start Editing an Existing Design

1 Start BuzzEdit™

Double-click the BuzzEdit™ icon if it is visible on your Microsoft® Windows desktop or choose Start > Programs > Buzz Tools > BuzzEdit (If you installed BuzzEdit™ in a folder other than Buzz- Tools, you need to choose that folder from the Start > Programs menu).

2 Choose Open an Existing Design

BuzzEdit™ Welcome dialog box gives

you several options when opening BuzzEdit™.

When BuzzEdit™ Welcome dialog box appears, choose Open an Existing Design.

3 Open Your Design

Use to select the design to open.

The Open Design dialog box appears. Use this dialog box to select the design to open. Navigate to the folder of your choice.

Select a design by clicking on its file name and then click OPEN.

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4 Your design opens in BuzzEdit™.

Your Design Opens in BuzzEdit.

Start BuzzEdit™ from

Buzz Tools®, Buzz-Catalog

If you have Buzz Tools version 3.2 Plus or greater installed on your computer, you can open BuzzEdit™ directly from within Buzz-Catalog.

Note: If you are running an earlier version of Buzz Tools

Plus, you can download the Buzz Tools Plus update from the Buzz Tools web site at www.buzztools.com

1 Start Buzz-Catalog

Use the directions located in your Buzz Tools User’s Guide to start Buzz-Catalog and select the files, folders and/or zip files you want to include in your catalog.

2 Select the Design to Edit

Navigate to the design of your choice. Click on the desired design to select it. The design is shown in reverse video.

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Buzz-Catalog shown with design selected.

3 Launch BuzzEdit™

Choose Edit > BuzzEdit (or press Ctrl + B). The design is opened into BuzzEdit™.

Design Opens in BuzzEdit

4 Return to Buzz-Catalog

When you are finished making changes to your design, save the design and exit BuzzEdit™. Buzz-Catalog updates its display automatically and your changed design is displayed.

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Select an Entire Thread Color

The Stitches-in-Time™ window, the window at the bottom of the BuzzEdit™ workspace, contains several graphs. The top bar is the

Stitch Color bar that shows you the thread

colors of your design in the order in which they are sewn.

To select a color, simply double-click the desired color on the Stitch Color bar. You now see that color block displayed in the Stitches-in-Space window (the window on the top left). The stitches that are not part of the selection are displayed in ghost color.

Select a Portion of a Design

For this example, we will be using the PCS file bunny.pcs, which is included with BuzzEdit™ as a sample.

1 Open the Design

Open the file bunny.pcs in BuzzEdit™. The default location of this file is C:\Program Files\Buzz Tools\BuzzEdit\Samples.

You see two pictures of the design displayed in the BuzzEdit™ workspace. The left picture is in the Stitches-in-Space window (or Space window) and the right picture is in the Stitches-in-Space Reference window (or Space Reference window). We are going to select the bunny's tail using the Lasso tool, and we are going to change it to a different color.

2 Choose the Lasso/Move Tool

Move your cursor to the buttons to the left of the

Space window. Locate the Lasso/Move tool. If this button is not already depressed, click on it to activate the Lasso. Position your mouse inside the Stitches-in-Space window.

Your cursor now looks like a crosshair with little lasso.

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3 Lasso the Bunny's Tail

Imagine the Lasso tool is a piece of string attached to your cursor at the location of the crosshair. When you click and hold down the primary mouse button, the string is planted at your starting point. Start at one side of the bunny's tail and move the lasso in a circle around the entire tail.

The lasso is dragged around the bunny's tail.

Release the mouse button when the border surrounds the tail. If the entire tail is not selected, simply click once anywhere outside the selection box in this window and try again. You don't have to follow the outline of the tail! Just make sure that the lasso makes a nice "fence" all the way around it. You know you have correctly selected the tail when it, and only it, is drawn in color in the Space window.

You can now change the color of the tail as described next.

Change Thread Colors

1 Make Your Selection

If you have not already done so, make your selection. You can select an entire color break or just a portion of one. See the two previous topics for step-by-step directions on selecting stitches.

2 Open Color Palette

Click on the Change Thread Color button, located on the main toolbar, (or choose Tools > Change Thread

Color) to open the Choose Color dialog box.

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A subset of a

color is selected.

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Buzz Tools BUZZEDIT User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Welcome

Contents

About This Guide

Introduction to BuzzEdit™

Design Samples

Prerequisites

Notational Conventions

In a Hurry?

Installation

System Requirements

Install BuzzEdit™

Remove BuzzEdit™

The BuzzEdit™ Workspace

Stitches-in-Space Windows

Stitches-in-Time™ Window

Adjusting Your Selection

Changing Stitch Attributes

Basic Editing Commands

Space Tools

Convert Design Format

Reorder Stitches

Stitch Editing

BuzzEdit™ Manager File

Multiple-Section Bar

Embroidery Machine File Limitations

Multiple-Position Hoops

What to Expect

Creating Multiple-Hoop Designs

Managing Hoop Sections

Multiple-Hoop Printouts

Tips for Better Multiple-Hoop Designs

Start Editing an Existing Design

Select an Entire Thread Color

Select a Portion of a Design

Change Thread Colors