Main Features of Pre-Design Studio
Pre-Design Studio is multi-lingual and can not only be used in English, but also in Dutch, French, and German.
Open a background image for tracing from file (New! all common graphics file-formats supported) or paste a background image from clipboard and use the drawing tools to trace the image.
Five easy drawing tools (straight line, rectangle, oval, arc and curve). Draw by just clicking from point to point and double-click to finish a line. Get perfect smooth clean thin lines, the best start for your embroidery program.
Easy editing. Edit your drawing by moving points, inserting new points or delete points. Flip, mirror, rotate, resize, copy, paste selected objects.
Export into various formats:
solid color *.bmp (great for Auto Digitizing programs, black/white hairline *.bmp, color *.jpeg, *.pem-format (for PE-Design/Palette Design Center V4 and up) and the vector *.emf format - which can be imported into many professional embroidery digitizing programs, such as Wilcom, iPunch, Melco, but also Embird. Or export to vector *.DXF-format ("AutoCAD"/"AutoSketch") for longarm quilting robots, like IntelliQuilter, CompuQuilter or APQS systems, Pro-Q-Designer (and via Pro-Q you can convert into any of the other longarm quilt systems).
New! Export to WMF: great as companion for DXF files for programs as CompuQuilter, to show how patterns repeat, use the Add Notes function to add instructions for your customers on the WMF. Also great for the AutoPunch feature of PE-Design/Palette V7 and 8: set the line width to 1/32, export to WMF, open it in PED/Palette's Layout & Editing and let the Image of Stitch Wizard turn it into redwork!
New! Convert to Stitches (DST-format) and take directly into your embroidery machine, without the need for additional embroidery digitizing software. If you can download embroidery files and get them into your machine, then you can use Pre-Design to draw quilt lines, redwork patterns and fringe edge applique designs and send them to your machine.
Print at actual size: This makes it a breeze to create your own panto-rolls for longarm quilting, makes it a snap to create your own quilting stencils for machine but also hand quilting and to trace, resize and print your own garment patterns.
Change line width: 7 different line widths. From hairline thin, one pixel wide lines to thicker lines in any color you want, perfect for embroidery digitizing software and Auto Digitizing programs.
New! Different line styles: solid, dashed and dotted: to combine separate quilt patterns for IntelliQuilter, but also to use in garment pattern drafting, for darts and placement marks for pockets etc.
Change line colors: By changing the lines into the color of the fill, the line "disappears". Great for autodigitizing programs where color graphics often look better if they aren't outlined.
Work in inches or millimeters: change via View menu.
Easy coloring. Color the drawing by clicking in the color palette and then click inside the region you want to color. Double-click inside a colored region and create any color you want. Please note: In some drawings, the vector layers may be too complex to fill with color; in that case use the next feature:
Copy your drawing to clipboard. You can copy the drawing to clipboard and paste it into your embroidery digitizing program, or, just in case the vector layers cannot be filled with color, paste it into MSPaint and use Paint's fill bucket to color the drawing. Then save this bitmap and open in your embroidery program.
New! Import WMF/EMF (vector characteristics are kept, so the WMF is turned into editable line-art in seconds, only for "true"vector WMF/EMF files).
Convert True Type Fonts into editable and resizable line-art in just seconds!
Insert text on a selected path - circle, rectangle, any shape: draw the shape, select it and choose Edit - Insert Text on Path. The text (True Type Fonts) will run along the selected line. Grrrrreat for Logo's, just too much fun if you use this with dingbats. Warning: addictive, no time left for anything else than playing with this feature! Perfect for autodigitizing programs that don't have their own text feature.
Magic Circle: Now, for those of you that really can't draw, there's the Magic Circle. Draw a little flower, or leaf (or any shape you like), select it, click the Magic Circle button and decide how many copies you want and adjust the spacing; click OK and you have created a wreath of your selected objects. This is a lot of fun and very addictive!
New! Spiral and Swirl maker: for quilters: click on the Spiral tool, choose the number of rings, set the size and click on OK. Ready!! Export to DXF and take into your computerized quilt system. But playing with this feature is very addictive too: combine small and larger spirals, edit the line, add extra shapes. Same for the Swirl: you you really don't have to be an artist to create a wonderful design!
Edit - Grid maker. Is perfect to create a basis for a quiltblock-design. Just choose the size and set the number of patches horizontally and vertically. Then draw a few connecting diagonal lines and color the block.
New! Add Notes: add a copyright notice, or instructions for your customers, write the measurements on which your garment pattern is based right on the pattern itself, name pattern parts etc. Notes will be printed when shown, but can be hidden to.
New! Set guides by clicking in the rulers: very helpful to line up pattern elements, and a must-have to create corners for quilt patterns. With guides, you can even draft your garment pattern right in Pre-Design Studio!
Set preferences: Line Color and Line Width can be set as a preference as well as the interval of the AutoSave function via menu Options.
Send to Front/Back: you can select larger objects that are overlapping smaller objects (because you drew those larger objects later), right-click and choose "Send to Back". This will make the smaller object and its color reappear.
System Requirements
Minimum system requirements:
PC with Pentium® II or higher processor, 128 MB of RAM memory (more recommended), 64 MB free disk space, Windows® 98/2000/ME/XP/Vista operating system.
