I would like to say how wonderful I felt when I found your website.  I got a Singer Futura C-150 and I had no idea where to start. I got it for Christmas and I have sewed nothing yet. The machine cost so much and I don’t want to hurt it. I looked and looked for help. With no avail.

Then I found your website and I have been learning so much in the past 4 days . My brain hurts, I feel like I’m back in school.  But it’s wonderful.  I just want to say Thank You for all the information that you offer at no charge. Everyone on this computer wants money for every little thing, I get so upset. I just wanted to say Thank You again for having such a wonderful website.  I do plan on buying what you have to offer soon.  My husband is laid off so things are kinda hard but I will buy from you as soon as I get things worked out.

Thank you for letting me feel like a human being again.  I love your Website. You can use this letter as advertisement if you like. I hope it was written ok. I’m not so good at writing.
Thank You
Ruth

Hi, When adding underlay to a design I digitized I select all under edit in Embird, then go to transform, shaping and union, after selecting union the program locks up. It has done this with a really large design and with a 10cm by 10cm design of 17,000 stitches. I recently upped my RAM to 2.5 GB so that shouldn’t be the problem. I am very open to suggestions as to unlock I have to redo the design because I keep forgetting to save it first.

Thanks for any and all help - Louise

Hi Louise

My first suggestion would be to re-boot your computer and then try again as sometimes the solution can be as simple as a refresh of the computer’s memory - especially if you have been playing in Embird for some time. If you are like me then you just leave your computer or laptop in Standby mode at night and then just wake it up the next time you use it. If my computer or laptop starts doing strange things a re-boot often helps. However if this doesn’t work then I would be inclined to un-install and re-install Embird as there could be a little glitch in your program.  I would even be inclined to download the latest version of Embird from the Embird web-site and install it. I would do this because sometimes a new version is uploaded that has the same Build number as the previous upload but has had a few minor glitches in it fixed. These little fixes can be peculiar to some computers and not noticed on others as we all run different versions of Windows and numerous different software programs.

So if you are having problems in an area of Embird and a re-boot doesn’t fix it then download a new copy of Embird and re-install the program. If this still doesn’t work then do a clean re-install.

A little tip for you that might help - If you are in the habit of forgetting to save a design then you should go to Options in Editor and choose “Create Back-up file.” This might save you from having to repeat the same task over and over.

I hope that works for you

Kind regards
Carolyn Keber
Step by Step Tutorials for all Embird programs and for PE Design

The only question I have is what to do with the pop up for Tolerance…Maximal difference up or down? Thank you for such quick responses. - Pam

Hi Pam

In regards to your question about the Tolerance Box - Ladislav told me that it is a bug in the program. These are his words to me when I asked him about the reason for this screen appearing in the Text Menu.

The “Tolerance Box” allows to prescribe max. difference between R,G,B components for “Sort Colors” and “Smart Color Sort” commands.

However, these commands are also called internally by “Insert multiline text”, and therefore this dialog box is appearing. I will fix it. Just click OK in current version.

In other words - it’s something they will fix in the next version of Embird but for now just click OK and ignore it. Tolerance actually refers to how closely you want your colors sorted when using Color Sort - especially if you have used the Auto-digitise function where there can be a great many colors very similar and the majority of them can be sorted into one color file.

I hope that helps.

Kind regards
Carolyn Keber
Step by Step Tutorials for all Embird programs and for PE Design

Embroidery Connection’s beautiful Velvet Butterflies 2 set has 10 gorgeous designs, each with the velvet technique in some areas of the wings. All the designs fit the 4×4″ hoops and can be used on their own or in combination with any of Patricia’s Velvet Flower collections. The set includes easy to follow instructions for creating the velvet effect, along with color charts. Also see Patricia’s blog on the Velvet Technique, and see more Velvet Designs.

Too Cute Embroidery’s new Sewing Kit project is completely stitched in the hoop and sized for a 5×7″ hoop. Two embroidery designs are included for you to choose for the cover if you like. Ribbon ties would be charming, or how about a cover made from strips of pieced fabrics for your quilting friends? You will receive a PDF tutorial with photo instructions with your purchase.

Hi - I am an avid EMBIRD/STUDIO user - have had no problems converting ART files to other formats - just recently I acquired some Designs  in the ART Ver 4  format and  I can’t convert them or view them in Editor. Is this due to a  problem, or is just not possible?

As far as we know, you should be able to convert v4 format without any problems.  Hopefully, some of our readers may be able to shed some light on this problem for you… - the Team at Secrets

I have Embird 2008 Build 2. I just read a little note about looking at a file with a slideshow in Embird. I have your Tutorials and your CK club files. I don’t see any info about slideshows in them. I’m having a problem getting that to work. Is this covered in any of your information?

Thanks. Fairlee

Hi Fairlee,

You can view your designs as a slideshow through the Viewer. Go to Right Panel, then Open in Viewer. Here’s a list of your options:

Display First image or design (press Home key)
Display Last image or design (press End key)
Display Next image or design (press Page Down key, or Space)
Display Previous image or design (press Page Up key, or Backspace)
Start Slideshow (press S key, each image will be displayed 5 seconds)
Display the image or design using Full Screen mode (press F key)
Print image or design (press P key)
Delete image or design (press Delete key)
Rename image or design (press N key)
Show File List
Close Viewer window and view last selected file in Manager (press V key)
Close Viewer window (press Esc key)

I hope you find this information useful.

Kind Regards

Margaret
Customer Support
Secrets of Embroidery

The Overlap Hoop and Gigahoop have been known to cause a few heartaches as some embroiderers have found they have small gaps where their split design should re-join at the machine. Carolyn Keber has come up with a tutorial that will help solve this problem. Her new 50 page tutorial called Splitting for the Overlap Hoop or Gigahoop in Embird takes you through splitting a design and then how to align it at your machine. Carolyn shows you two different methods of getting a good alignment. Also included with the tutorial are two lovely embroidery designs generously supplied by Ace Points Embroidery.

Find out all about Overlap hoops.

I would also like to know if when a purchased design has the outline not exactly on the edge of the embroidery, is there an easier way to move many stitches at once with the software, rather than moving each stitch one at a time. - Carol

In both Embird Editor and Studio you can make the outline a fraction smaller so that the outline sits on the edge of the embroidery. Just separate the outline object and re-size it a fraction – such as 1mm or so.Alternatively, in Editor you can hide all the objects except the Outline and using the Points Edit Tool hold down the SHIFT key on your keyboard and lasso areas of the outline that are causing you problems. All the selected outline nodes will appear bold. These can then all be moved as one.

I have recently purchased a laptop running Vista. I would like to use my VIP Customizing Plus on this computer. I have a parallel dongle and have purchased a short cable that will marry my dongle to a USB port. I am currently running 4D Embroidery Extra..no problem. I would love to use my VIP for the X-stitch and digitizing. Is this possible? I checked all related subjects you have on VIP but was unable to find an answer..any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much…Marlene