What to expect from a digitizer?

OK, I've upgraded from e1.5 to e2.0B.

The first thing that popped up was this little message:

"TOOLBAR MENU TIP

Right-click keeps the Toolbar Menu open for multiple toolbox selection. Click away from the menu to close it.

Left-click closes the Toolbar Menu after a single click."

If you find that confusing, don't feel bad. It also doesn't make sense. Moreover, I can't get a right or left click to do anything like that!

In the help file, though, I found some keystroke shortcuts that might work when the menu bar isn't visible:

Function Shortcut Open Ctrl+O Save Ctrl+S Print Ctrl+P Exit Alt+F4 Select All Ctrl+A Deselect All X or Esc Nudge Arrow keys Show All 0 (zero) or F2 Show Needle Points · (period) TrueView T Show Stitches S Show Outlines L Pan P Zoom 1:1 1 Zoom In 2X Z or F9 Zoom Out 2X Shft+Z Zoom Box B or F8 Zoom Factor F Redraw R or F4 Slow Redraw Shft+R

Maybe some of this will help, or maybe YOU can figure out what that left-click/right-click Toolbar comment is trying to say!

I WAS able to drag the menu bar and the other toolbars to different poaitions, attached to the bottom or sides of the window and even outside of the window.

- Herb

LOL! Well, it *seemed* to mean while you had that selection open you could use right-click to check all the boxes, rather than having to select that option four times to do that. That's what it did for me. But right-clicking, left-clicking, pounding on the desk -- none of that seemed to fill that empty space back up with goodies after they were gone.

Yup -- I found those, too. It seems, though, that they don't have keyboard shortcuts for all the options you get when the toolbars are visible, unfortunately. :-)

That's good to know! I was afraid to try that!

It's very possible that those got dragged out of the window somehow -- though I have no idea how I could have done that -- and that happens all the time with other software I use and is a common question on those "help me!" lists.

I did hear back from Wilcom, which I didn't expect on a Sunday. I was encouraged by the fact that they didn't tell me to "stop dragging those out of the window." :-D They told me to run ResetProfile.BAT. So, if it happens again, I'll try that and let you know what happens. :-)

Thanks, Herb!

If the digitizer gave you the pattern in a professional format they do not specify colours but rather needles and each needle is specified by a particular colour, any colour. Usually the basic ones, like red, blue, green etc.. The pattern would be supplied to each machine with a needle to colour chart. It is up to you to put the thread colour you want for each needle change.

What is the file format they returned your pattern in? Also, it could have been converted to your desired format after digitizing and the same logic would apply.

I hope this group isn't dead.

I am new to this -- just got my machine a few days ago. I sent a JPG to a digitizer and i'm confused about what I got back.

The colors in the file aren't the ones from my JPG. It's not that they're different shades, which I would expect, it's that they're completely different colors. Is this how it's usually done? I know the machine doesn't know what colors I'm using, but there are five color changes and I can see getting confused at some point after I've spent awhile doing these. I was also wanting to send a pic of the digitized design to my friend who wants the shirts to see if it looks okay to him, but I know his first impression would be, "What is THAT?!"

The size of the logo is about 1/2-inch less than what I specified, which I'm thinking is significant for something that's less than 4- inches wide to begin with? The logo has some plain text underneath it, and the font size is noticeably smaller than what was in the JPG I sent.

I've never digitized anything, or had anything digitized, so I don't know if this is just how things work? The first time I sent it to him, I realized I didn't give him all the info he needed when I got the file back, just from the machine, etc., that were in the print- out. So when I sent it to him a second time, I made sure to be very thorough and specific. But the printout still shows a different machine, the threads are different colors, etc.

I haven't been able to stitch the design successfully yet, but I'm sure that's a matter of my learning curve. The logo is for polo shirts and I guess I just don't have the hang of embroidering knits, though I have been able to do several on woven fabrics that look great. There are a couple of things about the stitching that I don't like, but I haven't mentioned them to him yet -- I wanted to get to the point where I could actually stitch the design properly first.

I thought about asking him about all of this, but I've asked him other questions and though he answers my emails, he doesn't address the issues I've asked him about. He did let me know how he wanted to be paid, though. :-D I don't think English is his native language, which I don't have a problem with, but it has me wondering if he just doesn't understand what I'm asking in the first place.

I really don't have the time to mess around anymore -- I need to find someone who can just do these for me. I just don't know if I should keep trying to use him, or move on.

Yes, I've learned since then that's what's going on. Thanks. :-)