I own my own business and pay someone to do all my digitizing.  I do some simple designs in Embird but am looking to upgrade to a more powerful software system and learn to do it myself.  I'm looking at DECOSTUDIO and also the ES 45 and ES 65.  However, I don't know enough to make an intelligent decision.  I'm pretty good at doing simple stuff in Embird but still have not unlocked the mystery of pull comp and other such things.  I still like to manually punch rather than autodigitize as I have yet to get a decent design out of my Brother PE-V7 that claims to autodigitize ... (wish it did but it doesn't)  Can anyone guide me as to the learning curve for the ES 65 for example?  Also, I've done some reading on the DecoSTudio but still not clear, can I manually digitize in this program?  Anyone who can advise me, I would be deeply grateful. 

Hi stitch happy

Speaking as a relative newbie to digitising, I can safely say that ES45 is easy to learn. I do have the benefit of the advice and support of my partner, an experienced digitiser, which undoubtedly makes all the difference!  (Anal retentive and obsessive compulsive seems to assist the designing process!) He, by the way, also logs on here under this user name - you'll probably identify which of us is the writer after some time.

I would say that my learning curve was steeper than yours simply because I had no prior experience at all and to  this day have trouble threading a sewing machine, however after approximately ten hours now of playing with the software, I feel competent to do reasonable digitising of fairly simple designs, although I still scream for help whenever I experiment too far and create interesting disasters on the screen.   I have only just acquired the ES45 by the way, until today we were still running with the old DG/ML dongle and software until it cacked itself.

As someone who is not new to digitising then, I would say that you have a significant advantage over me and that you'd have no trouble at all with ES45. After all, you're probably already familiar with the basic concepts of digitising, if not the capabilities of the ES software.  Having said that, I've also been teaching myself to use Corel Draw and have been playing with the evaluation copy of Drawings4 with some success.  I'm finding that my ten hours of practice is not quite enough yet to "tweak" the end results into acceptable quality.

Go for it and good luck!

Hi Stitchhappy59. I am the other half of bloomers and have been digitising for many years. We recently 'updated' from DGML to Wilcom ES45. At this point I am very dissappointed with this program as far as digitising options go. I have several issues with the display quality and all the real estate used by the menu items.

That being said, it really is a very simple tool to use and if you are able to find someone to spend some time demonstrating its use, you will be up and running in a very short time. I believe the ES45 to be an ideal level to start at. Once you become familiar with all the menus floating around the border (I have hidden most of mine), it is very simple.

As for pull compensation, it will depend on the fabric being used. For example, polo shirt fabric being very stretchy would probably require around .12 to .17 compensation, depending also on the type of stitch and its density. This really is one of those things that you will need to experiment with on some offcuts in different sized hoops to really appreciate what it is about. Another thing with stretch fabrics, is to apply a temporary adhesive to the backing to minimise fabric movement and use the smallest hoop possible for the design as well as running the stitch speed a little slower than for a non-stretch fabric.

If you have any queries that you feel can be dealt with online, please don't hesitate in asking. If you have a design you would like to try, let me know the stitch count and number of 'objects' and the type of fabric, and I will do my best to advise you of some settings that you could try.

There is a bit more detail that I may be able to offer once you are ready to try a design.

As to your original query, in my humble opinion, the ES45 is not a bad thing and is very easy to use and understand. TheDecostudio is not something I have looked at yet, but being a dinosaur digitiser, I still like to digitise manually. As soon as I get a chance, I'll play with it though to see what it does.

One other comment I'd like to add is that go for the system that you can afford and not necessarily the 'beginner's' or basic as you will find that once you start digitising, you'll wish you had more capability to work with. I haven't seen what the ES60 can do, so I can't comment on that, but if you are able to afford it, go for it. I don't think you'll regret it.

Good luck.

hello

I see you learnt the lesson of  the mythical 'autodigitizing' first hand

Realistically,because of the nature of embroidery, I dont see a day coming where good productive embroidery will just pop out of software. Enhancements may come in the way of control, but I think the experienced digitizer cannot be replaced

Used practically, elements of that do have their place in the design process, but many with the high expectatation of instantly outputting designs that will work to actually make your biz grow, get an unpleasant shock overall.

Having used Wilcom for many years now, I have to say that with all the little glitches etc, it does have its edge over many other brands in some important ways. Software developments in embroidery are not simple,and not everyone may appreciate the power of wilcom because many brands offer seemingly similar features..so, more people are swayed by whats on paper, than in actual software. Not everything appeals to everyone, and many have disappointments at different perspectives...but I shall say in my unbiased opinion, that overall, for the professional digitizer it is a powerful,and fluent system, that outmatches many currently available systems in many ways. Ive been to many co's over the years..and seen lots of software. Ive also seen many users of wilcom stuff blame the software for many things..but in many cases, the real culprits have been system setups, or generally poor  methods of working..and in a very large number of cases, general lack of knowledge. People do have their legitimate woes and gripes too

As a mainline digitizer, in a changing world, Ive never closed my mind to alternate functionality, so I work in developments on I-CLIQQ , which promises to deliver some really striking power for those that digitize really...and also for those that dabble in whats commonly now called 'autodigitizing'..we prefer to refer to the way we do things as 'controlled semi automatic digitizing' that leads mainline digitizers to some simpler,and still effective timesavings..with the end result still being a quality production output.

For those patient,and following the advent of I-CLIQQ into the world, its guaranteed to get a WOW! from many, in embroidery circles across the globe.  As the youngest and smallest team on earth, we still think theres loads that can be done in embroidery and we'll be consistently injecting our best efforts to do just that. The needs of embroidery fans encourage us ..so, thanks to all our well wishers, and all giving advice, input and tips...we hear ya..keep the notes comin '..I read all

bye

Hello to the other half of Bloomers ,

One other comment I'd like to add is that go for the system that you can afford and not necessarily the 'beginner's' or basic as you will find that once you start digitising, you'll wish you had more capability to work with.

that's just the opposite advice we give our customers. We experienced that digtizers being totally new to digitizing or comming from another SW often try to use bells and whizzles of higher levels but don't know the basics of the SW. We prefer our customers to start with the basic digitizing tools, which means a 21D and when they are used to it we encourage them to upgrade which we explained in the past before purchase of the Sw. In know, most enquries are for the best top version but this a very mightly tool and if you don't know about the basic of the SW - and of course of general digitizing - frustration may be the next step.

The period from purchase of a basic level to upgrading to a more advanced level differ. Some customers are still happy and do all their biz with what they started and others upgraded within a few weeks or month but agreed later to what we encouraged them.

Costwise it should be no difference - at least here - whether to start with the highest level and not using so many features but having the money spent already for them - or just paying less for a lower version and then paying for an upgrade when it's time to upgrade.

G'day Barbara,

You make a valid point about 'newbies' and basic applications, and if we weren't in Australia, I would agree. However, here in Oz, we pay dearly for this type of software. In the past ten years we have spent a total of $24,000 just on two programs, the first of which was DGML. We have just 'upgraded' to Wilcom ES45.

My point here is that to 'upgrade', we pay a huge premium in Australia and with our current 'upgrade', we have taken two steps back. I no longer have options that were available to me on the old system. In spite of having just purchased a brand new top-of-the-line computer with more RAM than a mob of male merinos, to go with the new system, it is so slow I reckon I could build a house between commands. This computer is wholly dedicated to the Wilcom digitiser with no other programs loaded.

For us to 'upgrade' to ES65 would set us back another $6,000 and that would still only give us almost what we have had for the past ten years.

This is why I suggested the purchase of the best that one can afford. This brings me to another point. Wilcom is extremely misleading and deceptive with their information online or maybe that should read, lack of information. Anyway, that's another story.

Now if, as you point out, the cost difference in upgrading is about the same, then yes, start with the basics and work up. My advice and perspective is from the Oz experience.

Errol