Get help with creating your t-shirt graphics. Discuss t-shirt design software, special effect techniques, or other topics related to creating a t-shirt design on your computer.
It's a "simple" little thing called digitizing. You need a program that can range in price from 15 grand to as little as $500. The artwork has to first be transformed to vector format. Corel or photoshop can do this part also. Then, you need the digitizing program to convert those vector lines to stitches. For outlines, that isn't that hard, but if you want to get into really nice designs and logo's, good digitizing has a pretty steep learning curve. Most of us find that manually punching(converting) a design is much easier than using the so called automatic programs. Every machine manufacturer has their own brand of software and there are some good aftermarket programs as well, and we all have our personal preferences. In my humble opinion, the auto software has serious limitations and drawbacks, but is good in some instances and I do use it occasionally. I'm sure others will chime in here with their opinions, but for the most bang for the buck, Embird is pretty good and has good support through yahoo groups as well. Just a suggestion since you don't sound like you want to make a living doing digitizing
Bryon,
Does that plugin work with line art??? Actually, I just take my emboridery designs and print them out so I don't need that plug in for what I do
Essentially yes. You create your vector art in CorelDRAW, click a button and it pulls the art into the DRAWINGS software and you start generating your stitches. I believe it is automatic and you adjust the stitches from there Graphics - Corel DRAWings X3 - Corel Corporation
It doesn't beat traditional digitizing yet I have heard great things, especially from users of CorelDRAW. I would liken it to the t-shirt art separation progs out there. They will do a good job just not great. You still need to tweak for the optimum performance and final image
The plug in is just meant for small insignificant jobs - real embroidery digitizing can only be done by a professional digitizing software - I use Wilcom and have been using it since 1999.
However, person using any vector drawing software is at advantage, when it comes to learning to any digitizing software.
The basics are same - however, they do need to practice to learn about the stitch density, underlay and stitch angles before they can really become proficient in embroidery digitizing.
We have been using Wilcom ES as well for many years and love it. Importing dxf files from DRAW is a sinch and speeds up the digitizing process tremendously as all you need to do is add start and end points along with stitch specs
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The plug in is just meant for small insignificant jobs
I wouldn't go that far. I have seen some top notch work for large runs created with DRAWINGS.
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- real embroidery digitizing can only be done by a professional digitizing software
Again this isn't totally accurate. A design digitized by DRAWINGS is still a real digitized design.
However, person using any vector drawing software is at advantage, when it comes to learning to any digitizing software.
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The basics are same - however, they do need to practice to learn about the stitch density, underlay and stitch angles before they can really become proficient in embroidery digitizing.
Importing dxf files from DRAW is a sinch and speeds up the digitizing process tremendously as all you need to do is add start and end points along with stitch specs
In all these years that I have been digitizing for customers worldwide, the percentage of receiving a proper vector artwork has been less than 2%, most customers either send a scanned image from a stationery or snap an old garment with the design.
Now, this renders DRawings absolutely useless, unless you want to go through the whole process of first creating the artwork in CorelDraw and then use DRawings and then import the DXF into any digitizing software to make those changes and tweak things for the final outcome.
That would be tedious - working on a design for thrice as long.
OK your confused
If you use CorelDRAW, DRAWINGS works seamless with Corel thus once a image is created in Draw you just click the button to open the vector file in the DRAWINGS. Since I use Wilcom I export my vector files as dxf and bring that into Wilcom to save me time similar to how the DRAWINGS software works in conjunction with DRAW.
Obviously this would be worthless for someone who does not use CorelDRAW. As all my work over the past 11+ years has been created in CorelDRAW having DRAWINGS would speed up the process tremendously. I already know Wilcom so it isn't a big deal to me yet for newbies I can see this being a great asset yet will never be better than a true digitizer. I will never argue that as true custom digitizing is a art in itself
[quote=Fluid;157679]OK your confused
Since I use Wilcom I export my vector files as dxf and bring that into Wilcom
Richard Just out of curiousity, when importing a vector file into Wilcom ... are you limited to dxf files only or can you also import other formats like emf and wmf ? Bob
An interesting discussion that kind of beats around the bush with useful information in it.
I am not an artist or a digitizer but I like the Drawings converter.
Does it do a perfect job? No.
Is it good for a lot of jobs? Yes.
Can I learn to be a better artist from it? Yes.
Can I adjust my image to make Drawings do a better job? Yes.
Can I use a professional digitizing service when the need arises? Yes.
Drawings does a great job in showing how a part of your vector will be converted. Using the plugin for Corel to produce the embroidery effect does the same thing.
Wilcom Software: Simply the best I have seen. Also the most expensive, starting at $15K and goes up to $30K Prodigi Software: Not bad from the demo. $5K or $1500 down and $1000/year for a subscription with all updates and online training. Wings: Another good option at around $5K. Others out there for less: I have downloaded a few trial versions and couldn't make sense out of any of it.
The last point is the most important. When all else fails, I can job it out. For most of my customers who want a 3 inch left breast logo, I can use the Drawings converter.
Bryon,
Does that plugin work with line art??? Actually, I just take my emboridery designs and print them out so I don't need that plug in for what I do
Jim
Embroidery in Thread
Yes it does. The software automatically adjusts based on the thickness of the line if it will use satin or running stitches. I use a lower level Pulse for actual digitizing but I use the embroidery effect in CorelDraw for some heat transfer works, and on some "applique" effect. Here's an example:
Embroidery and other stitching on shirts 
Re: Embroidery and other stitching on shirts 
