[texasranger]

Greetings all. My wife and I are getting into embroidery. Neither of us have any experience with digitizing or running the machines but have been doing a ton of research. I tend to be a jack of all trades, with a career focused in electronics and programming. She is more the artistic one and stay at home mom that will be doing the bulk of the day to day operations once we are up and running. We both have experience with CAD.

One of the machines we purchased (Tajima 15 needle single head) came with a dongle for Pulse 12 Artist Plus. I've gotten quotes from Hirsch and Wilcom. After trade-in, promotions, and factoring in the cost of CorelDRAW that comes with e4 designer, the price tags are within about $300 for Pulse 15 Artist Plus or Wilcom e4 Designing which includes CorelDRAW and one add-on.

So the decision we need to make is which software to go with? I've asked each rep if they have a comparison chart of features but neither do. So for those of you that are experienced with one or both, which would you choose if prices are essentially equal?

The cloud stuff with pulse is kinda interesting, but neither of our machines are new enough to have networking so we will be transferring designs via USB for the foreseeable future.

One more things to add: I'm currently building our website with Magento. Eventually I would like to add a basic web based designer so the Wilcom web API looks interesting for that. Does Pulse have something similar? It will likely be another 8-12 months before this comes into play though.

Thanks in advance!

 

[nomadme]

Howdy Texasranger!

I have been looking at Wilcom e4 Designing, and it seems to have a lot of features I have been looking. I have a graphic design and software development background, and Wilcom's API looks very interesting and promising in the future.

Currently, I am in the process of purchasing both the Wilcom and the embroidery machine (Tajima TMBP and Barudan ProII are on the list).

I talked with Wilcom, and they said, Wilcom will not be able to connect directly to newer version of Tajimas directly and has locked their interface to only work with Pulse. That is the downside of Tajima for me. I may go with the Barudan.

I will not buy Pulse or try to work in Pulse software, that is why I have to make a hard decision for choosing the Barudan. I know Barudan is one of the best, but newer Tajima models are so attractive, has a ton of features, like safety sensors and comes with lot of different hoops, their main frame and stand looks much more solid than the Barudan and their control is much more up-to-date with the current technology, but with Wilcom, every file transfer has to be manually transferred.

Which model of Tajima did you buy?

 

[texasranger]

It's an older TEHX that came with a USB/floppy emulator. We also picked up a 4 head SWF of similar vintage, so direct connection to the machines is not much of a consideration since we will be using a USB stick on both machines. Perhaps it will matter in the future if/when we upgrade to newer machine(s).

 

[texasranger]

Anyone else have any feedback?

I do see that both Wilcom and Pulse offer APIs for web integration. Any feedback on either one? Neither list their cost structure.