Essentials of 3D Digitizing

Copyright © 2007 by Timothy W. Frost, All Rights Reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means either electronic or mechanical, including but not limited to, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, or through the use of any information storage and retrieval system except as permitted under sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act without the express, written permission from the author, Timothy W. Frost. Husqvarna and Viking are registered trademarks. Products of this Corporation mentioned in this book are: 4D Embroidery 4D Embroidery Extra 4D Stitch Editor 4D Sketch 4D Design Creator 4D Design Aligner 4D Organizer 4D Configure 4D Disk Manager 4D Reader/Writer USB 4D d-Card Reader/Writer 4D Vision 4D Disk Manager USB All screen shots are from one or more of the above products and are used with permission from Viking Sewing Machines, Incorporated, Westlake, Ohio. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft, Incorporated. Products of this Corporation mentioned within this book are the following: Microsoft Paint Microsoft Windows XP Microsoft Windows Explorer Microsoft Windows Vista Other products mentioned in this book may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies or corporations and are hereby acknowledged. All of the projects and information presented in this book were completed using version 8.0 of the 4D Embroidery System and stitched out on a Husqvarna Viking Designer SE sewing machine. However, no warranty is given nor results guaranteed. Questions, comments, and inquiries are welcomed by the author who may be contacted via email at his web site: www.mrpatience.com 1 www.mrpatience.com That is the address of my web site. If you have any questions about anything in this book, or about any of the modules in the 4D Embroidery Software System, please do not hesitate to send me an email so that I can answer your question. I love to hear from my readers. I will answer your questions personally. If your question requires a complex answer, then I will write a little procedure to answer that question, complete with graphics, and post it on my web site (and credit you if you don’t mind) for everyone to download for free. Aristotle wrote, “For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.” I placed this quote in my second book when I spoke about the need to use the 3D Embroidery Studio software often and to try out different things. It is just as true with 4D Design Creator but with the added need to stitch everything out on a test project before applying it to your final work. There are two very good reasons for doing this. First, and foremost, you will not accidentally ruin a nice garment or piece of fabric. But second, and most important, you can learn from your mistakes. Every time that you stitch out a project in a test stitch, save the results. If there are mistakes in the design, then write notes right on the fabric. Also, save the planning sheets that you made and see if you made any errors in your planning. Put the original planning sheets with the stitch out and save them for future reference. (I put mine in those clear document protectors and then keep them in a 3-ring binder.) Then I can always go back a see why something did or did not work and then refine my techniques and choices for future projects. In addition, if I am going to embroider on fabric that has any stretch to it, I use similar fabric to test on. Buying extra fabric that has a lot of stretch can be expensive. Here is my secret to solve this problem. I make a visit to our local second hand clothing store and find a garment with similar material and stretch. I can usually buy garments for $2.00 - $5.00. Then, if my embroidery works out OK, I know that it will work on my actual project. I can then donate the embellished item back to the second hand store and someone else can enjoy my work. Good luck with your design creation and please do not hesitate to contact me through my web site if you have any questions about anything involving any of the software in the Viking 4D Professional System. Tim Frost 2 Table of Contents Chapter 0 – Computer Skills Prerequisites .................................................................. 5 Chapter 1 – Basic Design Creation Concepts ............................................................... 6 What is design creation? ................................................................................................ 6 Start 4D Design Creator ................................................................................................. 7 Types of Design Creation Tools .................................................................................... 17 Steps Involved in Design Creation ................................................................................. 18 Design Creation Terminology ........................................................................................ 19 Density ................................................................................................................... 19 Compensation .......................................................................................................... 19 Underlay ................................................................................................................. 20 Stitch Objects ............................................................................................................. 20 Fill Areas ................................................................................................................. 20 Satin Columns .......................................................................................................... 21 Satin Borders ........................................................................................................... 21 Running Stitches ...................................................................................................... 21 Jump Stitches .......................................................................................................... 21 Satin Areas .............................................................................................................. 21 Specialty Fill Areas ................................................................................................... 21 Setting Preferences in 4D Design Creator ...................................................................... 22 Chapter 2 – Using the ExpressDesign Wizard ........................................................... 25 Creating an Express Embroidery ................................................................................... 26 Creating an Express Trace ............................................................................................ 39 Creating an Express Border Design ............................................................................... 42 Load Picture for New Design ........................................................................................ 45 Load Existing Design .................................................................................................... 45 Start a Design With No Picture ..................................................................................... 47 Chapter 3 – Graphics and Design Creation ................................................................ 48 Graphic Types ............................................................................................................. 48 Colors ......................................................................................................................... 50 Why photographs are difficult to digitize ........................................................................ 50 How Color Tolerance Works ......................................................................................... 51 Using Color Tolerance .................................................................................................. 52 Chapter 4 – Using the Picture Window ...................................................................... 53 Chapter 5 – Using the Automatic Punching Tools ..................................................... 63 Using QuickStitch Fill Tools ........................................................................................... 64 Finding A Specific Object On The Edit Page ................................................................... 71 Using QuickStitch MotifFill Tools ................................................................................... 78 Using the Motif Fill Properties ....................................................................................... 82 Using QuickStitch Specialty Fill Tools ............................................................................. 87 The Shape Fill .......................................................................................................... 88 3 The Spiral Fill ........................................................................................................... 91 The Radial Fill .......................................................................................................... 93 The Quilt Stipple Fill ................................................................................................. 93 Using the QuickStitch Satin Area Tool............................................................................ 96 Summary of QuickStitch Fill Automatic Punching Tools ..................................................

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