Convert It, Mac User Guide
Copyright (c) 2010 BriTon Leap, Inc.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction..........................................................................1 Welcome to Convert It, Mac! ........................................1 Requirements .................................................................2 Where is Convert It, Mac on my Macintosh? ................2 Getting Started .....................................................................5 How do I get my designs into Convert It, Mac? ............5 How do I view my designs with Convert It, Mac? ..
Convert It, Mac 2
Introduction Introduction Welcome to Convert It, Mac! Convert It, Mac is built upon proven embroidery software technologies from BriTon Leap™ that have been in use in the home embroidery market for over a decade. Convert It, Mac is not a conversion of a Windows application.
Convert It, Mac In the remainder of this guide we will delve into the details of how to use Convert It, Mac to realize its key features. Our approach will be usage- based as opposed to describing all the ins-and-outs of the user interface. By usage-based we mean posing and answering questions that we think you may ask. You will find that the best place to start is the Table of Contents. Ready? Let's go! Requirements Convert It requires Mac OS X version 10.
Introduction can click the Applications icon in the Places section. In either case the result is that the Applications folder contents will be displayed.
Convert It, Mac 4
Getting Started Getting Started How do I get my designs into Convert It, Mac? The question, “How do I get my designs into Convert It, Mac?” is commonly asked. It seems reasonable because applications such as iPhoto and iTunes require that you import pictures and music into them. Convert It, Mac has no such requirement, i.e. you do not put or import your designs into Convert It, Mac.
Convert It, Mac At the every top of your Macintosh display is the menu bar. There is nothing unique about Convert It, Mac's menu bar, all applications, including the Finder, display a menu bar. The menus are (from left to right) Apple, Convert It Mac, File, Edit, View, Convert, Tools, Window and Help. Take a moment and locate each of these menus in the two preceding graphics.
Getting Started your Home directory (the house icon with your user name next to it), the Desktop folder, the Documents folder and the Downloads folder. In the example the Home Directory is selected. NOTE: If you do not see a Downloads folder then go to Macemb.com and get the latest version of Convert It, Mac or you may need to upgrade you OSX to at least version 10.5. Notice that this is similar to the Finder's Devices and Places. So, if you can use the Finder you can use Convert It, Mac. Nothing new here.
Convert It, Mac View 4 is the Detail View, it is empty because no design in the Browser View has been selected (the Browser View is empty). Now to fully answer the question “How do I view my designs with Convert It, Mac?” follow these easy steps: 1. Select (click on) a Device or Place in the Devices and Places View. 2. Select a folder in the Folder View. 3.
Getting Started More about views, the View Menu In the preceding section we talked about the various views of Convert It, Mac. Now we talk about how those views may be modified. Views are modified through the View Menu. Thumbnails, Toolbar and Units of Measure contain submenus with choices for those settings. Thumbnails has three possibilities as shown below: Small, Medium and Large. These settings determine the size of the thumbnails displayed in the Browser View.
Convert It, Mac Medium Toolbar has three possibilities as shown below: Icon, Label and Both. Below we see examples of these settings. Icon Label Both Unit of Measure has two possibilities as shown below: Inches and Metric.
Getting Started Design dimensions will be shown in the units selected, in this example, inches. Show Nested Folder Contents affects how designs in folders are displayed. It is enabled if there is a check mark next to it as shown below. Consider the Finder Column View below. The Home Directory contains a folder named Darcies American Fall which contains a folder named Design Files which contains a number of folders organized by design type.
Convert It, Mac taining numerous designs you could be waiting for some time for the Browser View to display.
Working with Designs Working with Designs How do I get detailed information about a design? Visually deciding which design meets our sewing goals is one thing, understanding a design's sewing characteristics is another. This is where the Detail View and the Table View come into play. When a single design is selected in the Browser View its details are shown in the Detail View. The Detail View tells you a lot about the selected design.
Convert It, Mac mum size limits so that the Browser View cannot be completely covered and the Detail View cannot be hidden. Other parts of the Detail View are the Thread Brand Menu, Thread List, Design details and Save and Save As buttons. Taken together the Detail View components tell you everything about the design being viewed. The Thread Brand Menu and Thread List allow you to change the complete thread palette or individual thread colors.
Working with Designs There is a control at the bottom right of the main window that lets you switch the Browser View to a Table View. The Table View also gives design details but in a different format. The Table View can be sorted up or down by clicking on a column header. Here we have clicked the Colors column header and thereby sorted the Table View from most colors to least colors.
Convert It, Mac Clicking the colors column header again sorts from least to most colors. Downloading Designs from the Internet One of the organizational features Apple has created on the Macintosh is the Downloads Folder. All items downloaded from Internet Web Sites (and other network connections) are placed in this folder unless you changed it using your browser’s preferences.
Working with Designs Convert It, Mac presents the downloads folder to you in the Devices and Places View. To view the contents of the downloads folder simply click on it. Here is where one of the neat features of Convert It, Mac comes into play. Many items downloaded from the Internet are in ZIP file format.
Convert It, Mac NOTE: Something to consider about the downloads folder. You should clean up the downloads folder periodically. Let me say that again. You should clean up or clean out the downloads folder periodically. Move designs to other folders of designs. Move other items to folders containing like items. You need to keep you Macintosh organized. You don't put every kitchen item in the refrigerator. Likewise don't leave everything downloaded in the downloads folder.
Working with Designs How do I get designs to my embroidery machine? Moving designs to embroidery machines is getting easier every day due to new technology being added to today's machines. The de facto standard today for transferring designs is USB. Let's take a look at using USB with Convert It, Mac to transfer designs. Using an appropriate USB cable, directly connect your embroidery machine to your Mac. Run Convert It, Mac.
Convert It, Mac “NO NAME” entry and when it highlights release the mouse button to drop the designs. A USB thumb drive can also be used for design transfer. Just insert the USB thumb drive into the Mac. It too, will appear as 'NO NAME” unless you have previously given it a name using the Finder. Use the same drag and drop technique to transfer designs. Some older embroidery machines that have USB capability require that designs be in folders with specific names to be recognized by the machine.
Working with Designs A special case machine for either USB or Floppy is the Viking Designer 1. Convert It, Mac has a special feature for transferring designs to USB or Floppy for use with this machine. This feature is the “Disk Manager”. The “Disk Manager” is accessed by the Floppy Icon in the toolbar. When active the Disk Manager displays below the Browser View. The Disk Manager is initially in the Floppy Disk view. A floppy disk is divided into four menus.
Convert It, Mac The view can be changed to USB Stick by clicking the USB Stick radio button. A USB Stick holds 12 floppy disk images. The menus in each disk are sized as described above. Move selected designs from the Browser View to the Floppy or USB stick by clicking the down arrow.
Working with Designs When the desired designs are moved, click the Write Floppy button or Write USB Stick button to write the designs. The Floppy or USB Stick can now be used in your machine. A Floppy or USB Stick can also be read. Click Read Floppy or Read USB Stick. Designs on the Floppy or USB Stick will be displayed in the “Menu” locations. Move designs to the Browser View by selecting them and clicking the Up Arrow.
Convert It, Mac Moving and deleting designs Designs visible in the Browser View can be moved to any folder visible in the Folder View and any design visible in the Browser View can be deleted. You do not need the Finder for these actions. Convert It, Mac will also show you where in the Finder a folder in the Folder View or a design in the Browser View is located. As an aside, you might consider using a two button mouse.
Working with Designs Folder View Browser View When the Show in Finder menu entry is selected a Finder window will open to the location of the selected item. To move a design or designs to a new folder we use the drag and drop technique described in the section How do I get designs to my embroidery machine? The difference is that we will drop the designs on a folder in the Folder View. Here we see a drop operation on the folder named Design Files.
Convert It, Mac Designs in the Browser View can be deleted one at a time or in a group. To delete a single design, right click on it and choose the Delete option. The delete will not take place until you confirm the operation by clicking YES. Clicking NO will cancel the delete operation. To delete a group of designs simply select them in the Browser View and press the Backspace or Delete key.
Working with Designs You will see the same confirmation dialog and it will have a count of the number of files you are deleting. Again, YES to delete, NO to cancel. A quick note on selecting designs in the Browser View. If you are an experienced Mac user you can skip this. Clicking on a design in the Browser View selects the design, the green check appears on the design. You can select multiple designs by clicking and dragging over a continuous group of designs.
Convert It, Mac The “Types in View” preference is where you specify which file types you want to be visible. Convert It, Mac preferences are accessed by the Preferences Tool or the Preference menu entry. The Types in View preference is the gray button labeled Types in View.
Working with Designs File types are in three categories: Embroidery Files, Image Files and Other Files. Click the disclosure triangle next to a category to see all of its members.
Convert It, Mac Now you can choose which types within a category you want Convert It, Mac to display. Here we have chosen PES, VIP and VP3 as the only embroidery type we want to see.
Working with Designs What things can I change in a design? Convert It, Mac is not an editing program. Therefore, you cannot change the shape, content, orientation or any other physical size or placement aspect of the design. Convert It, Mac does however, allow you to change the design colors and thread palette. Thread palette changing lets you match the design to your thread inventory.
Convert It, Mac design. Therefore, you can revert to the original thread brand by choosing Current design Colors from the pop-up. There are two options for saving the design with the new thread brand. “Save” and “Save As”. These work as you would expect from any Mac application. Changing a particular color to a different color or thread brand is also just as easy! In the Thread List click on the color you want to change. This will display the Color Select dialog.
Working with Designs 33
Convert It, Mac The handy search field will search the color descriptions for key words entered in the search field. Type in a word and press the enter key. If there is a match in the list it will be displayed and selected.
Working with Designs Finally save the changes using the Save or Save As button. Simple and fun! Can I print designs? Convert It, Mac has a rich printing capability for designs. Printed designs are referred to as a Catalog, and a Catalog Setup. sheet is provided for customizing the Catalog layout and style. There are two standard Mac print features used for Catalog printing as well: Page Setup... and Print.... Choose Catalog Setup... from the File Menu.
Convert It, Mac The Catalog Setup sheet is displayed. The first decision is whether to print thumbnails or full size images. Thumbnail size is determined by the number of rows and columns specified. As the number of rows and columns are increased the thumbnail size decreases and vice versa. This is because “rows x columns” designs are printed on a page. If we set rows to 2 and columns to 2 four designs will print per page and be sized to the page.
Working with Designs . If “Full-size Image” is selected the design will be centered on the page and registration marks will be added for assisting with design placement. The next decision is which designs are to be printed. The choices are “All Designs” and “Selected Designs”. Optional information to be printed with the Catalog consists of Date, Page Numbers, Sewing Information, Color Information, Design Path and a Table of Contents. Use the Page Setup.... to specify paper and printer settings.
Convert It, Mac For convenience, a Print... tool is included in the tool bar. It functions just as the Print... menu command. The following annotated image shows all the print options in use.
Convert It, Mac Tools Convert It, Mac Tools There are five Convert It, Mac operations that are referred to as tools.
Convert It, Mac Convert to Favorite A favorite is specified in the Convert to Favorite Preference Panel. Select the 'Use Favorite Format' button and then choose a favorite format from the pop up button. Any selected file will convert to this format when Convert to Favorite is invoked. Auto Baste Convert It can create a new file for you with a new first color added to the design. This first color is a series of stitches that will baste a rectangular outline around the edge of the design.
Convert It, Mac Tools For users who are familiar with embroidery machines that run a “Trial” or go to the corners of a design to help with design placement on the fabric, this feature will be a real time saver. The stitches also help you to see that your hooping is lined up correct and straight, a feature that really helps where text is concerned as every error stands out clearly.
Convert It, Mac • You can also set a preference to have the baste sew past the outer edge of the design so that the design itself won’t trap the basted stitch. Create Design Notes This tool allows you to start a text file where you can type useful information about your design. The note file is created with some useful information for you: The design name and size, the stitch count and number of colors.
Convert It, Mac Tools Clicking the Note thumbnail will show the note summary in the detail view. Double-clicking this text file in the Browser View will launch TextEdit. From there, it’s easy to edit, save, and view your design notes. If you have created the note file in the workspace, you may want to copy it or use “Save As” to save it in the design’s directory for future reference.
Convert It, Mac The text file also includes a ‘shopping list’ for all threads needed for the design. The colors in the design are compared against several major manufacturers’ thread lines and ranked in order of best match. The top three threads from each manufacturer are given, along with the percentage match to the original thread. The thread matching system is a very smart little widget that evaluates colors more similar to the way a human eye sees color than a computer’s typical RGB system.
Convert It, Mac Tools Convert to TIFF Many home embroiderers now have Internet web sites where they share or sell their designs. This tool allows you to make a picture like the Preview window and save it for use as an image. This tool can also be useful in turning an existing embroidery design back into a bitmap for the purpose of re-digitizing the design. Mac uses a standardized file format called a TIFF file, with the extension, “.tif” or “.tiff” to contain images.
Convert It, Mac This feature enables you to rebuild a design that has the same color(s) used more than once into a design with a minimum of color stops. This feature is especially useful for designs downloaded from the Internet. Many of these designs are wonderful, creative art, but are poorly digitized, using the same color more than once without purpose. Another time that this tool comes in handy is when you’ve combined multiple designs into one hooping.
Conversion Conversion What does it mean to convert a design? Converting designs is a key feature of Convert It, Mac, hence the the name. As you know, your embroidery machine recognizes designs of a particular format. If you find a design you like and it is not in the format your machine recognizes you can convert (change) it to your format using Convert It, Mac! Convert It, Mac can read and display 29 embroidery formats and convert any one of these into 15 embroidery formats.
Convert It, Mac We know designs downloaded from the Internet are in the Downloads folder. For clarity the image below is of the Finder showing what is in the Downloads folder. You can see that it contains only one item, the downloaded ZIP file containing the designs. This Download folder has been cleaned up so that is easier to understand and work with. See the Note in the section “How do I view designs I download from the Internet with Convert It, Mac?”.
Conversion Run Convert It, Mac and then click the Downloads folder. The ZIP file contains 10 designs in PES format. The ZIP file is unzipped and its contents are displayed in the Browser View. Notice there are no folders shown in the Folder View. This is because the only item in the Downloads folder is the downloaded ZIP. If there had been folders in the Downloads folder they would be displayed in the Folder View.
Convert It, Mac By default, when a design is converted the new design in the converted format it is saved in the same folder as the original design. So, when we convert one of the designs in the example it will be saved in the Downloads folder. However, since the original design is in a ZIP file the converted design will also be in the ZIP file. Let's convert the flag design, design name aidaaf05.pes. For this example we will convert to VIP format. Select the flag design by clicking on it.
Conversion Now to convert to the VIP format we choose VIP from the Convert Menu. The newly created design in VIP format is added to the Browser View and is selected.
Convert It, Mac the Finder. All we see in the Downloads folder is the ZIP file we originally downloaded from the Internet. If we expand the ZIP we will see the newly converted VIP file. If we look at the Downloads folder with Convert It, Mac we will also see the newly created VIP design.
Conversion What control do I have of the conversion process? Convert It, Mac performs conversions using default settings that it ships with. But, Convert It, Mac cannot know about your embroidery machine so you may need to adjust the default settings to achieve the best possible conversion result. The Conversion Preference is where you modify the default settings to suit your needs. Convert It, Mac preferences are accessed by the Preferences Tool or the Preference menu entry.
Convert It, Mac The Conversion preference is the red button labeled Conversion. First, no matter what you do with this preference, if you get confused and want to reset to the default settings just click the Use Defaults button. Now that you know you can always get back to the default settings do not be hesitant in working with this preference. On the left is a list of embroidery file format extensions labeled File Types. To the right is a panel displaying conversion options labeled Conversion Options.
Conversion When a file type is selected its default conversion settings are displayed. If you have changed the defaults to suit your needs your settings will be displayed rather than the defaults. Take a moment and select each file type and observe its conversion settings. Pay particular attention to the file types you will be converting to. Notice there are conversion settings common to all file types and conversion settings unique to particular file types. Let's explore each of the conversion options.
Convert It, Mac to fit, or it is simply not created. This preference is adjustable by setting the “Shrink to Fit Maximum%” field in the Preferences window. Please note that shrinking a design in this fashion does not reduce the number of stitches in the file. As a result, over-shrinking a file can cause the stitches to clump on top of each other, jamming the machine and ruining the work. We suggest not reducing a design by more than 10%, although you can override this if you wish.
Conversion The .PEC File This file is created when a Baby Lock, Brother, Simplicity or Bernina Deco card is read in to the computer through the Palette, PE-Design or Wizard. This format is sometimes known as “Card Data,” and has no purpose other than this. The .PEC file will be converted using your On-The-Fly setting if you double click on it. You cannot save into a .PEC file, as there is no purpose. Use .PES instead. The .
Convert It, Mac The .JEF/.JEF+ File The Janome embroidery machines use this file. It is very similar to the .SEW format, but has fewer restrictions. JEF+ is a JEF file saved by some Janome machines. The .HUS File Husqvarna Viking embroidery machines use this file. Although the color palette is somewhat limited (29 colors), this file has no limitation on stitch count. Color counts per file should not exceed 22. The .PCS and .PCM Files Pfaff home embroidery machines use the .PCS format.
Conversion Let's start with the Convert Menu. The Convert Menu presents three distinct conversion processes: Convert to Favorite Setting, convert to a specific format, Convert to Multiple Setting. Let's take these one at a time. The Convert to Favorite Setting is a shortcut to convert designs to your favorite format. Your favorite format is most likely the format your embroidery machine requires.
Convert It, Mac Convert It, Mac preferences are accessed by the Preferences Tool or the Preference menu entry. There are a number of Preferences. We are interested in the Favorite preference which is the green button labeled Favorite. There are four settings that you specify in this preference. The first is “Use Favorite Format” or “Keep Format”.
Conversion “Use Favorite Format” then you need to choose from the pop-up menu your favorite format. Now, when you “Convert to Favorite” this will be the converted format. If you choose “Keep Format” no conversion will take place but a new file in the format of the original will be created. This may not make sense at this point but when the Files and Folders preference is described it will make sense. Finally, when a conversion takes place, a report is created.
Convert It, Mac Once you have specified your Favorite settings, the “Convert to Favorite Setting” menu entry and the “Convert to Favorite” tool will use these settings. Now let's look at the Convert to Multiple Setting menu entry. This conversion also requires a preference to be set, the “Multiple Conversion” preference, which is the multi-colored button.
Conversion With this preference you specify multiple formats to be created from a single design. Just select the formats you want from the conversion process. So, if you want a design to be converted into VIP and VP3 in one step, select those formats here. Then, when you select a design and choose Convert to Multiple Setting, the selected design will be converted to both formats. Finally, you can choose a particular format for the conversion from the Convert Menu.
Convert It, Mac Where are my designs that I converted? Convert It, Mac has a default setting that specifies converted designs are to be saved in the same folder as the original design. This is a perfectly reasonable default but it does create a problem in a particular circumstance. We have received calls from customers saying “I converted a design but all I see is an empty space with the design name”.
Conversion The File and Folders preference is the orange button labeled File & Folders. Notice there are three groups preferences: Converted Files, File Selection and .zip Files. The Converted Files preference specifies where designs are stored once they are converted. If you choose “Operation results are saved in this folder” you need to click the Browse button and choose a folder for the converted designs.
Convert It, Mac Convert It, Mac will display a tool tip when you hover over a design that among other things gives the location of the design. This is handy when designs are saved in a different folder from the original. If “Operation results are saved in the same folder as the original” is selected there is nothing more for you to do.
Conversion The File Selection preference specifies what should be selected after an operation, such as conversion. takes place. There are two choices: Keep existing design selections and Select the new/modified designs. The reason for such a choice is that you may want to perform a second operation on the converted designs. For example, you want to convert four designs and then create notes for the converted designs.
Convert It, Mac Registration To register Convert it or to update a prior registration choose Register Convert it... from the Help menu: The registration sheet will display. Complete the form being sure to fill in required items and press the OK button. If you decide not to complete the registration click the Cancel button.
About the Macintosh Finder About the Macintosh Finder Because Convert It, Mac ships with the Embrilliance Thumbnailer, a few comments on using the Finder are in order. Why? Well, the Finder has four different views and these views dictate what you will see from the Embrilliance Thumbnailer. And, it has been our experience, that not all Mac users are familiar with the various views and configurations of the Finder. Above is the Finder toolbar.
Convert It, Mac The Icon, List and Column views show thumbnails of embroidery files; with the Column view adding a Preview if a design is selected: 70
About the Macintosh Finder The Finder sidebar, the leftmost view in a Finder window, bears some resemblance to Convert It, Mac, or perhaps Convert It, Mac bears some resemblance to the Finder! Well, either way, it is a benefit for you because of their commonality. The Finder sidebar is divided into three sections: ‘Devices’, ‘Places’ and ‘Search for’. Convert It, Mac has a view called Devices and Places which contains most of the items found in the Finder's Devices and Places sections.
Convert It, Mac Finder 72
About the Macintosh Finder Convert It, Mac To easily find designs on your Mac, we suggest you use the Column View. The Column View presents the contents of a device, place or folder that is selected to its immediate left. The power of this view is twofold: the column is sorted in alphabetical order and it visually shows the hierarchy of folders containing designs. Scanning a list of items in alphabetic order makes it easy to find a specific name - a real advantage.
Convert It, Mac Give the Column View a try, what have you got to lose? 74
Appendix A Appendix A Read and display these embroidery formats: Bernina Artista ARTART42ART50ART60 Melco CondensedCND Singer PoemCSD TajimaDST WilcomEMB Elna / SingerEMD Melco ExpandedEXPEXP+ Husqvarna VikingHUS Janome DigitizerJAN JanomeJEFJEF+ PfaffPCS Pfaff MacPCM Brother / Baby LockPESPHBPHCPHD Elna / JanomeSEW Viking DesignerSHV HappyTAP Viking / PfaffVIPVP3 SingerXXX Convert It, Mac can convert embroidery to these formats: Singer PoemCSD TajimaDST Melco ExpandedEXPEXP+ Husqvarna VikingHUS PfaffPCS P
