Xpressive II User's Guide 07.10.2005 Elna International Corp. SA COPYRIGHT © Copyright 2005 Pulse Microsystems Ltd. All rights reserved. This Xpressive User's Guide and the Xpressive software are copyrighted by the developer of the software, Pulse Microsystems Ltd. All rights reserved. US Patent Nos. 5 270 939; 5 343 401; 5 430 658; 5 506 784; 5 510 994; 5 541 847; 5 668 730; 5 771 173; 5 809 921; 6 196 146; 6 216 618; 6 390 005. European Patent Nos. 0545773. Other patents pending. Information in this document is subject to change without notice. The software described in this document is furnished under a license agreement and/or nondisclosure agreement. The software may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of those agreements. No part of this publication and the software may be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, or reduced to any electronic medium or machine-readable form without the manufacturer's written permission. Commercial or industrial use of trademark and copyrighted works (For example, books, paintings, drawings, photos, fanciful characters, and so forth) owned by other companies or persons, for creation of embroidery patterns without permission is illegal and may result in either criminal or civil liability. Microsoft and Windows®2000/XP are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other product names are copyrighted and registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective holders. All computer and software names identified by TM or tm are trademarks of their respective manufacturers. ELNA XPRESSIVE II User's Guide 1 Table of Contents Chapter 1 Getting Started The Xpressive package ............................................................. 10 System Requirements ......................................................... 10 Backing up files ................................................................... 10 Connecting Hardware ................................................................ 10 Connecting the Elna embroidery machine ...........................11 Configuring the Elna embroidery machine ...........................11 Installing Xpressive .....................................................................11 Using other disk formats .............................................................11 Registering Xpressive .................................................................11 Obtaining a License for Xpressive from the Internet ........... 12 Obtaining a License for Xpressive without Internet Access. 13 Transferring a License from a Second Computer................ 15 Opening and Closing Xpressive................................................. 18 Calibrating your Screens for Accurate Measurements .............. 19 Chapter 2 Setting up Xpressive Setting up the workspace environment...................................... 22 Showing and hiding toolbars...................................................... 22 Showing and hiding the draw ribbon.......................................... 23 Customizing the draw ribbon ..................................................... 23 Setting user preferences............................................................ 23 Chapter 3 Learning the Basics Understanding the Xpressive Workspace .................................. 26 Title Bar ............................................................................... 26 Menu Bar ............................................................................. 26 Status Bar ............................................................................ 26 Xpressive Tools ................................................................... 26 Tools on the Ribbon............................................................. 26 Draw Ribbon Tools .............................................................. 28 Editing Tools ........................................................................ 29 Viewing Tools....................................................................... 30 Stitch Edit Tools ................................................................... 30 2 Lettering Tools ..................................................................... 30 Punching Tools .................................................................... 31 File Tools ............................................................................. 31 Correcting mistakes ................................................................... 32 Creating new designs ................................................................ 32 Entering measurements............................................................. 32 Opening and closing designs..................................................... 32 Opening designs using the Library feature ................................ 34 Saving designs........................................................................... 35 Saving a Copy of a Design ........................................................ 36 Setting up design worksheets .................................................... 36 Using the scroll bars .................................................................. 37 Working with Thread Charts ...................................................... 38 Changing the colors in designs ........................................... 38 Adding custom thread colors to a custom thread chart ....... 39 Adding standard thread colors to a custom thread chart..... 39 Choosing a thread chart ...................................................... 40 Changing the thread chart ................................................... 40 Removing a thread color from the custom thread chart ...... 40 Removing all threads in the custom thread chart ................ 40 Printing Designs......................................................................... 41 Changing a design's print settings....................................... 41 Previewing a design before printing .................................... 42 Printing design worksheets.................................................. 42 Printing in 3D View ............................................................. 42 Inputting and Outputting Designs............................................... 43 Inputting a design ................................................................ 43 Outputting a design ............................................................. 43 Outputting a design to the Elna embroidery machine ......... 45 Chapter 4 Viewing and Measuring Designs Viewing Methods and Tools ....................................................... 48 Magnifying and reducing the view ....................................... 48 Viewing designs................................................................... 48 Viewing the actual size of designs....................................... 49 Viewing the whole design on-screen ................................... 49 Viewing a design selection on-screen ................................. 50 Viewing parts of a design not visible in the design workspace ........................................................................... 50 Viewing Buttons ......................................................................... 50 Changing the background color of the current window ....... 50 ELNA XPRESSIVE II User's Guide 3 Showing and hiding outline segments ................................. 50 Showing and hiding machine commands ............................ 51 Showing and hiding the stitch placements in designs ......... 51 Showing and hiding beads .................................................. 52 Showing and hiding stitches in design files ......................... 52 Defining grid settings........................................................... 53 Showing and hiding grids .................................................... 54 Showing and hiding 3D stitches ......................................... 54 Viewing the sewing order of designs ................................... 54 Viewing Commands ................................................................... 55 Displaying a hoop while designing ...................................... 55 Finding potential stitch problems ......................................... 56 Hiding outlines in design files .............................................. 56 Setting the 3D View options ............................................... 56 Viewing a design by thread color order ............................... 57 Aligning and Measuring Designs ............................................... 57 Adding guidelines ................................................................ 57 Moving guidelines................................................................ 58 Changing the ruler origin ..................................................... 58 Defining ruler units............................................................... 58 Measuring designs .............................................................. 59 Chapter 5 Creating Lettering and Merging Designs Creating Embroidery and TrueType® Lettering ......................... 62 Creating lettering using the Text tool ................................... 62 Creating horizontal lettering................................................. 62 Creating circle lettering........................................................ 63 Converting TrueType® lettering to Satin stitches ................ 64 Inserting color changes ....................................................... 65 Kerning the space between letters ...................................... 65 Modifying Text segments ..................................................... 67 Drawing mode for lettering .................................................. 68 Merging Designs ........................................................................ 69 Merging designs with lettering ............................................. 71 Chapter 6 Changing your Segment Settings Changing the settings of a segment .......................................... 75 Changing Text properties ........................................................... 75 Choosing an embroidery font .............................................. 75 Choosing a TrueType® font................................................. 76 Choosing the Fill type for TrueType® lettering .................... 76 4 Changing the shape of lettering manually ........................... 76 Changing the vertical position of lettering ........................... 78 Changing the size and position of circle lettering ................ 79 Rotating lettering manually .................................................. 81 Changing the shape of lettering .......................................... 82 Setting the lettering height................................................... 82 Setting the justification ........................................................ 82 Setting lock stitches for lettering.......................................... 83 Changing Satin properties ......................................................... 84 Selecting a Fill pattern for Satin stitches ............................. 84 Setting the density for Satin stitches ................................... 84 Changing Satin Effect properties ............................................... 85 Applying a jagged effect to Satin stitches............................ 85 Changing Run properties ........................................................... 86 Choosing a style for Run stitches ........................................ 86 Setting the stitch length for Run stitches ............................. 86 Changing Steil properties........................................................... 87 Setting the width for Steil stitches........................................ 87 Changing Complex Fills properties ............................................ 87 Adjusting the stitch length for the selected Fill pattern ........ 87 Selecting a pattern for Fills .................................................. 87 Setting the stitch density for Fills ......................................... 88 Changing Carved Fill properties ................................................ 89 Choosing a Carved Tile pattern........................................... 89 Creating Carved Fills ........................................................... 89 Changing Programmed Fill properties ....................................... 91 Adjusting the stitch length for Programmed Fill patterns ..... 91 Choosing a Programmed Fill pattern................................... 91 Changing Pull Compensation properties ................................... 92 Adjusting pull-compensation ............................................... 92 Changing Underlay properties ................................................... 92 Selecting the underlay type ................................................. 92 Changing the inset distance ................................................ 93 Increasing the number of ...