Windows 8?

Ok, people are asking about Windows 8.

Let me preface my thoughts with this; I’ve been writing programs since 1981 on my Apple 2+. I had early Macs, I had early PCs. I’ve used them all for 30 years continuously. I’ve consulted for many clients and taught professionals as well as seniors how to use them. Naturally I’ve developed opinions over the years. What I’m relating here is opinion. I’ll try to ignore words that normal people don’t need to know like Skeuomorphism. Continue Reading…

Machine Quilting formats added to Thumbnailer

We just added some machine quilting files to the Windows version (2.73) of Thumbnailer. CQP, IQP, QLI, HQF, MQR and SSD have been added. The Mac version will get these ASAP. Cheers!

Thread Manager in Win Essentials

Another new, as yet undocumented, feature has been added to Essentials:

You can now create thread palettes of existing thread colors, and you can also place a check mark on threads that are in your inventory.

We have also added many user-requested threads including the full Coats and Clark lines, BFC, Jenny Haskins, etc.

This feature will appear in the next Mac update too. But we have it today for you on Windows, so we’re releasing it now.

Happy colorizing!

-Brian

Designer 1 Disk Utility in Win Essentials

Breaking News!

Many users have asked for us to provide a Designer 1 Disk utility. In many cases the one provided by Viking would not be installable in Windows Vista or Windows 7.

We have added this feature in todays update of the Windows version of Essentials (1.094).

It will come soon in the Mac version too, but many, if not most Essentials users also have Convert It, Mac which has this feature. So we think it is OK to release this now for Windows in advance of the Mac version.

The Disk Utility is found on the “Utilities” menu. It supports both floppy drive and USB designer 1′s.

Note if you have an SE, you don’t need this. But older D1 owners will no doubt love this.

Cheers!

-Brian

Essentials 1.08 Released

Hi,

We’ve released Essentials 1.08.

This version has a myriad of updates, including our new Navigation H.U.D (Heads Up Display).

We moved the Navigation Window to make the right-side of the screen more user friendly, and to give more room for the Object View, which will grow in importance when we put out the digitizer.

We also added a couple requested features: Color Sort and a Preferred Thread brand.

In Windows, the Merge Designs window has been updated to be multi-threaded, so you can browse and scroll while the designs themselves are loading. This makes life a bit easier when browsing folders with hundreds of files. We’re working on this for OSX, but it wasn’t ready for this release.

The manual, help and online help have been updated with large section additions. We do however consider this to be an ongoing project. Lindee has been a great help with edits and new material, and she also has plans to give us some tutorials too!

We downloaded Lion on a Mac Mini as a regular user, and Essentials 1.08 runs just fine!

A lot has been done with bug checking and quality assurance testing in general.

And the Mac version is synced up even closer, so the features are almost perfectly concurrent.

Enjoy!

-Brian

Essentials 1.04 posted

We’ve taken many of your suggestions and implemented them in Essentials 1.04!

Of particular note is Ghost Mode, which I created many years ago for Designer’s Gallery HoopWorks. Ghost Mode makes things that are not selected transparent. Why? Because when you are selecting individual colors in a design sometimes you can’t tell exactly which stitches that is selecting. In the original method you would of course see the handles, and you still do, but not the selected stitches are REALLY obvious. And in the unlikely event you want the regular display, simply turn Ghost Mode off using the View menu.

We’ve also fixed some selection bugs, and added other simpler feature requests like double-clicking a file in the Import window to “just bring it in without clicking on the Import button.”

To follow the changes, we have a ‘Changes’ forum topic where you can see most of what we add.

Have a great weekend!

Windows version Thumbnailer is getting another feature!

There is a new test version posted which is doing some cool things like showing embroidery design size, stitch count and color count in the tool tips (when you hover over a design.) Check it out in Downloads. Note: you may have to restart your system for the update to take effect. Windows is still in charge and and it wants you to know it! Oh well.

I think one more version of this to clear up some last small issues and this will be the new release version.

Cheers!

New Windows Thumbnailer edition

Hi,

For those of you who have the Thumbnailer and are using it on Windows, we have a new edition.

What’s it do? It adds Icon, List and Detail views as well as improved support for XP. More on that in a minute.

Here’s a screenshot of my PC (Win 7-64) with a folder in List View. This is a cool new way to see your designs:

Embroidery designs in List View

One thing we’ve learned though is that Windows likes to cache folder images, so your icons may not show up immediately, as we’d like. Unfortunately, Mr. Gates & Co. are not taking our calls inquiring about this, so we are on our own. But for new folders, or anything you’ve not browsed into before, this seems to work well.

There are instructions we’d like you to follow if you are upgrading the old Thumbnailer to this one:

1.) Uninstall the old Thumbnailer. You can do this from Start->All Programs->Embrilliance->Thumbnailer. (It looks a little different on each Windows version, but is basically the same.)

2.) Reboot your PC. I know, and we hate to ask, but this forcefully quits the old Thumbnailer. Windows doesn’t always want to let it go, just because it’s uninstalled!

3.) Install the new Thumbnailer. You’ll have to go through the dialog with your serial number, and click the boxes (or click “Select All”) and click “OK.”

About XP and this update:

Some folks are having trouble on Windows XP. We don’t know why. Maybe those machines are missing something from Microsoft, or maybe they had a virus. It’s hard to tell, and it’s not often. But this may solve the problem. Since we can’t re-create the problem here, we’re trying to solve it with this test of a more robust version.

Please let us know your results by using the ‘Contact Us’ button above!

Regards,

-Brian

Embrilliance Essentials Now Available

It has been a busy couple of weeks.

And the news is that Essentials and Font Collection 1 are now available!

 Combine these great letters and monograms with your embroidery designs to make one-of-a-king creations. Works with both Mac and Windows versions of the Essentials embroidery software.

Just visit the Embrilliance.com store! Continue Reading…

1.002 Beta posted

Hi,

Your programs will be letting you know to download again!

We’ve fixed everything on our list with one or two un-reproducible issues, which we’re still working on.

Have a great weekend!

-Brian