Machine Embroidery Software Part I

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Welcome back to All About Machine Embroidery. 

Machine Embroidery: If you are thinking about getting a sewing machine that includes Machine Embroidery then you will want to read All About Machine Embroidery. I have 31 posts that cover every possible thing you could want to know.

Today and tomorrow’s topic is software. This is such a broad subject in machine embroidery, but I want you to be an informed shopper.

Otherwise, you may become overwhelmed and want to give up on machine embroidery altogether.

Back here I introduced the idea of machine embroidery software. Today, I am going to attempt to explain why you will eventually want to own some software.

When I started to look for my first embroidery machine I knew nothing about software. I thought you just picked a built-in design on the machine and it started sewing. Naïve, yep.

The first thing to know is this: 

You don’t have to buy your machine embroidery software from a dealer.

I didn’t know this and bought an expensive and somewhat out of date software when I purchased my Ellure.

The Ellure doesn’t have a usb port, instead it reads cards. 

Machine Embroidery: If you are thinking about getting a sewing machine that includes Machine Embroidery then you will want to read All About Machine Embroidery. I have 31 posts that cover every possible thing you could want to know.

I needed a software that could burn the design to the card and then, once in my machine, it would stitch it all out.

Machine Embroidery: If you are thinking about getting a sewing machine that includes Machine Embroidery then you will want to read All About Machine Embroidery. I have 31 posts that cover every possible thing you could want to know.

The software cost me $500, and it did things like rotate and duplicate designs, mirror image, create text, etc. It is divinely simple and easy to use. It is ridiculously overpriced for outdated technology.

Remember my earlier warning:  Don’t buy a machine that has a card reader!

So, without getting too bogged down in details here, what I really needed at the time was either a free software like this one that would allow me to get a design from my computer to my machine or simple software that offered a little bit more.

And, that leads us to a couple of online sellers of machine embroidery software. Online software sellers have their good points (price and free trial period) and their not-so-good points (no local support).

1. Embird has been around a while (1997??) and is used by lots of embroidery professionals. You purchase the software online in modules such as Basic, Editing, Fonts, Digitizing. This makes it affordable and you are not buying more than you need. Once your payment is received you can download the program to your computer. Pretty straight forward.

Until recently, this software was only available in 32-bit. Since Windows 7 runs 64-bit, that was a problem for some, but Embird upgraded to 64-bit in 2012.

Unfortunately, Mac users will need to look elsewhere (see below!).

Lots of machine embroidery friends love this software because it’s reliable and works extremely well. Embird has lots of video instructions, so learning the program is easy and convenient.

One thing to note:  The company is in the Slovak Republic and run by three software engineers. I hear that they are available to help you with any problems.

I always hear great things about this program and probably would’ve purchased this a few years back had I known about it.

2. Embrilliance is newer to the stage, but has great genes. It is designed by engineers who have been designing machine embroidery software for the all of the major brands since the early 1990’s.

http://www.babylock.com/software/palette-petite/

(Image Source)

What I love about this software is the designers took the things most home embroiderers use and made a simple and affordable program.

This software also runs native on Mac and Windows 32 and Windows 64.  If you’re a Mac-only computer user, this is good news for you. Embrilliance software was not available when I purchased mine. However, if I were in the market, I would download the free trial and look it over.

Another great point about Embrilliance is you can purchase it online from the company or through a local dealer. 

While I have never used this software, I do own one of their products, The Thumbnailer. I recommend this product because it converts all of the embroidery designs you have stored on your computer into picture thumbnails.

Without the Thumbnailer, all I would see is a software icon and this, “HDCS5B.DST” How on earth am I supposed to know what that looks like. I am pre-supposing that the new Embrilliance software is equally as intuitive.

I have been so impressed with my glitch-free Thumbnailer software, that I feel certain the editing software will be just as superior.

One thing is certain with computers and software:  It is never static, but always changing. When applied to machine embroidery software, that can create challenges for smaller companies like the two I’ve highlighted. It can be difficult for them to update their software to newer machine formats or advances in computer operating systems.

And, that brings us to tomorrow subject:  The Majors:  Software that does it all!

Thinking about purchasing an Embroidery Machine? 

>>> Click here for a list of all the posts in this series.


 

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11 Comments

  1. I really wished I had read this before buying software. Palette Petite is so limited and expensive, and not available for Mac so I have to have a PC laptop just for it. I could have done so much better with my money. But it was years ago before this blog post, so I cannot be too hard on myself. Great job warning people who have not yet bought. You have down a great service!

  2. maybe you should say don’t buy a machine that only reads cards some do more than that so you have more ways to go

  3. I looked at the freebie from Bernina and cannot find any information as to if it would work with a brother machine or is it just for Berninas. Do you know?

  4. I use Embrilliance and it is brilliant. Updates come out every now and then and I never have any problems with them. Amazing software for embroidery.

  5. Software! ugh, the lady I bought my Babylock 940D never said anything about me having to buy software. She only told me I had a cord in the box to connect my computer to the machine so I could embroidery designs I bought online. But then she also didn’t tell me the largest design I could make is 4×4. Thanks you for your information.

  6. I have had Embird since it first came out. I knew nothing about Embroidery at the time and I have great success with it and the support is absolutely fantastic. It has so many pluses that it’s difficult to list them all. You can make your own designs, edit other designs, change the format of others designs that are not the right format for your machine. It comes w/ iconizer to show pictures of your designs on your pc w/ print capablity. You get a font engine to create your own alphabet. Studio gives ability to edit and create designs which is great for kids to draw and stitch out their own creations. You can flip, copy, paste, mirror, duplicate, etc. I find nothing it cannot do when it comes to software and so much more reasonable in price than other softwares. You can join Embird forums and learn more info that you can absorb! Plus, it comes with a library of tutorials you can view on your pc.

    I would HIGHLY recommend it.

  7. Embird has a feature like thumbnail built in. What I liked about it is the basic software isn’t bad compared to others and you can buy plug-ins to add other features as you learn. I bought the digitizer a few years after the base. I want to get the cross stitch plug-in that converts your cross stitch designs into embroidery files almost automatically some day.

  8. Hello! Thank you so much for this post – I just got a secondhand Brother PE-770 and am doing my research on how to get the best out of it. I have two quick comments> (1) You might want to add not to buy a machine with ONLY a card reader. My Brother has a USB and a card reader and that’s fine. My friend has an old Pfaff that ONLY has a card reader and it ‘s virtually un-usable because of technology advances. (2) MAC users can now use software designed only for PC machines using a program called Parallels which basically allows you to run Windows on your MAC OS. You can download a free trial.

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