TruEmbroidery™ 3 Software Newsletter August 2016

Welcome to the TruEmbroidery™ 3 newsletter. This month we will review Object Insert and Delete Points tools in Modify when editing objects, and some techniques for Object Editing in Modify

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Stitch boundaries around selected areas of stitches sometimes need small adjustments of their points to fine-tune the shaping of the area. You may simply wish to change the shaping of the area of stitches to give the design a new look. Use the Insert and Delete Points tools for maximum control.

When you use Object editing and select an area of stitching, you can click and hold a point and drag it into a new location. You can convert a round point to a square by holding down the FN keyboard key. But sometimes there are simply too many points, or not enough points, to obtain the desired shaping. Then you can use the Insert and Delete Points icons, which are found in the Object Menu in the Control Panel of TruE™ 3 Modify. (Object editing is not available in TruE™ Modify.)

When you select Delete Points , the cursor displays a minus (-) sign to show you are ready to click points to remove them.

When you select Insert Points , the cursor displays a plus (+)s sign to show you are ready to click on the perimeter line and add additional points.

When you are done inserting and deleting points, simply hold the Control keyboard key and click the mouse to open an alternate menu, and then select Finish Insert Points Tool or Finish Delete Points Tool.

With the advanced editing capability of Object's Point editing, you can make virtually limitless changes to your existing embroidery collection! Learn more about Object editing in the Tips and Techniques section.

Tips and Techniques

TruE™ 3 Modify's Object tools are used to select areas of stitches in a working mode, so you can change stitch properties. Let's look at how Object Editing in the TruE™ 3 Modify Application can enhance your design building options! The Object Menu is inside the Control Panel.

You can open or close the Control Panel with its toggle icon in the Panels tools in the main toolbar. Once you select the Object Menu, the Object editing tools are in view, and the cursor changes to the Object Select view . When you click in an area of stitches in Object mode to select the stitches, the area boundary appears and displays the Points that define the boundary shaping for the selected area. Object editing changes the selected stitches from a finished state, ready to stitch, into a working state that lets you edit the stitch properties, adjust density, convert to a different type of stitches, and more.

You can select tools in several ways. Click the Object menu in the main Toolbar to see the tool options in a list. Hold down the Control keyboard key and click over the selected object to view an alternate menu with the available tools. Or, select the desired tool from the Control Panel list when visible.

Tools include several options. Edit Properties lets you select from available properties for the selected stitch type. For example, if you select a Pattern Fill, you can adjust the properties of the fill. You can change the stitch angle, adjust Underlay, increase or decrease Compensation for the push and pull of stitches on different types of fabrics, and add a single or multi-color gradient blending to the fill area. You can even change to a new type of Pattern!

Convert allows you to change from one type of stitches to another for a different look entirely. For example, select a Pattern Fill, and then Convert to one of many different specialty fills such as a Crosshatch Fill for a novel new appearance for your embroidery! This was done in the example shown at the beginning of the section, using one of the system designs (Bug with Apple, found in /Studio/Stitch2/Butterflies and Bugs).

Use Remove Underlying Stitches to clean up stray underlay or leftover remnants, and even align the direction of patterns in multiple selected areas with Align Origin Handles .

When you are done editing the Objects in your embroidery, simply save the design with a unique new name to preserve the unique qualities of the changes, and then Export to flatten and finalize your design to ready it for your personal embroidery machine. Export offers many file formats appropriate for most embroidery machines.

Best wishes from TruEmbroidery™ 3 Software

PS: Watch for the TruE™ 3 newsletter next month as we look at the zoom tools, and Alignment tools in TruE™ 3 Studio.