Density

[Guest]

What is the best way to take a stock EXP design and decrease the overall density so it's not so thick? I tried using the SCALE numbers, but then the design sews all off and lines don't match up.

[Aaron]

I use the scale box to lessen or thicken densities all the time on dst and
exp files with no problems. Since this isn't working well for you are you
sure everything lined up good before changing densities? The next thing I
would do is convert to wireframe and change them there but in doing this the
design won't retain all of its original perameters such as fill patterns and
types. If you have to resort to converting to wireframe its best to have
some digitizing experience cause you will probably need to go through the
design to make changes for it to look right.

Aaron Sargent
The Linen Barn
[email protected]
541-770-2957
Medford, OR

[GF]

You were correct in your diagnosis . . . the design did not line up even before the scaling changes. I tried another one and it worked fine. I am brand new in the digitizing/embroidery arena so I appreciate your help. I'm finding most of the stock designs are very thick and I they sew better when density is decreased. Still trying to figure out the logic with the numbers though. Increase density (less stitches?) and decrease density (more stitches?). Or at least that's how the manual is typed. Logically, it should be the other way around I think. What percentages have you found work out best overall? So if it starts at 100%, typing 90% actually makes the design denser? And, by how much? Because when I type 20%, the design becomes far too thin or less dense. I'm not sure how the number affects the design.

[Aaron]

Ok, here is where the fun starts. On expanded files if you set the density to 120% in either fill or column stitches it will increase your stitch count so you want to go to 80% to decrease your stitch count.

Now, if you are dealing with .ofm files then its the opposite. If you set the density in scale to 120% you actually decrease the stitches.

What I do to remember what I am doing is I go to scale and set it to say 120%. Before clicking on apply I click the status tab to see what the current stitch count is and then when I hit apply I can see if the stitches increase or decrease. I get confused on this all the time.

I am going to make a wild assumption here and assume you are using a Dakota design? I use them quite often since I have the whole collection up to 2006 or 2005, can't rmember now. ANyways I normally either reduce the fill stitch density on all dakota designs by 15-25% or most the time I actually get rid of their underlay and use the underlay in the fill properties and I change the fill to a custom one that I like better and then set the stitch length according to the size of the fill. By doing this I don't get as much puckering on the dakota designs because they almost all tend to pucker. ANother thing I do on them is change the stitch length under the stitch properties (this is for walk and bean stitches) to 20 pts. Dakota by default uses 38 which I feel is too long for most of thier designs which will cause problems with registration on walk stitch outlines. Even when I digitize I rarely use higher than 25 pts for my walk stitches. Now if there are bean stitches in the design sometimes I will leave them longer but depends on the size of the design.

This may be a little more info that you want or can digest right now but its important stuff to get stock designs to sew well. If you want to send me your design I can take a look at it for you to see what you might need to fix. I just need to know the version of software you are using so I can send back the right version as I am a Beta tester and usually am running the newest software that isn't even released yet.

My e-mail is [email protected] if you want me to look at that design for you.

[GF]

You are awesome!