Color Stepping

[Guest]

In Version 7, you used to be able to "step" through the colors by clicking on the first color, the second color, etc. As you did this, the design would allow you to see what is being assigned to that particular color stop. How do you do this in Version 9?

[levelbest]

If I correctly understand what you are asking... in V9, you can right click on the color in the color palate and choose select color which will then dim all the other colors and show what you have selected, or you can also say hide other colors, show other colors etc.

[levelbest]

Adding to that - you can also look at the colors in the color tree, and select the symbol that looks like either a red eyeball or kissing lip [img]smile.gif[/img] and click to toggle on or off a given color.

[GF]

Thanks John, but when I right-click the color, I get some options. One of which is to open the properties box to edit the color. Nothing is dimmed. In V7, you could just click once on the color stop and it would show you element in the design is affected, i.e. color 7 might be the nose on a dog, and that would be shown in the design area. You could also use your arrow key and step through the colors to see the sequence.

[levelbest]

It's feeling like a monday today even though it's tuesday. Sorry, hadn't really had call to do this before now. Sometimes it's the simplest things that trip you up. The dimming thing works for me though it's subtle. The tree works much better for quickly turning on or off a color.

[GF]

That's it! The kissing lips or red eyeballs does what I needed. I did like it better in the color stops though, but us humans are just creatures of habit perhaps. Thanks John!

[levelbest]

Got another tip from Mike Doe at melco who showed me yet another interesting feature. In the bottom taskbar in DS, there is the design redraw tool where you can watch how a design sews out. Well, you can now right mouseclick on the slow or fast redraw arrows and change them to work "by color" - which allows you to step thru the design yet another way [img]smile.gif[/img]

I had a feeling the eyeball on/off was what you were going for though [img]smile.gif[/img]

Glad to help.

[GF]

Hi John, yes, I got that tip from Sue Biele at Melco and it is yet another good option to step through the colors. I prefer the red icon because all the other colors stay on the screen, except for the one that's selected. For instance, I may want to see what elements are affected by stop 12 out of 32 color stops. I can select 12, and only that element disappears. It was more comfortable (for me) to have it on the palette because if I decided that color should be different, I could right-click at that point and change the color there. Which can still be done on the right side of the design tree.

In the large picture of this Version 9 upgrade, WOW! My machines at idle are so quiet I have to check their lights to make sure they're on. It's a welcome and amazing improvement! The sew quality is certainly an improvement as well. The machines just sound tighter and smooth.

I completely revamped my PC so it was a totally clean install of everything from the MS XP operating system, etc. No problems with anything. The screen is different but not frustratingly so . . . it looks much like any other software program and takes a little bit of patience to figure where things are. I had no problem with screen real estate as was previously discussed. I have a 19" flat screen and it's fine for me.

The newness of V9 is kind of like cooking in someone's else's kitchen . . . just have to figure out where everything is but it is somewhere.

So far, my experience with V9 is thumbs up. It's only been two days . . . but a successful two days both software and hardware related. I also signed up for the extended warranty agreement as insurance for any problems so the peace of mind from that is adding to this in a positive manner. I hate the cost, but I think it will pay for itself after awhile. Last year, I had a tech here about four times which I calculated in my decision. I still think it should include a yearly maintenance checkup for belts, cables, etc. That would just be a good business decision to put into practice and would save money for both parties in the long run.