Example

It’s been mentioned before that digitizing can be done from scratch or loading an image. There are few ways to load an image to the drawing. In this example, we will start digitizing an existing image and by using Open command.

In this example we use different commands and options that were covered in the manual. In order to master digitizing, it is very important to know the digitizing process, but also to successfully manage bottom toolbar, especially the sections bar.

Step 1: Start ThreadsES and open the bee.jpg image found in your ThreadsES installation directory (example files) using Open (Ctrl + O) command.

Step 2: Once the image is loaded dialog shows up. Click Yes to start a new document that will use bee.jpg file as background.

Step 3: Before starting any work, save the project for the first time anywhere on your computer. Name it “Bee Digizing”. Later we will periodically save changes. It is important to do this often, to prevent possible data loss. ThreadsES offers backup file in case of crash, but it is better to be safe than sorry. Name you used to save the file will show up in the Title bar, next to software name.

Step 4: Before filling, go to Embroidery Sizes box. Make sure Fill mode is active and Fill opacity set to lowest level.

Step 5: Now we are ready to start digitizing. Right click mouse button to activate context menu and choose Fill.

Step 6: To start filling click anywhere on the black border on bee’s body. Use Zoom (Ctrl + Scroll Up) for better preview. To scroll the window while fill command is active, click the mouse scroll button and move up or down. Choose your fill starting point. Carefully place the fill points along bee’s body edge.

Step 7: When selecting points, you can see how ThreadsES creates preview line, which marks the area that will be filled. By selecting more fill points, the preview area will increase. When you define a point, area fills and preview is available for the next point.

Step 8: Don’t mind the red fill color, you will change it later. Save your documents using Save (Ctrl + S). Complete the bee fill. It is good to have many points, but don’t create too many. Let the bee shape guide you. Your bee should look like this when filled.

Step 9: Change the fill color to yellow. Right click the first section in section bar. On context menu choose Edit => Change Color.

Step 10: Choose Yellow color and click OK

Step 11: Bee color is now yellow. Save your project (Ctrl + S). Hide the bee fill for now. You can even name your section for easier navigation

Step 12: Now we will digitize bee stripes. We will create the stripes in other section using Color Change, so we can easily edit them later if we want to. Right mouse click will activate context menu. Choose Other => Color Change

Step 13: When dialog appears, choose Red Color and click OK. Now it's time to create columns. Activate Column from context menu.

Step 14: We chose the red color, so we can spot the difference between colors our fill and our background picture. Create your column. You can create smaller columns or bigger columns, depending on the precision you want

Step 15: Keep the column command active. Create new column by using the old one as baseline. Instead of four points, you only need two of them now, just like we learned in digitizing section.

Step 16: Keep creating columns until you fill the entire stripe. Preview of your column is inside the sections box. Change the stripe color like in Step 10 and hide it.

Step 17: We can create the new stripe in the same section, our we can create new section. For practice purposes, we will create new section just like in Step 12. Finish the stripe digitizing repeating Step 13 & Step 14.

Step 18: When finished, save your file. Let's take a look how our bee looks like. Using Embroidery Sizes box hide the background image (icon color blue).

Step 19: Tick the checkboxes to show all the sections.

Step 20: Bring back the background, hide all the sections and create new section. By now you should have learned to change section quickly and manipulate the sections bar. Let's practice by adding columns to create body outline. Create new section or use the same one.

Step 21: Don’t mind the blanks, you can always fix them later. We can see the legs are curved a little bit. You can create multiple normal columns or one arc column for each leg. To get some practice, try using Arc Column. Create new section before you start digitizing

Step 22: Define the four base points for the arc.

Step 23: Create the arcs by defining points five and six.

Step 24: We know that if we continue creating arc, it will use the previous as base point. We don’t want that now, since it’s not applicable in this situation. Instead we will create new arc column.

Step 25: Select the base point for the arc column

Step 26: Repeat the Step22 & Step23. Create the other two legs the same way.

Step 27: Change the legs color to match the background image. We can see that the legs are connected with the stich. It’s because we did not break into sections with color change. Now let’s create bee’s mouth in the same section as legs. We would like to avoid them being connected. Select the Trim command using context menu.

Step 28: Choose the base point where the mouth will start and trim the stich. Now create new arc column.

Step 29: Do the same thing with an eye. Trim and create new arc column. Arc columns are hard to master, this is the best way to practice them. Once you are into it, digitizing process runs smoothly later. Follow the point placement order if you need help with creating an Arc. When on fourth point, simply create Arc by slowly moving the mouse

Step 30: With the help of preview lines, set points five and six. The eye should appear as a circle

Step 31: Trim the stich and create new columns for the first tentacle. When creating legs, we used New Arc Colum. We can now use the previous column as base point, to create the tentacle circle. Define the first column.

Step 32: Place the two points of the second column in the middle of the circle.

Step 33: Using the mouse create the points three and four that will form the circle. You can notice that they share the same location.

Step 34: Now we can repeat steps 32 and 33 for the second antenna.

Step 35: Digitizing wings