how do you organize your embroidery files?
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Barb Engvall
I am unable to sew for several weeks due to hand surgery and so I am taking advantage of the time to straighten out my computer files. I have purchased loads of embroidery designs that I am trying to figure out how to make good sense of so I can find them when I need them and perhaps even rediscover those that I have forgotten about. I have some ideas that I have sort of used but was wondering if any of you had any new ideas I might not have thought of. Do you print out images and the thread changing information or just leave everything on the computer? Do you organize by where you got the designs or do you do it by topic?
Looking forward to hearing your words of wisdom. |
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cmgazerro@...
I categorize my designs by subject. When possible I create a folder with the design and include any pertinent info about that design such as the designer or pdf file. I also have a folder "Projects" for designs created for a particular reason. In addition, I have a folder "Designers" where I put designs most often gotten from particular designers or from a magazine I subscribe to. i. e. I have folders for BFC creations and CME Magazine.
These designs are saved on my computer and also on a separate jump stick labeled "Designs". This is what works for me. Carolyn |
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HEATHER COWAN
Hi Barb: I was years working in software development and data processing so .... my first suggestion is to have a backup to a portable hard drive and keep it off site... If the house burns or floods that backup in the house may be ruined along with your pc/laptop. I actually have two back up drives ...... The other thing is that I copy paste to my drives because I have found that if you use a special backup program to make backups and then the computer crashes ...... you don't have the program to unpack the back up. I had used the Windows XP program to backup my files one time and when the computer died and I had to go to Windows 7 ...... the backup was unusable.
As for keeping my designs organized ...... I copy from original cd's or online downloads to pc/laptop and then add a little description to the file name. Example is that JuJu designs have file names like DBJJ571 ..... I rename to include ... redwork chefs. That way if I need redwork or chefs I can do a file search and it will find those files. I also have folders by designer as there are some who I find are consistently excellent in their design quality. Some .... not so much and I'm slowly trashing those in favor of the designers I know will give me a good result. I go to these designers first. I also have found that many of the designs that are over five years old were digitized when the tools were not as good and are not the quality of the newer ones. This is not true of all designs. Sue Box and Zunt are examples of designers where the old 4x4's are excellent. Off to play with my new sew desk ...... good luck with that hand surgery. Hope you heal quickly and get back to sewing. hugs heather
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Anne Parker <annegparker@...>
>> I have some ideas that I have sort of used but was wondering if any of you had any new ideas I might not have thought of. Hi Barb I'm just starting out like you and have several thoughts going through my head - it goes without saying though that whatever you do make sure you back things up, especially if you have paid for designs. So far I haven't paid for anything. I am downloading free designs from different sites and plan to stitch them out to see what the difference is, but already I realize I need to organise them! Trying them out will also be a learning experience to see what works and what doesn't - I am watching some of them stitching out in Horizon Link to see how they have been created. Here is what's going through my mind. I plan to use the following folder structure. First I will create a separate Embroidery folder on my C drive so I should end up with the following. C:/Embroidery/Designer or Site/Type of Design/Style Type is things like Motif, Lace, Cross Stitch, Fringe etc Style is things like flowers, animals, buildings, christmas I have a recently bought a book - The Complete Machine Embroidery Manual by Liz Keegan (2014) - and will use the headings in that book so I can relate the techniques in it to the type of designs. Once I've got that far I'm looking at creating Libraries in windows to create pointers to for instance all the flower designs from each folder so I can pull them up all at once. The same way for instance that the Windows provided Documents and Pictures libraries show you all those files. I've never had to use this feature of Windows before so just gonna read up about it to see if it will work. I've heard this feature called a working library so you can get to all the folders you regularly use quickly. If anyone needs a good book on Windows, I use Windows 8 the Missing Manual by David Pougue (I always buy a new one with each new operating system). - but it's a big book - over 900 pages so may not be what your looking for! I don't know if what I am planning will work - I may need to rethink this along the way but at least it's a start! Anne www.sewingtales.wordpress.com in Stubbington, UK With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy. "Desiderata" Max Ehrmann |
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Pat B
If you got to secretsof.com you can download a folder of embroidery design category folders. All folders are empty; you place your designs in them.
Hope this helps, Pat |
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Susan
Pat - thanks for reminding me where it was. I've used it for
years. Here's the address to find it:
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http://www.secretsof.com/content/9763 Susan On 12/20/2014 5:11 AM, pnb313@...
[janome12000] wrote:
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ceilsews <no_reply@...>
Just found this: Embroidery Newsletter - StitchFun News
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This has a very detailed set of zipped folders. I merged them with the one found at the secrets site and did a little deleting. I might even have too many folders to fill now!
---In janome12000@..., <sbentley@...> wrote :
Pat - thanks for reminding me where it was. I've used it for
years. Here's the address to find it: http://www.secretsof.com/content/9763 Susan On 12/20/2014 5:11 AM, pnb313@...
[janome12000] wrote:
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Vikki Youngmeyer
Pick a formula that works for you! There is more than one way to store designs and don’t let anyone tell you that their way is the only way. I purchased a disk drive from an estate sale that had a boatload of embroidery designs on it. I’m still trying to make sense of it and am only half-way there. That’s my problem as other issues in life got in the way.
Some people store by designer, some store by topics such as holidays, cars, animals, etc. There is no one “right or wrong way” to store this information. You store it the way it works for you at the time you are storing it. Given a few years down the road, you may need to “tweak” your storage parameters. Feel free to do so, as the embroidery police are elsewhere and don’t know of your existence!
Vikki Houston, TX
From: janome12000@... [mailto:janome12000@...]
Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2014 4:48 AM To: janome12000@... Subject: Re: [janome12000] how do you organize your embroidery files?
>> I have some ideas that I have sort of used but was wondering if any of you had any new ideas I might not have thought of. Hi Barb I'm just starting out like you and have several thoughts going through my head - it goes without saying though that whatever you do make sure you back things up, especially if you have paid for designs. So far I haven't paid for anything. I am downloading free designs from different sites and plan to stitch them out to see what the difference is, but already I realize I need to organise them! Trying them out will also be a learning experience to see what works and what doesn't - I am watching some of them stitching out in Horizon Link to see how they have been created. Here is what's going through my mind. I plan to use the following folder structure. First I will create a separate Embroidery folder on my C drive so I should end up with the following. C:/Embroidery/Designer or Site/Type of Design/Style Type is things like Motif, Lace, Cross Stitch, Fringe etc Style is things like flowers, animals, buildings, christmas I have a recently bought a book - The Complete Machine Embroidery Manual by Liz Keegan (2014) - and will use the headings in that book so I can relate the techniques in it to the type of designs.
Once I've got that far I'm looking at creating Libraries in windows to create pointers to for instance all the flower designs from each folder so I can pull them up all at once. The same way for instance that the Windows provided Documents and Pictures libraries show you all those files. I've never had to use this feature of Windows before so just gonna read up about it to see if it will work. I've heard this feature called a working library so you can get to all the folders you regularly use quickly.
If anyone needs a good book on Windows, I use Windows 8 the Missing Manual by David Pougue (I always buy a new one with each new operating system). - but it's a big book - over 900 pages so may not be what your looking for! I don't know if what I am planning will work - I may need to rethink this along the way but at least it's a start!
Anne in Stubbington, UK
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Anne Parker <annegparker@...>
>> >> You
store it the way it works for you at the time you are storing it. Given
a few years down the road, you may need to “tweak” your storage
parameters. VikkiWhat you say is so true - I don't use any ready made lists of folders because they aren't mine!. In order to understand my filing system I have to create it myself, not learn somebody elses for a particular thing. I have a way of filing things that I use for everything so no sense in using something different - but some people like being given those sort of things - I don't. And yes it changes. I have just reorganised all my 'sewing' folders - and I have many depending on what type of machines (vintage v modern) topics (threads, needles, techniques, embroidery, history). I am getting to the stage where I may even get a pc/tablet just for sewing! Sometimes my mind gets confused (62 next birthday) and using the same system helps to guide my poor brain through the maze of my computer! :0) Anne www.sewingtales.wordpress.comWith all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy. "Desiderata" Max Ehrmann |
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Vicki, I agree with you, I remember when I first started using an embroidery machine, design sites were few, but Ann the gran and Tashambras menagerie I think it was called, offered literally hundreds of free designs. I enjoyed an orgy of downloading designs. Then realised I had no idea what they were. A quick search online threw up a folder system, you had to pay for it, my DH wandered in, saw what I was looking at and told me, save your money close that down. Now go to My Documents, right click on the screen, now choose New Folder. So even though I knew how to create folders and brief cases, I'd not made the connection between my normal computer use and my embroidery needs. I set up a small folder system, first the parent folder, Embroidery, inside I made a series of sub folders, a system I still use today, only now it's considerably bigger. Each design vendor has it's own folder, inside a series of sub folders, as an aid for contents I just give a simple descriptor, children's, floral, birds etc. In the early days not having learnt to digitise, I was pretty green when it came to knowing what was worth keeping and what should be binned. However I soon learnt that pretty images on a website didn't mean a design was fit for stitching. Satin stitches traversing a length of 3 or more inches might look nice on screen, but were machine murderers, plus they gaped if stitched, and yes in my greenness I tried stitching a poppy made entirely of long satin stitches. Ever watched a machine struggle to cope with 3 inch satin stitches. In that first year I learnt an awful lot about what I should ditch and what I should keep. I don't mix vendors designs in categories, for example emb library flowers with advanced designs flowers, or Zundt FSL with Sue Box FSL, the styles of digitising are different so I leave them in their sub folders inside their vendor folder inside the parent folder embroidery. It works for me. I've gradually reduced my design numbers, ditching designs that too me don't stitch well or are simply not something I'd use. I still have thousands of designs though, all but a handful of my free designs have gone in the bin, I've owned an embroidery machine since 96, and rarely stitch the same design twice, so like a bit of variety to choose from when I don't have time to create my own. Maggie Cooper uk |
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Anne Parker <annegparker@...>
Maggie Reading your post sounds like I am going along the right lines with my own system - seems very similar. I long to get to the stage where you are and start knowing what to ditch and what to keep - need to spend more time with the machine, but life (husband and dog) are getting in the way. If I could I would spend all day stitching, but I need to complete the DIY on the bungalow before my husband retires a year in March - then life will be my own! I retired last year! Anne www.sewingtales.wordpress.comWith all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy. "Desiderata" Max Ehrmann |
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Kay Allen
Hi,
I have several hundred embroidery designs that either came with the various software or that I downloaded. I personally am more interested in what they are for, rather than how they were made. This is the hierarchy I use: Embroidery Designs Abstract Baby Butterflies Flowers Fonts Kitchen towels Etc. etc. After I download the design I change the name to something I can recognize i.e. 123984.jef to Ballerina girl.jef Hope this helps. |
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Barb Engvall
Thanks for everyone’s responses…I was curious to see what people had made work and I’m in Maggie’s camp on this one.
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I still have most of the zipped files so I first searched and put those in a new folder and then unzipped them at once…you would have thought the poor computer was having a heart attack, the screen was blinking and flashing so much! I then moved all of the unzipped files into a new folder just for them and now have gone through all of those, sorting by vendor folders and then by topic or description and put them into a NEW embroidery folder. I changed a lot of names so they are more searchable, too. I get a lot of things from Embroidery Library and kept their numbers so I can easily go back and find those thread change sheets (what is the proper name for them?) In doing this I rediscovered a lot of freebies that I downloaded for no particular reason and have dumped some of those too. Now my next task is to go through my original embroidery folder and see what I missed because I may have already dumped the zipped file! I have already sorted my sewing files (pdf patterns) on my laptop that I use upstairs (and where I do a lot of downloading) and now also need to do the downstairs studio computer and then compare and dump duplicates. I plan on burning backup DVDs of all of these and put them in my safety deposit box…I need to get in the habit of when I download something upstairs to immediately login to the downstairs computer and move it there. That would save a lot of mess!
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Sue Raabe <susies.stitches@...>
This a very interesting topic, since organized is one thing I'm not! I downloaded a list of categories, but should have deleted the ones I didn't need, because it got very confusing. For a while, I used that part of Designer;s Gallery, but after a while, I couldn't figure out how to use the rest of it. I finally included it in the sale of my Babylock. If I could purchase just that one module, it might be worth a try, since it opens, converts and stores designs. If it didn't take so much time, I would go through all my designs and delete the ones I don't need. When I bought my first machine, the saleswoman gave me the addresses of websites where the designs are free, but at some point I was told that most of them were from beginning digitizers, trying to become better known and they didn't always stitch well. I'm too impatient to test those kinds of designs. I have my favorite digitizers, and their designs usually don't need to be tested. For a while, I tested designs for someone, and found that her designs are always perfect. I graduated to watching them stitch out, and was fascinated by how few stitches were created to get a beautiful design. I'm not interested in digitizing, except to gain insight as to what processes produce great designs. I'll leave the rest to those who are good at it. As to the organizing, I have them filed two ways - by designer and by category. But as the others have already said, it's a very individual process, and the best you can do is try what systems you like, and modify them to suit your needs. Good luck! I'm sure you'll come up with the best system for you, |
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