Backup and Recover Designs

Backing up and saving your designs is an important thing to consider when creating embroidery designs. There are Auto Backup and Auto Save features within your Wilcom Designer software that you can use while creating designs.

It is important to understand what these features do in order to utilize them properly. See page 729 in your V7 User Manual for more details on the Auto Save and Backup features.

The Auto Save Design feature allows you to set an interval of time at which the design you are working on will be automatically saved into the Recover folder as an .EMA file. This does not replace saving the design periodically, as the Auto Save feature is there as a design recovery feature in case you lose power or have a computer failure. Once you close the design you are working on, the .EMA file is automatically removed from the Recover folder. If Wilcom Designer aborts or your PC crashes, the .EMA file remains in the c:\eswin\recover folder.

The Always Create Backup Copy feature if selected, saves a backup copy of the embroidery file you are working on every time you Click Save from the File menu. If you have not saved the file at least once, there will not be a backup for you to access later.

Note: Using the Always Create Backup Copy feature is for emergency purposes. It is not a replacement for doing a full system backup or backing up all your designs and storing them off-site. I recommend you do a full backup of all your designs and embroidery related files on a regular basis and store them in a location other than your place of business, as a precaution.

Using the Backup Files: Following are the steps required to access the backup files (.BAK files) that are created when using the Create Backup Copy Feature:

Open Windows Explorer

Open the Backup folder which is located inside the ESWin folder. The default path is c:\eswin\backup.

• If you cannot see file extensions i.e. your files are displayed as design1, design2 rather than design1.ema, design2.ema, you will need to change the view settings in Windows Explorer to show file extensions:
  


• In Windows Explorer, click Tools Folder Options.
  
• Select the View tab
  
• Untick ”Hide File Extensions for known file types.

• Right click on the file that you need to access.

• Select Rename.

• Change the file extension from .BAK to .EMB (This is a very important step. If you do not change the file extension to .EMB, your Wilcom software will not be able to open the design).
  
  
  
• Move the file to the same folder your other design files are stored.
  
• The file is now ready to be used as a normal Wilcom EMB file. Open the file as you normally would in your Wilcom software.

Auto Recover Designs:

If you do have a system shutdown or power outage, the design you were working on may be recoverable. If you had the Auto Save feature selected and the specified amount of time had passed for at least one Auto Save to occur, then it is likely the design can be recovered. When you first open your Wilcom software after an emergency shutdown like a power failure, the software will try to open the design from the recover folder. You will see the design on the screen. To properly recover the design, click Save As… from the File menu and save the design into your Design folder. When the Design has been properly recovered (saved), purge the recover folder. This procedure is described below in the Clean Up section.

Cleaning Up:

You may have noticed upon opening the Backup folder that there are many designs in the folder taking up space. Occasionally you will want to clean out the backup folder to save space on your computer. Or you may want to delete designs in the Recover folder after an emergency recover from a power outage. To clean up both the Recover and Backup folders do the following:

• Click Programs from the Start menu in Windows
  
• Find the Wilcom ES program group and click Purge Recovery (See Figure 1-2)
  
• Select the option to Delete Backup files and click OK. This will remove designs from both the Backup and Recover folders.
  
• It is recommended that you purge the Recover and Backup folders on a regular basis in order to save space on the hard drive.

Back Up Essentials

Backing up and saving your designs is an important thing to consider when creating embroidery designs. There are Auto Backup and Auto Save features within your Wilcom Designer software that you can use while creating designs.

It is important to understand what these features do in order to utilize them properly. See page 729 in your V7 User Manual for more details on the Auto Save and Backup features.

The Auto Save Design feature allows you to set an interval of time at which the design you are working on will be automatically saved into the Recover folder as an .EMA file. This does not replace saving the design periodically, as the Auto Save feature is there as a design recovery feature in case you lose power or have a computer failure. Once you close the design you are working on, the .EMA file is automatically removed from the Recover folder. If Wilcom Designer aborts or your PC crashes, the .EMA file remains in the c:\eswin\recover folder.

The Always Create Backup Copy feature if selected, saves a backup copy of the embroidery file you are working on every time you Click Save from the File menu. If you have not saved the file at least once, there will not be a backup for you to access later.

Note: Using the Always Create Backup Copy feature is for emergency purposes. It is not a replacement for doing a full system backup or backing up all your designs and storing them off-site. I recommend you do a full backup of all your designs and embroidery related files on a regular basis and store them in a location other than your place of business, as a precaution.

Using the Backup Files: Following are the steps required to access the backup files (.BAK files) that are created when using the Create Backup Copy Feature:

• Open Windows Explorer
  

• Open the Backup folder which is located inside the ESWin folder. The default path is c:\eswin\backup.
  
  
  
  
  
  • If you cannot see file extensions i.e. your files are displayed as design1, design2 rather than design1.ema, design2.ema, you will need to change the view settings in Windows Explorer to show file extensions:
    
    
    
    1. In Windows Explorer, click Tools Folder Options.
       
    2. Select the View tab
       
    3. Untick ”Hide File Extensions for known file types‘.

Right click on the file that you need to access.

• Select Rename.
• Change the file extension from .BAK to .EMB (This is a very important step. If you do not change the file extension to .EMB, your Wilcom software will not be able to open the design).
• Move the file to the same folder your other design files are stored.
• The file is now ready to be used as a normal Wilcom EMB file. Open the file as you normally would in your Wilcom software.

Auto Recover Designs:

If you do have a system shutdown or power outage, the design you were working on may be recoverable. If you had the Auto Save feature selected and the specified amount of time had passed for at least one Auto Save to occur, then it is likely the design can be recovered. When you first open your Wilcom software after an emergency shutdown like a power failure, the software will try to open the design from the recover folder. You will see the design on the screen. To properly recover the design, click Save As… from the File menu and save the design into your Design folder. When the Design has been properly recovered (saved), purge the recover folder. This procedure is described below in the Clean Up section.

Cleaning Up:

You may have noticed upon opening the Backup folder that there are many designs in the folder taking up space. Occasionally you will want to clean out the backup folder to save space on your computer. Or you may want to delete designs in the Recover folder after an emergency recover from a power outage. To clean up both the Recover and Backup folders do the following:

Click Programs from the Start menu in Windows

• Find the Wilcom ES program group and click Purge Recovery (See Figure 1-2)
  Select the option to Delete Backup files and click OK. This will remove designs from both the Backup and Recover folders.
  

• It is recommended that you purge the Recover and Backup folders on a regular basis in order to save space on the hard drive.

Creating Images from Embroidery Files

ES Designer ”Capture Design Bitmap‘ feature:

Open any design (can be an .emb or any other type of design file)

Click the “File” Menu then click “Capture Design Bitmap”

Choose Options:

Selection: Size and crop of file Background fabric included?

Output: file type (.jpg, .bmp, .tiff, .pcx) to send via email, save to disk or both.

Click ok and it will save it to Disk or Send it Email depending on the options you chose.

ESDesigner - Tips and Tricks for Input C

Working with Input C (also known as center-line input) can be a fast and accurate way to digitize a column of stitches with a consistent width. It works well for borders and outlining designs, however there are many quick tricks you can use when working with Input C that make it more powerful than you may have realized.

Creating an Input C object.

When creating an Input C object, you first define the outline, then set the width of the satin stitches and the offset.

There are three ways you can do this:

1. Press the enter key without defining the width on the screen. Column width and offset will be determined by the settings in the Input C tab (Figure 1) under object properties.
2. Left click on the screen to define the width. The offset will be defined by the settings in the Input C tab (Figure 1).
3. Right click on the screen directly over the Input C line to define the width and the offset yourself and override the default settings.

Adjusting Input C Properties.

Corner Fraction determines how many stitches will turn or angle as they flow around a tight corner. The larger the value, the more stitches will turn or angle toward the corner.

Round Sharp Corners is used in conjunction with Smart Cor ners. It allows you to have a more rounded corner when using the Miter or Capping feature available with Smart Corners. For a reference on working with Smart Corners refer to the ES Designer User Manual.

Figure 2 and Figure 3 show the effects of the Round Sharp Corners feature:

Figure 2 Figure 3

Converting an Input C object.You can convert an Input C object to a run stitch object, and visa versa:

Select the Input C object.

Left click on the Run stitch input tool

• Following the ”Enter Entry Point‘ instructions that appear in the prompt line, left click on the object to indicate where the start point of the object will be.

• The object will now be changed into a run stitch object. You can adjust the stitch length, shape etc… Note: You can convert back and forth from Run stitch to Input C.

You can convert an Input C object to an Input A object for advanced editing.

This is done by splitting the Input C object:

• Using the travel toolbar, travel through the Input C object. Note: You cannot split an object on the first or last stitch, however you can travel just one stitch and split the object, or travel part of the way through the object and split it.

• Select Split Object from the Edit menu. The Input C object is turned into an Input A object.

• Select the object and click the Reshape tool to see how the input points have changed:

• You will have separate objects based on where you split the original object.

Notes:

1. o Once you have split the Input C object to create an Input A, you cannot convert it back. To get the object back to Input C you would either need to use the Undo button or recreate the object.

2. o Splitting the object also gives you access to the underlay as a separate object for editing.