Hi. I am currently using Embird and Generations for embroidery digitizing. I like them both for different reasons but I'm interested in the new DecoStudio because I use Corel 3x for all my graphics work. I love Corel 3x with one exception. I wish there was some way to convert line-shaped objects to lines! It's my biggest bug bear. Much of the clipart I purchase comes as a bitmap with thickish black lines. Generations converts these thick lines into filled objects and the results are horrible (IMO). If I delete them in Corel, it leaves big gaps between the other objects. If I make my own clipart, I use hairlines or no lines and the results are great - much more flexible at the Generations end. I've purchased some great clipart and would like to be able to use it without timeconsuming re-work. When I use Embird, I manually digitise everything so it's not a problem, but Generations was an expensive toy and it has features which Embird doesn't have so I feel as if I have two great worlds - yet cannot have the best of both :-(
Anyway, I don't know whether either Corel 4x or Decostudio offer any solutions to this?
My other headache is the fact that there is such a huge difference in the UK and US prices for DecoStudio. It's approx $1999 in the US, but £1799 in the UK which currently equates to about $3,500! I think that's absolutely ridiculous and it doesn't encourage me to buy! Can we Brits buy directly from the States?
Doodle said: Hi. I am currently using Embird and Generations for embroidery digitizing. I like them both for different reasons but I'm interested in the new DecoStudio because I use Corel 3x for all my graphics work. I love Corel 3x with one exception. I wish there was some way to convert line-shaped objects to lines! It's my biggest bug bear. Much of the clipart I purchase comes as a bitmap with thickish black lines. Generations converts these thick lines into filled objects and the results are horrible (IMO). If I delete them in Corel, it leaves big gaps between the other objects. If I make my own clipart, I use hairlines or no lines and the results are great - much more flexible at the Generations end. I've purchased some great clipart and would like to be able to use it without timeconsuming re-work. When I use Embird, I manually digitise everything so it's not a problem, but Generations was an expensive toy and it has features which Embird doesn't have so I feel as if I have two great worlds - yet cannot have the best of both :-( Anyway, I don't know whether either Corel 4x or Decostudio offer any solutions to this? My other headache is the fact that there is such a huge difference in the UK and US prices for DecoStudio. It's approx $1999 in the US, but £1799 in the UK which currently equates to about $3,500! I think that's absolutely ridiculous and it doesn't encourage me to buy! Can we Brits buy directly from the States?
Let me give you a partial answer to your clipart problem. If you upgrade to Corel X4, it has a center line trace ability (which X3 did not). So when you do a trace on that clipart with wide lines, using a center line trace, you can then bring that into Generations and have better results in the autoconversion to stitch patterns. You can try CorelDRAW X4 with the free 15 day trial by downloading it from the Corel main web site.
What I do, with my CorelDRAW and Generations tools, is when I bring in a piece of artwork into Generations, I right click on portions of the bitmap image (in Generations) and then I select the stitch that I want to apply to that selected bitmap portion.
I hope that both of these suggestions may help you out, some.
Thank you both for your replies. I actually bought CorelDraw 4 shortly after I started this thread and have been experimenting with the centreline trace. I've had a lot of fun with it actually! It's not perfect - especially at "joints" but it's another toy for me to play with :-)
You are welcome, anytime.