[amayausers] Re: thead breaks
- From: Eldred J Swapp <ejswapp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: amayausers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 11:55:51 -0700 (PDT)
Jeff and all;
The exercise was very meaningful to me. I am not fortunate enough to be using
Melco software but am using Dakota AlphaSizer. It shows that it is version 2.
The explanation has been very helpful.
Now another gremlin has shown its face. There are still thread breaks but far
fewer than before. After sewing a couple of letters and after a trim the
machine is stopped and when I look at the needle I see that somehow the thread
has managed to wrap itself around the needle shank above the hole in the needle
a couple of times. I am of the assumption that this in turn is the culprit
responsible for the remaining thread breaks. Where do I need to look to find
this gremlin?
Joel
Jeff Banks <banksje@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Dorothy,
The term "Short Stitch" has 2 meanings when used in reference to Melco
software. The feature of Short Stitch in lettering, and also a feature in
the Design Filter to filter out stitches under a certain length.
I have quick exercise for all of you to do that may help to understand what
the Short Stitch feature in the lettering does.
Open Design Shop, and create 2 letters using the alphabet Boffo-DAK. Use a
lower case a and lower case c at .5 inches in height. Now either click on
the Fit Window tool in the Zoom Tool Bar, or click on View and then Fit
Window in the View pull down menu. This will enlarge the letters to fit the
screen so you can see the stitches.
Now double click on the lettering object in the window. This will open the
Lettering Properties window. Go to the Column TAB and if needed click on the
window holding the mouse button down and drag it to one side so you can see
the stitches and still turn on and off the different properties in the
Column TAB. Now, click on the Short Stitches to turn it on and then click on
APPLY. Then click on the Short Stitch to turn it off and click on apply.
Notice what is changing? What changes is the stitch length of the stitches
in the center areas of the a and c, where they tend to accumulate and become
very close together. What it does is shorten some of them so they are
staggered and not all on top of each other which causes thread breaks and
sometimes bad looking embroidery.
Now, this is going to raise some eye brows, but short stitches is meant to
make the lettering better with less thread breaks and is best left ON if it
is adjusted and used properly. In the past in older versions of the Melco
software, the length of the short stitch option or how much it shortened
stitches in tight curves was not adjustable. This caused problems with
making stitches too short on smaller letters so it was taught that it is
best to turn it off on small lettering. Turning it off then can cause too
many stitches in tight curves such as the center of an o or a and can cause
problems as well. To improve this feature the short stitch length was made
so it can be adjusted. Notice next to the Short Stitch check mark there is a
button with 3 periods or dots in it. Click on this and a window will open
and allow you to adjust the short stitch width. It is in percentage. Put
160% in the window and click on OK which will close the adjustment window,
and then click on APPLY to apply it to the 2 letters. Notice on screen that
now the short stitches are not as short as before. As the short stitch
length can now be adjusted to stagger the stitches in tight curves at a
length that works for small letters, I leave it on and adjust the width
setting so that they are staggered to prevent them from being on top of each
other, and yet not so short as to cause bad looking embroidery or other
issues such as the problem I describe below.
In real small lettering short stitches in the curves can also get filtered
out by the short stitch setting in the Design Filter. The Short Stitch
setting in the Design Shop Design Filter option is by default set to
accumulate short stitches after 1 and the length to do this to is set at 4
points. (an embroidery point is 1/254th of an inch). With it set this way,
if there are 2 stitches in a row of 4 points each, it deletes one of them.
Something to keep in mind is the Design Filter only works on the Expanded
Data. Expanded Data is the actual stitches sent to the machine. What you see
on screen is Wire Frame Data so you do not see the effect of the Design
Filter. To see the effect you need to save the file as EXP then open the EXP
file and look at the stitches. I think you can see what can happen. In small
letters (before the short stitch length could be adjusted), it was possible
(and still is if not adjusted properly) to have stitches filtered out of the
lettering sent to a machine and not know it.
Hope this helps,,
Jeff Banks
Melco Embroidery Systems
> Technically, how long is a short stitch?
>
>
>
> Dorothy Compton
> Bee Embroidered
> _www.BeeEmbroidered.com_ (http://www.beeembroidered.com/)
> (916) 635-7467
> Rancho Cordova, CA
>
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