Page 1 Get to Know TruE Create, an Application of the TruEmbroidery Software Program By Janie Lantz TruE Create is easy yet feature-rich digitizing software with an automated Assistant, plus many manual digitizing tools. Let s take a tour of how TruE Create is structured, and create original embroidery from artwork. Save as an.edo file that can be reopened for adjusting, resizing and more. Prepare for stitching with Exporting as an Embroidery. Reset for a Uniform Program Window 1. Ensure all TruEmbroidery applications are closed. If they are not closed, right click over the icon, and choose Quit from the pop-up menu. Tip: If you look in the Dock, any open applications should have a small white bar or light beneath them, indicating they are open. If you don t see lights under any icons in the Dock, you may need to open Launchpad, and then open System Preferences. Select Dock and check to make sure the Show indicator lights for open applications option is checked. Close by clicking the red circle in the upper left corner of System Preferences. 2. Open TruE Configure from the Dock if you have a shortcut, or by opening Launchpad, and then browsing to the page with the TruEmbroidery icons. 3. Select the Utilities menu. 4. Click Reset all Apps. 5. Select Quit Open TruE Apps. 6. You may see a message that No apps appear to be open. 7. Select Reset All Apps.
Page 2 8. Close TruE Configure. Part 1: Overview of the TruE Create Window 1. Click the TruE Create icon in the Dock if you have a shortcut, or by opening Launchpad TruEmbroidery icons. 2. Click Help in the Menu bar. and then browsing to the page with the 3. Use the TruE Create Help link in the drop down to open the Help system, and then browse through the Contents, or search using Spotlight 4. Click Close to exit the help system. 5. Click TruE Create and select Preferences. 6. Two pages contain settings you can adjust. 7. In the General page, set Grid Size from 2mm to 50mm to use as a guide for designing. In Screen, check on Color Tolerance to assist in selecting shaded areas of graphics when using Quick tools. If desired, check on Single Stitches to automatically break up long single stitches into your preferred length. Break Up Single Stitches is off by default. 8. In the Creating Stitches page, leave a check in Tie Off Before and After Trims to utilize the automatic function for insertion of Tie stitches. TruE Create will decide where to place the Tie stitches and insert them when you export the final embroidery for stitching. In Exporting Machine Stitches, you can also set a Maximum Export Length to limit the longest stitch allowed during export. 9. Select the General Tab. Change Grid Size to 10mm. 10. Click QuickHelp in the lower left corner of TruE Create Preferences to open a reference specific to the current window for more details on the. General tab in Preferences. Click Close in Help when done. 11. Click Close in the Preferences dialogue box.
Page 3 12. Many other commands are available in the drop down menus, accessible from the Menu bar. Main Tool Bar 13. The main Tool bar has a small symbol at the left end so you can quickly identify which program window you are viewing. 14. The Assistants menu holds the QuickCreate Assistant, used to automatically digitize artwork into stitches with a few simple steps. 15. The drop down Actions menu holds icons for some commonly used functions. Many, such as Undo or Paste, are grayed out until one or more stitch objects are selected. 16. The Zoom toolbar has Zoom Out, Zoom In, Zoom to Rectangle (click and drag a box to zoom to that area) and Zoom to Fit. 17. In the center of the Toolbar is a Zoom Slider. You can adjust the view from 8% to 800% zoom. Click the notch near the center for 100% sized view of an active design. Once you have zoomed in more than 100% you can adjust the view by panning with Gestures, or with sliders if you have set System Preferences > General to Always Show Scrollbars. 18. Select Zoom to Fit to show a view of the whole hoop. Other frequently used icons appear at the right side of the Toolbar. 19. Hoop offers many machine brands and their specific hoop sizes, so you can design for your target hoops.
Page 4 20. In the View Mode tools you can see your design in Outline View, which shows only the perimeter of the stitch object with no stitches visible. Outline View is useful for adjusting stitch areas so you can see overlap of other stitch areas, or fine tune shaping of an area. You can select 3D, with stitches appearing as they would look when stitched with threads. 21. You can choose 3D View or 2D View. 22. The Player opens a window that allows you to play your view of the stitches as they will export. In the Player, overlapping layers are cropped to illustrate the Remove Overlap process. Underlying fills are cropped to reduce thickness in the final embroidery. 23. Panels tools contain the Design Viewer, the Filmstrip, and the Control Panel. 24. The FilmStrip and Control Panel generally open by default, but if not, click their icons in the Panels tools. 25. The FilmStrip contains frames that show the stitch objects within the design, such as Pattern Fill or Satin Area. Jump Stitches, Tie Stitches, and Trim Commands are not visible in the FilmStrip since they are added when exporting. 26. Design Viewer opens a window for browsing and selecting.edo files, which are working design files in a format native to TruE Create. Only.edo files will be visible in this viewer. In Design Viewer, all designs in a folder are visible and can be viewed by panning. The Design Viewer window can be adjusted larger or smaller by its corners. 27. In the Control Panel, icons at the top are for two different pages. 28. The Create page contains Quick and FreeHand tools for a wealth of stitch types, including Fills, Satin Area, Continuous Column, Line tools and more.
Page 5 29. The Edit page has tools for changing thread colors, Filtering different stitch types in or out of view. You will also find Selecting tools, Editing tools for adjusting stitch area outlines, and more. Add your personal Notes here, or view Settings automatically created in TruE Create. 30. Click the Create page in the Control Panel, and let s design an embroidery with the QuickCreate Assistant. Build a New Embroidery Let s work with TruE Create s QuickCreate Assistant! Note: Assistants produce the finest results when the image is not too highly shaded or complex. For very complex graphics or photos, better results may be obtained by utilizing the Quick and FreeHand designing tools. 1. Click Hoop. In Brand select Universal. In Machine Group, select Universal. In Hoop Size, select the 240mm x 150mm Universal Large Hoop 2, or your equivalent hoop size. Set Orientation to Vertical to make a tall design. Alternatively, you can select your personal machine brand and embroidery machine to select a similar hoop size. 2. Click OK to select the hoop. 3. Select Assistants > QuickCreate> QuickCreate Into Hoop. 4. The QuickCreate Assistant will drop down from the menu bar. 5. In the Choose Picture menu, click Select File. 6. Ensure the View menu is set to Columns View. 7. Browse to TruEmbroidery> Samples> Studio> Pics 2> PDF> Birds. Click to select Bird 5, a toucan. Notice a preview of the graphic appears in the next column to the right of the selected file. PDF graphics are convenient and commonly used!
Page 6 8. Click Open to load the picture into the Assistant. 9. Click Continue. 10. In Rotate and Crop Picture, a crop box is automatically placed around the main portion of the artwork. The crop box contains the area of the image that will be used to create stitches. The crop box has handles for adjusting its size and shape. 11. Images may be rotated to change their orientation if desired. 12. The Select All function will enlarge the crop box to include the entire picture area if cropping has automatically removed some background. 13. The Automatic function returns the crop box to the original automatically selected area, and the image to its original orientation. 14. This image is cropped and oriented appropriately, so click Continue. 15. In Design Size you can enter either a new Height or Width for your design to over-ride the initial setting created by the boundaries of the hoop size. Since the Size is automatically generated in proportion to the image, you cannot change both, only Height OR Width. 16. Change Height to 120mm. Press the keyboard Tab key to update the Width field if desired, though Width will automatically be calculated to maintain the proportions from the image. 17. Click Continue. 18. Choose Thread Colors has multiple options for influencing the final embroidery. 19. Initial Color Changes is set to 10, though some colors initially visible in the list may automatically be omitted in the final design, leaving fewer thread changes. When working with more complex artwork, you can increase or decrease the Initial Color Changes setting to influence how much detail appears in the design.
Page 7 20. Change All Threads To is a drop down menu listing many different thread brands, called Thread Ranges. For this exercise, use Robison-Anton Rayon 40 so your design will be consistent with the outcome in the lesson. However, when designing your own creations, you may select your own personal thread brand. 21. The Thread Color List shows specific thread colors as a band of stitches, in the order they are used to create the embroidery. You can double-click any band of thread and select a new Thread Range and color from the drop down menu. You can also select threads using the Colors wheel. 22. Beneath the Thread Color List, a toolbar has additional tools for changing and selecting colors and background areas. Click QuickHelp for descriptions of each tool and its function. 23. Ensure is checked so you do not create a block of stitches around the embroidery. You can also select whether to remove the Main Background Only or All Background Areas. Care should be exercised when removing All Background Areas, as sections within the desired areas of the image may be removed if they match the main background. 24. Picture Options allows for some adjustment of Black Lines (generally contrasting outlines), and for how much detail is filtered or included. Leave at the default settings for this image. Use QuickHelp for more guidance on these settings. 25. Reset will return all settings to the initial default.
Page 8 26. Drag the Zoom Slider about half-way to the right, and the cross-hatch indicator for removal of the background is more visible. Pan around the image using Gestures to see how the background has been removed. You can also adjust System Preferences > General to Always Show Scrollbars. 27. Click Continue. 28. In Fabric and Stitch Type Options, click the Fabric drop down menu. Select Knit, so you can optimize this toucan for a t-shirt. When you select a fabric, you automatically adjust the embroidery for density, compensation, and underlay that s best for that fabric type, so you don t have to guess or experiment with different stitch settings. 29. Uncheck the optional Design Underlay, which can place an additional layer of fill under the entire design for extra support. Extra Design Underlay could be useful as a topper on sheer or strongcolored backgrounds, or to help stabilize very stretchy or delicate fabrics. 30. Adjust Preferred Stitch Type to 8, so it forces satin stitches in larger areas of the design. 31. Click Continue to preview the embroidery. The branch is satin stitch, along with areas around the eyes and bird s beak. Satin stitches might snag in a stitched embroidery, so click Go Back. 32. Adjust Preferred Stitch Type to 0, so larger areas will be Fill stitches. 33. Click Continue. The Design Preview is more attractive when larger areas are Fill Stitches. 34. Notice the Design Preview page shows stitch count, design dimensions, and final number of thread colors. 35. Click Done.
Page 9 36. Click Player and play through to see the final design as it will export. When playing the design, notice you can watch the stitches build from initial movement stitches, through Underlay, to the final stitches over the top. The floating Control Panel may be easily moved with its menu bar across the top, or minimized or closed so it allows for a better view of the Player. You can resize the Player screen by dragging out a corner. To speed up the player, click Fast Forward player will speed up more with each click. 37. Click Close in the Player. multiple times, and the Adjust Design Areas The embroidery was created with plain fill textures. To change any area, simply select and open the Area Properties settings. You can select areas of the design in several different ways. 38. Select the Edit page in the Control Panel. 39. In Filters, click Draw Next Color multiple times until the yellow sections of the beak are all that are visible. 40. You can click on either visible section of fill to select it, and then Control and click or right click to open a pop up menu. 41. Select Global Properties from the pop up menu and you can change all visible Pattern Fills at one time. Alternatively, you may select a Pattern Fill frame in the Filmstrip, and then right click over the frame to select Global Properties. 42. Click the drop down menu by Fill Type to see all the different types of stitches. To change to another stitch type, simply select one from the list. The properties for the new stitch type will appear so you can adjust the stitches.
Page 10 43. Change back to Pattern Fill under Fill Type. Alternatively, you can change the Pattern Fill texture by selecting the Pattern button and scrolling to a new pattern texture, or selecting from the drop down menu. Click OK to close Pattern properties. 44. When done adjusting stitch areas, click OK to close the properties and view the change. If you want a different texture, simply reselect and Control Click or right click to reopen the properties. 45. You can also change selected areas of the design all at the same time. 46. Click Display All. 47. In the FilmStrip, find the two sections of the branch at the bottom of the design. Click to select the first section, hold down the Command key, and click to select the second section of the branch. Right click over the FilmStrip and choose Group Properties, so you can edit both sections at once. 48. Click the Patterns button, and select Pattern 166. Click OK to close Patterns. 49. Change the Angle to 266. Click OK to close the Fill properties. 50. To change a thread color, simply double-click on the thread band in the Thread Color list and browse to select a new color. 51. Experiment with different areas of your design by using Draw Next Color or Draw Previous Color to isolate sections, and then open Global Properties to change all areas of that type of stitch at once. 52. If you make a change you don t desire, click Edit> Undo in the Menu bar (the shortcut is CTRL and Z). You have multiple steps of Undo and Redo. Consult the User Guide and Reference Guide for more ideas on adjusting designs created using the QuickCreate Assistant! Saving Designs 1. Select File> Save from the Menu bar.
Page 11 Note: Hold down the option/alt key to see File>Save As if you want to change the name of an already saved file. 2. If the short menu appears, click Expand in the Save As menu (circled in the image at right) to open the menu for browsing. 3. Browse to the folder of your choice. Save all.edo files (created with Save or Save As) in a separate folder to easily find them when you want to amend them. Consider creating a new folder structure inside TruEmbroidery, named SavedMultiPart, another folder named Exported, and a third named EDO Files. You can even create shortcuts in your Favorites. 4. In Save As, type in toucan. The file type will automatically be.edo, a working file that only opens in TruE Create. 5. Click Save. 6. To create a finalized embroidery, click File> Export Embroidery. 7. Click the drop down menu to select your personal File Format. 8. Select your preferred options in Optimize for Sewing. If selected, you can Combine the designs and Remove Overlap, ColorSort, Optimize to remove small unnecessary stitches, and if working with a turnable multipart hoop, can split the embroidery. Note: Some machine formats may not offer Optimize settings because of specific boundaries in their format. Other machines may require selection of a specific model, hoop, and hoop orientation. 9. Click Next and browse to the folder of your choice. 10. In File Name type in ToucanExport, so you ll know the design is optimized when you open it later. 11. Click Save.
Page 12 Other Functionality TruE Create has additional features you can apply to your embroidery designs. We will explore the manual digitizing tools in upcoming lessons! To find out more about other features while exploring on your own, open the Help system and type in the feature. Click links at the bottom for Related Topics for a tutorial. Create the designs of your dreams with TruE Create, part of the TruEmbroidery system!