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A11kns
18-06-2014, 11:17 PM
Hi guys

A friend of mine has brought his first machine to add embroidery to his screen printing business. What would be the best and cheapest option for the software?

ASO Embroidery
19-06-2014, 01:20 AM
Hi there,
You haven't said what make of machine he has got himself and although you don't have to buy the software that comes with a specific machine there are loads of different embroidery programs out there. My first machine was a Brother so I quickly went out and bought PE Design software O boy did I make a mistake, Now I'm not saying it is the worst program out there but I found it very difficult to get to grips with and support from brother very poor at that time not sure what its like now may have changed.
What I'm getting at is that what may suit one person may not suit another and some of these programs are very expensive. But I think from a money point of view and to keep the cost down I would try Embird you can download it from the net and buy the different plug ins when you need them plus I believe the support is quite good. if you can get in to anywhere that also sells the software and they can give you a free demonstration of how it works then I would strongly advice doing that as. I personally think its the best way to make an informed choice. You tube I know has plenty of videos for Wilcom so I would assume there will be others so I would check there as well. If money is no object then its probably going to be Wilcom . I personally use APS Ethos and find it very good but as I say there is loads of different programs so tell him not to just jump in and buy the first one he sees have a good look around first and spend his money wisely. Know doubt there will be others along who may have some other recommendations. Hope this is of some help,

Sammy

A11kns
19-06-2014, 01:57 PM
Thanks for a great reply. I will forward to him (or give him this link) and see what he has.

A11kns
19-06-2014, 09:58 PM
Just spoke to him.. he has a Brother

Chunk
19-06-2014, 11:16 PM
We use both Wilcom and Corel Drawings, if he is familiar with CorelDraw then drawings is a great and easy starter option. But tbh we really only do text and very simple logo's with them now as it's cheaper to just get digitizing done form India, China etc.

ASO Embroidery
20-06-2014, 12:46 AM
Hi
Well its a single head Brother I run and Im more than happy with it but as I said in my earlier post your not restricted to what software you buy. It basically all comes down to cost and I would also add if the person wants to learn to digitise. I know that some people just aren't interested in doing the digitising them self and as chunk says in his post they farm it out to specialist digitising company's and that's fine if that suits you and your happy to just pay the charge and not need to worry about the design. at the end of the day you just need to loose the charge in your costing of the job. When I started I use to do the same but I wanted the challenge of doing the digitising myself and also if I do it myself and the customer changes something or the design is just not right I can normally fix it myself and not have to send it back to the company with the details and wait for the modified design to come back to me. I've had occasions when its been back a few times before it was the way I wanted it or should I say the way the customer wanted it. ( maybe just bad digitising ) LOL As chunk says in his post he finds it cheaper to do that I know that digitising charges have came down a great deal since I started but if its a complex design it can still cost a fair bit so from my point of view I would sooner have that money in my pocket than pass it on to someone else. Whatever he decides good luck in his endeavours.

Sammy

Limara
20-06-2014, 12:54 AM
Do you have any idea what your friend actually intends to do, if its lettering then you cant go wrong with embird and the font engine plug in which will digitize almost any font with very little imput.There are some fonts that do not digitize well.
I agree with Sammy with pe design although I think I can say it really is the worst software I have ever bought.
Learning to digitize in any software is a huge learning curve and will be many hours input to perfect it.

ASO Embroidery
20-06-2014, 01:16 AM
Hi Jenny,
I fully concur your probably right PE Design is the worst software out there LOL and it can be a big learning curve.

Sammy

Limara
20-06-2014, 12:08 PM
Hi Sammy lol it really is the worst, and such a high price tag on it as well! When I got my first home machine meany years ago the dealer told me it was the only way to get designs to the machine ( he lied)

The cost of any of the softwares for digitizing is very expensive and if you find you are only going to be doing lettering with it then its a lot of money to lay out when you can do almost automatic lettering with font engine and at a fraction of the cost of wilcom etc.
The basic embird program and iconiser are great you can do basic editing in the basic version, easily merge designs change fie formats, delete unwanted bits from already digitized designs,change colours etc.
The iconiser displays every design as a small picture thats a must when you have thousands of designs.They also have plug ins of alphabets which I think are only about 15$ each Font engine add on is a plug in to digitize any font and it does a very good job of it.
You can then add other modules at a later date and they also have a digitizing studio ( which I also dont rate a lot)
Embird Basic $164, Iconiser $20 , Font engine $145 ( or start out with a few of the pre-digitized fonts at 15$ each )
Dont go down the route of buying stock designs for the sheer hell of having them, It doesnt matter how many designs you have you never have the one that some one wants!

ASO Embroidery
20-06-2014, 05:33 PM
Hi Jenny,
Yup I don't really know much about Embird although I have heard good things about it. So I would have to say its a good way to go for not a massive amount of money and would get you started if your new to digitising. As I said in earlier post I run APS Ethos and you don't see a lot of change out of between 3 to 5 grand all depending on what level you want to buy but that's still cheaper than Wilcom which I think can cost up to 8 Grand. I went across to the Wilcom stand at the P AND P show to see what they would offer me as a trade in against my system and he still wanted about £3000 I told him he was having a Giraffe and I'll crack the jokes don't think he was best pleased. But I think Embird is just the ticket to start with besides as I said earlier you could buy expensive and then decide digitising is not for you and there is no way you would get your money back.

Sammy

Earl Smith
23-06-2014, 10:56 AM
Ive heard a lot of good things about Embird. If its only around $300 then try it. Then if business gets better and better then is the time to think about APS Ethos or Wilcom.

Chunk
24-06-2014, 09:10 PM
We also used to use Barudan Tes 2.0 (about 8-10 years ago, so newer versions will be available), this was great software and quite easy to use. But again we only used to to do simple edits so not sure of full digitizing. I personally think it is a very skilled thing to learn and if you have the time it would be quite handy. But prices have came down so much in the last 10-15 years that we can pretty much charge £10 set-up and still make a small profit for no time wasted, 100% satisfaction for every job. We run a 12 head and 4 single heads so our time is more profitable framing up than learning the software. As we worked as machinists for 10+ years before starting on our own we always just got designs gave to us ready to use. :) I also have a friend with a single head that sells digitizing so he has money to be made at both ends, and enjoys doing it.