We bought a new MacBook before I went to New Zealand in September last year. The justification was to make it easy to connect to wireless hot spots to access the Internet. It had proved too difficult to set up my PC laptop for wireless. Once we got back the MacBook was rather on the shelf.
However it has an Intel duo core processor which means it can run both Mac and Windows programs. Fine. But you have to decide how you are going to do this. There are various programs, some free and some expensive. I asked a question on an Internet mailing list and got a heap of replies from people who are using Macs to run the 4D embroidery program.
As a result we installed Parallels and I then installed the 4D Embroidery Pro programs. Success. Everything works fine, except 4D Sketch which requires a graphics tablet. The tablet that came with the 3D Sketch program only has a Windows driver. I did a lot of googling and couldn't even find the model for the tablet on the Wacom pages, so I emailed customer service and got a really prompt reply (Well done, Wacom!)
I downloaded the suggested driver but couldn't get the tablet to work on either the Mac or Windows side. Our own computer guru thought that the problem could be that the tablet just wasn't designed to work with Macs. Maybe a new tablet that WAS? I rang the major Apple reseller and the guy there was gloomy about the prospect of it all coming together.
Today I went to another, closer retailer and bought a new graphics pad. I was assured that if I couldn't get it to work I could take it back.
It has taken about three hours in all, and quite a bit of a work around, but now the tablet works with the program. I have written myself notes so I can replicate the accomplishment!
Showing posts with label 3D Sketch/4D Sketch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 3D Sketch/4D Sketch. Show all posts
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Saturday, June 2, 2007
4D Sketch
I played a bit with this software program today. The first start up exercise was very easy - I had done all the bits before and breezed through it.
I was looking forward to the second exercise which uses the decorative stitches on the machine - a function that wasn't available in the previous version. I must be very thick - I just could not get the program to do what it was supposed to do. So I gave up for the nonce and will try again, perhaps later tonight (though I have a new book calling me) or tomorrow morning and make sure that I don't skip anything. It is usually something quite small that messes up the result!
I loved the previous version and did quite a lot with it. Here is one of the A4 journal quilts I made last year for the Aus-NZ art quilters internet group. It is made from leftovers (test pieces for my entry to the Melville Art Awards).
I took some photos at the beach of vegetation that was thriving in barren beach sand, printed the photos on silk dupion and silk organza and used Sketch to make a freemotion design to stitch on top of the photos printed on dupion. One of the test stitch outs of the grass head was done on a piece of silk that had not printed properly, so I cut it out and appliqued it to a piece that HAD printed correctly but was not needed for the main piece. I also fused on a bit of an organza piece that was not up to scratch. The background is twin-needled to represent the furrows made by wind in the sand.
For me the best thing about this program is that you can use it to make free machine embroidery designs that you are happy with, then play with various backings and contexts and not have to worry about whether you will be able to replicate the work you have done. And if it doesn't work, you can always tweak it.
I was looking forward to the second exercise which uses the decorative stitches on the machine - a function that wasn't available in the previous version. I must be very thick - I just could not get the program to do what it was supposed to do. So I gave up for the nonce and will try again, perhaps later tonight (though I have a new book calling me) or tomorrow morning and make sure that I don't skip anything. It is usually something quite small that messes up the result!
I loved the previous version and did quite a lot with it. Here is one of the A4 journal quilts I made last year for the Aus-NZ art quilters internet group. It is made from leftovers (test pieces for my entry to the Melville Art Awards).
I took some photos at the beach of vegetation that was thriving in barren beach sand, printed the photos on silk dupion and silk organza and used Sketch to make a freemotion design to stitch on top of the photos printed on dupion. One of the test stitch outs of the grass head was done on a piece of silk that had not printed properly, so I cut it out and appliqued it to a piece that HAD printed correctly but was not needed for the main piece. I also fused on a bit of an organza piece that was not up to scratch. The background is twin-needled to represent the furrows made by wind in the sand.
For me the best thing about this program is that you can use it to make free machine embroidery designs that you are happy with, then play with various backings and contexts and not have to worry about whether you will be able to replicate the work you have done. And if it doesn't work, you can always tweak it.
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