Ann The Gran Community

I just downloaded the trial of CatalogExpress and it looks fabulous!  I am a novice ME so I have a question that seems silly, but I have been adding everything to my card and it is moving really slow.  In looking at this software, it seems I should have another place to store designs and move as needed to my card.  Is that a better way?  I thought I would need to by lots of cards, but maybe not.  Thanks, Billie

Billie,

I store my designs on a thumb drive and a regular external hard drive. I never trust one source of storage. My machine happens to have a usb port that I can just pop it into. Otherwise, my thought is to just transfer from the external drive to your card the design that you are working on at the time. The only cards I use are the ones that happen to come with designs on them. I would think that would become very expensive to buy all those cards. You will be able to store thousands of designs on a thumb drive and they are not very expensive.

Nancy

Hi, Billie.

Is the card you are referring to a rewritable memory card?   I do not know of any method of moving the designs that would be faster other than a faster PC.

I am not familiar with CX other than reading their ad.  It seems to be a very useful program. 

I have other programs that I use and find it helpful to rename the designs so they are easy to recognize.  From there I set up files for various categories (flowers, flags, horses, cars, etc).  This makes it a little faster to find the designs.

An extra card can be useful, especially if the brand you are using doesn't hold but a few at a time.

It is also a good idea to back up the files in case of a PC malfunction.  You can do this with a cd, flash drive (aka, thumb drive/flash stick/media stick) or a purchased program that back ups and stores all files and documents off site (something like Norton - there are others).

Best wishes and much fun with your machine embroidery.

Pattiann

Granny and Pattieann have some good information.  I do have a couple of tips for you as well.

• CateglogExpress is a 'data' information software.  It does not 'hold' the design in its area, it saves the information only.  That is good because you can manipulate that information.  For instance, you can put floral designs in 'flowers' and when you look for something, you won't be seeing all your designs, just the ones YOU placed in 'flowers.'  It does other things as well, but we want to address your question of storage.
• When you are ready to 'sew out' a design, you will use a different software for that purpose.  Mine is PE-Basic which handles .pes designs.  When you use this software, you will save to a blank disk.  You can get blank disks for about $70.  Don't override a disk that has copyright designs or you will lose your purchased designs. 
• Use of a 'thumbdrive' is one method to use, if your machine has a 'USB' port.  If the machine does not have that port, a thumbdrive won't work, duh.  LOL  However, lets assume that you do have that port.  If you load 500 designs onto that thumbdrive, you will still have to look through all of them for the one you want.  It takes time for an embroidery machine to recognize that many designs, then you have to select it.  It is not necessarily the most efficient method to use.  In addition, if you have your designs in 'folders' on the thumbdrive, the embroidery machine cannot read through that folder.  Your embroidery machine is computerized for embroidery designs, not for being a true 'computer.'  You need to determine if all this will work for your needs.
• You do not need many cards.  I do happen to have 3, but that was because I wanted to be able to keep them for different uses.  One card will do very nicely.  You can put (size dependent) a dozen designs on the card for future use, but if you need a different design, you will place it on that card, erasing the original dozen designs.

I hope this helps.  Please do check out my Blog on needles.  I also have one on stabilizers and hooping.  We were all beginners at one time and frankly, we are all still learning!

Best wishes to you and yours, Pat 

billiec:

I just downloaded the trial of CatalogExpress and it looks fabulous!  I am a novice ME so I have a question that seems silly, but I have been adding everything to my card and it is moving really slow.  In looking at this software, it seems I should have another place to store designs and move as needed to my card.  Is that a better way?  I thought I would need to by lots of cards, but maybe not.  Thanks, Billie

Yes you are right Catalog express is OK but a bit of a hassle to import and add new designs, Sewiconz works much better, you can view your designs from windows explorer and it cost about a 1/4 the price of catalog express.