Creative articles about embroidery

Lesson 1: BERNINA Embroidery Software V8: the beginning

I remember it well: March 25, 2017. The first day of my adventure with the BERNINA Embroidery Software 8 – DesignerPlus (V8)”: I already had a fascination for machine embroidery, and now I was able to create, edit and design my own motifs. Even more exciting was that BERNINA asked me to write for their Dutch Blog, to help users understand the software too. Now – April 2019 –  I will also post for the English BERNINA Blog, helping even more (international) BERNINA embroiderers to use its full potential.

I’d like to invite you to join me on this amazing adventure: ‘to explore strange new functions, to seek out new designs, to boldly go where no embroiderer has gone before…. ‘* But all kidding aside, from this day forward you will find ‘lessons’ about V8: a couple of times a month, to guide you through the embroidery software.

SAM_5143
The day the postman brought me the parcel – which was of a good size – I could not resist unpacking it right away. I removed layer after layer and to my surprise, a small box remained. I did not expect this, but then again: it’s all on a USB stick!

Program installed: very easy, just follow the directons on the computer screen and it’s ready to use. But before you can make beautiful embroidery motifs, you will have to know how to use its funcions. Makes sense, right? Now, I am very thoroughly figuring out how something works: I will always click on every icon, look at every pull-down menu, until I understand what I am doing. That is what I advise you to do too. So here we go: together we will travel through this extensive software.


Is your software V8 installed? Open it to see this: an overwhelming amount of icons on a design window. The best way to get familiar with the software is to  see what toolbars are available; let’s take a look.

titelbalk
Software V8 opens with the Embroidery Canvas: at the top you will find the Title bar: the name of the software is indicated. All toolbars from top to bottom are:


The Menu bar – File, Edit, View, Design, Arrange, Artwork, Settings, Window and Help: click on one of these and more options appear. 


The Canvas toolbar, for importing to Art Canvas, digitize and editing in Embroidery Canvas, opening the Embroidery Library  and converting Embroidery to Artwork. 

Have you noticed the rows of vertical dots, at the beginning of a tool bar? These are ‘handles’ to click and drag that toolbar to another area of your workspace. For now the default setting is ok, but it is important to know that you can customize the setting of your workspace. 


The General toolbar, for opening and outputting designs. Also for accessing design properties and opening and closing docker windows, insert embroidery and insert artwork and much more.

viewtoolbar
The View toolbar: for design visualization, like showing artistic view, dim artwork, stitches outlines, needle points, show bitmap or vector artwork, Stumpwork, applique fabric, hoops and grids, and more.

zoomtoolbar
The Zoom toolbar: for zooming and panning designs.

traveltoolbar
The Travel toolbar: for checking the stitching sequence of a design, while traveling through it by stitches, color or objects. 


The  Transform toolbar: for selecting, reshape, scale, rotate and mirror embroidery designs. 


The Stitches toolbar is at the bottom of the design window : stitch types for outlines and fills can be choosen, with different stitch effects. 

effecttoolbar
The  Effects toolbar: tools to create artistic effects like morphing, warping, 3D Globe Effect, but also for underlay, corners and curved stitching. 

colortoolbar
The Color palette: this displays thread colors, with tools for selecting, applying, cycling through colors, adding color, removing color etc. 


The Status bar: information about your design: number of stitches, width and height, and more. Nothing is placed on my workspace yet, therefore it says ‘Empty Design’.


To the right, placed vertically, you will find ‘dockers‘: these are for key functions. They are indicated as Color Film, Overview Window, Morphing Effect, Carving Stamp, CutWork Border and My Threads. The dockers are nested by default, to increase your workspace. Each docker works like a tab: click on the name and a minimized docker will ‘fly out’, so you then can use all its functions. You can remove these dockers, and place them back again. You will learn more about them later.   


Don’t forget the toolbar on the left: these command buttons can be used for creating and editing in V8. Believe me: you will use them a lot! I have activated ‘Edit’ by clicking on this command button: all options are now opened in a menu, below the initial command button. Only visible functions are active and available for direct use. In disabled state, the functions are grayed-out. To activate them, you will have to select an object or part of your embroidery. 

Just click on a toolbar button to activate a command: left-click to activate; right-click to ajust the settings etc. Go for it: try it out to get familiar with this wonderful embroiderysoftware V8. 

Next time we’re going to use the functions op the Canvas Toolbar. See you then!

 

Happy stitching!
Sylvia Kaptein
Sylvia’s Art Quilts Studio
www.sylviasartquilts.nl
[email protected]

 

*Freely translated from Star Trek!

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  • Alma Brine EditEditing comments on the BERNINA blog is only possible after logging in with a blog user account. Sign up now or create a user account if you do not have one yet.

    Hi Sylvia, I have a Bernina Deco (bernette 340) embroidery machine. My question is, I would like to create my own designs, however I’m not 100% sure how to begin.When I purchased this machine , I also purchased software (with over 1000 designs on- I never used it and now ithe operating system is notcompatable for my disk (1000 designs on)).1.How do I get started creating my ow designs, just using the Deco machine?. 2. Can I or can someone transfer the software I purchased to run on  the latest version of  Mircosoft operating system?, In order for me to access all the designs? – if so what do I need to do  (one of my computer friends looked at it and could not help me).Thought someone could transfer the data on to a disk,, allowing me to get started? 3.I would like to utilise my machine more – at the presnt time I don’t have spare funds for a new machine, hence the request for help.4 Thought if Bernina have a system were they ask people to test their machines out- if this is something they do I am very interested Kind regards Alma 

    • ramonawirth EditEditing comments on the BERNINA blog is only possible after logging in with a blog user account. Sign up now or create a user account if you do not have one yet.

      Dear Alma,
      Can you please tell me exactly which software you have? Then I can ask our team if there is a way to help.
      Kind regards, Ramona from Bernina International

    • ramonawirth EditEditing comments on the BERNINA blog is only possible after logging in with a blog user account. Sign up now or create a user account if you do not have one yet.

      Hy Drienie,

      Do you mean the embroidery software lessons? Yes, Sylvia has written a total of 39 lessions about the V8, all of which you can access for free on the BERNINA Blog. Just visit her profile to see all her posts:

      Sylvia Kapteins Profile

      Enjoy!

    • Sylvia Kaptein EditEditing comments on the BERNINA blog is only possible after logging in with a blog user account. Sign up now or create a user account if you do not have one yet.

      I understand from some users V8 that they do, Holly. If you want to know more about using V8 on a Mac, please contact BERNINA website

  • Jeannine Ryan EditEditing comments on the BERNINA blog is only possible after logging in with a blog user account. Sign up now or create a user account if you do not have one yet.

    So excited!

    I bought my 830 emb machine when they first came out, had to wait for it there was a long line ahead of me. Took classes but never enough, so thru the years I became frustrated realizing there was so much this machine could do and I wanted to know. Finally after ten years or so the 830 is coming back around with videos and I am so grateful. Thank you to all responsible for this wonderful endeavor. I and I’m sure there are many like me who really feel the same way.

    • Gail Barley EditEditing comments on the BERNINA blog is only possible after logging in with a blog user account. Sign up now or create a user account if you do not have one yet.

      I agree with Jeannine . We need to learn all we can, so much to learn. Thanks for these videos

  • Elaine Pienaar EditEditing comments on the BERNINA blog is only possible after logging in with a blog user account. Sign up now or create a user account if you do not have one yet.

    Thank you so much.  Bought V8 when it was available in shop.  No lessons so far. So I really appreciate you doing this.  Will we be able to download in PDF or videos to save in case we want to refer back.

    • Sylvia Kaptein EditEditing comments on the BERNINA blog is only possible after logging in with a blog user account. Sign up now or create a user account if you do not have one yet.

      Hi Elaine,
      You will have so much fun with V8: the lessons will be there as long as the BERNINA Blog excists. If you want to print them, select the text, copy, paste it in Word, and print. But be aware, sometimes there are a lot of pages when printing!

      With the Dutch BERNINA Blog, we are beyond lesson 120 already, so many more lessents to come on the International/English BERNINA Blog, because I am re-writing almost all of them for International V8-Users!

  • sylvia Kaptein EditEditing comments on the BERNINA blog is only possible after logging in with a blog user account. Sign up now or create a user account if you do not have one yet.

    Venora,
    A Laptop with enough storage space is ok, but I think for specifications the best thing to do is to ask the computer dealer: tell them what you want: big screen? Enough Mb memory space? Good quality Graphics card? etc.
    It all depends on your budget too. But they are the experts….

    Sylvia

  • Venora Smith EditEditing comments on the BERNINA blog is only possible after logging in with a blog user account. Sign up now or create a user account if you do not have one yet.

    Hi Sylvia,  How do i find out the best information for buying a laptop for the V8 software. Can you email me with information.

    • Sylvia Kaptein EditEditing comments on the BERNINA blog is only possible after logging in with a blog user account. Sign up now or create a user account if you do not have one yet.

      Hi Irene,

      Yes, V8 is compatible with Windows10, with the update, because of the new version of CorelDRAW.  You can check if the update is installed with Help/check for updates.

  • Shelley Skudowitz EditEditing comments on the BERNINA blog is only possible after logging in with a blog user account. Sign up now or create a user account if you do not have one yet.

    I hadn’t used my embroidery (V6) for 7 years and had lost all my confidence.
    Last year I bought Version 8 but have not had the initiative to start.
    Sylvia,( and Bernina) THANK YOU for these lessons, I think I’m ready to take out my machine.

  • babsie moore EditEditing comments on the BERNINA blog is only possible after logging in with a blog user account. Sign up now or create a user account if you do not have one yet.

    thank you so much.  I am looking forward to the lessons.

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