Creative articles about embroidery

Lesson 5: BERNINA Embroidery Software V8: Zoom Toolbar and other zoom/pan functions

A small amount of commands with this Zoom Toolbar, but you will use the functions often: zooming in and out and panning. 

zoomtoolbar
These options are available via two icons: the ‘magnifying glass’ and the ‘hand’. In between you will find a field with a number, and a small arrow to the right, for filling out the Zoom Factor. 

To practice, I have placed an embroidery motif from the BERNINA Embroidery Library on my workspace: FL868.ART.80 – a beautiful butterfly and a flower. 


To see more details, I can zoom in: using the icon ‘Zoom’ while the cursor of the mouse transforms into a magnifying glass.


To show more details with the butterfly, I left-click to zoom. With every left-click, more details are showing, which means I can edit small pieces of the objects much better. I can also right-click to zoom out, with every right-click, the butterfly will be smaller. 


I can also drag a marquee (dotted square = selection) to zoom an area, just drag and release, and the selected area is shown much closer.


When zooming in, the embroidery object is enlarged to a particular scale, which can be seen in the Zoom Factor Field: 682. That means this is a percentage, indicating the actual size (= 682%). Normally 100 (%) is the default setting.  If you want to change this number directly in the field, just click on the current number, change it and press Enter. 

If you want to see the entire embroidery motif, click on the arrow on the right of the field, and choose ‘Scale to Fit’. Or – if you want to see how the embroidery motif fits in a hoop, choose ‘To Hoop’. Some percentages with the Zoom Factor are set, but you can fill out any number, as long as it is practicable.


And if your mouse has a scroll bar (middle), move this wheel forward or backwards, to zoom in or zoom out: this works much faster, but cannot be set on a certain number = random zooming. You can ‘set’ scroll options by using Auto Scroll: click on the General Toolbar/Options/Tab ‘Scrolling’. Choose another setting by checking the options with Auto Scroll and/or Mouse wheel behaviour. After changing, click on ‘OK’.


Extremely zooming out is done to get an overview: either to oversee a large embroidery motif, placing that and the hoop together, or to get an idea of the work area you want to use, e.g. with multi hooping. 


Have you noticed how the rulers are changing, when zooming in (or out)? The numbers are set differently, and the spaces between the numbers/indicators for measurements too:

Want to use a shortcut when zooming in and out? With the Zoom-icon inactive, use the ‘B’ of your keyboard. Just left-click on an empty field of your workspace, use the ‘b’ (small letter) and the special zoom-cursor appears. Click as many times as you want to enlarge. Again, with the Zoom-icon inactive, right-click, use ‘b’ and it will zoom out with every click.
You can also use Zoom via the docker ‘Overview Window‘, by clicking on the icon above, available at the General Toolbar. 


The Overview Window is used to view design thumbnails: you can enlarge these by dragging the left grey bar, or reduce them by pushing the bar back into the default position.

It updates whenever you make a change. Click on the icon at the General Toolbar, or click on the Tab on the right of your workspace. You can ‘set’ the docker ‘Overview Window’ by clicking on the pin – when it is in the down-position, the window stays. Clicking again on the pin, and the window closes after a few seconds. 

There is a zoom box on the bottom-left of the Overview Window: click on it, and click (or left-click) and drag a marquee over the section you want to enlarge in the window on your actual embroidery motif. Click again, and right-click and drag a marquee, and the section reduces the motif.

Press Esc (Escape), Enter or the Spacebar keys to exit Zoom mode.


But wait… there is more! Zooming/panning commands are also available when clicking on ‘Zoom’ with the Menu Bar/View. Click on the right zoom option. There are some shortcuts behind many options: try them to see if they are working for you. Notice that whatever function you will use via these options, the Zoom icon on the Zoom Toolbar is activated/yellow. Let me walk you through this:
Zoom B = small ‘b’ of your keyboard
Zoom 1:1 = the ‘1’ of your keyboard = 100%


Zoom Factor…. F = small ‘f’ on your keyboard. You can manually change the scale, then click on ‘OK’.
Zoom In 1.25x  + = Shift plus on your keyboard.
Zoom Out 1.25x  – = Minus (hyphen or dash) key  on your keyboard.
Zoom In 2x Z = small ‘z’ on your your keyboard.
Zoom Out 2x  F10 = F10 key, top of your keyboard.
Zoom to Fit 0 = Zero key on your keyboard. Don’t use the capital ‘o’; that doesn’t work!
Zoom to Selected Shift+0 = first select = click and drag marquee, then Shift+ Zero.
(Zoom to Article is grayed out at the moment, Zoom to Hoop = embroidery motif to fit in hoop on your workspace).pan
The last function with the Zoom Toolbar is ‘Panning’ (mentioned before with the Overview Window). Useful when moving your enlarged motif to the spot you want to edit.


Clicking on the icon (hand), the cursor changes into a grabbing hand, indicating all other functions are disabled, and you can (only) click and drag across your design window. Don’t forget to click on the icon again, to disable this function.
Shortcut: use the ‘P’of your keyboard. Click on any field of your workspace, click ‘b’ and the cursor changes. Click on ‘b’ again, and you can edit.


Panning in the Overview Window
is done by moving the cursor inside the zoom box: it changes into a four-way arrow cursor. Just drag and drop, to move to that section. For panning large areas, you don’t need to have a marquee selected: just drag the four-way arrow in the Overview Window. If you do have selected a marquee/special area, you can only see the four-way arrow within the selection. Use this selection to shift and place it somewhere else on the motif in the Overview Window, to pan to another area. You can see the area on your design window changing with it. (Click on the workspace again, and the Overview Window disappears).

You can also Pan via Menu Bar/View, then clicking on ‘Pan’. Notice that the Pan function on the Zoom Toolbar is activated/yellow.

TRIVIA: the word ‘Panning’ is derived from the verb ‘to pan’= washing gold. Can you imagine those guys in the 19th century, deposit materials scooped into a pan, slowly moving it around just below the water of a river, until only the gold remained… if there was any. This movement (of the pan) is similar to what you are doing when using the indicated function. You will not strike gold, but it works the same.

Just a small Toolbar, this Zoom Toolbar, but with a lot of possibilities. The more you try these options and use them, the easier it gets. Next time: the Travel Toolbar. See you then!

 

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

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