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machine embroidery software designs - any way to use T+ ?

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Connie:
I'm running Win7, TP build 4004.  I have an embroidery software design digitizing program that has a plug-in for Windows Explorer.  When I click on an embroidery file in Explorer, this plug-in shows a graphic in the Preview Pane (or when I choose "Sm, Med, Lg Icons") of what the design will look like when stitched out on an embroidery sewing machine.  

I haven't been able to figure out how to get T+ to display these embroidery design files.  I would really like to use T+ to view my designs, rather than using the emb. software program's Explorer plug-in.  

If the embroidery software company created a plug-in to do the above, is there any way I can take advantage of that ability and get T+ to display graphics within the T+ software without me having to use the emb. software to make a JPG file of every design file, just so I can view them in T+?  If I had to do that, it'd more than double the amount of storage these designs take now, and I've got ~25,000 files, give or take.

Any ideas?

Connie in MI

Daan van Rooijen:
Most embroidery programs and machines use proprietary formats that can't be read through other means. You don't mention the format, but chances that ThumbsPlus can read it are small, and unfortunately ThumbsPlus doesn't support Explorer plug-ins.

If their program happens to be an OLE server (e.g. to enable the use of their designs in MS Word), you might be able to get ThumbsPlus to read them. For that, you'd have to go to the file type definition for those design files (right-click on one and choose Configure Type), set 'Load Using' to 'OLE' and in the field to the right of that, pick their program from the list of OLE compatible programs found on your computer.

btw, one useful feature in TP for embroidery enthusiasts is its ability to reduce the color depth of an image to e.g. 12 best matching colors (if your machine has that many colors of yarn).

Connie:
Dan, doesn't OLE mean I can have the embroidery software open in one window, and drag in an emb. design file from Explorer into the software and it'll read it?  Because it'll let me do that.  But, when I try to drag and drop into MS Word, all I get is a link to the design file (which makes sense).

I tried doing Configure Type but it didn't work -- guess I'm up the creek.  Darn.  Darn. Darn.  Guess the only way is to make JPG files so T+ can help me. I really prefer T+ for viewing files.

Connie

> Most embroidery programs and machines use proprietary formats that can't be read through other means. You don't mention the format, but chances that ThumbsPlus can read it are small, and unfortunately ThumbsPlus doesn't support Explorer plug-ins.
>
> If their program happens to be an OLE server (e.g. to enable the use of their designs in MS Word), you might be able to get ThumbsPlus to read them. For that, you'd have to go to the file type definition for those design files (right-click on one and choose Configure Type), set 'Load Using' to 'OLE' and in the field to the right of that, pick their program from the list of OLE compatible programs found on your computer.
>
> btw, one useful feature in TP for embroidery enthusiasts is its ability to reduce the color depth of an image to e.g. 12 best matching colors (if your machine has that many colors of yarn).

Daan van Rooijen:
Here's a crazy idea that won't let you open the files in TP but it should give you thumbnails and (unless I'm overlooking something) allow you to open the files in other programs:

(Note: you still didn't mention the file format so I'll refer to it as .XYZ here)

[*]Make JPG versions of the files and copy those JPGs to a new folder.
[*]Rename their .jpg extensions to .xyz (cat.jpg becomes cat.xyz)
[*]Launch TP and go to that folder
[*]Go to Options | Preferences | Filetypes and create a definition for the .XYZ type and make it 'Equivalent to: JPG', then go back and thumbnail the .xyz files.
[*]Now exit TP, delete the fake .xyz files and copy the original .xyz files into that folder instead.
[*]Then re-launch TP, and verify that the thumbnails can still be seen, and you can drag and drop the files into your embroidery software. Note that TP will likely indicate that the files have changed (i.e. the thumbnails should be updated), but you must ignore that.
[/list]

Connie:
Well, Dan, it 'sorta' worked.  Seems like 'way more work to save the space that just making JPG files for each embroidery file would create.

But, it was a fun exercise and I thank you for that.  :)

Regards,
Connie

> Here's a crazy idea that won't let you open the files in TP but it should give you thumbnails and (unless I'm overlooking something) allow you to open the files in other programs:
>
> (Note: you still didn't mention the file format so I'll refer to it as .XYZ here)
>
> > [*]Make JPG versions of the files and copy those JPGs to a new folder.
> [*]Rename their .jpg extensions to .xyz (cat.jpg becomes cat.xyz)
> [*]Launch TP and go to that folder
> [*]Go to Options | Preferences | Filetypes and create a definition for the .XYZ type and make it 'Equivalent to: JPG', then go back and thumbnail the .xyz files.
> [*]Now exit TP, delete the fake .xyz files and copy the original .xyz files into that folder instead.
> [*]Then re-launch TP, and verify that the thumbnails can still be seen, and you can drag and drop the files into your embroidery software. Note that TP will likely indicate that the files have changed (i.e. the thumbnails should be updated), but you must ignore that.
> [/list]

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