Madquilter, I think you might be right depending on which machine. I still think the basic Pfaff is great. I will look for embroidery options in an emboidery only machine (my dealer agrees surprisingly) when I am ready to try the automated embroidery thing again.

I am now looking at a 7570, but I use Vista. Did you mean that Vista won't work with the 7570?

Check your version of Vista. Too make certain, you could e-mail Pfaff at the Pfaff.com site. There is a place (its on the left hand side) where you can ask the question. It figures I would delete the e-mail from that I got from them. I bought my 7570 when it first came out on the market and the software was designed for Windows 95. It worked until the operating system platforms changed. So it depends on what your computer uses, what updates you have installed, etc. I usually leave all the heavy questions to my techno-geek speek kids.

Basically, the answer I got was this... If you can get the software to talk to the machine it then you can use any design that is sold in as .pcs from anyone (on a floppy, CD, internet, etc). If you can't transfer designs, you can still use the emboidery unit on the machine but you have to buy the cards that are specific to the machine but Pfaff is not making those any more. You will have to find them from whatever stock is already existing.

I hope this makes sense. I know what I wanted to say, but I'm not sure it came out quite the way it should have.

I have a 2170 and absolutely love it.

Is it at a dealer? There were CD's with the machines (Creative VIP File Assistant) that allowed file transfer from a PC to the machine. I do not know if you can still get them at a dealer or you might find it on-line.

Definitely check the software. The 2170 came out much later than the 7570 and uses a totally different software. They aren't interchangeable.