Machine Embroidery info needed
12-31-2012, 09:01 AM
#11
Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 255
Just a couple of notes.
A good established Viking dealer will be able to upgrade your D-1 machine to USB. Warning, it's pricey. My two machines still use the floppys and work just fine.
You will need to obtain some sort of software to write the designs to floppys in the VIP, VP3. or HUS machine language. There are several software versions available that will work. Most versions will translate to the language you need. Also when buying designs online (or freebies) you specify the machine language you need.
My advice: fine a good Viking dealer and discuss the subject with them. I realize they wil ltry to get you to trade up to the newest machine. You don't need to do that. My dealer realizes that I am not made of money. They already have several thousand dollars of my money for a (used) machine, 3D Pro software, and lots of design packs. I make a point of stopping in frequently to chat, show'n'tell my latest project, and buy at least a yard of fabric. They realize am retired and SS is not a fortune. But I am still a customer.
We all need to realize that face to face is sometimes necessary to comunicate. Several digitizers also do traveling workshops at local dealers. Anita Goodesign, John Deere, and Walter Floriani are all good, and friendly. $35.00 is reasonable for a 6-8 hr program. Go for it!
A good established Viking dealer will be able to upgrade your D-1 machine to USB. Warning, it's pricey. My two machines still use the floppys and work just fine.
You will need to obtain some sort of software to write the designs to floppys in the VIP, VP3. or HUS machine language. There are several software versions available that will work. Most versions will translate to the language you need. Also when buying designs online (or freebies) you specify the machine language you need.
My advice: fine a good Viking dealer and discuss the subject with them. I realize they wil ltry to get you to trade up to the newest machine. You don't need to do that. My dealer realizes that I am not made of money. They already have several thousand dollars of my money for a (used) machine, 3D Pro software, and lots of design packs. I make a point of stopping in frequently to chat, show'n'tell my latest project, and buy at least a yard of fabric. They realize am retired and SS is not a fortune. But I am still a customer.
We all need to realize that face to face is sometimes necessary to comunicate. Several digitizers also do traveling workshops at local dealers. Anita Goodesign, John Deere, and Walter Floriani are all good, and friendly. $35.00 is reasonable for a 6-8 hr program. Go for it!
12-31-2012, 11:59 AM
#13
Super Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Tennessee, UC area
Posts: 1,582
I have 2 older Brother machines that use floppies OR design cards. I have the PE Design software, but it is much easier to just put my designs on a floppy and go to the machine. If you want to discuss how I do it, I can walk you thru the steps from downloading the design from the internet site to actually transferring to the floppy. Been doing it for 8 yrs at least. The only items needed are a floppy (3.5" floppy) drive, either already installed in your computer or an external. I have 2 from ebay that cost about $12 ea. (got a back-up!) You need a computer with USB port. You need a free program to re-format your designs in case you don't download the correct format for your machine. The rest is eezy peezy. Be happy to list the steps for you. Just pm me.
12-31-2012, 12:21 PM
#14
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Oklahoma
Posts: 323
I have a D-1 machine I love, both for stitching and the embroidery. When I purchased a new computer I found the Dongle was not compatable with the new computer. To up grade the local Viking dealer quoted $500. and the machine would be worth $500. I have not checked into it since as I have a newer Phaff machine. I would like to know though what you find out. The software I was using was the Viking Customizing and also Embird the format is HUS if I remember correctly. I still have and use the machine for regular sewing and design stitches.
12-31-2012, 01:21 PM
#15
Power Poster
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Michigan
Posts: 11,276
One other clarification. It's not that conversion software can't create a D1 file, the sticking point is that the floppy is reformatted in a specific way that the D1 will read. I am a retired Sr. Software Engineer with 35 years experience. I futzed around with this trying to create the proprietary file structure and finally gave up. YOu need the software that will format the floppy and move the file, not just translate the file for you to copy.
Also, as someone else mentioned, 3D and 4D will only run on windows 95 or lower. I just kept an older machine for this purpose.
Also, as someone else mentioned, 3D and 4D will only run on windows 95 or lower. I just kept an older machine for this purpose.
12-31-2012, 03:40 PM
#16
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Montana
Posts: 62
CKcrowl was good in explaining this. You first save the designs to your computer or straight to the floppies. I'd say save them to the pc first with orginal name and in a folder with the company's name so that if you ever need to download them again you know where you got them from and their orginal name. When the popup message comes up with what you want to do save or open do a save as and then it'll allow you to pick the path where the folder is and save it in that folder. The external drive will show up under My Computer as an external drive
and you can click on the file, right click and do either a send to and pick the external drive or a save as again and then chose a name that identifies the design, like dog, Christmas, etc and it should go to your disk.
Question, do you have either 3D or 4D organizer that normally comes with Vikings, its up to 5D now, that's what I have. The organizer is a great tool and you can store and view your designs in it. The only time a dongle is required is when you upgrade to a higher version. Mine came with 5D but I bought 5D Pro so I need a dongle to show what parts of it I have access to. If you need more info on this let me know. You can also get infor on the 4D organizer at mrpatience.com.
For the manual; go to Vikings website and if you don't see a place to download the manual at the bottom of the page there is a link for support for hardware and software. Email them both and let them know that you need a manual for your machine. Plus if you look on the links under designs you can see where each month you can download a free design and project. They also have some tutorials so it's worth checking out Vikings site.
Also for your machine there is a site that has infor on your machine. I also have the Viking #1 and I ordered the CD for it and got lots of good info. It doesn't appear that it's updated anymore (I think to deaths in the family) but it does have your machine and you can email them to see if the CD's are still available. The link is sewmuch4retirement.com.
I hope at least some of this helps. Yes, there are tons of free designs out there. I have some really good sites that offer them. Good luck and let me know if I can help in anyother way.
and you can click on the file, right click and do either a send to and pick the external drive or a save as again and then chose a name that identifies the design, like dog, Christmas, etc and it should go to your disk.
Question, do you have either 3D or 4D organizer that normally comes with Vikings, its up to 5D now, that's what I have. The organizer is a great tool and you can store and view your designs in it. The only time a dongle is required is when you upgrade to a higher version. Mine came with 5D but I bought 5D Pro so I need a dongle to show what parts of it I have access to. If you need more info on this let me know. You can also get infor on the 4D organizer at mrpatience.com.
For the manual; go to Vikings website and if you don't see a place to download the manual at the bottom of the page there is a link for support for hardware and software. Email them both and let them know that you need a manual for your machine. Plus if you look on the links under designs you can see where each month you can download a free design and project. They also have some tutorials so it's worth checking out Vikings site.
Also for your machine there is a site that has infor on your machine. I also have the Viking #1 and I ordered the CD for it and got lots of good info. It doesn't appear that it's updated anymore (I think to deaths in the family) but it does have your machine and you can email them to see if the CD's are still available. The link is sewmuch4retirement.com.
I hope at least some of this helps. Yes, there are tons of free designs out there. I have some really good sites that offer them. Good luck and let me know if I can help in anyother way.
12-31-2012, 04:37 PM
#17
Super Member
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 1,165
If that machine will take VIP and VIP3 there are other boxes that write that format available. Amazing designs will write, Buzz Edit has one, Embird is another, and there are new softwares out. Allbrands has a very good sewing forum. There are also Yahoo groups for that machine.
I have the Pfaff 2170. got disgusted with Pfaff/Viking software and switched to Babylock's Designers Gallery. My Pfaff uses cards, but Studio lets me save to the computer.
Newer software might deal with Windows 7 and 8. Some of the older programs had trouble with Vista. However, a Vista or XP Laptop is not expensive right now. There is also software for a Mac now.
I have the Pfaff 2170. got disgusted with Pfaff/Viking software and switched to Babylock's Designers Gallery. My Pfaff uses cards, but Studio lets me save to the computer.
Newer software might deal with Windows 7 and 8. Some of the older programs had trouble with Vista. However, a Vista or XP Laptop is not expensive right now. There is also software for a Mac now.
12-31-2012, 04:45 PM
#18
Super Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Tennessee, UC area
Posts: 1,582
[QUOTE=PaperPrincess;5752761]One other clarification. It's not that conversion software can't create a D1 file, the sticking point is that the floppy is reformatted in a specific way that the D1 will read. I am a retired Sr. Software Engineer with 35 years experience. I futzed around with this trying to create the proprietary file structure and finally gave up. YOu need the software that will format the floppy and move the file, not just translate the file for you to copy.
Also, as someone else mentioned, 3D and 4D will only run on windows 95 or lower. I just kept an older machine for this purpose.[/QUOTE
This I do not understand, unless the emb machine requires some special kind of formatting. I have WinXP and I format and reformat the 3.5 disks on my computer. Then I transfer my designs from MY DOCUMENTS (which happens to be where I keep them all--either singularly or in folders. I have embrilliance that allows seeing the images. My .pes designs just hop on board the floppy and stitch right out in the machine. Is this Viking some special sort of machine that requires software? It is really confusing me - I need to stufy up on this since I've only owned Brothers and Berninas.
Also, as someone else mentioned, 3D and 4D will only run on windows 95 or lower. I just kept an older machine for this purpose.[/QUOTE
This I do not understand, unless the emb machine requires some special kind of formatting. I have WinXP and I format and reformat the 3.5 disks on my computer. Then I transfer my designs from MY DOCUMENTS (which happens to be where I keep them all--either singularly or in folders. I have embrilliance that allows seeing the images. My .pes designs just hop on board the floppy and stitch right out in the machine. Is this Viking some special sort of machine that requires software? It is really confusing me - I need to stufy up on this since I've only owned Brothers and Berninas.
01-01-2013, 06:08 AM
#19
Super Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: New England, USA
Posts: 2,959
One other clarification. It's not that conversion software can't create a D1 file, the sticking point is that the floppy is reformatted in a specific way that the D1 will read. I am a retired Sr. Software Engineer with 35 years experience. I futzed around with this trying to create the proprietary file structure and finally gave up. YOu need the software that will format the floppy and move the file, not just translate the file for you to copy.
I saw that 4D organizer can be purchased from both the Pfaff and Viking dealers as a stand alone module - I did see it advertised with a price on one site for around $110 new.
Again - good advice from several - call or go into a VH dealer and ask questions about your D1, Software requirements and transferring designs. You can also ask the same software questions to a Pfaff dealer (trust me they are the exact same - identical - programs supported by the exact same tech folks).
Good luck
01-01-2013, 07:34 AM
#20
Super Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Norfolk, VA
Posts: 5,397
PaperPrincess is correct here again - the actual file structure of the floppy is a proprietary structure and can not be created by ANY other programs (except for Pfaff - as Pfaff and VH are one in the same the Pfaff 3D abd 4D programs will create all the VH file formats including the D1).
However --- 4D WILL run on Windows 7 without any problems (at least on mine - lol). My laptop is Win 7 and my 4D runs perfectly on it. I do know that the 3D precursor (I think it is the one that Ioftheneedle commented on - Viking Customizing VIP ) will only run on much older Operating Systems. I think that the 3D is written to perform on XP machines - but have seen on some blogs that folks have gotten it to work on Win 7.
I saw that 4D organizer can be purchased from both the Pfaff and Viking dealers as a stand alone module - I did see it advertised with a price on one site for around $110 new.
Again - good advice from several - call or go into a VH dealer and ask questions about your D1, Software requirements and transferring designs. You can also ask the same software questions to a Pfaff dealer (trust me they are the exact same - identical - programs supported by the exact same tech folks).
Good luck
However --- 4D WILL run on Windows 7 without any problems (at least on mine - lol). My laptop is Win 7 and my 4D runs perfectly on it. I do know that the 3D precursor (I think it is the one that Ioftheneedle commented on - Viking Customizing VIP ) will only run on much older Operating Systems. I think that the 3D is written to perform on XP machines - but have seen on some blogs that folks have gotten it to work on Win 7.
I saw that 4D organizer can be purchased from both the Pfaff and Viking dealers as a stand alone module - I did see it advertised with a price on one site for around $110 new.
Again - good advice from several - call or go into a VH dealer and ask questions about your D1, Software requirements and transferring designs. You can also ask the same software questions to a Pfaff dealer (trust me they are the exact same - identical - programs supported by the exact same tech folks).
Good luck
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