By philipp on
Jan. 24, 2017
Hey guys! :)
for an embroidery-noob, do you have any tips / best practices for organizing your pattern files?
Ideally I'm looking for something that:
- shows an image preview of the pattern (like Embrid Iconizer)
- let's me add a bunch of notes to a file (where it came from etc)
- has a simple search (e.g. image is a bird, it would be awesome to search for "animal" and have it show up as well!)
Any advice?
Re: Organizing embroidery files
Great answer! :)
Being able to see whats inside a pattern file without having to open it is really a big help. PDFs are a good solution, Embird Iconizer (or similar) seem to be a valid alternative too.
How about keeping backups of your files? Or syncing across multiple devices? I feel like there should be a dedicated (online) service just for managing embroidery files, seeing as there are so many. That service should support a simple search, basic editing / conversions, note taking ability and organizing. Is this just me or are there more people looking for this?
Re: Organizing embroidery files
Since we built our own custom website I really cannot answer to those items. But I do know that we host through RackSpace and while they are NOT cheap ($800 to $1000 per month!) they do a complete backup of all of our pages two times a day...so the most we could potentially lose would be 12 hours of work?
today we are at design number 233,114 so that is A LOT of unique pages to store and keep track of. Each digitizer also keeps a folder on their own computer to store all the designs they do each year... so we each just started a 2017 folder.
Also a few years ago I tried to think of design types we commonly get requests for.. the American Flag for example... and searched as much a possible and wrote them down on paper...curved, wavy, straight, etc. So if my on line search does not work I can go to my paper research. Not fun or easy, but glad I took that time.
I agree with you there must be a better way! Not sure if there are enough digitizers that would be willing to pay though to make it a viable business opportunity? What do you think?
Modern Embroidery Designer
volant-tech.com
volantfineart.com
Re: Organizing embroidery files
What do you reckon is the most expensive / complex part about your website?
I am thinking of building an online embroidery design organizer. While this would be primarily aimed at hobby users that have a small machine at home, it might also make sense to include actual firms.
What do you think, is going "online" to organize files an issue?
Re: Organizing embroidery files
Great Question!
Our clients enter their own orders on our website which means they are in control of the project name they prefer... KofC could mean Knights of Columbus or even Kentucky Fried Chicken if they are not careful. lol. Emory? ESU? EU? John Young(the rep maybe) a random number... have no clue sometimes why they enter what they do! But each order has a PDF image attached to it so if we have to assist we just look at the project names that MIGHT make sense and check those PDF images.
Not the best, but that is how we assist clients in finding their previous designs if needed.
Sounds like you might be doing more of a "stock design" program instead? So you digitize and sell that file to multiple people where we normally are only interested in helping the client at hand in finding the design they already paid for 10 years ago, etc.
Maybe a simple Excel spreadsheet? OR we used to print out the pdfs and put them in a 3 ring binder in multiple spots... so might be under ANIMAL, and another print out under CAT? etc.. to help us find something when we first started.
Modern Embroidery Designer
volant-tech.com
volantfineart.com