Switching to Mac is now a lot easier
Sunday, July 4, 2010 at 4:11PM Most people who love sewing and machine embroidery have little interest in computers. They use them because their hobby requires it, and because they can connect with other enthusiasts using email and the World Wide Web. All of the machine manufacturers that provide machines capable of embroidery also provide software to create and manipulate embroidery designs. Because Microsoft Windows is the dominant operating system for the majority of computers, nearly all of the embroidery software available works only with Windows.
Unfortunately the popularity of Windows makes it a favorite of computer criminals, and users are obligated to keep their computers equipped with ever more sophisticated software to keep out intruders intent on installing malevolent programs. This makes using a Windows computer much more complicated, and stressful for users. The result has been a steady migration from Windows-based PCs to the Mac. Apple's operating system has a much better history, and while it can be argued that it's just as vulnerable to attack as Windows, the reality is that it has a phenomenally better track record.
For those with embroidery machines, the requirement of Windows has been a large hurdle to switch to Mac. While there are ways to run Windows on a Mac, this does nothing to get you away from the annoyances of using Windows. As a lifelong geek, I didn't let these annoyances stop me from switching to the Mac, but I've also been on a constant search for a native Mac program that would let me work with designs for Janome machines. I'm very happy to report that the program has been found. It's called Stitch Buddy, written by Matthias Arndt in Germany. Stitch Buddy lets me do just about anything I want with designs in the Janome JEF format, short of digitizing new ones. It uses the power of the Apple OS X operating system to provide the benefit of multiple Windows programs for much less cost. Here are some of my favorite features:
Integration with the Finder
The Finder in OS X works much like Windows Explorer. It lets you find (hence the name) files on your computer, open them, print them, copy, and more. Like some of the embroidery utilities made for Windows, Stitch Buddy lets you see your JEF file icons as resizable thumbnail views of the actual design. Click on one of these thumbnails and tap the space bar, and the finder will display the design using the Quick Look module provided by Stitch Buddy. This view will show a realistic display of the design, as well as the colors used to create it, the hoop required, finished design size, stitch count, and even the number of embedded jumps. All this information, and we haven't even opened the program yet!
The icon views and Quick Look make it easy to find a design, but Stitch Buddy offers powerful search tools that work in conjunction with Spotlight, the search tool built into OS X. You can search for designs by height or width, colors, or stitches. For example, if you need a design that is no wider than 500 millimeters and more than 180 millimeters high, Stitch Buddy will find all of the qualifying candidates. There is no Windows-based software that will do this!
Janome Support
Janome has produced a large number of embroidery-capable models, with many different hoops. Every JEF design contains an embedded code that specifies the hoop that it should be stitched in. Due to the wide range of conversion tools in the market, this code is sometimes incorrect. Many times I've had customers who have purchased designs that were refused by their machine, due to the hoop code being set to something that was too small to contain the design. Stitch Buddy allows you to change the hoop for any design, thus correcting the error. It also supports all of the hoops now in use by Janome, something that no other program does.
Stitch Buddy will open designs in both JEF and SEW formats, and saves them in JEF format. It saves in JEF, EXP, DST, or PCS formats, but that's not its real power. Getting designs from the computer to and ATA card or USB drive has always been a source of frustration for many Janome owners. The main problem is that there are many different folder structures between models, and getting designs into the right folder has been a challenge. Stitch Buddy neatly resolves this with its Export option. When you select it from the File menu, you get a dialog which allows you to select the device to receive the design, as well as the model of the target machine. It also includes a check box, which when checked will eject the USB media after saving the design on it in the folder of your choice. Even better, during the eject process Stitch Buddy will remove hidden files place on the USB media by OS X. These hidden files can create problems for some Janome models, so this extra service is a great help.
Editing
The features I've already mentioned are more than enough to justify the relatively modest price of Stitch Buddy. They make it a really good program. However the addition of editing features makes it a great program.
The editing process starts with selection. There are several different ways to select all or part of a design: by drawing a box around what you want, by clicking on the layer you want, or by clicking on individual stitches. That last one is best done in conjunction with the zoom option, which will let you get right in on the individual stitches. Selected items may be deleted, moved, resized (+/- 15%), rotated or flipped. The only other program that I know of that will allow this type of editing at the stitch level is EasyEdit in Janome's Digitizer Pro/MB, a Windows only program that costs a LOT more.
One of my favorite editing features of Stitch Buddy is the ability to cut, copy and paste parts of a design. I recently used this to save a 3-letter monogram. My customer had created the monogram with another program in her computer and stitched the first letter on her MB-4. Then, to her horror, she discovered that she had put the wrong letter in the middle! Since stitching had already started, it was critical not to change the placement or size of the design in any way. I opened the original design in Stitch Buddy and a second design containing the correct letter. I cut the incorrect letter from the center of the original design, then pasted in the correct one and moved it into position. She returned to her machine, opened the corrected design, stepped to the point of the second letter and finished stitching successfully. The entire process took only a few minutes and was very easy.
Support
I'm proud to have been a beta tester for version 2 of Stitch Buddy. Unlike some other Mac-based embroidery programs, Stitch Buddy was created only for the Mac. It looks and feels like a true Mac program, not a port of a Windows program. It's available as a fully functional download that allows you to test and use every feature before buying it. There is a very good help function built into the program, but Matthias has gone further and produced detailed videos explaining the features of the program. These can be found on the Stitch Buddy website. He also monitors many of the embroidery email lists and offers help to list members.
Conclusion
If you only work with purchased designs, then Stitch Buddy is all you need for the Mac. It's the single best tool I've ever found for working with Janome embroidery designs, and that includes all of the ones available for the PC. For those who need other software, such as Janome's Digitizer, Monogram Wizard, Buzz Tools, etc. then you will need to run Windows on your Mac. I recommend either Parallels or VMware Fusion for that. Both products are good, and both will require a copy of Windows to create the necessary virtual machine. There is a distinct advantage to using a virtual machine for your embroidery software. Because you use the Mac for web browsing and email, there is much less danger of virus. PC software seems much more stable in a virtual machine, and crashes happen a lot less often. Best of all, your software is "frozen" in time, and keeps working even if your computer and operating system get upgraded. This is yet another reason why Mac owners keep saying "It just works."
Reader Comments (5)
I am VERY new at all of this. I own a Mac and recently bought a Brother LB6800. I want to use designs and fonts that I see on several very applique websites, but I am told I need software to do that. Will this Stitchbuddy program let me "spell out" using the fonts I purchase? Or will I still have to embroider one letter at a time. Also, I understand that Brother is not compatible with Mac. My plan is to work on my designs and fonts on my computer. Then I will use a flashdrive to take it to my husbands PC and connect my sewing maching (comes w/ a USB port) to his computer to transfer the design. A pain in the butt, but I'll get use to it. Do you think this plan will work? Would there be an easier way?
Thank you!
I understand that you review and use Janome machines, but, being a professional and all, I thought you might have some insight into my issue.
To combine single letters to words, you have to open them individually in StitchBuddy and copy / paste the letters into a single design. In this process you can align the letters if required. Afterwards you copy only the final design to your embroidery machine.
According to its owner manual your embroidery machine accepts both, PES and DST files. Although StitchBuddy isn't able to write PES designs, you can save your modifications as a DST file. Just be aware that this file format doesn't contain any color information, so you'll need e. g. a printout to use the right threads when actually stitching the design.
I read the owner's manual carefully and am pretty sure that the Brother LB6800 can be used with a Mac: After connecting the EM with your Mac it should show up as a removable disk, to which you can copy designs (no subfolders). Why do I think this is true? The manual mentioned the requirement "Microsoft Windows Me/2000/XP/Vista (Windows 98SE requires a driver)." This indicates that the EM conforms to the "USB mass storage device standard" aka acts like a normal USB drive, something every Mac can connect to.
Just connect the EM to your Mac. If it shows up as a disk, copy a PES design to it. As this should work, modify the PES with StitchBuddy, save the result as DST and transfer this design as well.
HTH, Matthias
Thanks for the tip, never heard of stitch buddy.
Hi! I have a pc and the brother lb6800. A friend told me about stichbuddy because it was easy to use with purchased fonts and was reasonably priced, but obviously it is not made for my pc. Is there an equivalent that you would recommend that does run on the pc? I am overwhelmed by all the software options out there!
Just an update to my reply: StitchBuddy v2.2 is now able to save modified PES embroideries without changing the file format.