First--welcome to Cute~ Can't help your addiction--we only feed it :) What kind of machine did you get, and what software are you using now?

Welcome and good luck with that, lol. I went into this blind last Christmas and have been inching along. I can't afford software to make my own designs so I rely on freebies and the kindness of strangers who have become like family to me. Don't know why the CD with designs you have don't show pics, I bought one on ebay with 15,000 designs and I can see them. As for colors, I make things to my taste and ignore color charts. Good luck and have fun!

I use all Husqvarne products, so someone with brother software might be able to add more.
to make your own design from scratch you need software. Embird is lots cheaper and Sands computing also has software lots cheaper with good help if needed.
http://www.sandscomputing.com/id17.html
I wanted to recommend them for viewing the files with their program Sewcat, what cost next to nothing and is fantastic.
to add lettering to a design is easy too if you have the software.
Look at Embird, free trial and the programs from Sands computing, they also have free trial.
There is also Catalogue express with free trial in which you can view and catalogue and open your designs
someone else might well recommend something else.
good luck from sunny Spain

I also have a Brother machine but not the same as you. I have PE design but only version 5 which today is elderly, but it does for what I want which is to store designs on my computer so I can see them. Maybe you can see PE designs via Pulse Ambassador but I am not sure of that. If you look on ebay in Ireland and the UK you should be able to pick it up for less than via the Brother dealer. It is also great for digitising your own designs not that I am much good at that. Bedford Sewing and Knitting sell it interest free over 1 year. All pe designs can be altered via the softwear. Right advice as mentioned in No 5 of your questions - have fun and happy embroidering and one is always learning with machine embroidery

Welcome to Cute!!! Hope you come back often. I have a Brother as my 2nd machine, and haven't learned very much yet. I use my 4D Software for almost everything. I really wish I could help you, but I am not very knowlegeable! I just drift along and learn new things as I go. Hugs, Judy

Welcome to Cutie family.

Welcome to the CUTE family.

I have a Brother Innovis 1500D and Ped Basic. Ped Basic is software (and hardware) which allows you to put your designs on your machine by a card. You can see you designs in it but not change them in anyway. I also invested in Embird, which has different parts to it so you only buy what you need. I hope you love your machine as much as I do mine!! Welcome!!!!*

I do not digitize, I am not artistic at all.
The link I am giving you is a free software, you can read about it and see if it has any of the requirements you are in need of.

Welcome to Cute! This site it totally addictive so you have come to the right place. Hugs Sally

Welcome to the group. A big welcome from Texas in the USA.You'll find this group to be a big helpful generous bunch. I do not have any software but have learned a lot here.just enjoy the ride. Stella

Welcome!!!you will love this site.....If you haven't started an organizer file you may want to, I regret not doing this until a couple years after I started collecting designs.....I downloaded one from somewhere but you can do your own....I put mine on my desktop and have many subfiles in it....I also put where I got the design at the end of the name.....enjoy the wonderful world of embroiderying.....blessings Janet

Welcome to cute.

WELCOME, Sounds like you need embirds. go to their site and download the free version.
If you don't have to make your own designs, don't it very time consuming.

The best piece of advice I could give you right now would be slow down.

Digitising is a HUGE learning curve, one you never stop learning.

Embird will do everything you have asked and you can download a (time limited) trial version, try it out and when you are ready you can purchase the different modules licences, individually, and activate the trial version you already downloaded of the program.

There is a lot of help for Embird, the best support from the programmers, and many, many places to get free tutorials as well as groups you can join, to get Embird specific help.

Also if you search here at cute, by using the SEARCH TOPICS feature to the left of these posts, you will find lots of information about Embird and other programs.

You should even find some previous posts if you click on my name there. And of course other Cuties will also give you great advice.

I have added some links below for you, check them out and.
Take your time, this is not something to rush into without checking out trial downloads of software or you will end up with lots of expensive programs you will never use and you could also get yourself so confused you won't be able to choose.

I have many programs and Embird is my programme of choice over even the most expensive professional ones that I have. Even if I use this other program, I STILL have to take the designs into Embird to tweak them, so this should tell you something.

I hope this helps and doesn't deter you, digitising is so much fun, but I must warn you, it is not the best way to raise money, there are just too many digitisers to compete with and it is very, very, time consuming, especially if you really care about the quality of your designs.

Hugs and roses and Happy Hunting,
Meganne. Melidè Menschen Designs

You have Private mail. :-)

My PE design came with my machine but its old. I use Tajima Pulse Ambassador and Wilcom Truesizer for converting. You can open and see the designs with them. I have the free versions. I got the links from Cindes.

First of all welcome. The Cute family are wonderful and so helpful. I am fairly new to machine embroidery as well (18 months). I get the feeling that you are trying to run before you can walk. I believe that digitizing can take years to learn. Enjoy the comments and go to all the web sites as suggested. I have downloaded Wilcom Truesizer (free) - I only use it for rotating and mirroring. I have also downloaded Edit Express Lite (also free), which is great for changing colours. I also downloaded for free a program called Embroidery Fonts Plus which is great but I am still learning how to use it. Cuties is a wonderful world, where you will learn lots - just be patient. Hugs Sarah.

I am pretty new to ME too. I have the brother PE 780D. If you get an organizing software you can see the designs in there. I picked Ann the Gran's Catalog Xpress (Buzz Tools has a similar software). I recently bought Embird basic - it lets you see the designs and also edit them - things like changing colors, merging designs, deleting parts, resizing, mirroring, etc. I have found it very useful. There are other modules available that take true type fonts from your computer and let you turn them into embroidery designs - I don't have it yet but is next on my list of purchases. There is also a digitizing moduel if you decided you really want to do designs from scratch. I tried the free embroidery fonts plus and did not find it very ituitive but maybe I need to play with it more. Most of the softwares have free trials - and I suggest you try anything before you buy! Good luck and welcome.

Thanks so much everyone for the great answers.....looks like I have quiet a bit of research to do! Thanks for all the effort ye all went to to welcome me and send website links! Ill keep ye posted on what I end up getting!

Thanks psssst..have you downloaded this yourself? How do you find it????

Anyone else out there in Cutie Land download this....what did ye all think of it???
Thanks

here is a website that may work for you..all their software has a free trial period and is user friendly with great support as well..I don't digitize so I have no experience with embird..there is a very inexpensive digitizing program that would be good for a beginner on the link I provided as well, it is called sew art.. also sew what and sewwhat pro are editing software..this allows the user to combine prebought designs or add your own computer fonts to create words..also sew clean, it helps you to manage keeping dups out of your catalog of designs..sew iconz is an iconizer and you will be able to see the images of your design and not an icon..they are very reasonably priced ..Good Luck and have fun..All the cuties here will have wonderful advice for you..now it's up to you to choose..

Thanks for the great advice Ilv2sew, will definately check out that link. Just a quick question b4 I do...with Sew Art can you use any type of file (My machine only takes pes files)or are you restricted to just sew files?
Thanks Again
MarleyMoo!