There are a number of ways we can tackle this. The quick way is to copy existing processes and just call them vinyl, transfer, etc, using the same pricing rules and capabilities we have now. This may satisfy some needs but not all.
The more appropriate way is to ensure we cover each rule and function you see is required for each decoration process. Therefore, could you please comment on your preferred rules for each process listing them as "MUST HAVE" meaning you can't use it without it, or "LIKE" meaning you can use it without but this improvement will make it better. i.e.:
Vinyl:
- Ability to price by number of colors used (MUST HAVE)
- Ability to do decorative pattern vinyl (LIKE)
Transfer:
- Ability to set a price for a stock design (MUST HAVE)
- Ability to set maximum size of a transfer design (LIKE)
etc.
Thank you!
Cheers,
Senior Product Manager
Wilcom - Sydney, Australia
The following user(s) said Thank You: giftswp, StitchPrint
Laser Engraving: Ability to convert color appearance of artwork to single-colored either via a photoshop/Corel layer or filter that is product dependent. (MUST HAVE otherwise a copy of DTG/SUB is useable.)
An Idea already accepted, Wow! this is encouraging, Thank you!
As for Laser Engraving:
The ability to simulate a color photo/graphic to gray scale (B&W), then be able to invert it for a whitish effect for products like, Acrylics, Glass, Anodized products, etc., also to a mid/light gray, for products like Marble, Granite, etc., the way I see this could be done is to have a filter that can convert to gray scale, then a filter that would allow us to invert the b&w effect for a white effect, then yet another filter to be able to colorize it to colors like mid/light gray, light and dark brown color for simulations in wood, leather, etc., this filters would be for us to implement (setup) at a product level (MUST HAVE)
Ability to have an option for the customer to chose a color fill, like metallic gold, metallic silver and other basic colors, also these to be able to make it an extra charge option, this colors must display for the customer to see a simulation. (A pattern fill option?) (LIKE)
If non of the above, a DTG or SUB clones would do.
Ruben
The one that does not ask, does not learn
Last edit: 6 years 5 months ago by giftswp.
The following user(s) said Thank You: sajego, mcaffe
To start, it would need to have the option of removing the effects like we did with your CSS code, but only applicable to this module since it is nice to have all of the effects available for the other process modules (MUST HAVE)
To be able to group graphics and text of the same color that are overlapping or near to each other (lets say withing an inch, this could be configurable) and be treat it as one design area for a more accurate pricing by "Price by Area" (MUST HAVE)
The ability to Pattern Fill shapes, graphics and text, this would be great for customers to see a simulation of vinyl with pattern like cammos, glitters of various colors and various other type of vinyl pattern available (Refer to my Pattern Generator idea in the Ideas section) (MUST HAVE)
The ability to detect and count closed inner curves to deter complex graphics that would be a nightmare to weed,
Look at this video
(MUST HAVE)
sajego wrote: Laser Engraving: Ability to convert color appearance of artwork to single-colored either via a photoshop/Corel layer or filter that is product dependent. (MUST HAVE otherwise a copy of DTG/SUB is useable.)
Thanks for the input Sara.
Firstly, would you see a need to create different processes for each engraving method? i.e. laser vs. impact machine engraving?
To confirm some details:
- Against each product you will have the ability to define an engraving embellishing color. This color could be defined as a default at a Product Defaults level, and then edited on a product-by-product level. i.e.:
QUESTION: Do you see a need to modify the engraving embellishing color at a decoration or color level? i.e. one part is black while another comes through as gold, or the red product engraves white while the black engraves gold?
This will cause the text and image uploaded to be processed as one flat color and made the color selected. i.e.:
as is obvious I'm not Sara, and before hand I'm sorry if you're tired of seen my avatar all over the place. You still have to suffer a little more.
Any ways in the mean time Sara answers, here is my opinion. I hope I understood your question correctly.
I believe we will need both options, at least I would, there will be in most of the cases the need of the whole embellishing in one color, now this for viewing the simulation would be OK, but for production if there are bitmaps in the design I would need the original file intact for me to process it accordingly depending in the type of product, if the whole design file is vector then there won't be a problem since the color could be change very easy in Coreldraw (we work with color mapping to tell the laser how fast and how much power to use, etc. for any particular material to be engraved)
Like I mention in my previous post, there will be cases that we will need to color fill areas of the design, like text with another color, either a predefined basic color or a metallic color like gold or silver and this would need to have it as an option for the customer to select and with an extra charge, lets take your plaque as example, lets say the baby face and the text are in the same piece, the simulation for the natural color of burning would be as in your example, this would be the default color that we chose at the time that we setup the product, but the customer would have the option to select a color filling, in this case the text could be color filled and the baby face will stay with it's default color.
Not sure if I"m too late to add my thoughts for modules, but I think adding an Applique option, whether it is an addition to the Embroidery module or makes up it's own, would be really unique and beneficial (at least to me!!)
We are starting a Greek division of our company and sewn on letters are HUGE in that market. It also is gaining popularity in dance companies and high school activities. Stahl's videos on Glitter Applique are awesome:
I imagine this working by allowing a letter or shape to be selected and filled with a solid color or pattern, then the outline color would be chosen from the embroidery thread pallets - creating both cut and sew files for production. For interior colors, there should be either pallets available or be able to set colors like in the product wizard, and the option to have the color slider (for sublimatable twill).
brenden wrote: QUESTION: Do you see a need to modify the engraving embellishing color at a decoration or color level? i.e. one part is black while another comes through as gold, or the red product engraves white while the black engraves gold?
Yes, at color level. The way I do it now is to add text to the actual product image describing the appearance, so each color gets its own description.
giftswp wrote: ...for viewing the simulation would be OK, but for production if there are bitmaps in the design I would need the original file intact for me to process it accordingly depending in the type of product, if the whole design file is vector then there won't be a problem since the color could be change very easy in Coreldraw (we work with color mapping to tell the laser how fast and how much power to use, etc. for any particular material to be engraved)
Yes, this exactly. We use a separate package to convert bitmaps to 1-bit and it has settings specific to each laser, the material, and the moon phase. So having this apply for simulation in the designer is good, but still receiving the production files as we do now would probably be the best solution.
that looks nice, it makes me want to buy an embroidery machine just for that, with that material is like cheating by not using a vinyl cutter or a laser to cut the material, it looks very simple to do and the combination looks great.
Your needed features sound very similar as the ones that I asked for vinyl cutting, been one key feature... the Pattern Fill, perhaps you could use the Mix Process feature by mixing Vinyl with Embroidery? when the vinyl module is available of course and if they actually implement the Pattern Fill to it.
MSGINC89 wrote: Not sure if I"m too late to add my thoughts for modules, but I think adding an Applique option, whether it is an addition to the Embroidery module or makes up it's own, would be really unique and beneficial (at least to me!!)
We are starting a Greek division of our company and sewn on letters are HUGE in that market. It also is gaining popularity in dance companies and high school activities. Stahl's videos on Glitter Applique are awesome:
I imagine this working by allowing a letter or shape to be selected and filled with a solid color or pattern, then the outline color would be chosen from the embroidery thread pallets - creating both cut and sew files for production. For interior colors, there should be either pallets available or be able to set colors like in the product wizard, and the option to have the color slider (for sublimatable twill).
brenden wrote: QUESTION: Do you see a need to modify the engraving embellishing color at a decoration or color level? i.e. one part is black while another comes through as gold, or the red product engraves white while the black engraves gold?
Yes, at color level. The way I do it now is to add text to the actual product image describing the appearance, so each color gets its own description.
giftswp wrote: ...for viewing the simulation would be OK, but for production if there are bitmaps in the design I would need the original file intact for me to process it accordingly depending in the type of product, if the whole design file is vector then there won't be a problem since the color could be change very easy in Coreldraw (we work with color mapping to tell the laser how fast and how much power to use, etc. for any particular material to be engraved)
Yes, this exactly. We use a separate package to convert bitmaps to 1-bit and it has settings specific to each laser, the material, and the moon phase. So having this apply for simulation in the designer is good, but still receiving the production files as we do now would probably be the best solution.
Sara,
I see that you edit your post agreeing with me in an important fact for Laser Engraving, you had me worry for a moment since you didn't comment on this at first.
Firstly, would you see a need to create different processes for each engraving method? i.e. laser vs. impact machine engraving?
To expand into this, I don't think it would be necessary a process for each method.
I do impact engraving (Metaza) and also Drag/Rotary Engraving (Vision MaxPro), for Impact engraving you use graphics in raster mode and the image process for production is similar to the Laser, the simulation would be white, always, as for the drag engraving, is more complicated since it uses special fonts for a single line engraving, and then there are others with 2 and 3 lines that I don't think Deco would be able to display them, although True Type can be used engraving only the outlines, some like them some not, I was thinking on let customers chose a regular font that we would be able to assigned and make it a default in the case of specialized font choice, other wise we could assign a few .ttf fonts that would look good from Deco's font library (This is the reason of my Idea of "Assigned Specific Fonts at a product level) and make visual samples of some specialized fonts available so the customer can make a selection of the font they liked.
Sorry, but i don't get it.
Im not familiar with layered materials to engrave but im looking forward to have this feature available for more than 1 C Wood Box engraving.
In a case of a Denim Fabrik it needs up to 8 Levels to engrave.
Imagine you have a logo with 4, 6 or 8 colors and change this into a grey scale image. every level of the grey scale will be a power range of the
engraver at least. for instance 20%, 45 %, 60 % 100%.
I think we need a color pallet and then we can setup the laser driver with power settings to the matching colors.
texpri wrote: Sorry, but i don't get it.
Im not familiar with layered materials to engrave but im looking forward to have this feature available for more than 1 C Wood Box engraving.
In a case of a Denim Fabrik it needs up to 8 Levels to engrave.
Imagine you have a logo with 4, 6 or 8 colors and change this into a grey scale image. every level of the grey scale will be a power range of the
engraver at least. for instance 20%, 45 %, 60 % 100%.
I think we need a color pallet and then we can setup the laser driver with power settings to the matching colors.
Any suggestion?
The wood Box, is just for showing what I meant when talking about color filling, I don't think we have talk about layered materials here.
The main talk here is about simulating as close as possible the end result of the engraving, for the reason that customers don't know the technical aspects of this process and they may get confused seeing a full color image in something that will look totally different in the finish product, so we are suggesting colors that visually will look close to what it would look like when is engraved, but to keep the original graphic files as originally upload it from the customer, so you can then process the image accordingly and do it like you always do whatever you're doing.
You still have to suffer a little more. 
