Recent Posts41
Quilt Assistant / Re: Experiences using the program.
« Last post by wulfae on 26 October 2013, 18:02:18 »Used the program a bit more now, and I finally went to printing things.
I ran into a pretty big problem... When I created my art, it was at 72ppi. I assume that's pretty standard, since that's what screens can actually display, and is what most pictures on the internet have. I just assumed that it would be the same dimensions as my photoshop image (my mistake!) and went forth and did all my work.
Turns out it was about three times too big. So I just went and printed out all the pieces I needed to do on 11 by 17 paper... Turns out I can print it myself on 8.5 by 11 paper on my home printer. Sooo... Now I'll need to double check the sizes for all of these images, and fix them all.
Is it a problem with the ppi? What is the program assuming? How does this (input) become this (export)? I used a .png, is that why the image size went from about 32 cm to about 154cm? (That is actually bigger than my entire quilt, haha.)
Here are some other suggestions from working on a rectangular design over the past couple of days.
It would be nice if I could click a point (vertex) and then shift or control click to select more. Then you could right click and go 'merge' so you could have some control over just where the program is going to merge. Sometimes it would *completely* ignore the point I was desperately trying to get it to merge with, in favour of one much, much further away.
EDITING MODE:
When I'm trying to fix the little circles that appear, I seem to always do more damage than I fix. Sometimes the circles don't make much sense... What's wrong? Is the line bent? That's okay, I'm having a division of pieces right there. They are named, Quilt Assist, do you see that they are separate pieces? Is the angle too sharp? I'll fix it... Suddenly, all of my angles are wrong! So many more red circles! Don't judge me, Quilt Assist! How is this line wrong, anyway? I remember putting it down, it was a single line.
This seems to stem from two things. I would be great if I could constrain the axis that I can move the point on, so it slid along the line that *isn't* bent while I fix the angle of the line that *is* bent. By holding down shift, maybe? That's the usual constrain in adobe products.
The other thing that would help is if you could select the entire line, instead of only moving the line from one corner to another. There have been times where I want to rotate a line, and I basically just need to draw a new one.
Drawing a new line only works, however, if it's *cutting into* what I've already done. If I want to make those shapes bigger, then I some how have to extend all of those lines. An option that would allow your line to 'snap' to the previously created lines would be *so handy*. I can never seem to drag my mouse the same way, and I wind up creating tiny little pieces.
Sometimes 'remove line' and 'remove corner' don't work in editing mode. I also found myself usually switching back to 'design' mode so I could just right click and get rid of lines right away, without having to select something from a menu.
COLOUR:
Getting rid of colours myself, by right clicking and choosing 'discard' from the colours window that pops up in 'colour' mode. Sometimes the program will get rid of vastly different colours, while leaving the two that are nearly identical the same. I then have to manually recolour, hoping I find the one little piece that is the wrong colour.
Having a 'reduce colour' button in the colour window would also be very helpful. Having to go through the edit>reduce colours step was a little time consuming.
Can I please turn the automatic colouring 'off'? Or just be able to freeze it to the colours I already have in my palette/design? It was frustrating when I had already gone and reduced all the colours I needed to 14, fix a couple of lines, and then back and my number of colours is back up to 26!
It would also be handy to be able to designate certain lines as 'seam lines' and have them be thicker, or something. Sometimes I'll get an error where Quilt Assist will want me to straighten up a line, and I look and tell it 'no', because that's a different 'patch' of the pattern all together.
EDITED TO ADD:
Forgot to put in how excited I am to try to make my pieced pattern! I definitely like how you can colour multiple pieces by just clicking and dragging, as well as how you can select or deselect the same way. Using the right click to deselect felt very natural! I also am excited to see the printing option for fabric usage. Looking at it, it means I definitely bought enough fabric. Whewph!
I really enjoy the basic functions of this, it's really nice to be able to draw a bit of a line and have it automatically extend as far as it needs to. Much easier than photoshop or other image editing programs where you need to worry about keeping the ends neat.
I ran into a pretty big problem... When I created my art, it was at 72ppi. I assume that's pretty standard, since that's what screens can actually display, and is what most pictures on the internet have. I just assumed that it would be the same dimensions as my photoshop image (my mistake!) and went forth and did all my work.
Turns out it was about three times too big. So I just went and printed out all the pieces I needed to do on 11 by 17 paper... Turns out I can print it myself on 8.5 by 11 paper on my home printer. Sooo... Now I'll need to double check the sizes for all of these images, and fix them all.
Is it a problem with the ppi? What is the program assuming? How does this (input) become this (export)? I used a .png, is that why the image size went from about 32 cm to about 154cm? (That is actually bigger than my entire quilt, haha.)
Here are some other suggestions from working on a rectangular design over the past couple of days.
It would be nice if I could click a point (vertex) and then shift or control click to select more. Then you could right click and go 'merge' so you could have some control over just where the program is going to merge. Sometimes it would *completely* ignore the point I was desperately trying to get it to merge with, in favour of one much, much further away.
EDITING MODE:
When I'm trying to fix the little circles that appear, I seem to always do more damage than I fix. Sometimes the circles don't make much sense... What's wrong? Is the line bent? That's okay, I'm having a division of pieces right there. They are named, Quilt Assist, do you see that they are separate pieces? Is the angle too sharp? I'll fix it... Suddenly, all of my angles are wrong! So many more red circles! Don't judge me, Quilt Assist! How is this line wrong, anyway? I remember putting it down, it was a single line.
This seems to stem from two things. I would be great if I could constrain the axis that I can move the point on, so it slid along the line that *isn't* bent while I fix the angle of the line that *is* bent. By holding down shift, maybe? That's the usual constrain in adobe products.
The other thing that would help is if you could select the entire line, instead of only moving the line from one corner to another. There have been times where I want to rotate a line, and I basically just need to draw a new one.
Drawing a new line only works, however, if it's *cutting into* what I've already done. If I want to make those shapes bigger, then I some how have to extend all of those lines. An option that would allow your line to 'snap' to the previously created lines would be *so handy*. I can never seem to drag my mouse the same way, and I wind up creating tiny little pieces.
Sometimes 'remove line' and 'remove corner' don't work in editing mode. I also found myself usually switching back to 'design' mode so I could just right click and get rid of lines right away, without having to select something from a menu.
COLOUR:
Getting rid of colours myself, by right clicking and choosing 'discard' from the colours window that pops up in 'colour' mode. Sometimes the program will get rid of vastly different colours, while leaving the two that are nearly identical the same. I then have to manually recolour, hoping I find the one little piece that is the wrong colour.
Having a 'reduce colour' button in the colour window would also be very helpful. Having to go through the edit>reduce colours step was a little time consuming.
Can I please turn the automatic colouring 'off'? Or just be able to freeze it to the colours I already have in my palette/design? It was frustrating when I had already gone and reduced all the colours I needed to 14, fix a couple of lines, and then back and my number of colours is back up to 26!
It would also be handy to be able to designate certain lines as 'seam lines' and have them be thicker, or something. Sometimes I'll get an error where Quilt Assist will want me to straighten up a line, and I look and tell it 'no', because that's a different 'patch' of the pattern all together.
EDITED TO ADD:
Forgot to put in how excited I am to try to make my pieced pattern! I definitely like how you can colour multiple pieces by just clicking and dragging, as well as how you can select or deselect the same way. Using the right click to deselect felt very natural! I also am excited to see the printing option for fabric usage. Looking at it, it means I definitely bought enough fabric. Whewph!
I really enjoy the basic functions of this, it's really nice to be able to draw a bit of a line and have it automatically extend as far as it needs to. Much easier than photoshop or other image editing programs where you need to worry about keeping the ends neat.
