5 Tips to Digitize Efficiently

Learn how to decrease design run time to increase profitability.
Oct 24, 2008

By Steven Batts, Contributing Writer

In this politically charged season there has been a lot talk from all sides about wasting resources and the need for change because current policies are ineffective. This week, I’m jumping into the fray.

I see a lot of waste and inefficiencies all around. Tasks take longer than they should, and when they are done, too often things don’t turn out right. No, I’m not talking about Congress or the presidential campaigns. I’m talking about embroidery designs — specifically excessive stitches, unnecessary trims and “bulletproof” designs with poor registration. Stitches are like cash and should be used frugally and with purpose. Otherwise, they are wasted.

Most people don’t set out to create inefficient designs — they don’t know any better. Well, I am here to help change that. Here are five ways to decrease your design run time and increase your profitability.

Eliminate Cuts
One of the biggest time eaters when embroidering a design are thread trims. A thread trim takes about 7 seconds. That doesn’t sound like much, but when you total the trims for a design, it often translates into minutes. Sometimes trims are necessary to keep a clean look, but often, it is a result of failing to properly plan out a design.

When pathing a design, the idea is to pretend you’re drawing a picture without lifting your pencil off of the paper. I don’t trim an object unless the gap between it and the next closest object is more than 1mm. As much as possible, I also try to connect objects with running stitches hidden underneath other colors. You can sew many connecting stitches in the 7 seconds it takes for one trim. Plus, the design will have more underlay and sew better.

Add More Underlay
As odd as this sounds, the addition of underlay can reduce your overall stitch count. Without underlay, it takes more top stitching to achieve the same amount of coverage. By adding underlay, you can decrease the density. The number of top stitches saved will more than offset the stitches added by the extra underlay.

Create Horizontal Fills
Fills with horizontal stitches (left and right) cover better than fills with vertical stitching (up and down). Vertical stitching goes with the grain of the most fabrics, particularly knits. When the material is stretched, it pulls rows of vertical stitching apart, making it appear as if it doesn’t have enough stitches.

Sewing left to right, or even up to a 45-degree angle, cuts across the grain of the fabric, prevents rows from pulling apart. Using more horizontal stitching allows you to keep your stitch density lower.

Make Your Stitches Go Further
Whenever I try to reduce the stitch count of a design, particularly a large design, the first thing I change is stitch length. For fill patterns, your software default may be set too low. Typical default stitch lengths for fill patterns are 3 mm to 4 mm. By extending the default stitch length, the coverage doesn’t change, but the stitch count drops dramatically. I normally keep my stitch length for fills set at 5 mm and sometimes go higher. This also aids in registration and overall design appearance by not having as many stitches packed into an area.

But it isn’t just fill areas that need stitch reduction. When creating connecting stitches, use stitches that are as long as possible. I try to make them 3 mm to 4 mm long unless it is a tight area. Then I will drop them down to 2 mm to 2.5 mm.

Stay Within the Rules
One of the basic rules of digitizing is to keep stitches at least 1 mm long — which is an issue for columns. If a column is less than 1 mm wide, consider using a running stitch instead. If you have an object at 1 mm or less, seriously consider how important that object is to the overall design. If it isn’t very relevant, consider eliminating it. If it is that small, it might not be seen anyway. But if it’s important to the design, you can enlarge it in relation to the artwork to make it sewable.

These are the five platforms I am running on to bring about digitizing reform. Hopefully, you can glean some useful information from these to reduce your run times and increase productivity. My name is Steven Batts, and I approve this message.

Steven Batts, a 14-year veteran of the embroidery industry, is a regular speaker at the Imprinted Sportswear Shows. He owns Righteous Threads Embroidery, Greensboro, N.C., which offers digitizing, embroidery, machine maintenance and repair, and consulting. Call him at (336) 379-9380 or e-mail righteousthreads@gmail.com.