This time of year is often spent cleaning up and organizing and that includes both our
sewing room and embroidery designs.
We have all spent time looking for designs we know we have but can not find. If you want to brush up on design organizing techniques, check out this past blog that shows how to
organize your designs by type (bird, flower) or by company (Ann the Gran, Grand Slam).
When you download a design, you often receive all formats for the same design (PES, SEW, JEF, HUS, VP3, XXX, DST, etc.) That is usually because it is easier for the digitizer to upload a zipped batch of designs rather than making individual files and separate button commands for each different design type.
Often, I see comments by embroiderers who are cleaning up their storage devices that they want to delete all of the design types except for the one that they use. In other words, if they use HUS format for their machine, they will delete PES, XXX, etc. They believe they are freeing up space on their computer hard drive or thumb drive. My advice: Don't waste your time.
If you look at this list of some of Ann the Gran designs, you will see that the file sizes are very small (ranging from 3KB to 23KB). Compared to a photo that you take on your camera or smart phone, they are pin-point size.
There are several reasons why you should keep numerous formats of design files:
- You may buy a different machine some day.
- A design file may become corrupt. If you have more than one format, you can still open and use the design.
- Some embroidery machines can open multiple formats.
- Designs are often supplied in multiple sizes. Some machines with larger hoops do better with certain design formats.
It is far more important to *file your designs so that you can find them. Don't waste time deleting files that are so infinitely small that they really don't take up much room.
And don't forget to regularly back up your files. All designs should be backed up in a minimum of two places. At the very least, keep only your native machine files on your computer and keep all formats for each design on the backup.
Debbie SewBlessed
* Catalog Xpress can be a good tool for this.