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Corel DRAWings 2: The DRAW to Design, Stitch and Embroidery Software, Includes Wings' Module

Corel DRAWings 2: The DRAW to Design, Stitch and Embroidery Software, Includes Wings' Module

Corel DRAWings 2 is a Revolutionary Graphic and Embroidery Design Software!Corel DRAWings®2 embroidery software is ideal for small and home businesses. Corel DRAWings 2 allows you to focus on creativity. It combines the world famous graphics power of CorelDRAW® and the digitizing expertise of DRAWStitch® – enabling you to dynamically transfer designs back and forth between design and embroidery. Complete, fast and easy to use, Corel DRAWings 2 exceeds the most demanding expectations of typical small and home based businesses. With outstanding text options, extensive appliqué abilities, patterns, fill and fabric selections, Corel DRAWings 2 offers everything you need in one box. Corel DRAWings 2 can convert any bitmap into cross-stitch, greatly simplifying the design process. Corel DRAWings and stitch engine that are completely interactive. Provides real-time updates between your artwork design and stitch results. The greatest flexibility to create, modify, color, size, and more!. It does the work for you – from determining template design to stitch density. No further modules are necessary!. Converts any vector artwork into embroidery with premium stitch quality. Automatically calculates embroidery parameters such as underlay, compensation, branching, thread trimming and stabilizer requirements. Our Corel DRAWings 2 complete package includes the $400 Wings Module, that is NOT included in the DRAWings 2 Upgrade package for the DRAWings 1 original package. DRAWings 2 is worth $400 more than the combination of DRAWings 1 upgraded to DRAWings 2. There are still some old copies of DRAWings 1 on the market that are not currently supported by Corel, but that can be upgraded to DRAWings 2 without the Wings Module being included. The Wings Module would cost $400 more to add. Plus, learn quickly with a free lynda.com instructional training CD and online support. View Corel DRAWings 2 Brochure (890kb)View the DRAWings® video overview!.
REVIEW OF COREL DRAWings
by Sister Mary John, I.H.M.
professional digitizer
http://www.sewvestments.com

I am a professional machine embroidery digitizer.  In the quest of ever increasing knowledge of my trade as well as new and better designs and simpler programs I have tried and bought many design programs. Corel DRAWings2  is only one of several home and professional software digitizing programs that I own and use. 

With Corel DRAWings you do receive not only the stitch program, but the Corel Draw program because the stitch program is just a module of the drawing program and won’t really function without it.  You need the drawing program to edit and change your drawings or artwork to make it acceptable for use by the stitch program.

The program is only fast if you are doing a cross stitch design which is the default for the program.  Any artwork can be opened in the program and it will be immediately turned into cross stitch whether you want that or not.  I am not a cross stitch person and really prefer a photostitch or weave stitch for my embroidery, but in DRAWings you must change the picture to a vector photo in Corel Draw before you can do that.  The process is not simple nor easy.  It involves tracing the picture and then melding all the little pieces that make up any one color.



I found a simpler method was just to use the picture as a background and paint colors on top of it in the areas that I want each color.  This reduced the millions of pixels that would be traced into larger areas that did not need to be melded.  It was still a time consuming project anyway. 

For this reason I almost never use this program for my designs since there are other programs that do that work in an easier and simpler way.  However if you are only working with small designs, and if you would use the graphics capabilities that you get with the larger Corel Draw program, then the investment would be worth it.  After all Corel Draw, Corel Trace, Corel Photo-Paint,  Corel R.A.V.E., Corel Capture, and Bitstream Navigator are worth the money in themselves if you can use such high powered programs, in which case the DRAWings module is just a bonus.