Unfortunately I've missed the software classes, so I thought I'd come here to ask what your favorite weaving software is and why? How do you use it, and what benefits have you found? What issues have you discovered with them?
I was just goofing around this evening and decided I need to have weaving software. But which one? I know the Weavo members will have valuable insight on the matter.
I was in the class & came away happy. I'm sure it will be offered again. Go to Judie's site to find more!
I have WeaveIt V5 & found it was missing a key ability for me. It wont allow me to create profile drafts & plug in different weave structures. PixeLoom will & also has an interface I like, so I got that & am trying to pick that up.
Lots to learn!
Joan
I have a Mac and there are only a few choices for weaving software unless you use software to make your Mac think it's a PC. When PixeLoom was released for the Mac last summer, I bought it. The author, Sue Farley, responds very quickly to questions, there is a demo version to try and it's more intuitive than some of the more advanced software. Another great feature is the price, it's better than most.
So, my vote is for Pixeloom, for either PC or Mac. I like it, I use it and it's been easy to learn. I also took Judie's class and that was an enormous help. Her website is full of great articles including how to choose weaving software. Check it out HERE.
Claudia
Ultimately, the software that is best for you will be the one that has the features you need and thinks the most like you do. You can do most of what the average weaver wants with most of the software but certain tasks may be easier on one than another. Advanced weavers may have two or more programs and switch between to use the features they like.
Each program was set up by or for a particular weaver and is somewhat customized to how this person thinks about weaving. Most of them have free demos. You can get to the demos through the link Joan gave to Judie's site. Look at Judie's overview of features, find the ones that fit your needs and download the demos. Play with them for a month and see which ones area easier for you to use and suit you best. Make sure whatever you choose has wif and block substitution capabilities and enough shafts and treadles to suit even your fantasy weaving (my fantasy weaving has at least 64 shafts...).
All of that said, I use Fiberworks PCW (SilverPlus, because I also use it to run a 32 shaft Weavebird). I have been using it for 16-17 years, for many years with a non-computerized 10 shaft loom. This is the one that thinks the most like I do. It has very good block substitution features, lots of shortcuts, is relatively easy to learn, and can take you from first steps in CAD to the most advanced levels. At this point I find I don't think about the program when using it - it just functions as a plug and play extension of my brain, the best type of computer tool.
I teach a four year class for intermediate to advanced weavers. About 80% come in with Fiberworks, 10% with Proweave, and 10% with WeaveItPro (which will do block substitution). A few people have had a second or third program not in this group but rarely used it. These are all good programs as are a number of others. If you look in the Complex Weavers directory, you will also find a very high percentage (70+% last time I looked) using Fiberworks.
Almost all of the software people are personable, helpful, and knowlegdeable weavers who are constantly trying to improve their programs. They listen well and give articulate answers. Have fun!
Laurie Autio
I have Fiberworks PCW and just acquired Weavepoint a few months ago. Both are great programs. I picked up Weavepoint because it did a few things Fiberworks PCW wouldn't do, and because I'm updating my AVL to a Compudobby IV. At the moment, you can only drive the CDIV using Weavepoint.
There are things that are easy to do in Weavepoint that are not easy to do in PCW, and vice versa. If I had to pick just one of them, I'd stick with fiberworks, because it's good weaving software and considerably cheaper than Weavepoint, but it would be a hard call. I do a lot of work with Photoshop and it is easier to cut and paste from Photoshop into the liftplan with Weavepoint.
I agree in general that playing around with the demo versions is the way to go, but when I bought my first weaving software (shortly after beginning to weave) I didn't know enough to know what I should be looking for. So playing with trial versions didn't help me. In the end I dove in and bought weaving software that a friend was using - that made it easier for her to help me up the learning curve. Later I discovered that I needed a feature that software didn't have, and switched to Fiberworks. But there was no way for me to know that in advance - sometimes you just have to dive in.
So if you don't know what you're looking for either, I'd suggest starting with Fiberworks - it works well for almost anything and as Laurie has said, it seems to be the most popular weaving software out there, so it will be easier to get help from other Fiberworks users. Ingrid and Bob are also very friendly and great with customer support.
Tien
You asked about uses and benefits of computer drafting. I bought my first drafting program (Fiberworks in a DOS version, with a dot matrix printer) because I was going to be teaching my first class in a more formal venue (New England Weavers Seminar) and wanted to be able to generate a lot of nice-looking drafts quickly. At that point I didn't think of it as a learning tool, in fact, more the opposite. I thought that people stopped learning drafting the instant they started using a computer to do it for them. I visualized my fairly complex drafts (up to 10-16 shafts) more or less complete in my head, drew down a section by hand to be sure they worked and fine-tuned a bit, then wove them.
Over the years the way I use a computer drafting program changed drastically. Yes, I could use it to make nice drafts quickly, or check for problems, or keep better records. Certainly it was possible to use it as "idiotware" (and a lot of people do), doing the thinking for me for filling in squares, doing block substitutions, or importing published drafts. However, once you know what a black square means, it is not really important whether you fill it in with a pencil or a computer. Once you know how a block substitution works in a given structure, the computer just speeds it up. Computer drafting really helped me learn a lot more about design, how structures work and relate, and how to match structures to particular designs (and vv).
Because it was fast, the time spent doing just one drawdown by hand (in pencil, let alone the ink one teacher required) could be spent doing 30 or more different versions. I could push a design to the point where I didn't like it, then bring it back to where it worked for me. If you never find the edges of your comfort zone, you have no idea where they are. And if you don't keep testing them, you don't know when they move - or direct them to move. You will have a hard time doing enough drafting by hand to reach this level. There just aren't enough hours in the day.
By working in profile drafts, then looking at block substutions in several structures for the same profile, you will begin to get an idea of which structures will express different design ideas best. As you work back and forth between the structures you can get a better idea of the nuances of each, their similarities and slight differences, and their strengths and weaknesses. Rather than being project driven, you may decide to be design driven. That is, I do a design, then I pick the structure that best expresses that design to me, then I decide on a yarn and lastly a project that will showcase the design.
The drawback is, if you love the process you may end up spending more time designing than weaving. I certainly do (about 500 drafts for every one I weave, maybe more). The compensation is that my designs are gradually finding a personal voice, one that expresses my aesthetic sense, and that I am learning to use weaving in a more intuitive, fluid, and creative way while expanding my limitations.
There is a Complex Weavers Study Group for computer design, the CAD group. It is an amazing group to participate in, with people doing some very exciting original work. Another CW study group, CTools, discusses and troubleshoots various computer tools weavers use, including drafting software. They are worth looking at. If you are a member of CW and might be interested in the CAD group, take out the notebooks from the CW library before joining to see what people are doing. CW isn't just for people with 16 shafts and computerized looms. It is for anyone who wants to challenge themself and share the journey.
Laurie Autio (disclaimer, I am a past pres. of CW)
I have PCW the Bronze 4.2. I am a very beginner weaver and I find that it meet my needs. Sally
Fiberworks PCW is about to become available for the mac, hooray! They're going to release a trial version that won't print or save for people to beta-test - when the final version comes out, the price(s) will be similar to the winxx version. Watch this space:
I have Fiberworks and use it quite a bit. I've never used any other weaving software. There is a lot it can do in terms of drafting.
Given that, I came to it knowing Photoshop and its amazing ease of use and have been a little frustrated by how difficult it is to import color information, maintain my own pallettes, copy and paste specific pieces of information, etc. Also Fiberworks is somewhat buggy. In the beginning, as a former software engineer, I documented the bugs I ran into and sent them off to the Fiberworks folks. They seemed less than thrilled with the information, giving no indication when or if they would be fixed. In fairness, they did provide a couple of workarounds for the problems, awkward as they are.
Debbie
I've been using Fiberworks PCW for a few years and chose it because a friend highly recommended it. I first tried WinWeave and WeaveDesign (both "free") and they were a great way to get acquainted with weaving software. At that time my only other experience in using a computer to help me design was with Microsoft Excel that I used to design profile drafts.
Since I weave on a 16h treadle loom I thought the Bronze version of PCW would be good enough. It was for a while but as soon as I got comfortable with using it I upgraded to the Silver because features like block substitution and network drafting sounded really enticing. I have to say I love it. It's true, there have been a few little bugs in the program (nothing that I couldn't live with) and when I reported them Ingrid was really helpful and as they are fixed there are upgrades that are free for download.
I'm all for using weaving software but I'm so glad that I learned about weave structure (a semester of Desiree Koslin's "Weave Construction and Analysis" class in the early 80's) before learning to use a weaving program. It's so much more satisfying when you understand it.
Eva
It is probably not fair to expect the same bells and whistles from small weaving software companies who sell hundreds to at most a few thousand copies a year as you would get from a large company selling millions of copies a year (like Adobe). Most of the owners work a second job or are retired from other careers. Also, there seems to be an effort to keep the programs and files small so they will run on older or smaller equipment.
Laurie Autio
I understand the differences in scale of a small software company out of a house vs a corporation. What I do expect is to have bugs taken seriously and be addressed.
Debbie
Thank you all for the informative answers to my questions and the continuing discussion. I'm exploring WinWeave to begin with (is that like a gateway drug?), but will definitely keep the greater fuctionality of the other programs in mind.
It seems a little bit of overkill to put my little waffle weave towel project into the program, but it's handy to learn on. And fun to play with too. Not having to do drawdowns by hand is soooo worth it. While I'm an intermediate weaver who's been at it for awhile, I've settled into just a few drafts (a lot of plainweave) to use with my handspun yarns. I'm all about letting the yarn be the star (and do the work) ;).
I have, however, put at least 2 more complicated projects on the New Year's Resolution list, and I'm hoping this new toy will inspire me to do more. I also think it will help me keep more and better information on my projects. Drafts & drawdowns in pretty colors. Not so critical for plainweave scarves and shawls which I can eyeball, but it's always handy to look up past info. I have 3 volumes of The Wool Book, and multiple dyeing sample books - I should definitely have a Weaving Book.
I too am an IT person and have used Fiberworks since its earliest DOS days. I've never found it buggy - perhaps you are looking for functionality that it does not contain.
It is a weaving program - it does excellent drafting, makes block substitutions, puts in colors, does thick and thin threads, drives computer assisted looms - and was never meant to be Photoshop.
I have always liked and used Fiberworks when robust reliability in weave drafting was needed.
The Photoshop features you refer to are those needed for advanced simulation of fabrics. For that you need to go to something like Weavepoint or Pointcarre. While very expensive, I'm finding Pointcarre better than Photoshop for pallettes and simulation and editing pixel graphics for weave designs. Their system for color schemes, repeats, etc. is better honed to textile projects than Photoshop which is geared toward photographs. The Pantone colors included and the A,B,C,D color design feature that allows substitutions for those letters in multiple combinations for each file is not matched anywhere else. I can do a stripe sequence in 5 or 6 variations and view them side by side on the screen. I can scan in my textured yarns and define them so that the simulation shows the textured effect in the fabric.
Weavepoint 7 has improved the simulation greatly and allows thread definition. The fabric view is shaded to look more like real fabric than just a graphed weaving draft.
One thing to note about the weaving programs we've talked about here - they've been designed by weavers who understand weaving. That's why Ingrid can listen to a "bug" & understand what is needed for the weaver. They use the programs too!
All the programs work fine - they all do one or more things the others don't necessarily do or they do something better. It is important for a weaver to have a good understanding of weaving and drafting before jumping in - then there is a better understanding of what's happening & how to correct errors!
Since others have not run into bugs in Fiberworks, and are assuming that it must be misuse of the product, I would like to write up 3 of the most common bugs I run into and let others decide for themselves.
Editing color values – It is possible to edit the text value of colors in Fiberworks. Deleting the value completely, however, produces an error message that the value is out of range. Typing in the value you want concatenated onto the value already there, (so you can then delete the original value without running into an error) also gives an out of range error, since the current value exceeds the maximum value. All this occurs whether autoapply is on or not. The only way to enter a color number is to add one number character¸ delete one of the original character numbers and repeat until you have the number desired.
Using the color sliders – Occasionally when using the color value up and down buttons, the values will change, but the actual color shown and indicated by the slider has not changed.
Warp repeat in the center of a design inserts and moves the rest of the design to the left. This is fine and how it is supposed to work. Weft repeat in the center of a design overwrites the rest of the design. This is an acknowledged bug, sent in several years ago already, which generated quick response, a workaround, and no indication that it would ever be fixed.
I am sorry to say all this. I believe in support for suppliers and producers of such specialized products. I also believe they should, in turn, stand behind their products.
Debbie
Kind of nit picky - especially with the color issues. The program never purported to be a fabric simulator. Considering the pricing on programs that have more sophisticated color systems, I'd say that you are out of line.
The repeat thing is also not something that is used every day and has a predictable outcome.
Industrial strength software with features that you are attempting to access costs in the thousands not the low hundreds.
