Draft Overview
A draft shows how you set up your loom and weave on it to produce a particular pattern in your fabric.
A draft typically has four parts, as shown in this labeled 4-shaft, 4-treadle draft.
The threading shows which shaft a given warp yarn goes through. The tie-up shows which shafts are tied to which treadles. The treadling shows which treadle(s) to press to get the desired weave pattern. The drawdown shows the result of the harness, tie-up, and treadling: the pattern in your woven cloth.
When you look at the detail of a draft on Weavolution, you will see the information that the draft’s creator provided. Besides the draft name, this may include an image, source information, a WIF file you can download containing the draft, notes about the draft, and a copyright notice.
When you create a project, type in a draft name. As you start to type, a list of potential matching drafts appears. You can choose one from the list, and select it for your project.
Alternatively, when you create a project, you can click on “Add draft to Weavolution” to add a new draft.
The draft page displays all the drafts currently in Weavolution, with sort and search functions.
Clicking a draft’s image or name displays information on that draft.
Clicking a draft’s name in a project displays information on that draft.
You can add a draft from the Drafts page by clicking the “Add Draft” button from the Drafts page, or by clicking “Add Draft to Weavolution” when entering a project.
Creating a draft
You can create a draft from the Drafts page. Click on the Add Draft button under the Drafts bar or the Add draft item on the list on the left side of the page. These will take you to the Create Draft page, which contains the form you fill out with your draft information.
The orange star on a field mean it is a required field and must be filled out for the draft to be successfully completed. The required fields are: Draft Name, Draft Type, and Copyright notice.
The fields are:
· Draft Name: the name for your draft. This will be globally visible, so you might want to choose a name that describes the type of draft (“Anne’s Lace”, “Shepherdess Check”) or, if it is a general type of draft, its common name (“2/2 twill”, “huck lace”).
· Draft tag(s): choose tags to help search drafts or locate similar drafts. See the help topic Tags for drafts for assistance choosing tags.
· Draft type: this is a list of sources for your draft. Choose the appropriate source type:
· Magazine: was the draft originally in a Magazine? Choose this button. A drop-down list of fields will appear to allow you to provide details including Author(s) of the article, the Magazine name, the Article Name, the Issue of the Magazine, the Year, and the Pages the article appears on.
· Book: was the draft originally from a Book? Choose this button. A drop-down list of fields will appear to allow you to provide details including: Author(s), Book Title, Article name (use this if it is a collection such as the books in the Best of Weaver’s Series, or has names for the chapters), Year of publication, Pages the draft appears on.
· Link/URL: was the draft originally from a website? If you choose this button, the additional information you can enter are: the author(s) of the webpage and the website address. The website address needs to include the entire URL, starting with http:// and it will appear as a clickable link in the draft detail page.
· My own design: if this is a draft you have created, choose this button. No further details are requested.
· Other: if none of the above apply, choose this option. An additional field, Source, appears so you can enter in appropriate information about the source.
· Notes: this is a text editing box in which you can place additional information about the draft. Two editors are supplied: a rich text editor, and a plain text editor permitting some basic HTML commands for formatting.
The rich text editor commands are all shown as picture icons above the text box. Hold your mouse over one of the icons for an English tag to appear showing the command that will be formed.
If you switch between rich text and plain text, the HTML will be converted appropriately: into viewable/editable HTML in plain text, and into rich text formatting in rich text.
This box can be used for you to describe how you developed the draft, what materials or setts might be appropriate for it, other background or supporting information, or additional copyright/usage permissions or limitations.
· Upload a file: this form item is specifically for the draft file. It should be a representation of the draft, to allow people to see how the warp was placed on the loom and the fabric woven. Allowed file formats are: WIF, PDF, JPG, GIF, and PNG. There is a 2MB file size limit. The file must be located on your computer. Click on the field or the Browse… button to search your computer for the draft file. A file selection window will open. Locate the draft file, and click Open on your file selection window. The file selection window will then close, and the file location and name will be in the Upload a file field.
This file will be uploaded when the draft is previewed or saved. If the file is over 2MB, an error message will be displayed and the file will not be uploaded.
Weavolution will create thumbnail and medium sized image files based on your original image. If you upload a WIF file, it is converted to a PNG image file for display.
For more information on draft file types, see the Draft file types help topic.
· License:: only drafts created by the author or in the public domain can be uploaded at this time. If you cannot check the box by the copyright notice, the draft should not be uploaded to Weavolution. The copyright reads: I own the copyright to this draft and grant permission to others to use this draft for personal projects only (not items for sale or show).
If you would like to release your draft to the public domain, you will still need to check the box; then note in your draft notes that you own the draft and release it to the public domain. If you prefer Creative Commons or other forms of release, again these can be put in the draft notes box.
· File Attachments: you can attach additional files to your draft. These files are copied from your computer to Weavolution. Weavolution permits 2MB files in the following formats: jpg jpeg gif png txt doc xls pdf ppt pps odt ods odp. These are not draft files. Possible uses of these would be pictures of woven cloth using the draft; or text expanding on the draft notes. jpg, jpeg, gif, and png are image formats; txt is plain text, doc is Word, xls is Excel spreadsheet, pdf is portable document format, ppt is Powerpoint, pps is Powerpoint Slideshow, odt is OpenOffice text, ods is OpenOffice spreadsheet, and odp is OpenOffice presentation.
To attach a file, click the right arrow to open the File Attachment dialogue. Click the Browse… button to the right of the Attach new file: field to locate the file on your computer. Once you have done this, click the Attach button below the Attach new file field. The file will be uploaded at that time.
A new Attach new file dialogue will appear once the first file has been uploaded. To upload more than one file, attach each one in turn.
If you upload more than one file, you can change their order. Click your mouse on the cross-hairs in the upper left corner of each file box in the list, and then drag the box to its location in the list.
You can decide to list these files in the public view of your draft or not. If not listed, they will only be visible to you, as the draft creator, when you edit the draft. If they are listed, the first file only will appear in the RSS feed. (Note: at this time, you don’t see any of the attached files in the Draft detail view; they only appear when you edit the draft. To access the files, cut and paste the URL that appears below each file when you edit the draft.)
If you decide to remove a file from the list, click on the file’s checkbox under the Delete column. The file will be deleted when you save the draft.
· After File attachments, additional fields based on your Draft type will appear. These are described below under Draft type.
At the bottom of the Create Draft page are two buttons: Save and Preview. If you click Preview, the draft will be displayed as it would be when you press Save, but is not yet viewable by other users. The form for editing the draft is shown below the draft display. When you press Save, the draft is saved and made visible on Weavolution, and you will be on the draft detail page.
If there are any errors in the draft: a required field not being filled out, a draft file too large or its format broken; then an error will be displayed and the user will be returned to editing the draft.
Respecting draft copyrights
The details of when and how you can use a draft are posted underneath the draft itself.
The author of a draft determines its copyright when it is entered in Weavolution.
Tags for drafts
Tags can be a useful way to locate drafts; suitable tags for drafts include the weave structure: such as, huck, twill, plain weave, tabby; the general technique: color and weave, lace. Or any other words you might want to use to find the draft again.
In the detail view of a draft, clicking on one of its tags brings up all drafts with that tag.
Draft file types
When you create or edit a draft, you can include a file that shows the draft. This file can be an image file or a file formatted for weaving software.
Allowed file types include:
· WIF: this is the format for a Weaving Information File. It is used to import and export drafts between weaving software. For more information on this format, see the WIF homepage. If your weaving software does not use WIF as its default format, check for file import/export capabilities to use WIF files. If you upload a WIF file for your draft, Weavolution will convert it to a JPG for display.
· PDF: this is Portable Document Format. If you create documents for your drafts and would like to save them in a generally printable format, PDF may be the format your software uses. To read or print PDF files, get Adobe Reader.
· JPG, GIF, and PNG are image formats. This could simply be a photo of your finished cloth, or a drawing of the draft showing the threading, tie-up, treadling, and drawdown. If your weaving software does not support WIF formats, it may provide a way to save an image file of your draft that you can then upload to Weavolution.
The maximum file size permitted for any of these file types is 2MB. If you are using a digital camera for your image files, you may need to reduce the size of the picture to fit within this size limit.
If your file is too large, a message will be displayed when you attempt to preview or save the project, and you will be returned to the Create Draft page.
Once you have located or created a file of one of these types, you can upload it for your draft. A thumbnail image will be used in the Draft page.
See Creating a draft above for assistance with uploading a draft file in a draft.
Editing a draft
You can only edit drafts you create. To edit a draft, go to the draft detail page. If you own the draft, the Edit draft details button appears. If the button does not appear, you do not own the draft and cannot edit it.
Click the Edit draft details button to edit the draft. The screen that appears is the same as the screen when you created a draft, with the current draft information. See Creating a draft above for information about the fields.
Make any changes you desire, and then go to the bottom of the screen. Choose Save to make your changes permanent, or Preview to see what your changes will look like.
The Preview view appears above the edit screen. Make any further changes, and click Preview again, or Save to make your changes permanent.
Note: if you change the Draft name, this change is reflected in the Draft field of any projects using the draft. Their links will still point to this draft.
Searching drafts
When viewing all drafts (the Drafts tab at the top of the page), you can use the search box under the Drafts bar to locate a draft based on its tags. Type in a comma-separated list of words to search on, and the drafts with those words will be displayed. This search is case sensitive. Future releases of Weavolution may increase what is searched.
If drafts are found, the resulting drafts can then be sorted (see Sorting drafts). If you perform a new search, all drafts will be searched – this is not a refinement of the current search result.
To return to viewing all drafts, click the Drafts tab at the top of the page.
The advanced search available at the top of the Weavolution page can also be used to search drafts. Click on “Advanced Search” below the top Search button to pull up the Advanced search menu, and then click on the Drafts tab (see picture).
On this Advanced Search, you can type in words to match words in a draft name; or search for a particular source type (Magazine, Book, etc.), or to search the draft’s tags (Keyword).
A third way to search drafts is to locate projects using a particular draft. In Advanced search, under the Projects tab of that search, you can select a draft from the drop-down list after the draft field. This will display all the projects using that particular draft.
Sorting drafts
On the Drafts tab, you can sort the drafts shown alphabetically, by newest or oldest entered, or by their use in projects. The default Draft view is alphabetic. Sort is applied to the currently viewed drafts – all drafts from the Draft tab, or the result of your most recent search.
Sort is provided by two drop-down boxes just to the right of the Add Draft button under the Drafts bar. The first drop-down box initially shows “Sort by.” Click on the down arrow to view the available list:
· Latest drafts: with a descending sort, this will give the most recently entered drafts first. With an ascending sort, this will give the oldest drafts first.
· Alphabetic: with an ascending sort, this will give the drafts alphabetically. With a descending sort, this will give a reverse-alphabetic order of the drafts.
· Number of times viewed in project: with an ascending sort, this will provide the drafts least viewed first. With a descending sort, this will provide the most-viewed drafts first.
The second drop-down box provides the Ascending and Descending options. Choose the direction you would like for your search result.
Click the Go button to the right of that box to start your sort operation. Drafts are displayed in the order chosen. You can click on a draft name or image to bring up the draft details, or alter your sort and click Go to see the new order.
Deleting a draft
You can only delete drafts you create. To delete a draft, go to the draft detail page. If you own the draft, the Edit draft details button appears. If the button does not appear, you do not own the draft.
Please note: you can delete a draft even if it is used by a project. Deleting the draft will remove it from the project, but the project will remain.
To delete a draft, on the draft detail page click on Edit draft details. Page down to the bottom of the page. Just above the advertisement, three buttons will appear: Save, Preview, and Delete. To delete your draft, click Delete. A confirmation page will then appear, with a Delete button or a Cancel link. If you click Delete, your draft will be deleted and you will return to the Drafts page. If you click Cancel, you will return to the detail view page of your draft.
