Release Notes and Installation Instructions for EDS IV Version 1.00

Transcription

1 Release Notes and Installation Instructions for EDS IV Version 1.00 Part Number Rev. A Important! This document contains information about EDS IV Version 1.00 that may not be included in the manual. Minimum System Requirements PC with a Pentium 200 MHz or higher processor (Pentium II 266 MHz or higher recommended) Microsoft Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0, or Windows 2000 operating system 32MB of RAM (64MB recommended) for Windows 98; 64MB (128MB recommended) for Windows NT and Windows 2000 Super VGA video adapter and monitor configured for 1024x768 resolution or higher, video driver set to High Color or better for Windows 98; color or higher for Windows NT and Windows 2000 Parallel port for EDS IV security dongle CD-ROM drive (required for EDS IV installation) Two or three button mouse (3 button mouse preferred) Internet Explorer 5.0 or greater (included with EDS IV) Incompatible Hardware Testing has shown that the following hardware will perform poorly or not at all with the EDS IV program. Trident Accelerator video card Scanmaker E3 and C6 scanners by Microtek Critical Computer Requirement/Considerations To Look At Before Installing EDS IV Installing EDS IV into Windows 95 will cause an error in Windows 95 operation and may cause an error during the installation of EDS IV. If installed into Windows 95, Windows Explorer will experience intermittent error messages. Melco does not support the installation of EDS IV into a computer running Windows 95. A Windows 98 Second Edition Upgrade CD costs about $90.00 retail. A Windows 98 upgrade should be purchased and the Windows operating system upgraded. The Windows 98 Second Edition also is Y2K compliant without upgrades. All versions of Windows 95 and Windows 98 first release are NOT fully Y2K compliant without upgrades available from Microsoft , Rev A 1of 9

2 EDS IV is designed to take advantage of the latest video technologies. For proper operation the video resolution should be set to 1024X768 Hi Color. Not all video cards are capable of this resolution. To test or check if the video card in a computer is capable of this resolution, follow the steps below. 1. Click on START/SETTINGS/CONTROL PANEL 2. Double Click on the Icon DISPLAY and Click on the TAB SETTINGS 3. Your Display should look like the illustration below. 4. There will be a Slide under the "Screen Area" properties of the screen. Click and Drag it to the 1024X768 resolution and see if the "Colors" stay at Hi Color. If the "Colors" change to 256 when changing the resolution to the higher setting, then the video card in the computer does not support the 1024X768 resolution setting in Hi Color mode and will need to be replaced to get proper operation of EDS IV. When the video resolution is set to 1024X768, items displayed on the screen become smaller. On monitors smaller than 17", the display will become too small for most people. It is highly recommended to replace the monitor if it is smaller than 17". 2 of 9 Melco Embroidery Systems

3 EDS IV Installation The EDS IV dongle must be attached to an available parallel port of the computer before installing the EDS IV program. If an EDS III, EDS EZ, or AutoFont dongle is installed on the computer attach the EDS IV dongle to the back of the existing dongles. Failure to do so may cause these programs to not operate correctly. If a Digitizing Assistant dongle is included with your EDS IV package attach it to the back of the EDS IV dongle. The general rule of thumb for stacking dongles is to connect the newest to oldest, with the oldest connected to the computer. To install the EDS IV software insert the EDS IV disc into your CD ROM drive. The Setup program should start automatically. If the Setup program does not start automatically, click on START/RUN and type D:\SETUP (where D: is the drive letter of the CD ROM drive) and click on OK. The EDS IV installation asks several questions during the installation. It will ask if you want to copy the Lettering Styles from EDS III to EDS IV, and if you want to copy EDS III Alphabets to EDS IV. If you have created Lettering Styles in EDS III, answer yes to this question. EDS IV is shipped with 80 alphabets. If you have purchased extra alphabets for your EDS III software, answer yes when asked to copy the EDS III alphabets. If you have not purchased any extra alphabets, answer no. The copying process also insures the serial number is correct for the EDS IV dongle and re-serializes them to the EDS IV dongle. A floppy disk is shipped with the EDS IV CD labeled EDS IV Update Disk. It contains some last minute changes done after the EDS IV CD was created. Insert this disk into the floppy drive of your computer. Click on START/RUN and type A:EDS IVUpdate and then click on Installing and Configuring ENS with EDS III EDS IV uses Melco ENS (Embroidery Networking Software) to communicate and send designs to Melco embroidery machines. If EDS III is installed on the same computer, ENS will install using the Melco Network Board and/or the Ethernet networking board setup of EDS III. If the computer does not have EDS III installed on it, then ENS will need to be configured. Please refer to the ENS Manual shipped with the EDS IV software. EDS III will use ENS for networking if it is configured correctly. ONLY EDS III version 3.5 will work with ENS. To insure 100% networking compatibility, Melco has decided to ship EDS III version 3.5 with all EDS IV orders upgrading from EDS III to EDS IV. The EDS III version 3.5 software must be installed prior to installing EDS IV and configuring ENS. The first release of EDS IV CD's will not configure EDS III to work with ENS automatically. Follow the steps below to configure EDS III to work with ENS properly. 1. Click on START,RUN and type EDS III.INI into the Open line and click on OK. 2. The EDS III.INI file will open in the Notepad Program in Windows. 3. Page down in the file to the end or bottom of the file. Make a new entry in the file that looks identical to: [ENS] PATH=C:\PROGRA~1\MELCOE~1\EMBROI~1 4. Once the entry above has been made, click on FILE/EXIT and answer yes to save it. 5. Click on START/PROGRAMS/MELCO APPS/CONFIG. This will open the EDS III Configuration program , Rev A 3 of 9

4 6. Click on the HARDWARE button and in the EDS III Advanced Configuration Options Window, disable Starlan and Ethernet by clicking their enables and turning off the check mark next to them. The EDS III Advanced Configuration Options Window should look similar to the illustration below. Click OK, and OK again in the Main Configuration Window to close and save the changes.. Note: Refer to the Known Problems area of this document for other issues concerning the installation of ENS with Windows 98. General Notes When EDS IV is installed on a computer where EDS III is installed, the installation process will remove the EDS III non-dos floppy driver. When EDS III is run an error message will appear stating that "SYDEXFDD.EXE is not loaded", click on OK and EDS III will open. The end result of this is that EDS III's non-dos floppy support, or Import/Export functions will not be functional. All OPEN or DOS functions from the hard drive, floppy drive, and CD ROM drive will operate normally. All non- DOS floppy operations should be done from within EDS IV. Any EDS III OFM file that is read into EDS IV and then saved by EDS IV will make that file unreadable by EDS III (much like Word 6.0 converts older doc files into Word 6.0 format). EDS IV users who use the Auto Save feature should be aware that when a file is automatically saved the original file, not a temporary file, will be overwritten. If the original file needs to be preserved for use by EDS III, use the SAVE AS Feature of EDS IV when saving the file and save it as a different name. EDS III users may wish to back up their EDS III OFM files prior to using EDS IV and use the copied or backed up files with EDS III when desired. Melco Condensed or CND files created 4 of 9 Melco Embroidery Systems

5 with EDS IV will work fine in EDS III version 2.10B or higher. CND files created with EDS IV contain complex commands that not all version of EDS software from Melco will understand. EDS II and early versions of EDS III will not read a CND file created with EDS IV properly. Expanded or EXP files created with EDS IV are compatible with ALL versions of Melco Software. EDS IV, like many other high performance programs, is a memory intensive application. It is highly recommended that the Windows swap file be set as large as possible for best EDS IV performance. The default settings of the Virtual Memory Setting in Windows insures that the largest Windows swap file is used. It is recommended to use the default settings. Problems may be encountered should EDS IV run out of available memory. In addition, it is recommended that there be as much free RAM as possible. Even though a computer may have 128MB RAM installed it may not have the maximum RAM available if numerous other programs are loaded when Windows is started. When you are working with large designs or with lettering, it is also recommended that you have only one project open at a time. Known Problems The Embroidery Network System (ENS) version 1.01, which is included on the EDS IV CD, is not compatible with Windows NT and Windows ENS should be run only on Windows 98. A separate dongle for ENS version 1.01 is not required. Windows 98 installs a Dial Up Adapter even if there is not a modem in the computer. When there is not a modem in the computer, and it has a Dial Up Adapter installed in Windows 98, ENS may not work properly. To fix this problem, delete the Dial Up Adapter from the Networking Configuration in Control Panel. Follow the steps below. 1. Click on START/SETTINGS/CONTROL PANEL. 2. In the Control Panel double click on NETWORK 3. Click on Dialup Adapter listed in the Network Window so it highlights and then click on REMOVE. If Windows 98 asks to restart, do so. If Windows 98 does not ask to restart, close the Networking Window and click on START/RESTART and then click on OK. Some computers report an error when an attempt is made to start the EDS IV help system. This error, which refers to a newer version of the file NNCTRL.ocx being needed, can be fixed by running the Hhupd.exe utility in your EDS IV directory. Hhupd.exe is a Microsoft distributable file that will update a computer's HTML help system. To run Hhupd.exe follow the steps below. 1. Click on START/PROGRAMS/WINDOWS EXPLORER 2. Click on the folder Program Files and then click on the folder Melco Embroidery System, then click on the folder EDS IV so it opens. 3. In the right hand window of Explorer, double click on the file Hhupd.exe. The Explorer window should look similar to the illustration on the following page , Rev A 5 of 9

6 Alphabets created with Autofont work correctly with EDS IV but Autofont is not capable of copying the alphabet file to the EDS IV Alphabets folder. If the computer has EDS III and EDS IV installed in it, then let Autofont create the alphabet and put it in the C:\EDS III\ALPHA folder. The alphabet it creates can then be copied using Windows Explorer to the C:\Program Files\Melco Embroidery Systems\EDS IV\Alphabets folder. If the computer has only EDS IV installed on it, Autofont will default to save the alphabet to the C:\Autofont folder. Copy the file from the C:\Autofont folder to C:\Program Files\Melco Embroidery Systems\EDS IV\Alphabets folder. Alphabets created with Autofont require the Autofont Dongle to be programmed to the same serial number as the EDS III and/or the EDS IV Dongle. Note: For information on how to copy files with Windows Explorer, click on START/HELP. The Windows 98 Help System will open. In the CONTENTS Tab, click on EXPLORING YOUR COM- PUTER/FILES AND FOLDERS/MANAGING FILES/COPY A FILE OR FOLDER. For small lettering jobs, Auto Density may adjust the density such that it is too loose. Should you experience this condition, turn off Auto Density and manually select a density. When using the Oesco Block CP closest point alphabet with multiline text jobs, the third line of text will sometimes have extraneous stitches. The selection of a different alphabet will provide a workaround. Large lettering jobs (multi-line jobs) can be memory intensive. If problems are encountered, look into adding more memory. 6 of 9 Melco Embroidery Systems

7 Wireframe points and lines are not visible when the selected background color is gray (RGB value of 128, 128, 128). Should this occur, try selecting a different background color. When an EDS IV ofm file is open, it may not be previewed from the File Open dialog box. Do not run EDS III and EDS IV at the same time. They will both try to use ENS to communicate to Melco Embroidery machines and could cause unpredictable behavior. Some computers have shown a tendency to lose communications with the floppy drive when performing Import and Export operations. Should this occur communications can be restored by terminating the EDS IV application and then re-entering the EDS IV application. Currently EDS IV Lettering Styles is just for reading and writing files compatible with EDS III. It therefore does not allow the user to save lettering preferences for new things like secondary underlay and Zigzag stitches. Lettering Styles does not update the underlay type combo box correctly in all cases. Also the fill type is not updated correctly when styles are read in and out. Lettering Note In addition to being able to change the spacing between letters through the lettering properties tab (mentioned in the help system and User s Guide), you may also change spacing on individual letters. 1. Create a lettering job (please refer to help system or User s Guide for instructions if needed). 2. Select the lettering by left clicking on it (there will be an box around the lettering with eight square handles showing that it is selected). 3. Hold down the <Shift> key, left click on a letter, drag it the desired distance. Note: This type of spacing will not be displayed on the lettering properties tab , Rev A 7 of 9

8 EDS IV ALPHABETS 2 Color Full Block 3 Letter Circle 3 Letter Diamond 3 Letter Octagon 3 Letter Point 3 Letter Seal 4 Greek Tackle Twill 50 State Outline Animals Astra Athletic Block Athletic Fill #2 Athletic Flair Bean Block Block Border Block Brody Script Brush Script Casual Flair Chain Alphabet Children s Block Children s Board 1 Children s Board 2 Chivalry Block Custom Hebrew Custom Script Cut Block Cut Block Outline Diane Script End Scroll Fishtail 2 Floral Block Freehand Script Full Block Full Block Outline Greek Block Hebrew Block Hector Block Holiday BD SS J. R. Block Minimum Sewing Size 0.20" 0.25" 0.16" 0.35" 0.25" 0.35" 0.25" 0.25" Maximum Sewing Size 5.00" 7.00" 2.50" " 8 of 9 Melco Embroidery Systems

9 EDS IV ALPHABETS Juliette Script Knit Block Legende Script Mascot 1 SS Mascot 2 SS Mascot 3 SS Mascot 4 SS Mascot 5 SS Melanie Script Melco Block Melco Borders #1 Melco Borders #2 Melco Script Military Block Modern Hebrew Musical Symbols Nautical Board 1 Nautical Board 3 Nautical Flags OESCO Block Olde English Open Block Oriental Script Religious Symbols Roman Block Roman Script Script Special Occasions Sports Symbols Sports Symbols 2 Stencil Block Tackle Twill 10 Tackle Twill 2 Tackle Twill 4 Tackle Twill 6 Tackle Twill 8 Tall Block Thin Block Western Symbols Zodiac Symbols Minimum Sewing Size 0.35" Varies per design Varies per design 0.20" 0.20" 1.25" 1.25" 0.15" Varies per design 1.25" 10.00" 8.00" Maximum Sewing Size 5.00" 1.75" 2.25" Varies per design 10.00" 8.00" 14627, Rev A 9 of 9