Threaded-in Pattern Designer

Contents

 

Card Labeling

 

Threaded-in Pattern Designer

Design Tools

Card Setup

Weaving Actions

Card Action Display

 

Double-Faced Pattern Designer

Design Tools

Card Setup

Design Area

 

Broken Twill Designer

 

The Font Designer

Design Tools

Letter Selection

Letter Properties

Letter Design

 

Lettered Bands

Font and Letter Selection

Band Generator

Design Area

 

The Weaving Image

Setting the Size Ratios

 

Palettes

Creating Palettes

Using Palettes

 

Printing a Pattern

 

Appendix A: Basic Tutorials

Creating a Simple Threaded-in Pattern

 

Appendix B: How To...

Idling cards in the threaded-in pattern designer

Turning Sequence: Showing backward turns as solid blocks

Turning Sequence: Showing turning direction as diagonal lines

Display a complete weaving chart

Reversing the Turning Sequence for Double-Face and Lettered Bands

 

Appendix C: Tool Quick-Reference

	Last Update: 31/05/2002

Card Labelling

 

Due to some early misinterpretations I am using a rather counter-intuitive method, with holes labelled in a counter-clockwise direction:

 

 

Some day I will correct that, but for now you are stuck with it.

 

 

The Threaded-in Pattern Designer

 

 

 

Threaded-in Pattern: Design Tools

 

 

The design tool panel shows the tools that for manipulating the current design. They can be used to change colours by clicking on the weaving image, change turning directions etc. Note that the tools only change the appearance of the design; they do not change its size. To add picks, use the Weaving Action tools.

 

This area displays the pick and card under the cursor, as well as the topmost hole in that position.

 

This area has the colour manipulation options; see below for more details.

 

Tool Buttons

	Set the pattern name.
	Set up the number of cards, threading directions, and colours.
	Save the pattern.
	Displays the threading diagram; also has options for printing the diagram.
	Prints the turning sequence for the pattern.
	When this option is enabled, the colours in the pattern can be changed by clicking on the weaving image. See the Colour Manipulation section below.
	When this option is enabled, the turning direction of a card at any point in the pattern can be changed by clicking on the weaving image. This option can only be used if the Weaving Actions are not enabled and if no pack actions have been used. If packs have been used to create the pattern, the pack actions can be broken up - see the Weaving Actions for details.
	Shows or hides the Weaving Actions.

 

Colour Manipulation

 

This panel shows the currently selected colours and has various manipulation options. Once a primary color (on the left) or a secondary colour (on the right) has been selected, the colours in the pattern can be changed by simply clicking on the weaving image. Left-clicking will set the topmost hole of the relevant card with the primary colour; right-clicking will set the hole with the secondary colour.

 

 

	Swap the primary and secondary selected colours.
	Swaps the primary and the secondary colours on the pattern.
	Replaces the secondary colour on the pattern with the primary colour.
	Replaces the primary colour on the pattern with the secondary colour.
	Allows you to select a new palette with different colours.
	Edit the colours of the selected palette.

 

Threaded-in Pattern: Card Setup

 

Setting up the cards for a pattern is a straightforward process:

• Enter the number of cards you want to use in the edit box.
• Click on the tick mark next to the edit box; this will create the cards and show them in the list.
• Set the threading of the cards, either by clicking on one of the threading buttons or by clicking on each card individually.
• Set the colour of each thread - see below for details.
• Click on the Accept button.

 

The card setup (including the number of cards) can be changed at any time; this will of course affect whatever pattern has been created already.

 

 

 

Selecting and Moving Cards

 

If you want to set the colour or threading for only some of the cards, or move a card to a different position, select the card (or cards) by clicking on its number, which will then appear highlighted in red. Any actions such as setting the colours etc will now affect only the selected cards. To deselect a card, click again on its number.

 

	Moves all selected cards to the left.
	Moves all selected cards to the right.

 

 

Setting the Thread Colours

 

Before the thread colours can be set, a colour must be selected, and optionally a secondary colour can be selected as well.

	Click here to select the primary colour.
		Click on one of these buttons to set the colour of the thread in all cards (or all selected cards, if specific cards have been selected).

 

The colour of a particular thread can also be set by clicking on the 'hole' in the list. Left-clicking will set the thread with the primary colour; right-clicking will set the thread with the secondary selected colour.

 

Setting the Card Threading

 

The threading for each card can be set by clicking on the letter S or Z below each card in the list. Alternatively, one of the threading buttons can be used:

 

	Set the threading of all cards (or all selected cards) to S-threaded.
	Set the threading of all cards (or all selected cards) to Z-threaded.
	Set the threading of all cards (or all selected cards) to alternate S- and Z- threaded.
	Set the threading of all cards (or all selected cards) to alternate Z- and S- threaded.
	Change the threading of all cards to the opposite.

 

 

Individual Card Actions

 

 

Pack Actions

 

The Pack Actions work similarly to the individual card actions. Each column represents a pack, and F and B show the turning direction for the next pick. To change the direction, just click on the letter. To twist a pack of cards, click in the Twist row and a mark will appear. When the pick is created, all cards in the pack will be twisted, but note that the mark will remain, thus on the next pick the cards will be twisted again.

A pack can be set to idle by clicking on the heading. The column will appear greyed out (Pack IV in the example below), and no actions for that pick will be generated when the next pick is created.

 

 

 

Display Selection

 

The two tabs can be used swap between the design interface and an image of the actual result. See section The Weaving Image for details about the Real Image tab.

 

 

Setting Thread Colours

The colours of all cards can be set by clicking on the or button in the Design Tools.

To set the colour of a specific thread, click on the hole in the card display. Left-clicking will set the colour to the selected primary colour, and right-clicking will set the colour to the selected secondary colour.

 

Setting the Card Threading

 

The threading for each card can be set by clicking on the letter S or Z below each card in the list. Alternatively, one of the threading buttons can be used:

 

	Set the threading of all cards (or all selected cards) to S-threaded.
	Set the threading of all cards (or all selected cards) to Z-threaded.
	Set the threading of all cards (or all selected cards) to alternate S- and Z- threaded.
	Set the threading of all cards (or all selected cards) to alternate Z- and S- threaded.
	Change the threading of all cards to the opposite.

 

 

Design Area and Tools

 

Instead of a simple grid, the blocks are arranged in the staggered pattern necessary for 3/1 broken twill design. This has an impact on several of the tools:

 

	Shifting the image only works properly if done two steps at a time. Shifting the image by one step results in a mess! Note that this shift problem depends on the orientation; if the pattern has been rotated to lie horizontally it is the vertical shift that requires two steps.
	The area selection is disabled completely due to the difficulty in selecting a 'rectangle'.
	Mirroring an image may case the same problems as shifting it, depending on the axis and the orientation of the design. If you end up with a mess instead of a pattern, click on the Realign button. Mirroring an image will also mirror all the long float tags (see the additional tools below). However, since the placement of these tags is directly related to the position of each card in the basic 4-card sequence, it is unlikely that the tags will be in the correct position to create smooth colour boundaries after they have been mirrored.
	Realigns the pattern after it has been shifted or mirrored. Due to the offset between blocks, shifting a pattern by an uneven number of steps can cause a misalignment. This button fixes the alignment (including the long float tags). If the pattern is shifted, then realigned, this has the effect of moving the image diagonally.

 

 

Additional Tools

 

	Toggles the mode between setting the pattern and setting long floats. See below for more details.
	Marks long floats on the pattern.
	Clears all long floats.

 

 

Card Threading

 

Although the threading can be changed, it is advisable to stick with the standard method, ie threading all cards in the S direction. At present GTT only supports the one-pack method (as described in The Techniques of Tabletweaving), and colours are automatically assigned in the following sequence:

 

Hole	Card
A	P	B	B	B
B	P	P	B	P
C	B	P	P	P
D	B	B	P	B

 

P = Pattern warp

B = Background warp

 

Long Floats

 

The standard turning sequence for a card is FFBB (with different starting points). To achieve smooth colour boundaries it is necessary to change the turning direction in the middle of a sequence, resulting in a long float. In GTT this can be achieved almost painlessly by marking a block as having a long float. The pattern will be marked like this:

 

The normal turning sequence for the three blocks would be FFBBBB, but since the second block has been marked with a long float tag, the turning sequence will be FFBFFF.

 

 

Turning directions before the second block has been marked:	Turning directions after the second block has been marked, showing the long float:

 

Colour Interchanges

 

Clicking on the Print Pattern button can generate two different types of turning sequence, depending on the option selected in the File | Settings | 3/1 Broken Twill menu:

 

Change Turning Sequence	Colour interchanges are accomplished by changing the turning sequence so that cards are turned in the same direction for four successive picks. No cards need to be twisted.
Use Card Twists	Colours are interchanged by twisting cards about the vertical axis. All cards are turned in the standard sequence (ie FFBB, FBBF, BBFF, or BFFB), but note that long floats will change the sequence.

 

The Font Designer

 

 

 

Font Designer: Design Tools

 

 

	Sets the font properties. See below for details.
	Saves the font.

 

 

Font Properties

 

This form is used to set the overall properties of the character set.

 

 

 

Name	This is used simply for display purposes.
Letter Height	This defines the height of all letters. Any existing letters are enlarged or truncated to fit the new size, so care should be taken when changing this setting. Note that since the letters are oriented along the warp, the height of the letter indicates the number of cards required.
Default Width	Determines the initial width of new letters. Changing this value does not affect any existing letters.
Kerning	This setting is used when a band is created using the Lettered Band option from the main menu. This space is inserted automatically between all letters when the band is created.
Card Threading	Defines the threading of all the cards.

 

Lettered Bands

 

 

 

Lettered Bands: Design Area

 

The design area is the same as for a normal double-face pattern, except that no colours or threading can be selected.

 

	Prints the turning sequence to generate the band.
	Saves the design as a standard double-face pattern. When the pattern is loaded, it will appear in the normal double-face editor.

 

 

The Weaving Image

 

This display will appear on several of the design forms, notably the threaded-in pattern designer and the double-faced pattern designer. It shows an approximation of what the actual band will look like once it has been woven. The tool buttons can be used to change the display to show specific features like direction reversal points, twist directions etc.

 

Tool Buttons

 

	Enlarge the image.
	Reduce the image.
	Set the size ratios of warp and pick - see below for more details.
	Toggle between horizontal and vertical orientation.
	Toggle display between the 'real' image and a block image. The twining direction in each cell can only be shown on a block image.
	Show the twining direction. This option is only available if the image is shown in 'block' format.
	Show or hide the grid.
	Mark direction reversal points. This marks the display with a red dot (as in the example at top right) wherever a change from forwards to backwards turning or vice versa occurs.
	Show text tags. This option is best used if the image is fairly large (otherwise the text is too small to read) and the actual colours are not shown. The tags represent the hole whose thread is uppermost in each cell.
	Mark twisting points. This marks the display with a white dot wherever a card was twisted before it was turned.
	Show or hide colours. This can be used to remove the actual warp colours from the display so that special features (egg twining directions etc) can be seen better.
	Save the image exactly as it appear on the screen to a jpeg file.
	Print the image exactly as it appears on the screen.
	Set the grid colour. If the warp uses dark colours, the default dark grey grid colour may not be sufficiently distinguishable.

 

Setting the Size Ratios

 

In GTT, each cord is shown as a series of parallelograms since this is the closest simple representation of the structure of a band. However, the actual appearance of the band will differ depending on the yarn used and on the thickness of the weft. This can be simulated in GTT by setting the size ratios of the display. There are three factors that can be set, as shown in the diagram on the right.

Note that the End Height is counted twice. The numbers represent the ratios between these factors; they can be fractions but should be 1 or greater. Number less than one will give some very strange results!

By default, the Centre Height is set to zero, so that each cell will look something like this:

 

Palettes

 

 

For the sake of convenience only 16 colours are available when designing a pattern; it seems unlikely that a single band will use more colours than that! These colours are arranged in a palette from which the current colour can be selected. GTT automatically creates a default palette with some standard colours, but any number of additional palettes with difference colours can be created.

 

 

Creating Palettes

 

Palettes can be edited or created via the Edit | Palettes menu option.

 

 

Double-clicking on the palette name, or clicking once on a palette and clicking on Edit will show the palette details (see below). To change a particular palette colour, simply double-click on the colour box in the list and choose the new colour.

 

 

Double-click on a colour box to change the colour.

 

 

Using Palettes

 

Both the threaded-in pattern designer and the double-face pattern designer allow you to select colours from a palette associated with the design. A new pattern automatically uses the Default palette, but a different palette can be selected using the palette tool buttons.

 

	Select a new palette. This also allows you to create an entirely new palette.
	Edit the colours of the current palette. The pattern is automatically updated after the colours have been changed.

 

Printing a Pattern

 

 

This display is used for printing the turning sequence for both threaded-in and double-face patterns.

 

 

Card Numbering	This option determines the direction in which cards are numbered when looking at the pack from the woven to the unwoven end of the warp.
First Card	The starting values used for numbering the cards. This can be used if the pattern represents only a section of the band.
Show Individual Cards	Shows or hides the columns for each card. This does not affect the printed information, but does affect the details copied to the clipboard using the Clipboard button.
Print Image	Determines whether the pattern image should be printed. If the box is checked, the image will be printed exactly as it appears in the design form.

 

 

V1.09 New Functionality

 

This option displays a complete list of the position of each card at the start of every pick in the sequence. The topmost holes of each card are shown, together with (optionally) the threading direction. This is the actual direction in which the threads run at that point. This display is intended mainly as a problem-fixing tool to check that the cards have been turned or twisted correctly.

 

 

Appendix A: Basic Tutorials

 

 

Getting to the Design Form

a) From the main form, go to the Create | Threaded-in Pattern menu option, then select the number of holes per card.

 

Setting up Cards

a) Click on Card Setup button.

b) In the Cards edit box, enter the number of cards you want to use, then click on the button. You will see a list of the cards appear on the right.

c) Click on the circle to select a colour, then for each card click on the hole where the colour is threaded. To quickly set the colour for all holes, click on one of the lettered buttons next to the colour circle.

d) Click on one of the threading buttons etc to set the threading for the cards, or alternatively click on the S or Z below each card to change the threading direction.

e) Click on .

 

3. Turning the Cards

a) Click on the button to turn all cards forwards, or to turn all cards backwards.

 

Changing Turning Direction

a) To turn some cards backwards, click on the F in the card list for each card, and it will turn to a B.

b) Clicking on now turns those cards backwards, and the others forwards.

c) Clicking on will perform the reverse action, ie cards marked F will turn backwards and cards marked B will turn forwards.

 

Using Packs

To simplify repeated forward/backward changes, card packs can be used:

a) Click on the button to set up the packs.

- Add as many packs as you need by clicking on .

- To change the name of a pack, click on the pack, then click again (not a double-click!).

- To add or remove a card to a pack, simply click in the relevant cell; a will mark the selected cards.

- Click on once you are finished setting up the packs.

b) Click on the button to show the list of packs.

c) As with individual cards, clicking on the F for a pack will change it to a B. Click on to turn the packs in the direction shown, or on to turn them in the reverse direction.

d) To stop working with packs and work with individual cards again, click once more on .

 

 

Appendix B: How To...

 

 

This section gives a few examples of how to use GTT to display patterns in some common ways and how to do other useful operations.

 

 

When working with packs

 

Click on the column header to idle all cards in the pack. The cards will idle until the column header is clicked again.

 

 

Contents

 

Card Labeling

 

Threaded-in Pattern Designer

Design Tools

Card Setup

Weaving Actions

Card Action Display