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Block Wizard: Tracing Tab
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Block Wizard: Tracing Tab
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Block Wizard: Tracing Tab
Note: The Block Wizard and the Screen Settings Wizard are the same wizard.
You can place a bitmap graphic such as photograph or picture into Perfect Quilt to use as a background that you can trace over with the Perfect Quilt drawing tools.
To Import a Bitmap for Tracing
1. Create your bitmap image by scanning a photograph or picture from a magazine. Be sure to crop (cut off the sides) of the image if you need to. Don't worry about the size of the image; you can change it in Perfect Quilt.
1. You must save the image as a Windows bitmap. Perfect Quilt does not accept other graphics formats, such as .jpeg or .gif.
1. Start Perfect Quilt and create a new block window. Click on the File Menu and then click on New, then on Block. This will create an empty drawing area.
1. Select Screen Settings from the Options Menu. (Or, select Block Wizard from the File Menu. Click on the Tracing Tab.
1. The Bitmap tracing box opens. Click on the Browse Button to locate your bitmap. Find the folder where you saved your bitmap and click on it to highlight it and click on the Open Button. Once you have located and opened the bitmap, Perfect Quilt will show you a thumbnail image of the bitmap
Adjusting the Bitmap
1. Set the Width and Height of the bitmap by clicking on the up/down arrows next to width and height. By default, Perfect Quilt displays the original width and height of the bitmap. You can distort the bitmap by clicking off the keep proportions checkbox.
1. You can decide where to place the bitmap on the drawing screen by clicking the up/down arrows at Horiz. and Vert. Offset. If you set the offset to 0" x 0", Perfect Quilt will place the bitmap in the extreme upper left corner of the drawing area. If you don't like the placement, you can re-open the Trace Bitmap box and re-adjust the placement setting.
1. Click the Enabled checkbox. This will make the bitmap appear on the screen. You can click the enabled checkbox on or off so that you can show or hide the bitmap. Click the OK Button to close the bitmap tracing box and place the bitmap on the drawing area.
About Tracing Copyrighted Materials
Be careful when you trace copyrighted blocks or quilting designs from books and magazines! Although you can make a copy for your own use, selling the copy that you make violates copyright laws!
Tips for Tracing Bitmaps
• Once you have the bitmap on the screen, it's easy to trace over it. Use any of the drawing tools such as lines, freehand curves or bezier curves. If appropriate, you can also use the polygon tool. Here are some tips for working with bitmaps.
• The bitmap is placed behind the grid, so it's easy to use the grid as a guide. You can use any grid that is appropriate to the image. Or, you can get rid of the grid by clicking the Options Menu, then click on Screen Settings. Select the grid tab and then select None at grid type.
• When working with appliqué or quilting designs with curves, be sure to turn off the Snap to Grid Tool.
• For close work, you can increase the zoom level to magnify the bitmap. The bitmap appears larger as you increase the zoom level.
• If you have trouble seeing the lines you are drawing, change the color. Click on the Options Menu and then click on Pen/Brush settings. Click the Pen Color Button and then click on a new pen color. Click on the Close Button and then pen color changes. When you are done tracing the bitmap, you can change it again.
• To see how your tracing is looking without the bitmap behind it, open the Trace bitmap box and click off the enabled box. This will hide the bitmap. To show the bitmap again, re-open the Trace bitmap box and click on the enabled box. All your settings for the bitmap will remain in place.
Other Screen Settings Tabs