Finally! It’s taken me a while but version 2 of the Knitting Chart Editor is now available.
What new features does Version 2 have?
- Support for multiple stitch libraries and the ability to quickly swap between them. Stitch libraries can also be easily shared across several machines and / or users.
- Preference options for chart appearance and written instructions are now grouped together into stylesheets. As for stitch libraries, there is support for multiple stylesheets plus the ability to swap and share them.
- All text that is automatically generated by the software is generated using text templates which are grouped into stylesheets. This allows for great flexibility in the text that can be generated. By combining a custom stitch library with a custom template stylesheets it is possible to use the same chart file to generate versions for multiple languages. So far this has been tested on several European languages including French, German, Swedish and Hungarian.
- Grid Highlighting. Optional highlighting lines can be added to a chart to make larger charts easier to read. The colour of the highlighting as well as their frequency can all be set.
- Several editing options for borders have been added so that it is now possible for a border to have any combination of North, South, East and West sides. Borders can also be ‘nudged’ on any side to make sure that adjoining borders to not overlap each other.
- The default stitch that is used when adding new rows or columns to a chart or when deleting a stitch from a chart can now be chosen by the user. Options include; knit, purl or ‘no stitch’.
- Colour can now be included in written instructions if desired. This makes it possible to provide full written instructions for fairisle, intarsia, brioche, mosaic, twined or any other technique involving more than 1 colour. Aliases can be set for a colour to abbreviate colour names.
- Sticky notes can be added to the drawing canvas. These are intended as notes when designing the charts and do not show in the exported image output.
- The layout of the chart key can now be changed if desired. Layout options now include: a single column, a single row or multiple columns.
- Several new symbols have been added to the Stitchmastery Dot and Dash fonts embedded in the software. These include decoration symbols for beading and numbers 13-16, knit and purl variants of Brioche Centred Double Decrease, additional increase symbols, new arrow symbols and smaller yarn over symbols.
- Decoration symbols for elongated stitches have ben added to the Stitchmastery DotCable and DashCable fonts embedded in the software.
- Several new twisted stitch cable symbols have been added to the Stitchmastery DotCableEH and DashCableEH fonts embedded in Stitchmastery. These include both left and right cross versions of 1/2 and 1/3 cables.
- In version 1, a problem affected all wide cable symbols and caused them to appear blank when charts were exported. A work around for this problem has been implemented in version 2 and involves using svg images for these symbols instead of font symbols. All wide cable symbols should now show up in exported charts.
- A side effect of this work around is that these wide cable symbols can now be scaled in two directions at the same time. This is in contrast to font symbols which can only be scaled in a single direction. This has the benefit that cable symbols can now be used in non-square grids and will scale perfectly to fit the grid.
- Where a chart has several rows that are similar, the written instructions can now be condensed if desired. This option is controlled via a stylesheet.
- The number of times that a repeat or stitch is worked can now be output in word format rather than as a digit. For example, ‘(k2, p2) three times’ is now possible. This behaviour also works if using non-English stitch libraries and templates, for example as ‘(2 links, 2 rechts) drei mal’.
- Options as to how to display ‘right side’ and ‘wrong side’ labels on row instructions have been added. Options include: always display, never display, only on first row, only on first occurrence of each type of row.
- Total stitch counts for a row can now be displayed. Options include: always display, never display, only when different from the previous row / round.
- Hidden rows can now be ignored when generating written instructions.
- The capitalisation of the contents of a row / round is now optional.
Version 2 is a free upgrade for all existing customers. Because it is a major change from version 1, it is not possible to update to it using the Update feature. Instead it requires that the existing version (1.11) is uninstalled and then the new
version installed in its place. Instructions on uninstalling and installing are in the Version 2 User Manual here;-
http://77.104.171.85/~knitmast/stitchmastery.com/documentation/KnittingChartEditorManual.pdf
I have updated the Stitchmastery website so that the demo version can be downloaded directly rather than by via an email. The demo version of the software is exactly the same as the full version. Hence
you can download any version of the software that you need by following the links on this page;-
http://77.104.171.85/~knitmast/stitchmastery.com/knitting-chart-editor-win-demo/
Also, if you have a 64 bit machine, it would make sense for you to install the 64 bit version of version 2. For Linux, there has always been a 64 bit version available. This is now extended to both Mac and Windows. The 64 bit version should give you better performance as you will be able to make more use of any extra memory on your machine.
Migrating to version 2 from version 1.
As a result of the new features detailed above, the format of version 2 files has changed. This includes both the chart diagram files and the stitch libraries. On first starting version 2, if you have previously run version 1, you will be prompted to upgrade your version 1 stitch library to the new format for version 2. You can ignore this prompt by pressing Cancel but you will not be able to use custom stitches that you created in version 2 until the stitch library has been upgraded.
The help files contains details of the new file formats (look under Concepts) as well as a tutorial on upgrading files (look under Getting Started).