Generations 1.5 Review
After nearly two years Generations has finally issued a new update. Actually it has only been 1 1/2 years since version 1.4 was released in its finished state. A crippled version 1.4 released the previous year took six months to correct.
I admit to being leery at first about version 1.5. I was afraid to install it knowing what had happened with the original release of version 1.4. If you are a long time Generations user that was directly involved with the 1.4 disaster back in 2004 you know what I am talking about. After a day or so I decided to take the plunge. I had not heard of any problems so I figured it was worth taking a chance.
Quite honestly I am glad I did as Generations 1.5 is actually a worthwhile update. Many new features were added that I find useful and some of the things wrong with the program were fixed. Not all of them, but some at least.
The best new feature is the addition of the continuous drawing tool. I wanted this feature so much that I nearly bought MasterWorks to get it. I do not like Masterworks all that much so I did not buy it, but I did consider it. With the addition of this tool I am now able to take full advantage of my pen tablet display. I can draw what ever I want right on the screen without lifting the pen. This is the perfect tool for creating line art or redwork.
Several new automatic shape tools were added as well. I did not find them nearly as exciting as the continuous drawing tool, but they may come in handy from time to time. The basic shapes they generate are easily created manually, so how much I use them remains to be seen. Regardless, they are cute and I am sure others will find good uses for them. You could even use them to create a variety of shapes in various sizes and then save the shapes as building blocks. The next time you need one of those shapes they are readily available for quick insertion into your design.
Another nice feature was the addition of small icons that show trims codes and color changes when in the needle penetrations view. Trims are marked with a small pair of scissors and color changes are marked with a small rainbow. Stop codes are shown using a red and white octagon. This feature can be very useful when finalizing your designs. You will be able to tell at a glance what codes you have inserted, or forgot to insert, and where they are. The example below shows all three icons.
Fixes included in this update are overall quite substantial. One of the biggest changes I saw was in the area of underlay. Center underlay beneath lettering is now actually right in the center where it should be. What they did not seem to address were the travel stitches. The example below illustrates my point. The center underlay is in the exact center, but the travel stitches still take a haphazard path. There are times when these travel stitchs show through the top stitches. There is no good reason for them to do so when they could easily take a path that would virtually hide them, or at least allow them to blend in and become less noticeable.
The same is true with edge underlay. Placement is correct and adjustable, but the travel stitches are still an issue. One thing I did notice was slight inward travel when nearing the end of the columns. As the image below shows the edge underlay does not quite stay at the designated margin distance, but overall it is quite good. Much improved over older versions.
There were several other improvements as well. I am not going to cover all of them, but one worth mentioning is the ruler tool. If you have ever attempted to measure the width of a column of dark thread in the older versions you could not read the results. The black text was hidden and unreadable against a dark background. The folks at Generations added a light gray background behind the text that now permits you to read the numbers. This may seem very minor, but I actually use the tape measure quite often. I found this fix to be a welcome addition.
One of the things they did not fix was the inaccuracy of the thread RGB data. To my knowledge the thread palettes were not updated at all. There are still many colors that display incorrectly on your screen. In all fairness this could be due to the unwillingness of thread manufacturers to provide accurate data, but it is something I would love to see addressed in future updates. I am just glad we saved the old thread palette files to use with the new version 1.5. We had updated countless RGB values for the thread palettes we use most often.
A couple other annoying problems I found were related to the Quick View mode. I had always liked using this mode for various clean up functions, but it has been rendered virtually useless. Stitches are now bunched together in one huge mass that in no way accurately shows the proper density. It is extremely difficult to locate a particular stitch that you want to alter or remove. Also, it is no longer possible to turn off colors in this view. That function now only works in the Stitch Penetrations view. These problems, while annoying, have no direct effect on the overall digitizing process.
One last thing. After working with the new version for a while I have noticed the program takes considerably longer to generate or re-generate stitches. It never was a speed demon, but it is even slower now. If speed isn't an issue to you this may not bother you at all.
Generally speaking I think Generations did a pretty good job on this update. They added some very useful tools, fixed some obvious bugs and ultimately gave us a more powerful digitizing program. Perhaps next time they will fix some of the remaining bugs and restore the things they broke in this one. But for now, the positive aspects do outweigh the negative.
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