Embroidery Deduper
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens to Non-Embroidery files?
How are Duplicates detected?
What happens to zip files?
Is Windows Vista supported? What are the minimum computer requirements?
What embroidery formats are supported?
What if I have a particular design in only one format, but it's not the format I usually use? Do I have to convert all of my designs to my usual format before using the software?
I have two different brands of embroidery machines, and often like to keep designs in two different formats. Can I keep files in more than one format?
I sometimes keep duplicates across categories on purpose. Will the Embroidery Deduper get rid of those duplicates?
Does the program prompt me before deleting the duplicates?
After the Deduper has unzipped my files and deleted duplicates, is there an option to rezip the files?
What are "Probable Duplicates" and why are they displayed in a different window?
Can I install the Embroidery Deduper on more than one computer?
What happens if my computer crashes, or I replace my old computer?
How is the Embroidery Deduper distributed?
Q. - What happens to the bmp, jpg, txt, and pdf files that go along with some embroidery designs? In other words, what happens to non-embroidery files?
A. - By default, only embroidery files are deduped. This means the bmp, jpg, txt, pdf, doc, etc. (which are called non-embroidery) files are not "deduped". They are normally just ignored, even if there are duplicates. As you're probably thinking, this is because some designs have color charts and sewn out pictures along with them, which you probably don't want to get rid of. That said, there is an option in the "preferences" menu to turn on deduping for ALL file types, if you'd like to do so, for some reason.
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Q. - Does it remove design files that are the same but have a number after them? How are duplicates detected?
A. - The Deduper eliminates duplicates in two ways:
1.) The first way is to detect EXACT duplicate files within the folder you're deduping and all of its sub-folders. It doesn't matter what the filenames are, as the files are compared at a lower level than that (byte for byte, in computer speak). If the files differ by the tiniest bit (like if the size or color has been changed), they are not considered the same, so both versions are kept. If there are multiple copies of the same design, such as clown.pes, clown_1.pes, and clown_2.pes, the Embroidery Deduper will detect those as duplicates and will recommend deletion of the extra copies. These usually occur because of batch format conversions in some programs.
2.) The second way is by eliminating unwanted formats of a design. To do that, the Deduper looks in the current folder that it's processing and checks if there are embroidery files with the same basename, but different extensions. For example, it may see that there's clown.hus, clown.pes, and clown.dst in the current folder. Because they are in the same folder, it ASSUMES that these are in fact the same clown design, but just in 3 different formats. In can't do a byte for byte comparison, because the files are not the same (since they're different formats). It will choose to keep the version that's closest to the top of your File Type Priority list, as specified in your Preferences settings. So, if HUS was at the top of you list, then it would keep the HUS and delete the other two. If only clown.pes and clown.dst were there, then it would choose to keep the PES format, assuming it was higher in you list than DST. Because preferred format processing only takes place in the same folder, if two different formats of the same design are in different folders, it will not detect them as duplicates and will leave them alone.
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Q. - What happens to zip files?
A. - By default, when the Embroidery Deduper encounters a zip or RAR archive file, it will create a sub-folder by the same name (less the .zip or .rar extension) and put the contents of the archive file in that sub-folder. If extraction was successful, it will delete the original zip or RAR archive file. It will then include that sub-folder in it's duplicate detection analysis. The sub-folder is NOT rezipped after duplicate detection analysis. There is a preference setting that allows you to skip processing of zip and RAR files altogether, if you so desire. There is also an option to move the zip and RAR files to a separate "archives" folder after successful extraction, instead of deleting them.
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Q. - What are the minimum hardware and software requirements?
A. - The Embroidery Deduper runs on Windows 98 and above, including Windows Vista (32-bit). A minimum screen resolution of 800 x 600, 15 MB of free hard drive space, and 256 MB of RAM is also required. For maximum performance, it is recommended that you have at least 512 MB of RAM.
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Q. - What embroidery formats are supported?
A. - The Embroidery Deduper currently supports preferred-format processing for the following formats : PES, HUS, JEF, JEF+, DST, XXX, SEW, ART, PCS, PEC, PCM, PSW, EMD, VIP, VP3, CSD, EXP, BMC, SHV, 10O. Additional formats will be supported in future program updates. In addition to these formats, the Embroidery Deduper can detect exact duplicates of other formats, if enabled in the Preference Settings.
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Q. - What if I have a particular design in only one format, but it's not the format I usually use? Do I have to convert all of my designs to my usual format before using the software?
A. - The Deduper uses the concept of a "File Type Priority", which means that you set up in your preferences your most preferred format, then your second-most preferred, and so on.
So, let's say that you normally prefer PES format, because you have a Babylock or Brother machine. If you had clown.pes, clown.hus, and clown.dst in the same folder, then the Embroidery Deduper would recommend the deletion of clown.hus and clown.dst files, because they are non-preferred formats. Now, if you only had clown.hus and clown.dst in that folder, it would keep the clown.hus file and recommend deletion of the clown.dst. This assumes that you prefer HUS over DST files, even though you'd really like a PES if it was there. You can customize your preferred format list, of course.
It's not necessary to convert your designs to your preferred format. The Embroidery Deduper just keeps the most-preferred format of a design that's available in a given folder. The Embroidery Deduper will not delete all formats (copies) of a given design.
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Q. - I have two different brands of embroidery machines, and often like to keep designs in two different formats. Can I keep files in more than one format?
A. - The Embroidery Deduper supports keeping multiple "preferred" formats, if they are available. Using the "Retain Additional Types" preference setting, you can tell the Deduper to keep any number of additional embroidery formats, as long as they are available, in addition to your most-preferred format.
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Q. - I sometimes keep duplicates across categories on purpose. Will the Embroidery Deduper get rid of those duplicates?
A. - It is common for our customers to purposely keep multiple copies of the same design ACROSS top-level category folders. For example, you may want a copy of the "lace angel.hus" design in both your "Angels" and "Lace" folders. This can easily be accommodated with the Embroidery Deduper. You would simply need to dedup the top-level folders (Angels and Lace) independently from each other. This could also be accomplished by deduping the top-level "Embroidery" folder at a Dedup Level of 2. Either method would allow the duplicates ACROSS the folders, but wouldn't allow duplicates WITHIN the top-level folders. For example, if you had multiple copies of the same design WITHIN the "Angels" folder, the Deduper would detect this and would recommend deletion of the duplicates. Exact duplicate detection will happen even if the filenames are different. Conversely, if two DIFFERENT files happen to have the same name, the Deduper will know that they are not the same and will not bother them. More information about how the Deduper performs Preferred-format and duplicate detection processing can be found elsewhere on the Frequently Asked Questions page.
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Q. - When the files are removed from the main folder, are they someplace where they can be viewed BEFORE deleting forever?
A. - By default, at the end of the analysis, the Embroidery Deduper will prompt you with the "Duplicates Summary" window, which shows you all of the duplicates and non-preferred formats found and where their corresponding original or preferred format exists. There are pre-selected little checkboxes to the left of the items. If there's an item you really don't want to delete, for some reason, you can uncheck it. After you get more comfortable with using the Embroidery Deduper, you'll find that you just sort of glance over the Duplicates Summary window, but it's still a good idea to leave this option turned on. There are options you can set to change this behavior. For the brave, you can set it to "No Prompt, Just Delete Them". For the super paranoid, you can choose to send all duplicates to an isolated folder, so that you can manage them yourself. It's up to you!
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Q. - After the Deduper has unzipped my files and deleted duplicates, is there an option to rezip the files?
A. - The Embroidery Deduper was designed to leave everything as unzipped, as some programs don’t “see” inside of zips. Several people have requested the ability to “rezip” extracted files after they've been deduped, so we are considering adding this option in a future release of the software.
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Q. - What are "Probable Duplicates" and why are they displayed in a different window?
A. - By default, the Embroidery Deduper© attempts to perform additional analysis to try and identify files that exhibit characteristics of duplicate files. While these files are probably duplicates, there is a chance that they may not be actual duplicates and simply exhibit some characteristics of duplicates. Because of this, it is very important to apply extra scrutiny to these findings. When this option is enabled, a separate "Probable Duplicates" summary window will be displayed, indicating the files found. If you wish, you can disable the detection of probable duplicates by selecting the "Skip identification of probable duplicates" radio button in the "Duplicate File Handling" tab of the program Preferences.
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Q. - Can I install the Embroidery Deduper on more than one computer?
A. - Unfortunately, the Embroidery Deduper is designed to only work on the computer on which it was activated. The licensing is on a per computer basis. The activation key that’s received during the activation process ties the license key to your computer and won’t work on another computer. The activation key is different from the license key that you receive in the email at the time of your purchase. It’s automatically created from our server on the internet when you click the “Begin New Activation” button, and is then tied to your computer. The only way to install and activate the Embroidery Deduper on multiple computers is to purchase separate licenses for each one. We offer a discounted price for customers wishing to purchase licenses for additional computers. If you are interested in doing so, please contact us for more information.
That said, if you are sharing your embroidery designs folder over a network, then you could have the Embroidery Deduper installed on your main computer and dedup the designs on the network drive. That’s what we do at home, so we have one centralized location for the designs. If we download new designs on the laptop while we’re away from home, we keep them in a special downloads folder and just copy them to the network drive when we get home. We then dedup the downloads folder and put the designs in their permanent homes. For more information on setting up Windows Networking, a good starting point can be found here .
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Q. - What happens if my computer crashes, or I replace my old computer?
A. - If you re-format your hard drive or buy a new computer, send us an email stating so, along with your license key. We will have to reset the activation of your license key, which will allow you to activate the license on another computer. Please keep in mind that the Embroidery Deduper is licensed on a per-computer basis, so you'd be transferring the existing license to a different computer. This means you'll need to uninstall the software from your old computer. In the case of a crash, you'd obviously not have time to uninstall, but it would basically be "uninstalled" during the re-format. The point is that it shouldn't be on more than one computer at a time, using the same license key.
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Q. - How is the Embroidery Deduper distributed? Is it a download or CD?
A. - If purchased from a website, the Embroidery Deduper is only available via internet download. After downloading, you're welcome to burn the software to a CD, for backup purposes only. The download is only around 5 megabytes. Packaged discs are available only at reseller locations with traditional storefronts or if you purchase from us at one of the embroidery conferences.
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