Capturing a Hide

To start the HideShot process, spread the hide on the cutting table. Turn the vacuum on and smooth our any wrinkles as much as possible. To minimize vacuum loss, it is recommended to cover the table with a thin (1mil) plastic sheeting.

Once the hide is smoothed out and you are ready to take a picture, press the HideShot button under the Plugins tab.

Finding The Perimeter

HideShot will automatically place the Hide and Background Markers based on their last position and will try to distinguish between the hide and the background to capture a perimeter. You can move the markers for the Hide and the Background to better capture the hide.

Markers

Hide Marker

The green marker indicates where the hide is. Place the Hide Marker inside the hide.

Background Marker

The blue marker indicates where the background is. Place the Background Marker on an area of the background that contrasts well with the hide.

Ribbon

Image

Retake Picture will retake a picture. Use the drop down to take a lighter or darker picture as needed. This may help overcome lighting or reflection issues.

Brush

The Brush shape can be a circle or square and the Size can be adjusted using the slider.

Use the Pick Color tool to select a sample color of a pattern. By default, HideShot will automatically set the color to the Hide or Background color based on the selection in the Repair section.

Repair

If glare or other marks are affecting the hide capture, use the Hide tool to repair the hide. Additionally, the Background tool can be used to fix the background. The tools automatically use the color from their respective marker locations. These tools are especially helpful when capturing hides or backgrounds that are reflective.

Both the Hide and the Background tool use the Brush settings to change the shape, size, and color. 

Remove All Paint – Remove all of the marks you have painted.

Grading

Grades can be added to a hide to control the areas that patterns can be nested. If you add no grades or flaws, the complete hide will be available for nesting.

There are 5 grades, A-E. Grade E is considered a flaw and no patterns can be bested in those areas. Grade A is any area that is not assigned to a different grade. You can not paint the A grade.

To assign an area to a grade, select the grade you want to use using the Grade Drop Down Menu. Then, click the Grade tool and start painting. If you paint a complete loop (finish painting where you started), the inside of the loop will be filled. Any area that is not graded is assumed to be an A grade.

Erase – Works similarly to the grade tool and will remove any graded areas. Erasing a complete loop will fill the loop and remove that area.

Fill Empty Space – Fill the remainder of the hide with the currently selected grade. If you want the remainder to be an A grade, do nothing and it will auto-fill when you return to PatternSmith.

Remove All Grade – Remove all graded areas from the hide.

View

Zoom All shows the full extent of the image.

Hide

Recalculate Automatically – If this button is enabled, HideShot will automatically run the perimeter finding routine immediately after a picture is taken, after a Hide or Background marker is moved, or any paint is added. Disable this feature to manually choose when to recalculate the perimeter.

Recalculate Perimeter – When Recalculate Automatically is disabled, use this button to run the perimeter finding routine.

Cancel – Discard the hide image and return to PatternSmith.

Done – Finish the hide editing process and return to PatternSmith.