Cactus Punch Embroidery Designs CD/Disks

Eileen Roche Designs in Machine Embroidery Blog: What Every Newbie Wants to Know: How do I get designs from the design CD to my embroidery machine?

Welcome to the FAQs page. Here I'll attempt to answer the questions I've gotten over the years. Lindee Goodall

"I CAN'T INSTALL A CACTUS PUNCH CD". Cactus Punch CDs mastered before August 2006 use an installer program that will work with Windows XP and possibly some slightly newer ones and likely won't work with current Windows operating systems. I'm not sure at what point Windows no longer will run the installer program. Technology can change a lot since that time and what was useful then may not work at all now. Why did we use installers? It made it easier for non-techy embroiderers to install designs and it reduced the number of support questions. Embroiderers now are more accustomed to having a computer in their sewing room so we can skip the installer. If you still have your old computer, back up all the designs onto something you can read on your new computer (CD, stick). Then just copy them onto your new computer. When you upgrade to a new computer, you should back up all your data from the old one to transfer. CDs may seem like a good resource but they can become lost, damaged, or no longer work with more modern operating systems. To access designs on these old CDs, install them on a computer still running an older OS. Once installed, copy the files to some other media and transfer them to your machine. Do make a backup! A second method is to view them on a Mac. These CDs were "dual format" and you may even be able to see the "Mac side" on a Windows PC. You won't be able to run the installer in Mac OS, but there are folders of a few design formats on the Mac side that you may be able to use or convert. I recommend against using the PCM files for conversion, as many of them will be split into two or more parts based on format restrictions. If there's a DST or EXP, use that as your master even though it might not be prettily colored. Also, keep in mind that conversion software generally only converts a design to a given format if the design is within the machine's sewing capabilities. In other words, a design that's available as a DST on the CD but not in your machine's format may now work with your current machine. Use the DST to convert. Viking Sewing Machines purchased Cactus Punch in December 2004 and they now own all the designs. You'll need to contact them for any support issues (I don't know who that is, if anyone). We cannot provide you with replacement files.