Using a WIF to Make a Drawdown by Hand

© 2011 Josephine R L Earl

Sometimes it is necessary to make a drawdown from a WIF without a drafting program which can
read WIFs. For example, you may be using a computer which does not have a drafting program.
This discussion assumes that you know how to make a drawdown by hand using paper and pencil.
The convention I am using assumes that the tieup is in the upper right, the threading is across the
top, and the treadling is down the right side. Shafts are numbered from the bottom up. Treadles are
numbered left to right. This article will tell you how to make a drawdown using the information in a
WIF.

A WIF is actually a text file. It does not have a lot of strange characters. So you can open your WIF
in any text editor such as Notepad or even WORD. Using a text editor such as Notepad, open
simple01.wif. If you don’t want to switch back and forth between these instructions and the WIF, you
can print out one or the other. At the top, you will see some information about the file. Usually, it is
something such as this:

[WIF]
Version=1.1
Date=April 20, 1997
Developers=wif@mhsoft.com
Source Program=Fiberworks PCW
Source Version=4.0

Here is a table showing what it all means:

Item Information Explanation

[WIF] This tells a drafting program that this is a WIF
rather than its own kind of file
Version= 1.1 WIFs now are version 1.1
Date= April 20, 1997 The date that the WIF version was published
Developers= wif@mhsoft.com Email address for more information
Source Program= Fiberworks PCW This may vary according to the program which
wrote the WIF
Source Version= 4.0 The source program’s version number

You may ignore all of this except for the fact that if [WIF] is not there, you are not looking at a WIF.
You might as well go weave or find another file.

A statement preceded by a semicolon (;) is for information only. A drafting program will ignore it and
you may also ignore it or treat it as information rather than something to do.

In some WIFs you may see “on”, ”yes”, or “1” rather than “true” and “off”, “no”, or “0” rather than
“false”. This discussion will use “true” and “false”.

After those preliminaries, you should see [CONTENTS] followed by a list. Items in the list may be in
any order. The list gives details about what information the WIF contains. This is like a table of
contents because it lists sections of the WIF. These sections are like chapter titles. On the other
hand, it is not like the Table of Contents in a book because the contents of a WIF are not necessarily
in the order shown in [CONTENTS].

The sections after [CONTENTS] may be in any order. You may need to use the “Find’ feature to find
the section you want to work on. Most Windows programs use control-F as a shortcut to the find
feature. Also, you can recognize sections because every section is titled with a key word in square
brackets – [KEYWORD]. Conventionally, the keyword is written in all capitals.. Each of the items
listed in [CONTENTS] is all capital letters and each is followed by an equal sign with a single word
indicating whether that item is contained in the WIF. If the word is “true”, that item is in the WIF. If
the word is “false”, there will be no section with that name.

After the word [CONTENTS] (and before the next keyword), make sure that your WIF has these
three statements somewhere in that list:
TIEUP=true (or LIFTPLAN=true);
THREADING=true; and
TREADLING=true.
If those three are not there, we won’t be able to make a drawdown. In the WIF, we will be concerned
with the three corresponding sections farther down, called [THREADING], [TIEUP], and
[TREADLING]. If your WIF has LIFTPLAN=true, we will cover that later. We will also look at the
colors involved. So get out your paper and pencil. Graph paper is easier, of course.

Working With a WIF with TIEUP=true

In order to set up our graph paper, we need the information in the section called [WEAVING]. You
may have to skip down a lot or use the Find feature in your editor to get to it. In simple01.wif, we
have:
[WEAVING]
Rising Shed=true
Treadles=6
Shafts=4

“Rising Shed=true” does indeed tell us that the draft will be for a rising shed. If the draft is for a
sinking shed, the WIF would have “Rising Shed=false”. The number of treadles will be 6 and the
number of shafts will be 4. Therefore, on your graph paper, you should allow enough space for four
shafts plus several extra rows above them. Also allow enough space for 6 treadles plus several extra
rows to the right of them. The extra rows and columns will be used later for color information, for
thread thickness information, and for special denting information.

Now look at the section called [TIEUP]. This is not the part TIEUP=true, but the part after [TIEUP].
You will see a list of numbers. Each number is followed by an equal sign and then one or more
additional numbers. The number to the left of the equal sign is the column number, that is the treadle
number. The numbers to the right of the equal sign tell us to which shafts to tie that treadle. For
example, in simple01.wif, we have:
[TIEUP]
1=1,2 Tie treadle 1 to shafts 1 and 2
2=2,3 Tie treadle 2 to shafts 2 and 3
3=3,4 Tie treadle 3 to shafts 3 and 4
4=1,4 Tie treadle 4 to shafts 1 and 4
5=1,3 Tie treadle 5 to shafts 1 and 3
6=2,4 Tie treadle 6 to shafts 2 and 4
In the usual way, the treadles are numbered left to right. In the upper right corner, mark the tieup. It
will look like this figure. Note that the left column shows shafts 1 & 2 tied to treadle 1. The next
column shows treadle 2 tied to shafts 2 and 3. And so forth.

The section called [THREADING] is the next to be considered. It seems to have some pretty strange
arithmetic in it. It is OK for the first four lines, but then we have oddities such as “5=1” and “8=4”.
The numbers on the left of the equal signs are the numbers of the yarn ends, in order from right to
left. The numbers on the right of the equal signs are the shaft numbers.
[THREADING]
1=1
2=2
3=3
4=4
5=1
6=2
7=3
8=4

When we looked at the [WEAVING] section, we learned that we should leave enough space for four
shafts. Sure enough, 4 is the largest number in the list of shafts, the numbers
to the right of the equal signs. Now we can fill in the threading. End # 1 goes
on shaft 1, end # 2 on shaft 2, end # 3 on shaft 3, end #4 on shaft 4, end # 5 on
shaft 1, end # 6 on shaft 2, end # 7 on shaft 3, and end # 8 on shaft 4.
Remember this goes right to left. Fill in the eight ends in their proper position
on your graph paper. Notice on your paper and in the figure to the left that you
have done a straight draw.

The section called [TREADLING], the next to be considered, is the one which tells us exactly how to
weave the cloth. It also has some really weird “arithmetic”. But by now, you have figured out that the
number on the left of the equal sign is simply an indication of where we are in the list. And the
number to the right of the equal sign tells us which treadle to push.

[TREADLING]
1=1
2=2
3=3
4=4
5=1
6=2
7=3
8=4
9=5
10=6
11=5
12=6
13=5
14=6
15=5
16=6

The first four picks are easy enough – they just use treadles 1, 2, 3, and 4 in that order.
And looking carefully, we see that picks 5 through 8 repeat the sequence 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Something different happens at pick 9. There we start alternating treadles 5 and 6. Mark them all on
your graph paper. The result should be similar to the figure on the right.

Now you are ready to fill in the fourth quadrant of the drawdown, showing the
cloth structure. Use a very light shading to indicate the threads on top. In this
case, I am indicating weft threads on top. The result will look like this figure:
You can see that the upper half is a twill, while the lower half is a plain weave.

You have now made a drawdown of the structure of your fabric. Next we will add
color information.

In order to add color information, we will need to look at several sections of the WIF. But first, some
background information about colors. There are several ways of representing colors in a computer.
WIFs use a convention called RGB, for Red, Green, and Blue. Every color on your computer screen
is represented by some combination of these three colors. [more to come]