Remember that Segment PRO is a rules based program to design ‘standard’ segmented bowls. One rule is that by default, the primary feature ring is placed at the widest point of the bowl. This is standard. If you want to move that placement point, you can move that feature group up or down in a vase (for example).
If the widest point of your vessel is at the top of the vessel, it isn’t possible to put the top feature group at the top of the bowl, followed by one or more default rows followed by the primary feature group and so the top feature group (the top row and optional accent row) is not drawn and instead, the primary feature group appears at the top of the vessel. This is absolutely standard practice, although it may not be what you want to do. In a rules-based program, though, someone has to decide what the rules are and I have the honor of doing this and I do it based on 25 years of experience in segmenting.
The good news is that Woodturner PRO is NOT rules based. It follows your instructions and you are free to do whatever you like with every row. If you want the feature ring to be lower in the bowl, place it wherever you want. If you haven’t used Woodturner PRO, you should give it a try because it is VERY powerful. Because of its power, it is harder (but not hard) to learn and much slower.
Segment PRO is very fast because it is rules based and can, therefore, do nearly all of the work for you. In order for it to do non-standard things, though, there would need to be much more user interface and that completely defeats the purpose that Segment PRO was designed to do.
In the end, you need to make a decision based on standard or non-standard. If it is a standard design, Segment PRO will let you design it in a fraction of the time it would take using Woodturner PRO. If it is non-standard, though, Woodturner PRO is the software to use. Just using Segment PRO will quickly show you what is and is not standard and if you have any questions, post them here and I (or someone else) will help you decide.
Lloyd
