A Guide to using the Silhouette Cameo Cutter

[57xx]

Have a look here

 

http://www.silhouetteportrait.co.uk/

 

Thanks for the link SS. I was doing some searching about last night for other suppliers and found a few. All of them seem to be doing the old trick of showing ex VAT prices, including CPL in your link, so they don't end up any cheaper than Yolo. The best I found though was digital-transfers.co.uk.

[JohnT]

Hi All

 

Just encountered a problem with my Portrait. It has been having intermittent problems with curves for a while but today it has become impossible to use. I am drawing in Inkscape and using shapes that I made ages ago just in different places. Then export to dxf and open in Studio. Almost every time it comes to a curve it fails. It just seems to give up and wander off back to somewhere near the origin, usually with the blade down, and stops. Restarting is useless as the origin has moved much like taking out the job and reinserting it in a slightly different place.

 

I can't decide if the fault is in the software in Studio (V3) or in the Portrait itself. I have a suspicion that it is a usb problem.

 

So I tried to print directly from Inkscape using Mike's tutorial. I finally got the Portrait to appear as a printer but when I click on it the printer window disappears immediately and the Portrait does nothing. If I hover the pointer over the Portrait selection in the printer window I see that the previous job is in the queue but it never starts the Portrait. Right clicking on the Portrait selection allows me to select from a whole list of options one of which is the setup for the Portrait printer. But nothing gets the cutter to start.

 

I then tried to go back to Studio after a complete power down (pc and cutter) only to find that Studio could now not drive the cutter. Afer uninstalling/reinstalling Studio and removing the printer driver it now works again but still has the problem,

 

I am stuck at the moment and about to give up. Has anyone got any ideas what is going on?

 

John

[Robin2]

What operating system is on your PC?

 

...R

[JohnT]

What operating system is on your PC?

 

...R

Windows 8.1 64bit

 

John

[Robin2]

Sorry for your trouble   (I can't offer much help as I use Linux)

 

I take it you can't cut directly from Inkscape?

 

Have you tried making a drawing in the program that controls the Portrait - to cut out (sorry) the middle man?

 

...R

[JohnT]

I did try to cut directly from Inkscape. Loading the driver was dificult but eventually got it in. But Portrait did nothing when told to print as the job got stuck in the print queue and never moved on.

 

John

[Cheshire001]

Came across this thread by accident, but was so impressed I decided to buy a machine.   The Brother was recommended to me but thought I would stick with Silhouette because of the quantity of knowledge involving the sort of work I want to do on this site.   Took the tip about 15% off at Yolo.   Ordered a Portrait on Sunday night and it arrived lunchtime today, Wednesday.

 

My wife is makes cards etc. so hopefully we should both get some use out of the machine.   Neither of us thought it necessary to have the larger cutting surface of the Cameo.

 

We took advantage of the 15% offer to buy a spare blade and a pen holder - seen a video on YouTube where the lady fits a Sharpie pen and uses it to draw an outline on a motif.   Don't know how hard you can press, but I wondered if an old biro would emboss grilles?

 

Come to set it up tonight.   Put the software CD in my Windows 7 computer, clicked on setup.exe and got a Windows error "setup.exe is not a valid 32-bit application".   Lots of hits on Google with this message but no useful help.   While I pondered the problem, I loaded the software onto my old XP laptop.   Worked first time and started cutting.

 

Solution with the Win7 PC was to download the drivers from the Silhouette America website.   That gets you version 3.8.150 as opposed to 3.3.642 on the CD.   Happily cutting on both computers now.

 

Hoped for uses are (1) repetitive structures like N-gauge viaduct arches, (2) modern coach sides with liveries drawn in Photoshop, (3) Mk 1 coach sides not commercially available but easy to spray or brush paint, (4) window frames, fences etc. as illustrated in earlier posts (5) motifs for greetings cards.

[Robin2]

But Portrait did nothing when told to print as the job got stuck in the print queue and never moved on.

Emptying the queue is something you need to do with your Operating System. Then try again.

 

...R

[JohnT]

Emptying the queue is something you need to do with your Operating System. Then try again.

 

...R

 

Thanks for trying to help me out but I have now understood where the problem is and got a suitable workaround. Actually nothing that is not already mentioned on this thread.

 

Yesterday I was working entirely on my Acer Win8.1 64bit laptop and having the problems. Today I fired up my HP Win8.1 64bit laptop which has never seen Inkscape or Studio. I installed the driver for the portrait and then Inkscape. I have not installed Studio.

When I opened Inkscape and selected print the Silhouette Portrait driver was there. I then loaded the cut file (svg) from yesterday that was giving all the trouble and told Inkscape to cut it using the Portrait driver. Success! No hang ups or crashes from the cutter. I was actually using a pen and paper in the cutter as I have almost run out of 10thou plasticard. After several successful 'cuts' with pen and paper I dug out a piece of 10thou plasticard and cut it, twice to simulate a double cut, and it again worked perfectly. So in future I will be using this pc for all my cutting.

 

Th main problem, I suspect, is with the dubious compatibility between Inkscape and Studio via dxf. This is well know on this thread and all over the internet. However, the incompatibility is only expected to cause minor cutting problems like drawing a straight line instead of a curve. I think there is a possibility that a major malfunction of the cutter is also possible and my experience from yesterday seems to support this.

 

Beware!

 

John

Edited January 19, 2017 by JohnT

[JCL]

Hi John, just got back to RMWeb and read about your woes. I'm pleased you've got a working solution. You might not want to do anymore investigating as you can make it work now, and I'm sure you're sick of it, but it would be interesting to see if the cutter performed correctly on the other computer if you drew something directly in Studio. The problem did happen to me just the once and I ended up with a diagonal cut across an entire sheet of carriage parts. After that the software crumbles and I had to go back to a restore point to wipe it and reinstall. Unfortunately I've never been able to run the cutter from Inkscape on my set up.

 

Not only are there a number of problems in the conversion and use of DXF files, but I've found problems with SVG files as well. I'm currently using them with a laser cutter, and have recently found that SVG files created in a previous version of Inkscape do not resize correctly when I import them into Adobe Illustrator. A bit of investigation shows that this is because the version of Inkscape they were made in omitted height and width parameters. The way I got around this was to open the dodgy old file, then select all, copy and paste everything into a new Inkscape file.

 

Free to use software written by people for the love of writing code can sometimes have downsides, and I've been told that export filters (that do the conversion from one file type to another) aren't very sexy. I don't know about now, but this was once a problem with OpenOffice - although Microsoft constantly changing and partially obscuring their formats didn't help.

 

If anyone does have problems with old files from different software brands or old software versions, it might be an idea to try the procedure above - that is select all, copy and paste into a brand new file - as it does get rid of a certain amount of legacy baggage.

 

Think of it as getting into bed made with a brand new set of sparklingly clean sheets. There's not much better.

[JohnT]

Hi John, just got back to RMWeb and read about your woes. I'm pleased you've got a working solution. You might not want to do anymore investigating as you can make it work now, and I'm sure you're sick of it, but it would be interesting to see if the cutter performed correctly on the other computer if you drew something directly in Studio. The problem did happen to me just the once and I ended up with a diagonal cut across an entire sheet of carriage parts. After that the software crumbles and I had to go back to a restore point to wipe it and reinstall. Unfortunately I've never been able to run the cutter from Inkscape on my set up.

 

 

 

Hi Jason

 

Yes I am really pleased to have found a solution.

 

I am very happy to try things out for the benefit of others. This thread has helped me enormously and I am happy to be able to give something back if possible.

 

You say that when you had the problem your pc crashed completely? In my case it had happened randomly about 3 times since I first got the cutter until yesterday when I hit upon the combination that failed every time I tried to cut it. However, in every case only the Portrait crashed and just needed a power cycle to restore its sanity! Did you create the file in Studio or import from Inkscape etc?

 

In your first paragraph you say "the other computer". Do you mean the Acer or the HP? What do you think I should draw in Studio? would a large group of circles of varying sizes be a good start or did you have something else in mind? I could also try sending the original svg file via dxf from the HP to Studio. But I don't really want to load Studio on the HP if I can help it in case it messes with the printer driver that I could not get to work on the Acer.

 

Has anyone loaded Studio and the printer driver on the same PC and then been able to communicate with the cutter from both?

 

John

[Siberian Snooper]

I have ruined several cutting jobs because Studio has added spurious lines that I have not noticed until too late, I now blow the drawing up and check it very carefully before commiting it to cut. I have found that these spurios lines can't be deleted in studio and I have to go back to Inkscape, check the original and then re import it into Studio.

 

I must investigate whether or not I can cut direct from Inkscape, but that will have to wait until my return from what I hope are balmber climbs.

[raymw]

When dxf files transfer properly between different programs, you are being lucky. There are more chances of it going wrong, than going right. There are many flavours, as JCL mentioned above, and many software writers will not be able to cover all the anomalies. A link which mentions this is here http://www.fileformat.info/format/dxf/egff.htm and even that does not give much info.

 

You may find that your drawing 'looks' perfect in on screen, but when cutting it, is all over the place. Can you actually see the line directions in any drawing viewer? Direction doesn't matter for a screen view, but does for a cutting file. Do line ends/corners line up exactly - e.g. rounding errors in floating point representation? Are curves recognized as curves, or as a series of straight lines? Many cad programs will have spurious points left in the drawing, often remnants of deleted lines, whatever. However, once you've got it working most times, for the odd drawing that does not work, either redraw completely, or get in with a text editor (if it's an ascii format .dxf) and work out where the errors lie, try and discover what caused the error, and massage the file, or avoid whatever it was that caused the error in your drawing method. It is not always a simple solution, and the ones that aren't are difficult to describe, and those capable of giving the answer may not be prepared to wade through pages of code, to find the line in error.

[JohnT]

I have been playing about today with my Acer laptop. The first thing that i noticed was that, since uninstalling and reinstalling Studio, I now have another printer in the list called Silhouette Portrait (copy 1) which was not there before. I tried using this to cut directly from Inkscape and it works!

 

I then decided to experiment along the lines that Jason suggested yesterday. First I ran the file I was having trouble with directly from Inkscape. It 'cut' correctly. This is the righthand (upsidedown) part of image 1.

 

 

Then I repeated yesterdays attempts using Studio to 'cut' the image with all the same settings as before. It 'cut' correctly! See the lefthand part of image 1. Then I realised that, because I am actually plotting not cutting, I had inadvertently set the speed to 5 so I ran it again, over the top, at speed 1. It failed as you can see at the top of the lefthand window. I then ran it again with single instead of double cut. This time it 'cut' correctly.

 

Then I drew some shapes in Studio and 'cut' them at speed 1 double cut. which 'cut' correctly. See image 2.

 

 

Finally I drew a set of shapes in Studio which are more representative of the original file. This also 'cut' correctly at speed 1 double cut. See image 3.

 

 

I am not sure if this proves anything but it does sugest that there is a problem with the translation process from Inkscape to Studio as is alluded to through this forum topic.

 

John

 

[JCL]

Hi John, It didn't crash completely, but on one occasion I couldn't get the software to work at all. Sorry, by system restore I meant that I had to go to a previous system restore point that I'd already set up in Windows. It doesn't reload Windows, but it goes back to a previous working (hopefully) state.

 

I also did this one time when I'd been using the pen function. I was trying to draw white lettering and the software went into an error state it didn't recover from. On that occasion I had to go to a previous version of Studio for it to work.

 

I used to work in IT so have done a lot of testing in my time. A few questions that I'd ask would help to determine the cause

• Is it the same file that causes a problem each time, or are there others?
• What software were the problem file(s) created in? If more than one drawing file, were the problem files all created in the same software?
• Was there any intermediary software involved? That is, did you use a second piece of software to do something to the drawing?
• Although seemingly random, are the issues consistent? That is, do you get the problem every single time you attempt to cut the problem file?

There would be more questions, but this gives you the idea.

 

edited to add - we seem to have cross posted!

Edited January 20, 2017 by JCL

[JohnT]

Hi Jason. looks like our posts crossed in the ether! I will answer your questions one by one.

 

• Is it the same file that causes a problem each time, or are there others?

It has happened on different files.

 

• What software were the problem file(s) created in? If more than one drawing file, were the problem files all created in the same software?

All files were created in the same version Inkscape.

• Was there any intermediary software involved? That is, did you use a second piece of software to do something to the drawing?

No. All files were sent from Inkscape via dxf to Studio.

• Although seemingly random, are the issues consistent? That is, do you get the problem every single time you attempt to cut the problem file?

Prior to yesterday: Each time the error occurred I did not happen on the next attempt. Yesterdays file, however was different. The error occurred every time I cut the file.

 

John

[Cheshire001]

The Newbie - Success and Problems!

Further to post #1707.   

 

Setting up:   I would recommend anyone having bought the machine to watch the 10min. DVD supplied in the box.   There are lots of reviews/ideas on YouTube.   I took the exceptional step of spending time reading the manual(!)   Access it from Silhouette Studio, Help>User Manual.   I figured I would get more out of it if I took time to learn about the program rather than my usual 'playing about'.   I would say it was time well spent.   I know everybody is using programs like Inkscape, but one thing at a time.

 

First cuts:   Loaded some fairly good quality paper - actually old letters from the bank etc.   Set for "Copy paper" and used the default settings (blade 2) and cut out some random shapes and lettering.   The only problem was getting it off the very sticky new cutting board.

 

Print and Cut:   Used a wedding cake motif from the supplied library.   Had fun ungrouping the elements and colouring them.   However the bottom registration mark didn't print correctly - presumably it must have been outside the print area as I got a 'I' instead of 'L'.   Drew in the other line by pencil and fed the result into my Portrait.   The cuts were 1mm out-of-register with the printing.   Tried again, this time moving the registration marks much closer to the images I was working on.   This time the cuts were only about 0.25mm out.   Thinking of coach sides, if the colour was painted into the window area itself, I don't think this would be obvious.   Furthermore I found how to calibrate the cutter (p115 of manual).   Result - the test cuts were straight down the printed lines of the target, so there is hope yet.

 

First useful cut:   After all this reading I wanted to print something useful - a ladder.   Fugered it was easy to lay out and not far from fencing and window frames.    I laid out two parallel lines with a row of squares between them.   Used paper to test the layout and got 2 surprisingly strong 4mm ladders.    Hopefully they will stiffen when painted.   I'm sure there is a tanker with broken ladders somewhere...

 

Plasticard - failure.   I loaded a sheet of 10thou plasticard.   Set the blade to 4, pressure 33, speed 1 and sat back.   It only scored the lines.   In stages increased blade to 6 and double cut, but still only got scored lines.   The scored lines would have been fine for planking but it took quite a lot of effort to snap off along the sides and removing the waste squares inside the ladder was impossible without ruining it.   Not sure what's wrong.   Pretty sure it's only 10thou, but my vernier only has 2 decimal places.   From visual inspection blade 6 was way too deep.   The blade obviously works to cut paper well.   Any ideas?   Have I just got some really hard plasticard?   

 

Next stage - I'm going to try cardboard.   Cereal packet and some lovely smooth crafting card which wifey has produced.   Possibly when laminated and painted this would be as strong as plastic (and cheaper!)

Edited January 21, 2017 by Cheshire001

[MikeTrice]

Have a look at the earlier post re setting blade depth: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79025-a-guide-to-using-the-silhouette-cameo-cutter/page-58&do=findComment&comment=2438764. I usually ensure "double cut" is set for styrene but not card. Hope it helps.

[PaulCheffus]

Hi

 

I've found it depends on the plasticard manufacturer. Slaters 10 thou cuts no problem Evergreen only scores. This is with blade depth 4, speed 1, pressure 33 and double cut.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

Edited January 21, 2017 by PaulCheffus

[BG John]

Going back to the comments about errors in the DXF files that Inkscape creates, does anyone know if there's a difference between what Windows and Linux versions of Inkscape produce? I've just installed Windows 7 on my old laptop to use as a more or less dedicated computer for driving my Portrait, and hope to change from Windows 7 to Linux Mint on my main laptop. If it's successful, I'll be designing in Inkscape on Linux, exporting to a DXF, then importing to Studio on the Windows machine.

[MikeTrice]

When exporting from Inkscape to dxf I always do the following:

 

 

Select all objects

Keep ungrouping until no more groups are listed

Select all objects

Convert them from objects to paths

Export.

[Cheshire001]

Further to my post #1717 and the kind replies in #1718 and #1719.   Thanks for the ideas.

 

A Mistake.

 

I have just spent the afternoon trying to cut 10thou plasticard and Corn Flake packet.   I have been methodically altering blade and thickness setting whilst making notes of the different settings.   I seemed to get unreliable results with a setting cutting the card, but then not cutting it later on.   Then I noticed that when I pressed "Send to Silhouette" it said "Cutting using cardstock".   Bit puzzled because I had custom materials set up for plastic and Corn Flakes packet(!)   I hadn't realised that you have to highlight the layer you are cutting, then select the material type.   Ensure that after the coloured block it says the correct material.   Effectively I had been altering the settings and then cutting using default card settings.

 

Corn Flakes Packet.

 

After much testing I have cut this with:  blade 7, thickness 33, speed 4, double cut.   [Not tried altering the speed much, but 4 works.]

This seems ok for fairly big items.   I cut a 9mm square ok, so buildings etc. should be no problem.   However the ladders that I mentioned before were useless because of the fibrous nature of the card.   Also it is coated with a high-quality paper on the outside which tends to rip away when removing small chads.   Only problem is I've used up so much card testing that there is nothing left to work on!

 

10 thou plasticard.

 

As Paul said in #1719, the brand of plastic seems important.   The sheet I had been using (no idea of the brand) simply would not cut.   Yet I have just used the same settings on another piece from my store and it cut first time.

[PaulCheffus]

Hi

 

It might be worth trying cutting the cereal card with the glossy / higher quality side facing upwards.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[Robin2]

The Newbie - Success and Problems!

 actually old letters from the bank etc.

Get your bank manager to cut you some slack

 

...R

[MikeTrice]

 

10 thou plasticard.

 

As Paul said in #1719, the brand of plastic seems important.   The sheet I had been using (no idea of the brand) simply would not cut.   Yet I have just used the same settings on another piece from my store and it cut first time.

If the styrene is glossy on one side mount it glossy side up so it cuts first.