A Guide to using the Silhouette Cameo Cutter

[Londontram]

Well I've cut out so many wagons over the last year that I think I've worn my blade out and looking for a replacement I was dazzled by the choice now available so before going for a new one I thought I would check out what you chaps think.

 

At the moment I've got the standard Silhouette "black" blade but notice they now offer a "deep cut blade" though not recommended for the cameo or portrait but for the Curio but can it be used with care in a portrait as long as its not wound down to the lowest settings?

 

If so will it cut thicker plasticard i.e., 20 thou cleanly or even 30 thou?

 

Also I see they do a stippling/etching tool, advertised for the Curio its claimed to produce a "dotted" line. Any body have any idea if this can be fitted to a portrait and if so would /could it produce a rivet line?

 

I'd like your vies please before I go ahead and order

 

                                                                                Steve

[MikeTrice]

Personally I like the Premium Blade.

[Ray H]

May I express my sincere gratitude to JCL for starting this thread and to everyone else who has contributed.
 
I hadn't even contemplated the idea of getting a cutter until I saw Rob Pulham and his good lady around lunch time on the Saturday that they were at Kirby Steven East. If I'd have known then what I know now from this thread I would have been able to introduce myself and may have asked different questions.
 
Anyway, I've read through all 80 pages over the last few days and have the sore rear to prove it - I'm a slow reader!
 
I've also taken the plunge and ordered a Grade B Portrait for £110.00 incl. VAT from Graphtec. I also ordered a spare black blade and cutting mat to save on postage costs.
 

I shall go through a couple of the tutorials whilst I wait for the machine to arrive.

 

Thanks once again.

Edited July 17, 2017 by Ray H

[Ray H]

I ordered my Portrait on Monday evening but it appears to have gotten lost in transit – the supplier’s words not mine! They despatched a replacement within the hour of me querying non-delivery this morning. I hope that will be here tomorrow.

 

In the meantime and having read through this thread and Mike’s Inkscape tutorial completely once, I am making my way through this thread again – only 40 pages left – making copious notes whilst recognising that a lot of water has flowed under the proverbial bridge since this thread was first started.

 

There have been a number of software upgrades since this thread started so I may still be at the stage where what I am re-reading now may have changed by the time I get back to the present day.

 

I have downloaded Inkscape and produced a layered file of Jason’s coal office. Each of the three layers relates to either different thickness material for cutting or where scoring rather than cutting is required. I have also downloaded Studio but have not yet opened that in case it is unnecessary.

 

I now appear to have (at least) two options.

 

The first option is to use the .dxf file format which can be opened in the basic version of Studio. However, I understand that as at June 2015 there layers and Studio weren’t good friends which meant Inkscape files were best produced in a single layer with different line colours used to maximise the benefit from Studio’s ability to cut or score by line colour.

 

The other option seems to be to ignore Studio and rely on CutWizard (presumably from within Inkscape) to perform the cutting tasks. Again, by June 2015, this route had problems based on the line fill status.

 

I’d appreciate it if someone could provide an update on both the above if that is possible, especially if one is fixed and the other still hasn’t been addressed either fully or in part.

 

Many thanks (and apologies if this has been done recently and I both missed it the first time around and haven't quite got there yet this time round).

 

Edited to remove an unnecessary word.

Edited July 21, 2017 by Ray H

[Stubby47]

I have used the silhouette software for simple window cutting, but will use Inkscape for the more complex, photo based projects.

 

I found out today that joining several duplicated windows together ( to save wastage between items), failed miserably. The cutting stopped part way through, as well as getting shallower in depth. Separating the windows again worked fine.

[Ray H]

The Portrait arrived while I was out yesterday. I'd previously installed the latest software on my PC which the installation process recognised.

 

The latest version of the Silhouette software is 4.0.1052ss. It appears to have a completely different front end to the manual that came with the Portrait. Fortunately the latest manual comes with the downloaded software, all 118 (A4) pages of it!

 

I managed a very basic cut on some 120gm² card once I'd set it up last evening.

 

I'm hoping that I can make a start on producing something for the layout over the weekend.

[Ray H]

I managed to produce this window on the portrait this morning. It measures 27 x 21mm.

 

 

I've solely used 15 thou plasticard on the basis that 10 thou looked too flimsy and the consensus on here has been that trying to cut 20 thou right through using the portrait was unlikely to have a positive outcome.

 

I started with the blade set at 3 and increased the depth for each subsequent cut by 2 for each test save that I went from 7 to 10. In all honesty I doubt the physical depth of cut increased to an great extent probably from 5 onwards. I had to snap each piece out after scoring it further with a scalpel for all cut depths. Speed and thickness were the same for each test.

 

One problem I have found is that the blade cuts beyond the end of each "line". This can be seen at both ends of the horizontal cut on the bottom of the top most frame.

 

Studio version 3 (at least) allows the user to specify the material being cut - I tried chipboard as the initial setting as I reckoned that was probably as dense as plasticard. The progam also allows the user to specify their own settings for a cut so I set up 15 thou plasticard with a speed of 1, blade depth of 10, double cut and a thickness of 33 and the window shown above was produced on those settings.

 

I also changed from cutting the matt side of the plasticard - because I initially forgot the previous mentions that the gloss side was possibly better to cut from - after the first two cut attempts i.e. from a cut depth of 7 onwards.

 

The window has been cut with a large surround at the rear so the overhang can then be glued to the back of the inside face of the wall that the window is being fitted to.

 

Both upper & lower frames have been glazed separately so it may be possible to position the top frame in the open position.

[Robin2]

Wouldn't ordinary white card (180gsm or so) be sufficient for windows and a lot easier to cut?

 

...R

[bgman]

Some replacement sides and internal partition for a GWR 57' Toplight Double Slip Dia. F16 in 4mm scale.

 

 

10 thou plasticard sheet was used to produce these.

[MikeTrice]

Nice to see new people starting to get good results.

 

With the blade angled at 45 or 60 degrees the amount of overcut is increased as material thickness increases. What about using the rear side as the visible part?

[MickRalph]

I managed to produce this window on the portrait this morning. It measures 27 x 21mm.

 

230717_1.jpg

 

One problem I have found is that the blade cuts beyond the end of each "line". This can be seen at both ends of the horizontal cut on the bottom of the top most frame.

 

Studio version 3 (at least) allows the user to specify the material being cut - I tried chipboard as the initial setting as I reckoned that was probably as dense as plasticard. The progam also allows the user to specify their own settings for a cut so I set up 15 thou plasticard with a speed of 1, blade depth of 10, double cut and a thickness of 33 and the window shown above was produced on those settings.

 

There is a setting in Studio to cut beyond the ends of the lines - it is the "line segment overcut" tick box in the material editing page.  Make sure this is not ticked.

 

The Studio manual entry for this option reads:

 

Line Segment Overcut

Once a material type is selected, you will find a Line Segment Overcut option that can be turned on or off by clicking on the desired option:

 

Selecting the “Off” option will have all lines cut normally. Selecting the “On” option will have all straight corners cut with a slight overcut. This

option is beneficial for providing cleaner cutting results in the following conditions:

• Cutting thicker/denser material types (such as chipboard)

• Cutting smaller block fonts or sharp-edged images on various material types

The option will have no effect on rounded edges. It is only effective for images containing sharp edges in order to achieve the best cutting results

possible under the conditions listed above.

 

All versions of Studio allow you to create your own material types - useful for setting parameters for scoring, or for increasing the pressure of successive cuts. I have created "plasticard score", "plasticard first cut", "plasticard secong cut" and "plasticard final cut".

 

Mick

[Ray H]

Wouldn't ordinary white card (180gsm or so) be sufficient for windows and a lot easier to cut?

 

...R

 

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

I'm a little put off by the images I've seen of the machine cut card as they all seem to have wispy cut edges and I'm unsure whether this can be cleaned up.

 

Today's experiments were in part my learning curve and because it seemed as though most results so far were concentrated on 10 & 20 thou material.

 

I haven't ruled out card, its just that plastic has always been my preferred material.

[Ray H]

Nice to see new people starting to get good results.

 

With the blade angled at 45 or 60 degrees the amount of overcut is increased as material thickness increases. What about using the rear side as the visible part?

 

Thanks Mike.

 

I have done this on the rear piece of the assembly but I'd also scored a few lines on the front of that piece to aid positioning of the two window frames. There were also issues where the end of the overcut was at or near the edge of another cut and the plastic actually fractured at this point whilst I was trying to break the infill away. This is aside from the appearance issue caused by the overcut.

[Ray H]

There is a setting in Studio to cut beyond the ends of the lines - it is the "line segment overcut" tick box in the material editing page.  Make sure this is not ticked.

 

The Studio manual entry for this option reads:

 

Line Segment Overcut

Once a material type is selected, you will find a Line Segment Overcut option that can be turned on or off by clicking on the desired option:

 

Selecting the “Off” option will have all lines cut normally. Selecting the “On” option will have all straight corners cut with a slight overcut. This

option is beneficial for providing cleaner cutting results in the following conditions:

• Cutting thicker/denser material types (such as chipboard)

• Cutting smaller block fonts or sharp-edged images on various material types

The option will have no effect on rounded edges. It is only effective for images containing sharp edges in order to achieve the best cutting results

possible under the conditions listed above.

 

All versions of Studio allow you to create your own material types - useful for setting parameters for scoring, or for increasing the pressure of successive cuts. I have created "plasticard score", "plasticard first cut", "plasticard secong cut" and "plasticard final cut".

 

Mick

 

Mick

 

Thanks for your comments.

 

The line segment overcut option is unchecked for the plasticard entry that I set up. However, it was set at 0.9mm for the chipboard entry. I have also just unchecked the software overcut option in the Advanced section of the Preferences. I shall try another cutting session tomorrow now that I've made these changes.

 

I don't recall seeing any specific comments about the ability to set up user defined materials in previous posts. Much of what I recall from my first read through of this thread seemed to concentrate on earlier versions of studio so I made the comment in case others weren't aware the facility existed in the current version.

[Ray H]

I'm not sure whether I should add this here or in Mike's Inkscape thread so apologies if I've got it wrong.
 
I have saved my file in Inkscape to a .dxf format. The file includes a 10mm square so that I can check that the import into Silhouette is to the right size. You can probably guess by now that it isn't!
 
I can but assume that the notes that I've made about saving/importing are incomplete so I hope someone can kindly advise where I might be going wrong.
 
I have set my Open preference in the Import tab for .dxf files in Studio to "Centred" - I couldn't see the drawing with this set to "As Is", even though it was top left in the Inkscape file - Join lines into polyfiles is un-ticked and Convert white line to black is ticked. The Unit of Measurement in the General tab is set to Millimetres.
 
I've selected all - Ctrl + A - and Set Path > Object to Paths in Inkscape where the measurements are also in millimetres.
 
The drawing in Studio is approx. 3.78 times smaller than the Inkscape version. At least the Aspect Ratio seems the same by the time it arrives in Studio.
 
Can anyone hazard a guess as to what setting I have overlooked please?
 
Edited to add:
 
I have just read post 1311 and changed the Custom Size Units in Inkscape from "mm" to "px". The drawing is now approx. ¾ the Inkscape size when opened in Studio.

 

Edited to further add:

 

After trying several different things spread over a few hours and interrupted by things not computer related I think I have a solution.

 

I re-opened the file in Inkscape and changed the Custom Size Units in Inkscape from "mm" to "px" as mentioned above. I then opted to save the file in a .dfx format. This brings up a pop-up window "Desktop Cutting Plotter. I un-ticked Use ROBO-Master type of spline output and Use LWPOLYLINE type of line output. I also changed (and this seems to be the crucial bit) the Base unit from mm to px and clicked OK.

 

Lo and behold the file opened in Studio at almost the same size as it was saved in Inkscape.

 

Now to see how I can reduce/eliminate the over-cut issue.

Edited July 24, 2017 by Ray H

[Ray H]

The change to the software over-cut option in the Advanced section of the Preferences has worked, the over-cutting has disappeared.

 

I have now tried cutting with 10, 15 & 20 thou plastic. I managed to cut right through the 10 thou with a blade setting of 4, thickness = 33 and speed = 1, I'd previously tried with the depth set to 3 but whilst a couple of cuts went through most required the chads to be snapped out. The cuts do look much cleaner in the 10 thou. I tried the 15 & 20 thou with the blade setting of 10 but neither cut through.

 

My d-limonene order arrived today so I'll experiment with using that as an adhesive next.

[Stubby47]

I've tried cutting 10thou Slaters with those settings, but it didn't cut through.

 

However I was able to peel the whole sheet of the sticky mat in one go, making it easier than removing small bits.

[MickRalph]

Ray - what version of Inkscape are you using?  I found (post 1963) that the change of resolution for pixel units in the newest version (0.92) of Inkscape gives the wrong size drawing when opened in Studio, so I have had to revert to version 0.91.

 

Mick

[The Fatadder]

Finally gotten around to ordering a portrait cutter, only to see posts about the difficulty of obtaining 10thou plasticard.

 

Looking forward to its arrival, looking forward to trying it out. Window vents for centenary coaches should be the first trial, along with details for Brent buildings. I love

 

Can I use it on 40 thou to score an outline which I will finish cutting with a knife?

 

Moving on I love the look of BGMans dyno coach, and would love to try something similar. The same approach would also be ideal for doing the clesterory full brake used as a spare for the post war tpo.

 

 

Need to do a lot more reading, but my plan is to use autocad to make a dxf to import.

Edited July 27, 2017 by The Fatadder

[Stubby47]

Slater's 10thou plasticard is available from Kernow, £1.01 per sheet  (usual disclaimers). 

[chris p bacon]

Finally gotten around to ordering a portrait cutter, only to see posts about the difficulty of obtaining 10thou plasticard.

 

 

Can I use it on 40 thou to score an outline which I will finish cutting with a knife?

 

I think you might mean 5 thou (theres a thread running) 10 thou is freely available.

 

You might get away with 40 thou for scoring without a mat beneath it (I'm sure someone has tried it) but 20 thou is realistically the max for it to work effectively.

[The Fatadder]

Ah good

 

The (40 degree) Spanish heat has gone to my head! Will get some ten thou ordered and start playing

[Ron Heggs]

Can I use it on 40 thou to score an outline which I will finish cutting with a knife?

 

 

Tried 40 thou awhile ago, even though it is just beyond the limits of the machine even without a mat. The two rollers don't grip equally, so the sheet moves about as soon as the blade applies any pressure

 

Now use 20 thou laminated when 40 thou is required to be cut, and hand cutting is not really the better option

 

Cheers

 

Ron

 

PS. It's definitely hot today here in Spain

[The Fatadder]

Tried 40 thou awhile ago, even though it is just beyond the limits of the machine even without a mat. The two rollers don't grip equally, so the sheet moves about as soon as the blade applies any pressure

 

Now use 20 thou laminated when 40 thou is required to be cut, and hand cutting is not really the better option

 

Cheers

 

Ron

 

PS. It's definitely hot today here in Spain

Thanks, indeed to buy some of the softer solvent anyway so switching to laminated 20thou should be fine for most of my plans. Just need to stop the warping of laminations.

So many potential ideas going through my head at the moment I'm still unsure as to what I will actually do with it first!

 

As for the heat, I'm dreading coming back to Sevilla in 2 weeks time! I'm going to melt!

[Ray H]

Ray - what version of Inkscape are you using?  I found (post 1963) that the change of resolution for pixel units in the newest version (0.92) of Inkscape gives the wrong size drawing when opened in Studio, so I have had to revert to version 0.91.

 

Mick

 

Mick

 

I'm using version 0.92.1 r15371 downloaded just over a week ago. I've only tried making some windows so far but the changes I outlined above seem to have cured the size discrepancy. Studio

 

I'm hoping to try some other things during the next few days and will report back.