A Guide to using the Silhouette Cameo Cutter

[smiths park]

When I tried this version, it would not cut towards the centre of the carriage on my Cameo, so t reverted back to the last 3# version,following advice on this thread.

I don't whether this is relevant but I have a Potrait 2. 

[Siberian Snooper]

I don't whether this is relevant but I have a Potrait 2.

 

I have not heard of problems with the portrait.

 

I have just read back through to my original post and it appears that there has been a further update since my first problem, so I might give it another go with ver 4. I have saved ver 3 to a memory stick, so that it will be easier to go back again.

[Rob Pulham]

Rob,

 

Good to see you back on the Cameo ... How many cuts did it need to successfully cut through 20-thou styrene? I can't make that out from your posting. And what was the pressure setting?

 

With my Cricut 5-cuts just about got through 20-thou but not enough for the shape to pop out like you describe. I'm curious to know if can 'copy' your settings over to the Cricut to completely cut through 20-thou.

 

Ian

 

Hi Ian, 

 

It was effectively 7 cut but with the first 5 of those using 4 passes and the last 2 having 6 passes.

 

In terms of blade depth for each individual cut I go 1,3,5,7,9,10 increasing the pressure from 15 until I reach 33 on the final cut.

 

The speed setting for all cuts was 5

[Steadfast]

I've been working on this on and off since October. It's a Plasser and Theurer RM95RT, or the Medium Output Ballast Cleaner (MOBC). It's 99% 10 thou and 20 thou sheet, designed in Inkscape and cut on my Portrait.

The construction various laminations give the depth, the sides of the belts are 3 layers for example, each with different cutouts to give the illusion of relief.

The second vehicle I've yet to start, is even more complex, still working out how to break it down. I started with the simple half!

 

Jo

[newbryford]

I've been happily using my Silhouette Portrait cutting lots of rectangles in 10 thou styrene.

 

 

The last couple of cuts haven't gone through all the way.

Is it likely to be a worn blade or something other than that?

 

Do I need a higher blade pressure and/or depth of cut with an adjusted blade?

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Ron Heggs]

I've been happily using my Silhouette Portrait cutting lots of rectangles in 10 thou styrene.

 

rectangles.jpg

 

The last couple of cuts haven't gone through all the way.

Is it likely to be a worn blade or something other than that?

 

Do I need a higher blade pressure and/or depth of cut with an adjusted blade?

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

More than likely the blade/blade holder is blocked up with stray styrene from your extended cutting. Remove the blade holder and examine the blade protruding through the hole, which will collect any stray styrene. I clean my blade every couple hundred cuts, just to be sure

 

Ron

[Ray H]

This is a bit of a long shot (and apologies for the long winded description).

 

Our club is exhibiting an end to end OO gauge layout at a local show in a couple of weeks. This is the first time the layout's been out.

 

The layout has three fiddle yards each with a traverser and runs to a schedule of around 50 moves. There are two traversers at one end and a single one at the other. The schedule uses several tens of items of rolling stock.

 

We don't always use the schedule when the layout is used in the clubroom with the result that the stock ends up all over the place and takes an age to reset ready to run to the schedule. Loading the stock onto the layout initially at the show will be similar so I'm thinking of using the Portrait to cut some vinyl "tags" that can be put on the non-public side of each vehicle to show which traverser the vehicle first uses and the track number of that traverser that the stock should be put on at the start of the schedule. I aim to use different coloured (sticky back) vinyl for each fiddle yard and print the track number onto the vinyl shape(s) that will be cut by the Portrait.

 

I can cut the shapes and I can print the numbers using the Silhouette pen holder (with pen!). However, the numbers would only print in outline initially and the print isn't clear enough to be read quickly - the vinyl pieces are approximately 6mm square.

 

A Google search returned a couple of videos that showed how to infill and print the numbers. The videos also proved the infill worked by printing the infilled characters.

 

I managed to set up the characters to be infilled using the method that the video showed but the Portrait wouldn't then print the characters until the infill was removed.

 

Has anyone else successfully tried any infilled printing? What suggestions can they offer that might resolve my problem if they have?

 

Many thanks.

 

Edited to add:

 

The file was set up in the Studio software because when I attempted to do so in Inkscape the characters were not visible (if they existed) when the .dxf file was opened in the Silhouette Studio software.

Edited March 20, 2018 by Ray H

[stephennicholson]

A slightly different route is to do your printing on a normal printer. Firstly do your design of tags with numbers and then print to a normal inkjet from your silhouette with the registration marks. Then adjust your original design to have the cut marks only and then pass through your cutter. Have used this successfully to make stickers.

[Steadfast]

To make a shape you haven't edited be visible after exporting as DXF you need to click on Path -> Convert object to path.

This will allow your numbers to be visible.

As a curve ball, why not just cut the vinyl numbers out and stick them on the stock? Removes the whole second process.

 

Jo

[Robin2]

As a curve ball, why not just cut the vinyl numbers out and stick them on the stock? Removes the whole second process.

Or cut the numbers out of the vinyl rectangles so that the body colour shows through

 

...R

[Ray H]

To make a shape you haven't edited be visible after exporting as DXF you need to click on Path -> Convert object to path.

This will allow your numbers to be visible.

As a curve ball, why not just cut the vinyl numbers out and stick them on the stock? Removes the whole second process.

 

Jo

  

Or cut the numbers out of the vinyl rectangles so that the body colour shows through

 

...R

Cutting the numbers out with the cutter was the original idea. However, I wasn't always getting a clean cut around all of the number and ended up with bits of vinyl everywhere! The numbers on their own makes the 5mm high number less conspicuous bearing in mind that the intention is to speed up the process of getting the layout ready before the show starts.

 

I'll try the Path -> Convert object to path option and see how that works. It would be useful if any writing only required a single thickness from the pen.

 

Thanks.

[Ray H]

The Path -> Convert object to path option managed to crash the (free version of the) Studio software. It got as far as Generating Cut Job and hung. In fact the Generating Cut Job pop-up window remained on the screen even after the Studio software was closed on one occasion.

 

There were 5 numerals in the file each "enclosed" within a rectangle.

 

I created another file that was minus the rectangles and that crashed the program as well. The problem appears to be when trying to “sketch” rather than cut or score - possibly because of the relatively small size of the digits being "printed".

 

Cut and score (but using the pen rather than the blade) both work but the 12pt digits take over six minutes to complete with only a single pass. The resultant “print” is blurred and unusable as is. It would take me well over an hour to generate the 60 plus tags that we need at this speed even if the digits were readable. 

The idea of printing the number using the desktop printer looks the way forward.

Thanks for all the suggestions

[Ray H]

I managed to get the numbers (from the printer) and the (Portrait) grid into which they were to be printed to align after several micro adjustments and using card to experiment with. Success!

 

Out came the rolls of vinyl, strips big enough to take the grid were sliced off the end and fed into the printer. That's as far as it has got (so far).

 

Why? Because the printer ink won't dry on the vinyl despite it sitting atop a warm radiator for well over an hour.

 

I could try leaving the ink to dry overnight but am fearful that whilst in may be dry enough not to smudge in the cutter, the slightest form of moisture - e.g. from a sweaty hand - would simply re-vitalise the ink and smudge it.

 

I've since tried a number of different pens and writing on the vinyl and they all smudge as well.

 

It looks as though I shall have to try making the numbers a bit larger and see if I can cut them out cleanly. 

[Ray H]

Changed the font size to 16pt (Arial) and the cut of the numerical outlines was much cleaner plus it was a lot quicker.

 

I did experiment with the pressure and increased it slightly.

 

I now have the items that I want and they're going to club with me this afternoon to be affixed to the layout's stock.

 

Thanks for the earlier suggestions - I'm beginning to wonder if I need to change the blade.

[mudmagnet]

Apologies if this has been asked / answered before, but I am experiencing problems importing DXF files that feature curves - for example brick arches above windows, where the arcs are not importing as arcs, rather more like a partial arc and then a line. I've tried various DXF versions, both AutoCAD and Draftsight. The only way that I can work round is to draw the arc in line segments in the CAD package, but obviously time consuming and far from ideal.

 

many thanks for any assistance

[Ron Heggs]

Apologies if this has been asked / answered before, but I am experiencing problems importing DXF files that feature curves - for example brick arches above windows, where the arcs are not importing as arcs, rather more like a partial arc and then a line. I've tried various DXF versions, both AutoCAD and Draftsight. The only way that I can work round is to draw the arc in line segments in the CAD package, but obviously time consuming and far from ideal.

 

many thanks for any assistance

 

Have you tried creating or converting them to polylines, before  saving as a DXF file

 

Ron

[Ron Heggs]

My Cameo has recently started skewing the mat when cutting. Tried running the mat back and forwards through the cutter to find out the source of the problem. The mat is OK, being fairly new, but the sliding rollers have worn completely smooth, and are not keeping a firm grip of the mat against the main roller

 

Silhouette don't supply spare rollers. As my workload is quite extensive and heavy, in desperation I ordered a new Cameo 3, which was delivered this morning

 

They only other option to repair the existing Cameo, is to order a set of new rollers from Hongjet, Malaysia -

 

http://www.hongjet.com.my/store/product.php?id_product=221

 

These provide the necessary grip and do not slide within the roller bar depressions

 

Will report back when I have received and tested them

 

Ron

[smiths park]

Have you tried creating or converting them to polylines, before  saving as a DXF file

 

Ron

 

I use Autocad and I've never had to convert arc's into polylines before conversion into dxf and then opening the dxf in Studio 4.1. I save the DXF as a release R12 version which is probably overkill but it ensures compatibility with multiple different softwares.

[Siberian Snooper]

Apologies if this has been asked / answered before, but I am experiencing problems importing DXF files that feature curves - for example brick arches above windows, where the arcs are not importing as arcs, rather more like a partial arc and then a line. I've tried various DXF versions, both AutoCAD and Draftsight. The only way that I can work round is to draw the arc in line segments in the CAD package, but obviously time consuming and far from ideal.

 

many thanks for any assistance

I have on occasion had a problem when doing drawings in Autocad, so I imported into Inkscape and saved it there and then imported into Studio and it worked OK.

[smiths park]

Those of you who having these faceting arc problems what version of Autocad is everyone using, I'm on 2016 currently.

[Siberian Snooper]

Those of you who having these faceting arc problems what version of Autocad is everyone using, I'm on 2016 currently.

Those of you who having these faceting arc problems what version of Autocad is everyone using, I'm on 2016 currently.

I was using 2000, until the computer died last year. I have sort of mastered Inkscape, but I'm not as quick at knocking up a drawing as with Autocad and I'm not forking out shed loads for occasional, recreational use.

[mudmagnet]

Many thanks for the replies.

 

I'm using V3 if that has any bearing.

I'll try DXF R12 and also get an update on Studio.

[Ron Heggs]

Does anyone who uses a Cameo 3 with the Autoblade have issues with the machine resetting the blade every time there is a change in the cutting/scoring in a single job?

 

I only use a single blade depth setting for each type/thickness of material, but arrange for different coloured layers for different cut directions to reduce the scuffing at corners when the blade would otherwise change direction. Therefore there is no reason for the Autoblade to reset at every change of colour, etc. To overcome this the blade selection is set to Ratchet type which does not require the machine to do annoying, unnecessary and time consuming resets

 

Ron

[mudmagnet]

Many thanks for the replies.

 

I'm using V3 if that has any bearing.

I'll try DXF R12 and also get an update on Studio.

 

Seem to have solved the problem.

 

Updated Studio V3 to V4.1 and importing DXF R12 and the curves / arcs appear to be ok on a few trials.

[Kiwi]

Does anyone who uses a Cameo 3 with the Autoblade have issues with the machine resetting the blade every time there is a change in the cutting/scoring in a single job?

 

I only use a single blade depth setting for each type/thickness of material, but arrange for different coloured layers for different cut directions to reduce the scuffing at corners when the blade would otherwise change direction. Therefore there is no reason for the Autoblade to reset at every change of colour, etc. To overcome this the blade selection is set to Ratchet type which does not require the machine to do annoying, unnecessary and time consuming resets

 

Ron

Can’t say I've noticed that happening. But I’m always wary of any unexpected changes so check and reset as required before any cut. Perhaps it hsppened and I just routinely adjusted it.

 

Regarding problems cutting round corners, i read a good tip on here sometime ago. Dont use the rectangle tool. Create your rectangle from four separate straight lines. Then they are cut individually, rathet than continuously.

For accuracy I might use the recatangle shape first, draw the lines on top to match it, then delete the rectangle.