A Guide to using the Silhouette Cameo Cutter

[newbryford]

I've had a silhouette for a few months but I've been sitting on the sidelines while I concentrated on the laser.

 

But prompted by a friends efforts I've dug it out this evening and my first item cutout is below.

 

Can you guess what it is??

 

image.jpg

 

Must unpack mine sometime.

 

A Mk1 window frame?

 

Cheers,

Mick

Edited October 24, 2015 by newbryford

[sleeper]

I've had a silhouette for a few months but I've been sitting on the sidelines while I concentrated on the laser.

 

But prompted by a friends efforts I've dug it out this evening and my first item cutout is below.

 

Can you guess what it is??

 

image.jpg

 

As stated above a Mk1 carriage window.

This is, judging by the size of the wood grain in the background, a cruel close up, and I suspect the bars are only around 1mm wide, if that, particularly the verticals between the upper windows. It can be seen that some distortion has occurred, although I doubt this shows when not viewed in close up.

I seem to remember way back in this thread some discussion about this particular problem. If I recall correctly, one option was to create the rectangles not with the rectangle tool but as a series of 4 separate lines. This way the blade lifts, turns and plunges for the next cut as opposed to turning while still plunged into the material and therefore creating distortion.

The silhouette cutter has a mind of its own when it comes to cutting order, diving from one place to the other, so personally I think I would either separate the parts into layers, or use 3 different sets of coloured cut lines which can be turned on and off in the (advanced) cut menu, first cutting the four small openings in one colour, thereby ensuring plenty of material as support, surrounding the cuts . Next a different colour for the large opening below them and finally another colour for the extreme outside cut. If the final cut produced some distortion it might be easier to rectify or might even be lost if the frame was sitting inside an opening. 

[JCL]

Hi there. I did a mark one window "frame" for a class 114 a while ago. The horizontals were drawn in one colour, the corners in a second, and verticals in a third. I then made sure that the colour order of the cutting process ensured that the corners were done last, thins meant that the silhouette wasn't able to arbitrarily join lines together. I think I uploaded a photo of the two different methods at one time.

 

The first window takes a while to put together, but after that it's mostly copy and paste.

 

 

 

Edited October 25, 2015 by JCL

[MikeTrice]

By a strange coincidence I am doing something similar. In my case I have created some silver frames to decorate a Mailcoach Coronation set. I used Fablon Silver Polished Effect. It cut beautifully in the Silhouette.

 

 

 

 

I have now completed this side and am very pleased with the result, however I think I will try using the Silhouette to cut new sides and bypass the Mailcoach sides altogether.

[Rob Pulham]

That is superb Mike,  I recently acquired Isinglass drawings for the Coronation and West Riding sets so they might be on the agenda at some point. - in 7mm of course.

[JCL]

Hi Mike

 

They look great. I did wonder what you were doing at the moment.

[Rob Pulham]

For anyone who might be interested but haven't visited my workbench thread, this is what I am up to with my first go with my Cameo.

 

 

 

[MikeTrice]

A visit to Hobbycraft yesterday resulted in my buying a Cricut Scraper and Spatula (to ease removal of any parts stuck to the cutting mat):

 

 

I was dissatisfied with my earlier attempt at producing the stainless steel trim for the Mailcoach Coronation side. I made the mistake of using the thickness of the moulded trim to fix the width of the cut trim resulting in something looking too heaver. This time I adjusted the thicknesses to something approaching the scale 1 3/4" width, which can be seen on the lower side. Much happier with this:

 

If anyone looks closely at the enlargement there is evidence of my initial attempts to line the trim in silver paint (unsuccessfully). My next job is to mix another batch of Garter Blue to touch up the mistakes prior to varnishing in Klear. I am hoping that the Klear will help fix the trim

[Rob Pulham]

Am I doing something wrong when importing files into Silhouette? I have a designer version of Silhouette so I can open the .svg files directly from Inkscape (although despite trying all the import settings, I still need to resize when in Silhouette,  but that's not the problem).

 

Once I have the files open in Silhouette for cutting and having cut my first scoring cut, I find it virtually impossible to edit the file in Silhouette. - What I wanted to do was change the colour of some of the lines so that I could exclude them from further cuts. Despite un-grouping until nothing showed as being grouped I couldn't do anything with some of the items so had to let it go.

 

Anyone any ideas? 

 

Although it's a lesson learned - and the lesson is that when using dotted score lines to indicate where to place additional detail you only need to score them faintly so that you can see them. If you do them in a separate colour from the lines that you might want to have more definition but not cut through (door edges etc.) then using a third or more colour will allow you more control over how you cut them - all long as unlike this plonker you remember to exclude them from the next cut.......

[sleeper]

Hi Rob, 

I'm sorry you're having problems with the silhouette software, unfortunately I've had no experience with the designer version, I'm sure there will be some advice forthcoming from some of the other more experienced members soon. Personally I don't really see it's an advantage to be able to import SVG files directly from the CAD program, being as it's very easy to create a file, save it as an SVG and then save it as a DXF file as well, which silhouette opens with virtually no problems.

There has been some discussion recently about different coloured lines for scoring/cutting, see post numbers 1083 onward for import settings and post number 1094 onwards for cut settings.

I've found it is easier to go back and edit the original DXF file rather than try it in silhouette studio. I close the silhouette page, open the DXF, modify it, save it, then re-open it with silhouette. I might be doing it all wrong but up 'til now it has worked for me, maybe someone can set me right with this.

 

I've recently been working through your rolling stock workbench and am finding it very interesting and admire your skills. I'm intrigued by the van shown above. Presumably this is cut from plastic card. The louvres are of particular interest as I'm just about to create some in card for my D16/2 project. Did you cut these yourself or are they etched brass stuck on?

 

Roly

[sleeper]

 

 

I was dissatisfied with my earlier attempt at producing the stainless steel trim for the Mailcoach Coronation side. I made the mistake of using the thickness of the moulded trim to fix the width of the cut trim resulting in something looking too heaver. This time I adjusted the thicknesses to something approaching the scale 1 3/4" width, which can be seen on the lower side. Much happier with this:

IMG_4721.JPG

 

If anyone looks closely at the enlargement there is evidence of my initial attempts to line the trim in silver paint

 

Mike,

I did note that the trims' depths looked slightly 'heavy' but didn't like to criticise a clever idea, the later ones do look much finer.

The one thing that stood out to me with the original version was the sheer depth of the moulded plastic trim plus the Fablon 'frame', no doubt exaggerated by the light.  It made me think that, maybe either the moulded plastic trims could be excluded in favour of the Fablon ones on their own or that another layer of panels could be inserted between the trims to reduce their depth. Due to distortion problems caused by laminating plastic card though, I would favour the former over the latter.

I like your nice neatly placed items on the Fablon sheet by the way.

Edited November 1, 2015 by sleeper

[MickRalph]

Hello Rob,

 

I have the Designer Edition of Silhouette Studio, as I had some difficulties with opening a DXF file correctly in Studio.  I have no problem in opening the SVG file in Studio DE.  The only issue with the sizing of the design is to ensure that Edit > Preferences > Import Options > When Importing SVG is set to "As-Is".  I don't thing there is anything to set in Inkscape to ensure correct sizing of the design when imported into Studio DE.

 

Although DE allows you to import SVG with layers and to cut by layers or by colour, I have found that it is necessary to save separate files for each layer, as DE either cuts all lines in a selected layer, regardless of colour, or all lines of a selected colour across all layers.

 

I can't get to grips with using Studio for editing a design, so, like Sleeper, I go back to the original file, edit it in Inkscape and then reopen it in DE.

 

I have been experimenting with the Gerrman program CutWizard, which is added as an extension to Inkscape and thus cuts direct from Inkscape.  This program costs about the same as DE, but there is a 14 day free trial, and the latest version (available from www.hobbyplotter.de/download/downloads/index.php?id=337) now allows cutting by line-colour rather than by line-fill as previously.  There are a couple of issues which I haven't resolved yet, so I would be interested to hear how anyone else gets on with the program.  One issue is that it seems to me that you need to use pixels as the default template measurement, but more importantly, sometimes the extension seems to "see" a shape which has been deleted, so that the design is then wrong.  I haven't worked out the circumstances in which this happens.  The extension offers the same functionality as DE in setting different parameters for different colours of cut-lines.  Using this extension would resolve the issue above, as you simply close the extension, re-edit the design and then run the extension again, but having bough DE, I think I will stick with it.

 

Mick

[Rob Pulham]

Hi Rob, 

I'm sorry you're having problems with the silhouette software, unfortunately I've had no experience with the designer version, I'm sure there will be some advice forthcoming from some of the other more experienced members soon. Personally I don't really see it's an advantage to be able to import SVG files directly from the CAD program, being as it's very easy to create a file, save it as an SVG and then save it as a DXF file as well, which silhouette opens with virtually no problems.

There has been some discussion recently about different coloured lines for scoring/cutting, see post numbers 1083 onward for import settings and post number 1094 onwards for cut settings.

I've found it is easier to go back and edit the original DXF file rather than try it in silhouette studio. I close the silhouette page, open the DXF, modify it, save it, then re-open it with silhouette. I might be doing it all wrong but up 'til now it has worked for me, maybe someone can set me right with this.

 

I've recently been working through your rolling stock workbench and am finding it very interesting and admire your skills. I'm intrigued by the van shown above. Presumably this is cut from plastic card. The louvres are of particular interest as I'm just about to create some in card for my D16/2 project. Did you cut these yourself or are they etched brass stuck on?

 

Roly

 

Hi Roly,

 

Thanks for the thoughts,  Like you I would normally go back and edit the svg file but I was partway through the cut sequence when I wanted to make the change so I didn't want to risk closing the file and reopening in case it screwed up the cut - I have had a couple of instances where I have forgotten to uncheck a colour when cutting and when attempting to cancel it has started to re-cut in a different place....

 

Regarding the van above, yes it's cut in plasticard and the louvres are Styrene too but made up from square rod and strips but stuck together as below to create the impression of the louvre - the square rod was 0.75mm and the strip 1.5x0.25mm both from Evergreen.

 

[Rob Pulham]

Hello Rob,

 

I have the Designer Edition of Silhouette Studio, as I had some difficulties with opening a DXF file correctly in Studio.  I have no problem in opening the SVG file in Studio DE.  The only issue with the sizing of the design is to ensure that Edit > Preferences > Import Options > When Importing SVG is set to "As-Is".  I don't thing there is anything to set in Inkscape to ensure correct sizing of the design when imported into Studio DE.

 

Although DE allows you to import SVG with layers and to cut by layers or by colour, I have found that it is necessary to save separate files for each layer, as DE either cuts all lines in a selected layer, regardless of colour, or all lines of a selected colour across all layers.

 

I can't get to grips with using Studio for editing a design, so, like Sleeper, I go back to the original file, edit it in Inkscape and then reopen it in DE.

 

I have been experimenting with the Gerrman program CutWizard, which is added as an extension to Inkscape and thus cuts direct from Inkscape.  This program costs about the same as DE, but there is a 14 day free trial, and the latest version (available from www.hobbyplotter.de/download/downloads/index.php?id=337) now allows cutting by line-colour rather than by line-fill as previously.  There are a couple of issues which I haven't resolved yet, so I would be interested to hear how anyone else gets on with the program.  One issue is that it seems to me that you need to use pixels as the default template measurement, but more importantly, sometimes the extension seems to "see" a shape which has been deleted, so that the design is then wrong.  I haven't worked out the circumstances in which this happens.  The extension offers the same functionality as DE in setting different parameters for different colours of cut-lines.  Using this extension would resolve the issue above, as you simply close the extension, re-edit the design and then run the extension again, but having bough DE, I think I will stick with it.

 

Mick

 

Thanks Mick,

 

For what ever reason it doesn't seem to matter whether I select "As Is" or "Centred" under the svg section of import within the Studio software, I still need to resize

 

I would edit files the same as you but see my note to Roly as to why I wanted to edit within Studio and hence asked the question.

[brack]

Speaking of silhouette software troubles, does anyone else find arcs or curves get messed up sometimes when importing from dxf? I draw a lot of my stuff using rhino 3D (learned 3D cad before 2d and still find the interface much more intuitive), then export the surfaces as dxf. They open perfectly in Inkscape or illustrator, but silhouette studio garbled the curves half the time.

[MikeOxon]

Speaking of silhouette software troubles, does anyone else find arcs or curves get messed up sometimes when importing from dxf? I draw a lot of my stuff using rhino 3D (learned 3D cad before 2d and still find the interface much more intuitive), then export the surfaces as dxf. They open perfectly in Inkscape or illustrator, but silhouette studio garbled the curves half the time.

I have seen this problem with some 'flavours' of dxf (which seems to be a rather variable 'standard').  The Studio software only seems to work properly with the most basic type of dxf.  From Autosketch, I have options to save dxf files in different versions and it is the oldest version that works!  I also had problems with earlier versions of the Studio 3 software, so make sure that you are using the latest version.;

[MickRalph]

Thanks Mick,

 

For what ever reason it doesn't seem to matter whether I select "As Is" or "Centred" under the svg section of import within the Studio software, I still need to resize

 

I would edit files the same as you but see my note to Roly as to why I wanted to edit within Studio and hence asked the question.

Rob,

 

Is it a constant factor by which you have to resize after importing the svg file into Studio?   There was some discussion earlier in the thread about resizing problems, though I haven't checked back to see what was the issue, or the resolution of the problem.

 

Mick

[MikeOxon]

Rob,

 

Is it a constant factor by which you have to resize after importing the svg file into Studio?   There was some discussion earlier in the thread about resizing problems, though I haven't checked back to see what was the issue, or the resolution of the problem.

 

Mick

You do need to make sure that units are specified in a consistent way between the different programs.

[sleeper]

Hi Rob,

 

Yes I can see your dilemma, like many things in life there's no going back!  

Thanks very much for the info on the louvres. I assumed rightly or wrongly that the diagram you have shown is a front elevation not a plan, that the square rod is horizontal front to back of the louvre panel with its face end 'cropped' at say 60° with the strips glued across the face. This is the best I can describe what I mean, hope you interpret it correctly.

I used the term 'cropped' as I noted in one of you other posts that you possess one of these excellent devices, there is a certain very skilled modeller in another Forum who uses one of these to spectacular effect.

 

louvres.pdf  This may explain what I have visualised.

 

Roly

Edited November 2, 2015 by sleeper

[Roger.s]

I seem to remember way back in this thread some discussion about this particular problem. If I recall correctly, one option was to create the rectangles not with the rectangle tool but as a series of 4 separate lines. This way the blade lifts, turns and plunges for the next cut as opposed to turning while still plunged into the material and therefore creating distortion.

The silhouette cutter has a mind of its own when it comes to cutting order, diving from one place to the other, so personally I think I would either separate the parts into layers, or use 3 different sets of coloured cut lines which can be turned on and off in the (advanced) cut menu, first cutting the four small openings in one colour, thereby ensuring plenty of material as support, surrounding the cuts . Next a different colour for the large opening below them and finally another colour for the extreme outside cut. If the final cut produced some distortion it might be easier to rectify or might even be lost if the frame was sitting inside an opening. 

 

As I understand it, the blade is free to turn and is not 'driven' to any direction except by the castor action of the tip of the blade being offset from the axis of rotation. Thus the blade lifts, does not turn and plunges for the next cut facing in the direction of the previous cut. To prevent the blade having to turn at the start of each cut I arrange to do all the vertical cuts together followed by all the horizontal cuts. Between groups of each direction I make a short cut in the new direction placed in an out of the way place, such as a window opening, in order to align the blade to the new direction. Of course cuts can be in either direction so it is essential to draw each line in the same direction, ie left to right or right to left but not both mixed, and verticals must all be upwards or downwards.

 

The Silhouette Studio has an option in the cut menu under advanced to set the sort order. The choices are:-  No Sort,  Maximise Speed  and Minimise Roller Movement. No Sort seems to maintain the cuts in the order they were loaded into Silhouette Studio and keeps the cuts in each direction together. As I the draw the artwork in Autocad and transfer it to Silhouette as a DXF file it must be in the order in that file.  In fact I see that in my case the last drawn line is the first to be cut and the last cut is the first drawn so the extra aligning cuts between direction have to be after the set lines not before.

 

For curved cuts I arrange that the previous cut ends with the blade moving in the direction of the start of the curved cut. As the cuts are made in the direction they were drawn but in the reverse order It can be quite tricky to sort out.

 

Regards Roger

Edited November 3, 2015 by Roger.s

[damian]

There is an option in the silhouette software to cut past intersections so this would give you sharper corners, maybe do two runs so one can have this setting on the other off

[BrushType4]

There is an option in the silhouette software to cut past intersections so this would give you sharper corners, maybe do two runs so one can have this setting on the other off

 

No, but one could draw the lines over length to achieve that.

[sleeper]

No, but one could draw the lines over length to achieve that.

Personally I let the software do that for me rather than end up with varying lengths of overcut let alone the extra work it makes overdrawing the lines.

 

On a completely different subject I think it worth mentioning something that happened this morning. I drew up some panels for the louvres on my D16/2.

These were different sized rectangles created by duplicating the cutouts in the sides I'd produced previously. I  drew a series of horizontal score lines spaced at 1.5mm to fill them. The rectangles in red, the horizontal lines in blue ( red for cutting blue for scoring) and saved them, together with a bunch of 1.7mm strips for the louvres, as a DXF file.

I opened the file in Silhouette, scored the blue lines first then cut the red ones second. Problem! the score lines and cut lines didn't line up correctly.

I went back to the DXF, everything lined up, on checked the Silhouette file more closely using the magnifying tool, bingo, the two were out.

When I import DXF files they always despite altering the preferences, 'as is, etc, load off of the page and have to be dragged into the page for cutting. This is where the problem occurred. On some previous occasions the images have been imported ungrouped despite being grouped in Inkscape and have had to be grouped in Silhouette in order to move them. Lately this hasn't happened and so I've not bothered grouping them.In this case though, despite being 'grouped' on import they separated, when, I suspect,  I set up the (coloured) cut settings and somehow moved slightly .

The moral is, 1 make sure they're grouped when first imported and 2 magnify the page and check everything's tickety boo before cutting, lesson learnt.

[Roger.s]

 

For curved cuts I arrange that the previous cut ends with the blade moving in the direction of the start of the curved cut. As the cuts are made in the direction they were drawn but in the reverse order It can be quite tricky to sort out.

If you do this, do not have the double cut option active if the end of each cut is in a different direction to the start as Silhouette doubles each cut before moving on to the next.

 

Personally I let the software do that for me rather than end up with varying lengths of overcut let alone the extra work it makes overdrawing the lines.

 

On a completely different subject I think it worth mentioning something that happened this morning. I drew up some panels for the louvres on my D16/2.

These were different sized rectangles created by duplicating the cutouts in the sides I'd produced previously. I  drew a series of horizontal score lines spaced at 1.5mm to fill them. The rectangles in red, the horizontal lines in blue ( red for cutting blue for scoring) and saved them, together with a bunch of 1.7mm strips for the louvres, as a DXF file.

I opened the file in Silhouette, scored the blue lines first then cut the red ones second. Problem! the score lines and cut lines didn't line up correctly.

I went back to the DXF, everything lined up, on checked the Silhouette file more closely using the magnifying tool, bingo, the two were out.

When I import DXF files they always despite altering the preferences, 'as is, etc, load off of the page and have to be dragged into the page for cutting. This is where the problem occurred. On some previous occasions the images have been imported ungrouped despite being grouped in Inkscape and have had to be grouped in Silhouette in order to move them. Lately this hasn't happened and so I've not bothered grouping them.In this case though, despite being 'grouped' on import they separated, when, I suspect,  I set up the (coloured) cut settings and somehow moved slightly .

The moral is, 1 make sure they're grouped when first imported and 2 magnify the page and check everything's tickety boo before cutting, lesson learnt.

Silhouette Studio makes its zero point at the top left hand corner. Autocad, and thus DXF, files make the zero point at the bottom left hand corner so everything above the zero line will be over the top of the cutting area.

 

When I do a drawing for cutting I start with a horizontal line at x = 0. I then make a 1st angle working drawing of the item above this line. Using different layers I can then trace over this drawing for the horizontal lines and vertical lines and copy these cut lines into the space below the line. I move different parts around to fit the cutting area and not to waste to much plasticard and also arrange the top left corner to be at about -8,-8 mm. The file then loads to the correct place in Silhouette.

 

Regards Roger

[jonhall]

I think I might repeat my Silhouette cameo demo at Tolworth Showtrain this weekend, I had intended to do something else, but have sort of run out of time to organise that, therefore if you are interested in seeing what a cutter might do for you, pop along. www.tolworthshowtrain.co.uk

 

Jon