A Guide to using the Silhouette Cameo Cutter

[JCL]

Yep, you're right. I've also looked it up and it's a known bug - has been for years apparently. I can get insets to work properly, but not outsets. One suggestion is to set the line ends and joins as per the arrows below, but this only works for insets for me (as shown in the dotted blue circle)

 

 

So, thinking about it, I came back to Mike's method for creating beading (again). I want a middle line and two outside lines that are the same distance away from the middle line. I have a pen with a 0.35mm nib, so that will be the thickness of each of the lines.

• I have my inverse corner rectangle (ICR), and I make a copy of it.
• I make the stroke of the original ICR 0.35mm wide
• Then the copied ICR is pasted using Edit -> Paste in place
• The line thickness of this is 0.7mm.

The second ICR has a line thickness of 0.7mm because when we draw the lines, we will be drawing down the centre of the line thickness. This means that we only need to go half the distance from the edge of the middle line. This is 0.175mm for each side. There are two sides plus the original line thickness of 0.35mm. So 0.7mm = 0.35mm+0.175mm+0.175mm.

 

 

• I select the second ICR (with the 0.7mm line) and use Edit -> Stroke to Path

 

As per Mike's beading instructions, this creates two new lines from the original thicker line. Unfortunately at this point you can't tell that anything has happened.

 

 

• To show the two lines, set the Fill to nothing (X), and the line colour to black.
• Change the line thickness to 0.35mm and the middle line will show in the gap between the two new outer lines.

 

 

One last thing, you will need to make sure you take into account the line thicknesses you will use when sizing the original ICR.

 

Again, hopefully this makes sense (it's late), if not, have a look at Mike's theory post about this method of working for more information. His next post uses a rounded rectangle to do the same thing that I'm showing here.

Edited October 13, 2016 by JCL

[JCL]

Hi Rob

 

Can you try enabling Inkscape's snap toolbar buttons in this order?

 

 

If the button is already highlighted with the blue background, don't click on it as it's already enabled. The buttons are as follows:

1. Enable snapping
2.   Snap bounding boxes
3.     Snap bounding box corners
4.   Snap other points (centres, guide origins, gradient handles etc)
5.     Snap centres of objects

The buttons are hierarchical. Button 5 does the circle centre snap, but you need to click on 4 first to enable it, and button 1 to enable button 4 

Edited October 13, 2016 by JCL

[Londontram]

As some of you have seen I've been working on some 1900 period pre grouping Caledonian wagons and have been drawing them so I can run them off and build them almost as a kit of parts so I can bulk out my wagon fleet with out to much expense and to much scratch building, that's all going well and I'm test building one of each and making any adjustment to the drawings as required.

 

   I've also run this off, drawn on Inkscape and cut on the Silhouette its a 1890s Caledonian diagram 12 empty barrel wagon the early ones being built on old four wheel LNWR/WCJS carriage underframes

The underframes are drawn to include the LNWR style W irons with the traditional clover leaf style tops. The springs are Wizard white metal 8ft carriage springs and are mounted behind the W irons. The underframe also features the traditional style fish belly profile for mounting the springs on.

Still a work in progress but here are a couple more of how it is at the moment.

The end detail

Close up of one of the W irons now with a pin point bearing and the wheels fitted

The main body is made up of six layers of 10 thou plasticard, four for the main frame and two for the outer frame and cross beams. The original had frames 8 inches wide so the sides at 60 thou although a little thinner look about right.

The floor is four layers thick with the middle two having a recess so a bit of metal plate can be placed in there to add weight so it can run empty if required.

Each layers was made up with the individual planks which were then joined with the Path Union setting and as I said taking six layers to get the correct 3D effect.

                                                                                  Steve

Edited October 13, 2016 by Londontram

[Rob Pulham]

Hi Rob

 

Can you try enabling Inkscape's snap toolbar buttons in this order?

 

buttons.jpg

 

If the button is already highlighted with the blue background, don't click on it as it's already enabled. The buttons are as follows:

1. Enable snapping
2.   Snap bounding boxes
3.     Snap bounding box corners
4.   Snap other points (centres, guide origins, gradient handles etc)
5.     Snap centres of objects

The buttons are hierarchical. Button 5 does the circle centre snap, but you need to click on 4 first to enable it, and button 1 to enable button 4 

 

Hi Jason,

 

That works fine - how bizarre.

 

Regarding the outset issue you could make do with just using the inset and then resizing the end result to move the original object out a bit to form what would have been the outset.

[JCL]

Morning everyone. Sounds good Rob. There's generally more than one way to skin a cat, so use the method that suits you the most.

 

Had a nightmare last night. I've been working with the pens and Silhouette Studio died on me quite spectacularly with something called an "unhandled error state" - that is, sloppy programming. It errored a second time attempting to send the report file to Silhouette America. Nothing I could do would get it working again, so in the end I had to delete the software, run CCleaner to tidy up extraneous files, and then use Window's System Restore Point functionality to "roll windows back" to a previous state. I then reinstalled the latest version and the same error maniifested itself. Rolled back a second time and then installed a legacy version of Studio. I'm now a proud user of Silhouette Studio 3.3.279ss.

 

The upshot is, as always, make backups.

 

There's the tail and of a typhoon passing over the island all weekend chucking out buckets of rain, so I'm in the house with a computer, Silhoutter cutter and coffee, so hopefully I'll have something to tell you about lettering.

Edited October 14, 2016 by JCL

[JCL]

The first storm of the weekend really hitting now and the patio is under an inch of water. It's so bad that even my dog doesn't want to go out. There's a weather warning on for Vancouver Island, so  seeing as electricity is still flowing into the house and water is pouring over the top of the gutters, there's no better time than now to do some experimentation.

 

Before I start, I'll give my reasons for attempting to do my own lining using the Silhouette cutter:

• I live in Canada, so getting materials shipped across from the UK can be time consuming and expensive.
• Given the exchange rate, although the lower value of the pound is making things slightly cheaper, decals are still a lot of money.
• I like to do as much as I can in the creation of models. I've learned about 3D printing, the Silhouette and laser cutters, and creating lining is a missing link.
• I've already paid for the Silhouette Cutter so I'm interested in using it for as many things as possible. Working with pens using the cutter hasn't been fully explored in this thread yet.
• As mentioned before, I'm a clumsy liner, so I want to see if there's something I can do to give me as professional a finish as possible.
• I model the GNR there's this reverse curve thing going on.

Before anyone says "you should take the time out to actually learn how to use a bow pen properly" - I know, but it's not going to happen anytime soon.

 

Pens

First the pens. I've tried the following pens so far (I'll need to save up for the Rotring, I've found that they've gone up in price since I last used one 1985).

Canada has a craft store called Michaels, so I bought every white pen that could be remotely suitable that I could find. These are:

• Gelly Roll LL08 by Sakura
• Uni-ball Signo Broad UK-153 by Mitsubishi Pencil Co.Ltd.
• Sharpie oil based paint pen
• Craft Smart Paint pen

While I was buying, I also grabbed a red Gelly Roll LL06, and a metallic gold Gelly Roll.

There are many more options for black pens, the ones I have to hand today are:

• Faber-Castell PITT artist pen 199*** with waterproof ink
• Sakura Pigma Micron 01, 03 and 03 pens with archival ink.

 

I'll be happy if the Gelly Roll pens do work with the decal paper as they come in a huge range of colours, and may be suitable for other lining colour combinations.

 

I've looked around on Youtube for other people's pen comparisons, and found that the video below is comprehensive - you may want to skip through it though.

 

Materials

I have the following materials to hand:

• backing card to test ideas and pens and to resolve issues with the functionality of the Silhouette Studio software.
• Testors transparent decal paper. This is supposed to be for inkjet printers.

Pen Holder

 

Mike's already spoken about the available pen holders in an earlier post. If we are creating lining using more than one colour, then registration will be very important. This means that we need to guarantee that the pen nib is central in the holder. The holders that use one or more side screws cannot guarantee this, meaning that the different colours will be out of whack. You saw this in my previous post where the black was out of register with the white in the middle test.

 

Software

 

I have Inkscape and Silhouette Studio (free) to hand.

 

Issues so far

 

Already I have to following problems, there may be more as I go along:

1. As we've found before, Inkscape's DXF files aren't the best, so they need to be cleaned up after importing. With complex letter shapes, that cleanup might take as long as creating the letter in Inkscape in the first place.
2. SIlhouette Studio doesn't let you fill in the letters. The fill in Studio is meant for use with an ordinary printer. I thought that this was a showstopper to start with, but we can get around this, though it's a bit clunky.
3. The ink in the pens dries at different rates, so we need to be careful about rollers rolling across the lines and spreading it around.

Drawing the letters

I'm going to draw the letters in the image below. There is a good combination of letter types here such as the large G that will need to be filled, smaller letters for LOAD 9 TONS, and even smaller lettering in the rectangle that will tax the materials I'm using.

 

 

I'll get issue 1 out of the way first. Inkscape isn't great with its DXF files. In the image below, you can see that I've drawn the G and used a text font for the other lettering. On the right, you can see that the text objects haven't saved at all, and the stroke around the outside of the G isn't all one shape but is broken up - I've exploded it here so that you can see the parts.

 

 

I can get around the lack of text in the export by converting the letters to objects, but the G issue means that I'm going to continue my experiments with Silhouette Studio as my goal in these posts is more about the output on the paper rather than how I created the text. We've spoken about tracing letters in other parts of this thread. Again there is more than one way to do this, so choose the method that you like best.

 

Ok, that's it for now, I'll save this in case the electricity goes off. I'll be back later with some more thoughts and results.

[JCL]

Since I last wrote my electricity had a six hour break, and my neighbour opposite now has quite the branch sticking almost vertically out of his roof.

 

Large Lettering

 

I count large lettering as anything that needs a method of filling between the lines. As I mentioned before, the Silhouette cutter only draws outlines and the software seems to assume that if you need text with a fill of a colour that is different to that of the material you are using you need to print it on a regular printer.

There is a way around this.

 

Fills

I thought that I'd try two different ways to create paths that the Silhouette can used to fill the letters with ink.

Experiment 1

 

1. Take your letter shape and make a copy of it

2. Draw a series of rectangles and group them together. I drew mine 0.5mm wide spaced 0.5mm apart.

 

4, Place the grouped rectangles over the top of the letter shape. Make sure that the letter is behind the rectangles (right click on rectangles and choose "Bring to Front" if they aren't)

 

3, Open the MODIFY menu and click on subtract to create the fill paths. Group the result

 

5. Select both the grouped fill lines (blue here) and the letter edge (green). Open the ALIGN menu and choose Centre

Experiment 2

 

I saw this on a couple of crafting videos and is faster than experiment 1.

1. Take another copy of your letter
2. Choose Object -> Offset from the menu
3. Click on your letter
4. Choose Internal Offset and then the value to offset by (I chose 0.3mm)
5. Click on the Apply button
6. Repeat as necessary until you have enough lines, but be aware that you have to amend the offset value each time.

Drawing process

1. All of the pens dry quickly, so only have the tops off when you are actually using them, so put the tops back on when you've finished the sketch.
2. Take the pen out of the holder between each sketch and to a little scribble on spare paper to make sure it's not dried up.
3. Move the rubber rings to the side to give yourself as much space as possible, otherwise you will probably have smearing where they roll through the wet ink as per the photos below.
4. Consider using Silhouette's pause facility to insert a pause between each letter shape. You'll need each letter shape to be a different coloue to do this.

 

 

For both of these experiments I've changed the tool to Sketch Pen and then used speed 1, thickness 1.

Looking at the results drawn using the Uni-ball pen below, the letters, which are in reality only an inch high, have a slightly raised feel. On the right, experiment #2 looks to be the best result at the moment, even with the issue halfway down the back. I think this is because the pen is moving in ever decreasing shapes within the outer edge. The letter done using experiment 1 is showing that the pen isn't lifting up enough when it gets to the end of the line, so dragging a certain amount of ink outside the line. The letter on the left is outline only as another possible way of filling in the letter is by hand.

 

 

So, there is a lot of white ink in use here.

 

The next experiment is to see how far apart the fill lines can be before you can tell that the fill is drawn using separate lines. For this experiment I drew 1cm x 1cm squares and then used the inset command to draw ever smaller squares at 0.3, 0.5, 0.7 and 1mm intervals. As you can see in row #1, with the pen holder all the way down in the carriage, there is a lot of ink flying about. I then raised the pen holder so that it was hovering about 3mm above the where it should be. The first two squares in row #2 were a mistake, and of the second two squares 0.5 looks the best.

 

Amy Chomas, who has been mentioned in this thread a couple of times with regards to her scriber, recommends a gap between the bottom of the nib and the material of about 1/8" or 3.5mm. She advises using a lollypop stick as a gauge. I can see I'm going to have to buy a Mivvi tomorrow.

 

 

Finally for now, I've done a lot of drawing with the pens over the last 24 hours and created a bit of a mess on my piece of cardboard as you can see in the photo below. Those G shapes done by the Gelly Roll have been drawn over three times

 

 

To keep a track on things and make life easier for myself each time I tried something new, for example with the "G" shape, I made a copy of it, made it blue, and moved that copy to a different part of the workspace. When drawing, I made sure I only ticked the blue coloured box, and so only the current shape was sketched. After each experiment I'd then turn the shape I've just drawn back to red. By doing this, I've not had to worry about over drawing a previous experiment. I've also been able to work out the path of the rubber roller rings and avoid them.

 

 

Finally, something closer to where I need to be.

 

 

Conclusion

It's a bit of a minefield, and I'm not all the way through yet. You'll need to experiment to find your favourite set-up, but I think that once found, it will be repeatable, so writing down all of the settings/steps should be a must. These will be a combination of pen type, drying time, fill method and distance between lines, and finally (for me) pen height above the material.

 

There's a lot there. Please let me know if it's too much or if it doesn't make sense and I'll break it up more.

Edited October 15, 2016 by JCL

[MikeTrice]

Had a nightmare last night. I've been working with the pens and Silhouette Studio died on me quite spectacularly with something called an "unhandled error state" - that is, sloppy programming. It errored a second time attempting to send the report file to Silhouette America. Nothing I could do would get it working again, so in the end I had to delete the software, run CCleaner to tidy up extraneous files, and then use Window's System Restore Point functionality to "roll windows back" to a previous state. I then reinstalled the latest version and the same error maniifested itself. Rolled back a second time and then installed a legacy version of Studio. I'm now a proud user of Silhouette Studio 3.3.279ss.

I have also been getting those errors when attempting to plot. In my case it seems to happen when I select the Pen Tool rather than Ratchet Blade in the plot settings. I have 3.4.486ss installed so will try getting hold of 3.3.279ss.

[allan downes]

An absolutely brilliantly written piece JCL but had it been me I would have used rub on lettering !

 

Cheers.

 

Allan.

[BG John]

An absolutely brilliantly written piece JCL but had it been me I would have used rub on lettering !

 

Cheers.

 

Allan.

Where can you get it in a suitable variety of fonts and sizes?

[MikeOxon]

Great to see you are still having new ideas on how to use the cutter, JCL.

 

Mike

[JCL]

Thanks everyone. I had a few tests with the decal paper later last night which weren't very successful, and aren't worth trying to take a photo of (white on cream). Looking at a fishing forum (I kid you not), it seems that a solution is to spray the paper with Testors Dullcote and then sketch once it's dried. I've a spray in the shed so I'll grab it later.

 

One thing I've found when searching, is that a lot of information out there on very diverse websites - a lot of which are very pink and frilly - but certainly don't judge a book by its cover. That said I think that we are going down an untrodden path trying to use a Silhouette with pens and decal paper as I can find no information that specific.

 

Cheers

 

Jason

[BG John]

Do you think the results could eventually be better than what can be achieved with a laser or inkjet printer? Or is it just a possible solution to creating white transfers without an expensive printer?

[JCL]

It's the second one John. The Alps printers are very expensive (if you can even get them anymore), and on an inkjet, white is impossible and yellow is no good either. It could be argued that this is what white decal paper is for, but I found that stuff to be quite thick and too much of a compromise. If you are looking at transfers that are darker, then I would imagine that an inkjet or laser printer would be better, and certainly easier.

 

I have to admit, I'm also doing this to see if it can be done.

[BG John]

Maybe Allan's rub on lettering is a better option, but can you still buy it in useful fonts and sizes?

[etendam]

Do you think the results could eventually be better than what can be achieved with a laser or inkjet printer? Or is it just a possible solution to creating white transfers without an expensive printer?

 

Why invest in an expensive printer if you can get an A4 sheet for a few pounds (€ 4,60 decalsheet included!)?

 

See: http://ngrm-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/15926-how-i-make-waterslide-transfers/

 

Post # 14

 

Ed

[allan downes]

Where can you get it in a suitable variety of fonts and sizes?

 

I would suggest looking on Ebay.

 

Allan

[JCL]

Hi Ed, I'm not a member, is it a sheet of white transfer paper you are linking to? It's always a good option. To be honest, you can do what I did a while back for a tender - print on white then use the Silhouette (or a knife obviously) to cut out the image. My only problem with it was the thickness of the decal and the possible need for touching up the edges so the thickness isn't apparent.

 

Generally, I hope me using the word decal isn't annoying, it's what's used over here and I started using the word at the beginning of this and decided to keep going.

[BG John]

Hi Ed, I'm not a member, is it a sheet of white transfer paper you are linking to?

It's a printing service for white transfers, using a laser printer with white toner.

http://www.decalwinkel.nl/index.php/geprint-decalpapier-laser

or in English

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.decalwinkel.nl%2Findex.php%2Fgeprint-decalpapier-laser

[JCL]

Wow. The reason I started this was because custom decals were so expensive and difficult to buy as a single sheet. Reading the Google translate version, am I right that it doesn't do black at all? That is, it doesn't mix the inks to simulate black? Even if it doesn't, it looks like a better option for white lettering.

 

That said, I'll carry on with what I'm doing so that I can bring it to a conclusion one way or another.

[Biased turkey]

In order to test the option of importing .pdf files in the Silhouette Studio Designer version  (I am not a Silhouette shareholder  ) I downloaded  a free building from Scale Scenes  http://scalescenes.com/product/r024-weighbridge-or-coal-office/

Import that .pdf file in Silhouette Portrait:


In the new opened window, select the resolution  ( dpi ) , select  "Import as Vector"  , UNcheck  Group , click on the " Import " button  and...  by miracle all the cutting and scoring lines  are there.

I changed the cutting lines color to red.

 

Jacques

 

File-Merge

Edited October 15, 2016 by Biased turkey

[etendam]

Wow. The reason I started this was because custom decals were so expensive and difficult to buy as a single sheet. Reading the Google translate version, am I right that it doesn't do black at all? That is, it doesn't mix the inks to simulate black? Even if it doesn't, it looks like a better option for white lettering.

 

That said, I'll carry on with what I'm doing so that I can bring it to a conclusion one way or another.

 

They also do black lettering, however you can't combine white lettering with another colour on the same sheet.

You can combine black with all other colours except white.

i have made lot's of decals in the past (I have had several OKI / ALPS printers) however for these prices you don't want to have a printer for yourself anymore.

 

On an average A4 sheet there are 50 - 100 H0 - 00 decals so each wagon / loco will come down to less then 10p.

 

The costs for Decalcompanies are not the printing of the decals. The hours of design / artwork, packaging & distibution are the costs.

 

Ed

Edited October 15, 2016 by etendam

[Biased turkey]

 

 

 

 

 

The dropdown (currently set to ratchet blade) selects the blade type. There are really only two to consider, the rachet blade and the pen. Which one is selected determines the offset used by the cutting software, 0mm for the pen, 0.45mm for the ratchet blade and other types of blade. As has been noted previously there does not appear a way to customise the offset used.

 

Mike, thank you for the valuable informations.

I'm very curious, where did you get the specifications that the offset  is 0.45 mm for the ratchet blade ?

[JCL]

They also do black lettering, however you can't combine white lettering with another colour on the same sheet.

You can combine black with all other colours except white.

i have made lot's of decals in the past (I have had several OKI / ALPS printers) however for these prices you don't want to have a printer for yourself anymore.

 

On an average A4 sheet there are 50 - 100 H0 - 00 decals so each wagon / loco will come down to less then 10p.

 

The costs for Decalcompanies are not the printing of the decals. The hours of design / artwork, packaging & distibution are the costs.

 

Ed

 

Thanks for your post Ed, I'd misread the page. I'll certainly look into this some more.

 

On my experiments, spraying the sheet with Testers Dullcote matt varnish seems to have done the trick for the large letters, and the Uni-ball has just drawn a pretty good G and N. I won't take a photo this evening - white on a cream background - but leave it to dry until tomorrow, varnish it again and then put it onto a wagon of some sort. I've got an old Hornby one in a box somewhere.

 

cheers

 

Jason

Edited October 16, 2016 by JCL

[MikeOxon]

There is a German company that supplies white toner cartridges for several types of laser printer - see http://www.ghost-white-toner.com/product-category/toner-supplies/?lang=en

 

They also do a 'bundle', which includes the HP Laserjet Pro 200 M251n, with all its standard cartridges plus the white toner, for 299 Euros, which seems a reasonable cost for a colour laser printer.

 

I have no connection with the firm nor am a user of their products - just info from a Google search.