A Guide to using the Silhouette Cameo Cutter

[JCL]

Just to reiterate if anyone is thinking about buying the cutter, the portrait will cut exactly the same materials as the cameo, it's just smaller and doesn't have an LCD screen. Unless you are cutting materials longer than 8" in width and length, you might want to consider the portrait, otherwise go for the cameo.

[JCL]

Longer than 8" in width? What am I on? How about wider than 8"?

[MickRalph]

Does anyone use the Silhouette Studio Designer program (the paid add-on to the Studio software)?  The blurb says that it will import SVG files and can deal with layers, cutting each layer separately.  I am finding it a bit of a pain to create the  layers in Inkscape and then save each layer separately as a DXF file to be imported into Studio (which sometimes adds a spurious box shape in the design file).  If the import of the SVG file into Studio Designer Edition works OK, then the £25.49 (after Yolo's discount) would be worth it.

 

Mick

[JCL]

Hi Mick

 

I've not heard that anyone has bought it, though it'd be interesting to know if anyone has. I only use Studio for the final printing, all of the other work is carried out in Inkscape. Now, I do need to perform different actions on different objects within the file, and to do these I use colour coding. So, all of the objects that I'll be scoring will be in green, all that will be cut at least twice will be in red, and and all of the parts that will be cut once will be in blue.When you export the file as a whole to a DXF file and then import this into Studio, the objects are grouped by colour (actually they are combined) which means that you can then use the cutter output window to assign a cutting action to each colour.

 

I'm not sure that's what you're after, if it isn't, can you maybe give us a bit more detail about your workflow?

 

cheers

 

Jason

[MickRalph]

Forget my recent post - I have now realised that I have been making models of buildings, which are too large to fit on a single sheet of plasticard, so that I have created separate layers in Inkscape for each of the sheets I needed and then deleted all the layers except the one I wanted to cut before creating the DXF file to go to the Silhouette program for cutting.  I did indeed use different colours for lines to be scribed and those to be cut.  I have cut some covered wagons for the Tramways of the Correze and here I used different layers for the 20 thou and 10 thou sheets, but I now see that I could have used a single layer and used a different colour again for the 10 thou cutting lines as opposed to the 20 thou cutting lines.

 

In Studio, I have set up different options in the "material type" (score 20 thou, cut 20 thou, and cut 10 thou) on the "cut settings" page Studio for the various colours used.  Each of these material types then has the relevant cut settings set up for blade setting, thickness and double cut, so that I just have to select the relevant material type (and install the blade or the scriber as appropriate) and Studio does the rest.

 

Mick

[JCL]

It looks like we have exactly the same approach to line colours, custom settings and suchlike.

 

Do you have any photos you'd like to share at all?

 

cheers

 

Jason

[MickRalph]

I am away in Northern Ireland at present, waiting for our daughter to give birth to our second grandchildm so I am not sure when I will get home.  I am still working on the structures when home and plan to post some photos when I get a bit further.  However, here is the kit of parts for the station building.  The walls were over a foot thick, so I have used quite a few layers of 20 thou to give sufficient relief to the windows and doorways.  The main walls were clad with planking, so the scriber saw great use.

 

here is also 5050's model of the station, as seen in this thread

 

Mick

[JCL]

Hi Mick

 

Looks good! The cutter doesn't half make valances a lot easier, doesn't it? Are you using the Amy Chomas scriber?

[jonhall]

Reduced Price on Silhouette Cutters (and all accessories)

 

Yolo is celebrating their change of name to Yolo Creations by offering 15% off all purchases until midnight on Friday 22nd August.  The Portrait is already cheap at £125 (with free delivery), so with the reduction it becomes about £106.  The Cameo becomes about £230 with free delivery.  Thus for anyone waivering about a purchase, now could be the time to take the plunge.

 

The website is at www.yolo.co.uk  Enter the code CREATIVE at the checkout.

 

Mick Ralph

 

I'm quite tempted by this - question is - do I need the software upgrade at about £25 to make it more useful?

 

Thanks,

 

Jon

[MickRalph]

Hi Mick

 

Looks good! The cutter doesn't half make valances a lot easier, doesn't it? Are you using the Amy Chomas scriber?

No - I am using a diamond dresser tool, as suggested by Mike Oxon in posts 577 and (previously) 541.  I found it difficult to grip the round shaft of the scriber with the two set screws (as shown in post 541), so my first task with the cutter was to cut some plasticard washers (3 off 20 thou) to hold the scriber centrally in the pen-holder.  However, I am thinking of getting the Amy Chomas scriber, but I haven't yet painted the scribed sheets to see how effective the scribing is.

 

I'm quite tempted by this - question is - do I need the software upgrade at about £25 to make it more useful?

 

Thanks,

 

Jon

Jon - it seems not.  Create the drawing in Inkscape (a free program which is fairly intuitive to learn - there is a great tutorial by Mike Trice here) and save the final version as a DXF file (in the dialogue box you need to use ROBO-Master).  Silhouette Studio can then open this file, and as noted above, you can incorporate different colour lines for the different cutting/scribing modes.  Using Studio allows you more control over the cutting process (speed and double cut) than using Inkscape to do the cutting.

 

Mick

[MikeOxon]

There is a new type of pen holder for the Cameo/Portrait machines, shown on the US site http://www.silhouetteamerica.com/shop/materials/sketch-pens/item-number/pen-holder2-3t

 

It uses collets to hold the pen, rather than the previous poor arrangement of set screws, which easily strip and won't hold a circular object securely.

 

The minimum diameter is stated to be 8mm so, if you want to use a diamond dresser, a larger diameter version will be needed (or packing)

 

The holder doesn't appear to be available in UK as yet.

Edited August 19, 2014 by MikeOxon

[JCL]

That pen holder is the first one I've seen that seems to actually centres the pen. It isn't in Canada either, it is on Amazon.com though.

[tender]

Reduced Price on Silhouette Cutters (and all accessories)

 

Yolo is celebrating their change of name to Yolo Creations by offering 15% off all purchases until midnight on Friday 22nd August.  The Portrait is already cheap at £125 (with free delivery), so with the reduction it becomes about £106.  The Cameo becomes about £230 with free delivery.  Thus for anyone waivering about a purchase, now could be the time to take the plunge.

 

The website is at www.yolo.co.uk.  Enter the code CREATIVE at the checkout.

 

Mick Ralph

 

Been thinking about one of these for some time so have just ordered a Cameo while it's on offer. Will be back for lots of advice when it arrives.

Looks like i've some catching up to do (30 pages).

 

Ray.

[Anotheran]

Been thinking about one of these for some time so have just ordered a Cameo while it's on offer.

Mine arrived this morning! Unfortunately will be the weekend before I can play! So while I'm away from home I think I'll go back over the 30 pages as revision!

 

Edit to state that I've just changed my vote to "I own a cutting machine"!

Edited August 20, 2014 by Anotheran

[MickRalph]

Been thinking about one of these for some time so have just ordered a Cameo while it's on offer. Will be back for lots of advice when it arrives.

Looks like i've some catching up to do (30 pages).

 

Ray.

There are several interesting threads including outputs from the cutters - try putting "silhouette", "cameo", "portrait", or "inkscape" into the RMWeb search engine.

[MickRalph]

There is a new type of pen holder for the Cameo/Portrait machines, shown on the US site http://www.silhouetteamerica.com/shop/materials/sketch-pens/item-number/pen-holder2-3t

 

It uses collets to hold the pen, rather than the previous poor arrangement of set screws, which easily strip and won't hold a circular object securely.

 

The minimum diameter is stated to be 8mm so, if you want to use a diamond dresser, a larger diameter version will be needed (or packing)

 

The holder doesn't appear to be available in UK as yet.

Yolo.co.uk list the new holder at £8.33 plus VAT, but it is out of stock.  Yolo say that it is due in stock in early September, but they don't yet have a date.

 

Mick

[JCL]

Definitely Mick. Also, I've just retread the first seven or eight pages and I think it's fair to say that a lot of the early days (I know, just last Christmas) was about experimentation, so there's a lot of information there, but a certain amount of misinformation as well, not least some from me. This means that it's definitely worth reading the whole thread if you have the time.

 

The one thing I'd say, and hopefully I won't get too many disagreements, is to not use the Silhouette Studio software except to "have a go". Although it has a lot of drawing tools, it's a dead end because it outputs into a proprietary format that can't then be used in any other software. This makes it harder to share, and will mean that if you change cutters in the future, you won't be able to reuse your designs. As Mick says, a lot of people are using the free Inkscape, and Mike Trice has put some threads up on RMWeb going through first principles with this software. Mike uses a cutter driver to cut directly from Inkscape, while I save my Inkscape drawing as a DXF file and import it into Silhouette to cut.

 

If you have any questions feel free to fire away. There are a number of people on the thread that have a lot of experience now who will be happy to answer them.

 

I've mentioned on another thread that I'm off to RMWeb. My plane gets in at 10am, so I probably won't get there until after 2pm. There's a chance I'll be there Sunday as well. I'll be in a Canada or Fernie t-shirt, so please say hi if you're there and see me.

Edited August 20, 2014 by JCL

[MikeOxon]

Help please !

 

EDIT - Now resolved in Studio v.3.3.451 (Jan 2015)

 

I have reported the following problem to Sihouette-America but without, so far, any satisfactory response.  Their first response did not relate to my problem at all and their second suggestion was to delete the folder com.aspexsoftware.Silhouette_Studio, which has had no effect on my problem, though (of course) it did lose all my custom settings.  (I had been careful to keep a back-up!)

 

I have designed several coach sides by creating the initial drawings.in Autosketch v.5.03  and transferring DXF files (Autodesk R12/LT2 format) into Studio version 2.   The curved corners of windows and panels were rendered correctly in Studio v.2.9.45 and I have successfully cut these on my Portrait machine

 

After updating to Studio version 3.0.417, however, I now find that the corners are rendered as diagonal cuts, as shown below (same initial file in each case):

 

.

 

I have found that if I import the DXF files first into Studio v2, where I convert them to studio format, then they display correctly in v3.

 

Has anyone else experienced this and does anyone have any suggestion for a way ahead?  For the time being I shall have to continue using v2 but that means missing some potentially useful functions in v3.

 

Incidentally, Silhouette seem to have some network problems, as my latest request resulted in seven messages by return, each stating "Your message To: Support : Re: DXF file import problem .... was deleted without being read ...".

 

Mike

 

Edited January 31, 2015 by MikeOxon

[JCL]

Hi Mike, that's awful. Has this only just started happening with your Studio V3? In Autosketch I remember reading there are different DXF output options. Have you been through them all?

 

Sorry I ca t be more help.

 

Jason

[MikeOxon]

there are different DXF output options. Have you been through them all?

 

 

First thing I tried,Jason    I seem to recall that you use DXF to transfer from Inkscape, so have you tested any similar patterns?

[JCL]

Hi Mike

 

Would you like to PM me your file and I'll see how it imports with my version of Studio 3 to make sure it's not a problem unique to you. If I get the same issue I'll try to load it in Inkscape to see what that looks like. If that's ok, I'll then import the saved Inkscape file into Studio 3.

 

I haven't had any problems myself with my workflow

 

Cheers

 

Jason

[MikeOxon]

Looks like i've some catching up to do (30 pages).

It's worth noting that JCL made an index of pages where various topics start in this thread

 

Some time ago, I made an index of pages to the various topics that JCL covered in his original notes and tutorial. I found it very usseful when I started so, in case it will prove useful to other new users, here's a list of my links:

 

JCL  #1 Posted 24 November 2013

uses for Silhouette cutters

 

JCL #2 Posted 24 November 2013

Index to pages on this thread

 

JCL  #11 Posted 25 November 2013

software/materials/consumables

 

JCL  #21 Posted 26 November 2013

File types/Studio/Inkscape/Corel/Serif/etc

 

JCL #22  Posted 26 November 2013

Preparing a project

 

JCL  #27 Posted 27 November 2013

Project - Coal Merchant's Office-1

 

JCL  #45 Posted 29 November 2013

Project - Coal Merchant's Office-2

 

JCL #62  Posted 29 November 2013

Project - Separating/Cutting/Cleaning up

 

JCL  #73 Posted 01 December 2013

Maintenance of the machine

 

JCL  #74 Posted 02 December 2013

Project - Studio files

 

Of course, there's loads of other great stuff in this thread, but those links make a good start!

 

Mike

[MikeOxon]

Hi Mike

 

Would you like to PM me your file .............I'll try to load it in Inkscape to see what that looks like.

I'm very grateful to JCL, who looked at my file and found that it would not display in Inkscape.  

 

As a result, I have made various test files and found that there seems to be a problem whenever I create compound entities in my old version of Autosketch (v5.03). 

 

If I use the 'explode' command in Autosketch before exporting the DXF, then Studio v3 displays rounded corners correctly.The penalty is that the DXF file is very much larger (Mb rather than kb) and takes several minutes to process on my dual-core Pentium. 

 

The older Studio v2 interpreted the compound entities correctly but the new version does not. It appears that Inkscape cannot read them either.

 

Mike

[MickRalph]

I have designed several coach sides by creating the initial drawings.in Autosketch v.5.03  and transferring DXF files (Autodesk R12/LT2 format) into Studio version 2.   The curved corners of windows and panels were rendered correctly in Studio v.2.9.45 and I have successfully cut these on my Portrait machine

 

After updating to Studio version 3.0.417, however, I now find that the corners are rendered as diagonal cuts, as shown below (same initial file in each case):

 

Has anyone else experienced this and does anyone have any suggestion for a way ahead?  For the time being I shall have to continue using v2 but that means missing some potentially useful functions in v3.

 

Incidentally, Silhouette seem to have some network problems, as my latest request resulted in seven messages by return, each stating "Your message To: Support : Re: DXF file import problem .... was deleted without being read ...".

 

Mike

 

I had a slightly different result to Mike.  Being away from home, I have been preparing the artwork (in Inkscape) for my first panelled coach, an LSWR 30ft PBV.  I had just about finished the first draft, so I converted it to a dxf file and imported it into Silhouette Studio.  Rather than the diagonal lines in Mikes file, I found that all the circular corners had been rendered as squares.  However, I noticed that the door ventilators, which for the LSWR have rounded top corners and square bottom corners, had been correctly rendered.  Checking the drawing, I found that to convert from a rounded rectangle to one with square bottom corners, I had first had to convert the rectangle (object) to a path. I think I noticed in a post on one of the threads that Jason had indicated that it is necessary to do this to get correct rendering.

 

I thus created a test file consisting of a rectangle with square corners; one with rounded corners; one with rounded corners (but converted this object to a path); and one with the rounded corners converted to a path with the bottom corners made square (as on the LSWR vents).  I then saved this four times as a dxf file, using the various combinations of options in the Inkscape dxf conversion.  This confirmed that the unconverted rounded-corner rectangle displayed as a square-cornered rectangle, but that one converted to a path displayed correctly in Studio.  However, I found that if the LWPOLYLINE box is ticked on the dxf saving dialogue, then a horizontal line is also drawn between the two side nodes on the rounded corners.  I can't see any difference between the ROBO setting and the plain one.

 

Thus it seems that when exporting a file from Inkscape to dxf format, it is necessary to ensure that rounded objects  are converted to paths and that the lwpolyline box is not ticked.

 

I have also found that opening the dxf file in Inkscape gives the same result as in Studio, but with one interesting and useful difference.  When Inkscape opens the dxf file, all objects are converted to a series of lines - eg the rounded rectangle consists of four straight lines and the four rounded corners; and the ordinary rectangle consists of four straight lines.  This should help to achieve Jason's method of using a different colour for each portion of a path in order to ensure that cut corners really are square, rather than slightly rounded.

 

I have two issues I need to resolve in the drawing - the vents have slightly rounded instead of square corners, but I have found how to correct this - the two nodes at each corner need to be joined as a single node, which is then converted to a "corner" node and dragged to the correct position (thank goodness for being able to create the object just once and then duplicate it for the other parts of the side).

 

The other issue I haven't yet resolved is that the upper edge of the end panelling (the roof is elliptical) doesn't display properly in Studio or Inkscape when opening the dxf file, as the sharper curve where the roof meets the side renders either as a straight line or with the wrong curvature.  Further investigation needed here.

 

Back to resolving this problem and general tidying up of the drawing.

 

BTW - although the check for newer versions of the Studio software reports no updates, if fact there was a new version (3.1.147ss) issued on 4th August and available on the SilhouetteAmerica website.

 

Mick

test.svg

[JCL]

I'm very grateful to JCL, who looked at my file and found that it would not display in Inkscape.  

 

As a result, I have made various test files and found that there seems to be a problem whenever I create compound entities in my old version of Autosketch (v5.03). 

 

If I use the 'explode' command in Autosketch before exporting the DXF, then Studio v3 displays rounded corners correctly.The penalty is that the DXF file is very much larger (Mb rather than kb) and takes several minutes to process on my dual-core Pentium. 

 

The older Studio v2 interpreted the compound entities correctly but the new version does not. It appears that Inkscape cannot read them either.

 

Mike

 

 

Hi Mike

 

While the file is very much larger, I don't know about you, but I treat these files as throwaway and I only keep the file I'm using to create the drawing. Unfortunately it means that it takes an age to open a file. It's a pain, but would this be acceptable for now? Would it be faster to open the file in Studio 3 or to open the smaller "non-exploded" file in Studio 2 and resave?

 

Also, is it just this file, or if you create a portion of the file again from scratch, do you still get the same error? If you don't, does creating a new blank and copying the drawing objects from one file to another and then trying to open that in Studio 3 work?

 

cheers

 

Jason