A Guide to using the Silhouette Cameo Cutter

[JCL]

That's great! A couple of things mentioned a while back (but you'd have to wade through 30 odd pages for) are:

• follow the software installation instructions to the letter;
• check to see what the latest version is and upgrade to it;
• test everything with a couple of simple shapes in Silhouette Studio;
• try to take some of the stickiness away from your mat if you are using card as your first test - you might find it difficult to impossible to get the card off otherwise;
• I use a stanley knife blade at a shallow angle to get underneath the card to ease it off. Others vary here;

It'll be interesting to see how you get on.

 

cheers

 

Jason

[cromptonnut]

One thing I have discovered is that I can create line drawings in Microsoft Publisher, export as a PDF (using the CutePDF printer driver/PDF creater), use Inkscape to convert that PDF and export it as a DXF, and that seems to work quite happily in the Silhouette Studio software.

 

No doubt that most of the things I am doing could be done within the Studio software but for a start at least I know the computer is talking to the cutter and does stuff, even if paper screws up without the cutting mat (which I can't use at the moment as large parts of the first sheet of paper I tried is still stuck to it).

[JCL]

Ah, I was too late! It will all settle down though. I recently bought a replacement mat and dabbed a cushion on it from the sofa to take the edge off it.

 

I think you're the first with your software combination!

[Smiffy2]

We had the same problem. I bought a scraper (and a parts picker) from Amazon. Works well.

[cromptonnut]

I think you're the first with your software combination!

 

I may have another "first".

 

I found that stuff attached to the carrier sheet would come loose with it hanging down at the front of the printer, so I employed an uncooked and unopened pack of Batchelors Curry flavour Supernoodles (other flavours are available and should work just as well) in front of the cutter for the sheet to slide up and down on as it was working its way through the test jobs.  It's just the right height

 

Available at all good supermarkets, a few naff ones, and most "pound shops".

[MickRalph]

Is that so that you can have lunch while it is working?  Most of us use a book of the right size each side.  Even with these, it is best to use masking tape to secure the plasticard sheet to the backing sheet to prevent any movement of the plasticard, which will spoil the cutting - guess how I know.

 

Good luck with your projects;  I look forward to seeing them.

 

Mick

[cromptonnut]

It does get a bit warm after some use but not hot enough to boil water

 

I think once I get to grips with the settings for different materials I should be able to plod on fairly quickly - I understand the principles and how to draw stuff.

 

One thing I have missed - do different colour lines in the DXF file signify different things?  That could be useful if there's one for full cut and one for score, for example, as I could then cut a building with a brickwork pattern or planking.

[MickRalph]

Yes, different colours can be used for different cuts/scores.  I use green and olive green for lines which are to be scored (eg doors on coach sides, or matchboarding on carriages or planking on buildings) and other colours for lines to be cut.  When the cutter changes direction, the blade follows a small radius curve, so that a right-angled corner is not a sharp change of direction.  Thus some people use different colours for horizontal and vertical lines, so that the blade is lifted from the sheet as it changes direction.  This is done (eg on a rectangle) by using "Path>Object to Path"; selecting the "Edit Path by Nodes" tool; Control-A to select all the nodes; "Break Path at Selected Nodes" (4th button from the left on the Nodes toolbar); "Path>Break Apart".  This turns the rectangle into four lines, which can be coloured as needed.

 

Then, in Studio it is possible to select or deselect the various colours for different cutting options.  Remember not to unload the material between cuts.

 

I have created several different media types in Studio - Plasticard Score; Plasticard 1st Cut; Plasticard 2nd Cut; Plasticard 3rd Cut, and these have different thickness and blade settings.  Speed is always 1 and the blade depth is set at 10.  Score is at thickness 15 and uses a diamond dresser as a scriber in the old style pen-holder; 1st Cut uses thickness 5; 2nd Cut is at thickness 20 and 3rd cut is at thickness 33.  All lines are selected for scribing, but the green lines are deselected for the cuts.  I find that 1st Cut and 2nd Cut are sufficient to go through 10thou plasticard, but for 20th and 30 thou (I haven't managed to get 40 thou into the machine, but Jon Hall was cutting this size at Tolworth on Saturday) I set the number of cuts to 8.  Even then, the openings have to be snapped as they are not cut right through.

 

Mick

[cheesysmith]

I am getting one of these for Christmas from the family, and I have just downloaded and installed Inkscape to have a play with before the day. My question is what do you lot suggest I get to go with it? Would it be a good idea to get a scriber and how about a replacement 3rd party blade holder?

 

Also, is there anything else I should know.

[JCL]

Hi there, if you are looking for an extra to go with it, I've found that the 12"x24" mat is really useful - especially with the longer sheets of styrene.

 

I'm afraid I still haven't used my 3rd party blade, so I'll have to leave that for someone else to talk about.

 

"Is there anything else I should know." - take it one step at a time. Do your first "does it work?" test in Silhouette Studio, and have a go at the shed at the beginning of this thread. Finally, Mike Trice's Inkscape thread in the 3D printing forum is definitely recommended.

 

Good luck with it

[MickRalph]

Of course, the 12" x 24" mat only fits the Cameo, not the Portrait, though I guess it could be cut down in width to fit the latter;  I have only used the standard size with my Portrait.  I have used the 60 degree replacement blades in the CB09 holder (from this seller), though I haven't carried out any detail tests for comparison.

 

Mick

[JCL]

Actually, that's true, sorry, I forgot about the width. Apparently those mates can be found for less money in places that carry quilting accessories.

[Doncaster Green]

Hi all

 

On the basis of all the good work that JCL and Mike Trice started and all the rest have expanded on I have taken the irrevocable step of buying a Portrait.   Working in 2mm I didn't think I would need the extra width of the Cameo and could thus save loads of cash!

 

Not used it yet as have family visitation but have studied the various tutorials, suggestions and experiences, downloaded Inkscape and upgraded Studio to V3.3.   I will let you know how I get on.

 

John

[cromptonnut]

Ok what am I doing wrong here?  I'm trying to cut some 40 thou plasticard and it's barely touching the surface.

 

I'm using the ratchet blade, on "10" and "33" thickness which I would have expected to have cut somewhat deeper than that.  I wasn't expecting it to cut right the way through but to at least have made enough of a dent that I can use to get a craft knife in there to cut out the shapes (it's a template for a tunnel, the idea being that I use these formers to hold the inner lining in place, based on the Peco tunnel mouth).

 

I've tried the same thing using copy paper and it's not cutting that either so something is clearly wrong somewhere - I have noticed that the "blade" seems to be fully out on the one that I am currently using whereas the spare I bought it's barely pointing past the white.  Is that the problem?  Strange as I've had it less than a week and only used it about 5 times, could I simply have a faulty blade?

[jonhall]

40 thou won't cut, but should give enough of a score to snap cleanly - have you got 'double cut' ticked and are you using speed 1? provided you don't take the sheet out of the machine you can always send it to cut again and it should go over the top of the same lines (i.e. 4 cuts) .

 

I think you need to lay the sheet out so that the trackbed of the tunnel is along the edge of a sheet (not at the edge, just near it) then once the cutter has done its job, extend the score line from the end of the part circle to the edge of the sheet at either end using a scalpel - then you can start fold&snaping from the edge of the sheet.

 

Jon

[Ron Heggs]

Ok what am I doing wrong here?  I'm trying to cut some 40 thou plasticard and it's barely touching the surface.

 

I'm using the ratchet blade, on "10" and "33" thickness which I would have expected to have cut somewhat deeper than that.  I wasn't expecting it to cut right the way through but to at least have made enough of a dent that I can use to get a craft knife in there to cut out the shapes (it's a template for a tunnel, the idea being that I use these formers to hold the inner lining in place, based on the Peco tunnel mouth).

 

I've tried the same thing using copy paper and it's not cutting that either so something is clearly wrong somewhere - I have noticed that the "blade" seems to be fully out on the one that I am currently using whereas the spare I bought it's barely pointing past the white.  Is that the problem?  Strange as I've had it less than a week and only used it about 5 times, could I simply have a faulty blade?

 

Have you checked that the blade holder is set firmly in the blade carrier before you lock it in. I have had similar events in the past when having set the blade to 10, and placed it in the blade carrier that it didn't set to the bottom properly, so when it was locked in and started 'cutting' the blade didn't reach the plastic, and failed to cut

 

Ron

[cromptonnut]

Success using 20 thou and the "other" blade - I just needed to flex it a bit to release along the score line.

 

 

So it seems I may have a problem with the original blade.

 

My first "cut item".  Happy so far - although I do have some rather more complex things in mind, I'm looking at building a bridge similar to Port Creek in Poole which seems to have rather a lot of odd shaped parts underneath holding it together which may take some work to get right.  But that's one of the reasons I bought the thing

[Dave at Honley Tank]

Hello all,

Can anybody save me reading all 34 pages? I'm still only up to p23!

I can't remember anyone listing this problem so far.

I've mastered drawing in CorelDraw and saved as .cdr leaves no problem. ("mastered" is perhaps not really true!)

Equally, saving in .dxf(autocad) is no problem.

However when opening the dxf in Studio the dimensions are incorrect- I've got a nice little shed that is meant to be to 4mm scale but which is closer to 3mm scale.

I must have missed something but what?

 

A very frustrated Dave

[cromptonnut]

Just an offhand guess, is there an incompatibility with page sizes (A4 > foolscap, for example) that is being "zoomed" somehow to refit the page?

[MickRalph]

Dave,

 

I think the problem may be in the importing into Studio.  Go to  "Edit>Edit Preferences>Import Options" and you will find a section "When Importing DXF" - this needs to be set as "As is" or "centred".  However, as the other option is "Fit to Page", I would have expected there to be an increase in size.  I am exporting from Inkscape and found that if I use "As is", then the imported drawing is off the page, but "Centred" works OK.

 

There are a three ways to cut straight from Draw without exporting the file as a DXF file.  Firstly, Studio Designer Edition will read SGF files and deals with layers (but of course SVG is not the native format for Draw, so you would have to save it in SVG format anyway) - I have bought Designer Edition, but haven't yet cut much with it, although first impressions are good.  Secondly, Silhouette Connect (again a paid-for program) is a plug-in for Draw X4 or higher and will cut direct from Draw without needing to open Studio at all.  A similar program as a plug-in for Draw X3 and higher is CutWizard from a German company (see here) - this has a 14-day trial version.  I have only a very old copy of Draw 9, so that I haven't been able to try this program for Draw, but I was very impressed with it for Inkscape, EXCEPT that it cuts by line-fill colour rather than by line-stroke colour and they have no plans to provide the latter option - this sadly makes it not worthwhile from Inkscape.

 

I hope that you sort out the sizing issue.

 

Regards

 

Mick

[Siberian Snooper]

I seem to remember there was a post thar refered to drawing a square of a known size on the original. Then when imported into studio, draw a square the same size, then put one square over the other and adjust the import to match. Then save the import and delete the two squares.

 

HTH

[Dave at Honley Tank]

Thanks gentleman, I knew I could rely on those using this forum.

Cromptonnut:- thanks but everything was set for A4

Siberian Sleeper:- thanks, but Mick's answer worked so I did not need to try yours.

Mick Ralph:- spot-on! Problem now solved so a perhaps bigger "thank you" to you.

My 'Portrait' is currently doing the 0.010" cut of doors & windows & my third hut should be ready for inhabitation later today.

That's three huts; one from Jason's tutorial with Studio; one from Mike's tutorial with Inkscape and one from my own efforts with Corel.

What a learning curve!

Now for a respite while I read a few more pages of this lot; only about 12 more to go!

 

Dave

Edited November 18, 2014 by Dave at Honley Tank

[MickRalph]

Good news. 

 

If you want some inspiration of what can be done (in card generally, rather than in plasticard), see the pictures in this forum (which has already been mentioned earlier in this thread).  It is a very long thread in French, but worth looking at the pictures - I now have some ideas for my French metre gauge railway.  Trouble is, I spend too long drooling over other people's work and not enough time making things for my own railway.

 

Mick

Edited November 18, 2014 by MickRalph

[jonhall]

Has anyone looked for a thin self-healing cutting mat that could replace the easily cut plastic one? I did some card cutting (rather than plasticard scoring) and have broken through to mark the mat underneath.

 

Thanks,

 

jon

[Smiffy2]

If you look on Amazon there are many alternatives.