A Guide to using the Silhouette Cameo Cutter

[MickRalph]

In post 887 above, I indicated that it seems that that Studio Designer Edition (DE) can only cut by layers or by colour and this seems to be the case.  While DE will open an Inkscape SVG file, if selecting to cut by layers, it will cut all the lines in the selected layer, which is no help if some of them are intended to be scored only.  Alternatively, if selecting to cut by line colour, all lines of a selected colour will be cut on all layers. 

 

The solution is load the completed SVG file into DE and then to delete all but one layer and then to cut that layer by line colour, allowing different parameters to be set for the different colours.  Making sure not to save the .studio file, you can then reload the SVG file and delete layers leaving only another one which needs cutting and then repeat the cutting by line colour.

 

Thus, DE does enable cutting files without the need to convert the SVG file to the DXF format for loading into Studio, with the issues that this can bring.

 

I emailed Silhouette support to check that my assessment was correct and to ask whether they have plans to enable cutting by line colour after selecting a layer, but only received the response that my suggestion (!) had been passed to the software department to consider.

 

BTW a new update of the Studio software was posted on the Silhouette website on 5th January, but the website doesn't indicate what enhancements have been made to the program.

 

I would still prefer to use the CutWizard plugin for Inkscape, if I could persuade the German software writers to provide for cutting by line colour as well as by line fill.  I am intending to have another go at this, but don't hold out much hope.

 

Mick

[JCL]

Thanks Mick. On an aside, I wonder if we'll see a new version of Inkscape anytime soon. They are supposed to be including cutter support (whatever that means).

[MickRalph]

The beta version of Inkscape 0.91 is now available for download, but I haven't yet tried it.  I couldn't see any relevant items in the "new features" section of the website.

Edited January 8, 2015 by MickRalph

[Siberian Snooper]

Hi All

 

Does anyone know if there is a limit to the file size that Studio can handle?

 

As always TIA.

 

SS

[ian_g_griffiths]

Hi,

 

Has anyone carried out a comparison of cutting plasticard from various manufacturers? Does it make a difference? Are there any that produce less of a ridge adjacent to the cut line?

 

Ian

[MickRalph]

Hi All

 

Does anyone know if there is a limit to the file size that Studio can handle?

 

As always TIA.

 

SS

I haven't seen any references to a maximum file size.  Have you had a problem in loading a particular file - if, what size is it?

 

To ian_g_griffiths - I haven't tried such an experiment and don't have a record of who has supplied my various thicknesses of plasticard.

 

Mick

[davepallant]

Many thanks for everyone on this thread. I've read through it over the last few days and have just gone for a Silhouette Cameo on Yolo.   I've probably spent a lot of my discount on a spare blade and several sheets of iron on materials for my daughter to try out but I think it is money well spent. I'm going to be using it initially for Scalescenes cutting and then progress to custom buildings.

 

Interestingly I saw a US labelled company selling the basic Cameo 2 for £181 on Amazon.co.uk but I presume it would arrive with a bill for the VAT and the shippers charges for charging me the VAT. I may be wrong. If we were in the US we would currently be able to get the Cameo 2 starter kit with spare blade, spare cutting mat and glitter pens(!) for $270 which is £179!

[Siberian Snooper]

I haven't seen any references to a maximum file size.  Have you had a problem in loading a particular file - if, what size is it?

 

To ian_g_griffiths - I haven't tried such an experiment and don't have a record of who has supplied my various thicknesses of plasticard.

 

Mick

 

 

Yes, I have had a problem, I have a drawing which required 47,000 scribe marks which I did in AutoCad and it wouldn't load into Studio. I am now in the process of braking it down into smaller parts in the hope that it will eventually become possible for studio to open it.

[MickRalph]

That's an awful lots of lines.  What are you creating?  The most I have done so far is about 1,000 cutting lines.  Jason's Class 114 sides, for which he posted the svg file in his Wainfleet and Havenhouse thread (post 877 on page 36), had 6,700.  Do you want to send me a copy of the file so that I can see whether I can open it in Studio Designer Edition and Inkscape?  I don't know whether you can attach a file to a PM, but if you send me a PM I will send you my email address.

 

Mick

[Siberian Snooper]

Hi Mick

 

It is a bridge plus a pair of bridge abutments, I have now resolved the issue by using SE finecast sheet for the brickwork and using the cameo to just do the bridge ring, hopefully. I am just putting it through the machine now.

 

Unfortunately you can't send attachments to PM's.

 

Thanks very much for your offer.

 

Most of this was an experiment to see what it would and would not do.

 

SS

[JCL]

That's an awful lots of lines.  What are you creating?  The most I have done so far is about 1,000 cutting lines.  Jason's Class 114 sides, for which he posted the svg file in his Wainfleet and Havenhouse thread (post 877 on page 36), had 6,700.  Do you want to send me a copy of the file so that I can see whether I can open it in Studio Designer Edition and Inkscape?  I don't know whether you can attach a file to a PM, but if you send me a PM I will send you my email address.

 

Mick

Did it? I didn't think to look! No wonder it took a while to complete.

 

Good luck with that SS.

[Siberian Snooper]

Did it? I didn't think to look! No wonder it took a while to complete.

 

Good luck with that SS.

 

No. So I have gone to plan B, I am cutting the main parts from SE Finecast brick sheet and have used the Cameo to scribe and cut the brick arches. I will post a piccy when the butchery is finished.

[JCL]

Ah, sorry, I was talking about my cl114 having 6,700 cuts.

[Siberian Snooper]

Hi All

 

As promised a piccy or two.

Here is a screen shot of the original cutting file

 

 

As this didn't load I then tried to do just the vertical brick scribes and hence my original post when that didn't load, I just did a file with just the arch ring and a second one that I used to cut out the rest from SE Finecast brick sheet.

 

Below is the result of the centre sections.

 

 

 

 

[richbrummitt]

Slightly OT for this post but I've done a similar thing with printed bricks and have inkscape files that look similar to your CAD. Almost 25,000 rectangles and 25,000 bitmap stones creates one side of 6 feet of 2mm scale wall fitted to an A4 page (103Mb). I also have a road overbridge, platform faces, and hut. The signal box and station buildings are work in progress. 

[ian_g_griffiths]

Anyone know what plastic the Silhouette cutting mat is made from. Tried using piece of recycled cardstock as a backing sheet and attaching the workpiece with masking tape. The masking tape worked well but the card backing was too soft to give a good cut. Would like to try with a stickieless plastic backing sheet and masking tape.

 

Ian

[siltec]

I acquired one of these machine as my Christmas Present.

 

So far I have stuck to card.

 

I must admit the software is not the best, even the with the designer version, but there are ways and means.

 

This is how I do it.

 

Firstly I draw up accurately on a proper CAD programme, DeltaCAD. You have to buy it but it does not cost a lot and is very good. I first bought it about 15 years ago and paid for all the upgrades since. For the hobbyist it beats AutoCAD.

 

Then I send the outline dxf file to Serif Drawplu 6. Again you have to buy this and again for the amateur it does the job. I have again upgraded over the years. I takes the dxf file very well including keeping the layers from the CAD system which makes it easier to work with.

 

I then colour in using draw plus. The layers mean that a broad area can be coloured on a low layer with a window say above. This is where I used to stop as I had printed windows and cut out by hand. One reason for getting the Cameo is be able to cut out for real windows.

 

Now the tricky bit as the DrawPlus file is not compatable with Cameo and dxf does not do fills.

 

First of all I export the image to be cut out as a .png file. It could be jpeg or many others but I find .png works best. I then just use the layers with the lines to be cut and save this a a .dxf file.

 

Now using the Cameo software I load the .png and dxf files. The png image always comes out small. Fortunately it is a file of the whole page and using the size facility on the cameo software I can enlarge it to A4. I then merge in the dxf file. Actually is does not seem to matter which order you go in. I then move the graphic image until it lines up with the dxf outline. Enlarging on the screen to a corner makes this pretty straight forward.

 

Now this is how I did it with the basic software. The designer version has extra features including layers and .svg files.

 

Firstly .dxf layers are not read by the cameo software - so that was a waste of time. Simlarly no layers on the .svg files and like the .png files they do not match the layers. Also the size is way out. Unlike the the .png file it does not transfer the whole page so I have no way of knowing how much to scale it to fit the .dxf drawing. I have thought of a work around but have yet to try it.

 

Fortunately the cameo software picks up the .dxf lines OK so now it is straight forward. Either straight to the cutter or printed out with the guide marks and then the cutter.

 

The machine itself is fine. I quite like the idea of an A3 plotter and in this role it works well. Buy the adaptor that takes normal pens. The pens they sell do not last long. The adaptor has worked fine with cheap pens, 4/ 5 for £1 types.

 

It is really the software that is disapointing. If it accepted layered files it would be much better. As it is if you want to change the cutter from cutting to grooving then the lines must be different colours. The software can use layers, but only for a job created from scratch on their software.

 

I am still experimenting but it does cut out small apertures and using acetate sheets windows are now a practical proposition.

 

I have a few project ideas including the pre-war LMS railcar set and the Liverpool overhead electric. I even have an idea for a steam loco body.

 

I apologise if I have repeated a previous piece of advice. I have not had chance to read everything on this machine yet. Too busy try it out.

 

David

[MickRalph]

Hi David.   Welcome to the club.  The Silhouette is great for accurate cutting of things like windows - much better than I can achieve by hand.

 

I am not sure why you are using line-fill colour, rather than line-stroke colour, unless you are printing, say, the side of a building or coach and then using the registration marks facility to cut out the pre-printed side.  I find that if I use a fill-colour it gets in the way of seeing the lines I am creating.  Generally, I think that people just create a drawing with lines of .1mm thickness, coloured as needed for cutting or scoring and then cut from this drawing.  Your procedure to get the file into Studio for cutting seems very complicated.

 

I use Inkscape and have Studio Designer Edition, so I create the drawing and save it as SVG and DE opens the file with its layers.  However, DE will only cut all lines in a layer (whether the file is created in Inkscape or in Studio itself).  To cut by line colour, it is necessary to open the file in DE and then delete all layers except one to cut and then cut the lines in that layer by colour.  If you try to cut by colour without deleting the layers, all lines of a colour are cut on all layers.

 

Can you create the file in DeltaCAD and save it as an svg file?  If so, you can then import it into DE and follow the procedure above of deleting all but one layer in turn.

 

Before buying DE, I had to create the svg file in Inkscape and then delete all layers but the one I wanted to cut and save the file as aq DXF file.  However, I have just found that while DE will open SVG files from Inkscape, if I save the file as a DXF file and open it in DE, all the layers are conflated into a single layer, which doesn't help.

 

For your problem of sizing the dxf file when opened in Studio, there is an section in the "Preferences" (Edit menu) on how to deal with importing DXF files.  You could try experimenting here - I found I had to change it to "centred".

 

Mick

Edited January 18, 2015 by MickRalph

[siltec]

Hi

 

Thanks for your comprehensive reply. SVG files did not work well from DrawPlus so i took your advice and tried out Inkscape.

 

I used a dxf file created in CAD and loaded it into inkscape. It did not seperate out the layers but interestingly they could each be picked out and transferred to a layer to achieve the same effect. This might be due to using the wrong year for my CAD file so more experimentation needed.

 

I filled in the layers using Inkscape in the same way as I have been doing with DrawPlus6. I then save in various .svg and other formats.

 

Well the results were interesting. Designer pick up the layers and colours from the .svg file which is what I have been looking to do. The basic inkscape version seemed to work best. I tried two other variants but they both produced an oversize image, although all the layers were there.

 

It is all very interesting how what you think are the same file formats seem to work differently with different programmes. I will certainly be using Inkscape a bit more. The quick tests were actually with the Linux version as I have not downloaded the windows.

 

Anyhow thanks for the advice and good cutting.

 

David

[Dave at Honley Tank]

Hi All

 

Does anyone know if there is a limit to the file size that Studio can handle?

 

As always TIA.

 

SS

Sorry for delay in picking this question up; - I've been bashing my brain trying to get to grips with CorelDraw, Studio3, my 'Portrait', cdr versus dfx', plasticard versus styrene sheet, scribing and cutting and keeping alive! So I've done very little 'ontinternet'.

I'm trying to cut and scribe the sides and ends for a GCR 6 wheel brake van. The .dxf file is only 4.1Mb but the studio3 file comes in at 6.3Mb and it has certainly slowed down 'Studio'. It keeps sending me the " not responding" message, but if I'm patient (like go and have a cup-o-tea!) then its worked by the time I return.

The scribing of two sides, two inner ends & two outer ends took my 'Portrait' almost two hours to complete. Cutting was a bit quicker but some where along the line the 'digitals' got their nickers in a twist and the whole lot ended up in the bin. Looked as though the hick-up had been while scribing because nothing lined up. Swear time!!!!!

 

So, Yes! it looks as though there is a large-file problem

 

Dave

[siltec]

Hi

 

Those file sizes look a bit big for .dxf. Mine are usually small in kB rather than MB!

[siltec]

Have been trying out Inkscape and it certainly works well enough saving layers in .svg files that DE can read.

 

Inkscape does not seem to want to seperate my CAD .dxf files into layers, although it has each layer as a group so it is not too difficult to seperate them out. I am still getting to grips with Inkscape. The filling of areas seems a bit perculiar.

 

I am printing out the drawings and then cutting them out. this is why I wanted the cut lines on seperate layers from the colour area. Using Inkscape and .svg seems to work and is a bit easier than lining up a .[ng and .dxf file, although surprisingly it was not too difficult. The merge facility on DE works quite well.

 

Early days and when I finally finish something I will post it. learning a bit about designing models using card.

 

David

[MickRalph]

Hi

 

Those file sizes look a bit big for .dxf. Mine are usually small in kB rather than MB!

I agree - my dxf files were mostly less than 500kB, although two were about 1,500kB.  Jason's Class 114 files were just under 1MB.

 

Mick

[siltec]

The trials and tribulations with my new machine continue. I have tried out Inkscape with mixed results. The svg files when imported into Silouhette are all over the place. The layers are out of alignment. I know Inkscape is reved about but the features I use seem to be better on draw plus.

 

While my endeavours to use layers will continue I have found the best way so far is:

 

Create drawing and layers using CAD. Save as .dxf

 

Load into Drawplus and colour each layer as required.

 

Save the final coloured image as a .png file. 32 and full page.

 

I then find the layers with cut lines on and display them without any fill.

 

Save this from Drawplus as a .dxf file

 

On Sihouette I load dxf and png to library.

 

Double click dxf file to get it onto working page

 

Double click png to get it onto working page

 

Now both drawings are on.

 

png however is too small and needs increasing to same size as dxf, which is spot on.

 

Using the resize feature on DE I select the full png image, which is a full page. DE allows you to resize to an exact dimension so I take the long edge of A4, 297mm

 

Enlarged drawing is fully line up with dxf lined image. I must admit I was expecting it o be off but no further manipulation needed.

 

Call up location marks and print out image.

 

Place in plotter

 

DE on lines just picks up the dxf cutting line image

 

Cuts out around image as required.

 

It is doing what I want, even if it requires a bit of faffing around.

 

 

What I have discovered is that the universal pen adaptor they sell works well and that cheap pens plot great. Currently a pack of 4 for 99p from Works are doing the business.

 

Only plotting problem is how to get single line letters. TruType fonts are plotted around the edge, which is fine for big letters but looks a bit messy for small ones. Investigations suggest I am no the only one with this problem.

 

Anyhow, that is where I am at. Hopefully some more discoveries with produce further results.

[Andy Y]

I've finally got my act together and got a Portrait cutter (Yolo - £108.something) and I'm at the happy to play stage. I wanted to see what could be achieved in fine work so had a crack at some 4mm bikes on 160 gsm card. After a couple of adjustments I just about got it to the stage where I could lift them from the mat without breaking them.

 

 

 

I've also enabled .studio3 file extensions if anyone wants to upload stuff to share.

 

Test....

 

Bicycle.studio3