A Guide to using the Silhouette Cameo Cutter

[iamjamie]

Apologies if I am asking a question that has already been asked in here, I am working through it, but also have had my portrait since my birthday (before christmas) and have only just opened and done my first test prints,

 

Can you print/cut directly from AutoCAD?

 

IF not can you open a DXF with the colours used retained?

 

Thanks all, excited to start using it. Just must remember that 9-5 CAD is for work, not railways!

 

Thanks

 

Leigh

 

I tend to export from AutoCAD as a DXF and then print using the plug-in from Illustrator...

 

But this is mainly because I use illustrator to create images to be cut out, so I can print it out first and use the self-aligning feature of the Silhouette to cut them out (although this hasn't proved perfectly accurate, it's pretty good if you leave enough "bleed" around the image so if it cuts slightly off you don't get any white gaps).

 

Because I've not managed to get the alignment with the image accurate enough, I've not been able to use it for modelling yet... But it is handy to cut out custom shaped labels for things!

[clarkis]

Hi iamjamie- I'd be interested to know more detail about your statement: "...the self-aligning feature of the Silhouette to cut them out...it's pretty good if you leave enough "bleed" around the image so if it cuts slightly off you don't get any white gaps)..."

TIA, Clark

[twiggy1969]

Been playing with my silhouette cutter and have managed to knock this up http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/98001-gwr-no-17/

 

thanks mark

[JCL]

Wow, that was worth a look!

[Buhar]

That looks really good,Mark. Could we trouble you for a bit more detail on how yo planned it and your thinking around construction? Either here or on the linked thread.

[twiggy1969]

Tren

Posted Today, 08:51

That looks really good,Mark. Could we trouble you for a bit more detail on how yo planned it and your thinking around construction? Either here or on the linked thread.

 

 

 

heres a bit of background. The loco is in russells gwr engines vol 2 page 100-103. there are a few drawings and some photos

 

What i did was take a few measurments from both the drawing and the donnor loco. One thing that showed up early was the wheel base was wrong so i needed to slightly ajust the rear end. I drew the crane parts first splitting the top and bottom crossbracing into 4 parts so the bottom could be trimed to size.

 

this is the drawing for the crane parts as you can see i have a few extra bits just in case but also I was cutting on 20tho plastic card which i can only scored. Several parts are also laminated together to get the correct thickness. The large balance weight is a childs bead.

 

Next I sorted the cab and chassis about 10mm had to be cut off the rear and then i drilled a hole down through the chassis  to keep the rear end fixed

 

The rear bogie is very simple and just hanging from the floor as there is no real weight in the rear end (also there are to fixes if neede 1 would be to add weight to the front the other is to add a spring to the mounting bolt

Hope this has answered a few questions

 

crane parts no 17.studio3

 

the main crane parts

 

crane parts cab ect.studio3

the cab bits

 

feel free to have ago and let me know what you think

 

thanks mark

 

 

[jwealleans]

I'm looking into this thread to show you a pair of 7mm NER coaches which are being scratchbuilt by Peter Simmerson of Thirsk MRC. We had them on display at York at the weekend.

 

The beading was produced by a club colleague on a Silhouette cutter.

 

 

Edited October 20, 2018 by jwealleans

[pete_mcfarlane]

The Cyclops crame tank conversion leads on to an interesting question - has anyone produced a full Plasticard loco body using the Silhouette? 

[sleeper]

Prior to coming back to the UK for 4 months (from France where I live). I'd been learning Inkscape and use of the Silhouette cutter.

I'd  drawn up all the parts for a ventilated van in 00 scale. I had started to assemble it prior to leaving and took it with me to complete over here/there, but not the computer.

One of the worst problems I had with it  was that I'd laminated the roof using three layers of 0.25mm plastic card. These warped badly after a 3-4 week period. I decided to remove the roof and in doing so collapsed one of the W irons and associated brake gear (all cut on the Silhouette from the same card and laminated).

Although I found it very difficult to 'snap out' tiny parts from thicker card, I now think this is the way to go, unless I can find a less aggresive adhesive which will give a lasting bond.

However, some of the members with more experience of this method have had some success, as reported earlier in this thread.

[jonhall]

Again I'm nothing but the proverbial satisfied customer but

 

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It's set to reach 21°C today at yolö creative HQ and to celebrate we're offering 21% off EVERYTHING at www.yolo.co.uk until midnight tonight!

 

Simply enter the code HOTHOT21 at checkout. '

 

Jon

[jonhall]

Just in case you haven't seen this in Highlandmans Salcombe Harbour topic, I've been experimenting with pain stencils on the Silhouette.

 

Ordinary masking tape stuck to a carrier of clear plastic sheet.

 

 

The 'chandlers' is a bit small - it isn't cutting well.

 

 

I've used Tamiya masking tape to hold the letters together when transferring them across onto the item to be painted

 

 

and then stippled practically dry brilliant white Tamiya acrylic paint on with an offcut of foam. I suspect a pale grey would have been better

 

 

Lettering is 5mm high.

 

This might also be viable for very faded private owner wagons?

 

Off to look for interesting 'ghost' signs painted on brickwork..

 

Jon

[jonhall]

Whilst I had the Portrait out and set for cutting thin sheet I tried out the pixscan mat http://www.yolo.co.uk/silhouette-pixscan-cutting-mats--carrier-sheets-3442-p.aspand a downloadable building - in this case the free demo hut from Fine scale buildings http://shop.finescalebuildings.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=66&products_id=183

First thing to do turns out to be calibrate the camera, by printing a calibration sheet of dots and photographing them



Then print the building download and attach it to the pixscan mat - which turns out to be slightly narrower than A4 so I had to trim top and bottom to fit within the margins. You then take a moderately straight on photo of both the thing to cut, and the pixscan alignment markers and import the image into silhouette studio v3



I've had no success at all with the trace function, so I just drew some lines/boxes around the parts to be cut - the more time you spend on this the better - I was just evaluating this so didn't take as much care as I would have if it was 'for real'



Then turn the alignment markers on (found this out the hard way) and send it to the cutter - the first thing the cutter should do is scan up and down looking for the corner markers - if it goes straight to cut you haven't ticked the right boxes!



Then you can either peel the cut items off the sheet,



or I suspect peel the waste off first to make lifting the 'wanted' bit off easier



Conclusion - seems perfectly viable as a technique, although is it quicker than doing it by hand? Where it could be used is if the designers of the downloaded buildings could be persuaded to add the Silhouette markers to their sheets, and also supply a cutter file!

Jon

Edited May 6, 2015 by jonhall

[jonhall]

I should also mention that I've been invited to the DEMU Showcase at the end of the month to demo the potential uses of this machine - hence this little experiment.

 

Jon

[dhjgreen]

Is it possible to amend the cutting design to enable you to cut the structural card as well? It would also make good sense if you were making 2 or more of a model.

[jonhall]

Is it possible to amend the cutting design to enable you to cut the structural card as well? It would also make good sense if you were making 2 or more of a model.

 

Possibly, card buildings aren't really my thing, I prefer working in plasticard where score &snap works up to 40thou, but I've done relatively little with card - not least of which because you have to be quite accurate with depth of cut or you slice up your backing mats. The problem with doing it the way I have done with pixscan, is that the second and subsequent sheet(s) needs to be in exactly the same place on the pixscan cutting mat as the first, otherwise it won't align the cut accurately.

 

It doesn't seem possible to import a PDF into silhouette studio, otherwise you could import it, add the registration marks, superimpose all your cuts and then and print the sheet and marks together as many times as you want always with the cuts aligned with the drawing - the other alternative would be to turn the downloaded PDF into an image file, but this might be infringing the terms of your licence from the building supplier.

 

Jon

Edited May 6, 2015 by jonhall

[BrushType4]

Conclusion - seems perfectly viable as a technique, although is it quicker than doing it by hand? Where it could be used is if the designers of the downloaded buildings could be persuaded to add the Silhouette makers to their sheets, and also supply a cutter file!Jon

I think that is a great idea and I do believe the designer of your test building would do this if the specifications were passed his or my way for what is required.

[MickRalph]

Thanks Jon for drawing attention to the Pixscan utility.  I had missed mention of this in Silhouette Studio.  I will have to get a mat and experiment.

 

Mick

[jonhall]

I think that is a great idea and I do believe the designer of your test building would do this if the specifications were passed his or my way for what is required.

 

You can download (free) the silhouette studio basic edition here http://www.silhouetteamerica.com/software/silhouette-studio even if you don't have a cutter (yet).

 

Open the software and the fourth icon from the right at the top is the registration marks window - if you go to the tick box marked 'off' there are two other options, I've tried 'type1 CAMEO/Portrait' this gives an 'L' top right and bottom left, and a square 5.5x5.5mm top left, with hatched areas that are presumably no-go areas for other print. I'll try and work out the absolute locations of the various elements tomorrow if I have time.

 

Jon

Edited May 6, 2015 by jonhall

[JCL]

Thanks Jon.

 

I would imagine that this would be really useful if you were to buy the greenhouse kit on the same website http://shop.finescalebuildings.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=66&products_id=180

[jonhall]

Alternatively if the buildings are designed in Adobe Illustrator or Coral Draw it appears you can buy a plug-in that allows you to add the alignment markers directly http://www.silhouetteamerica.com/faq/solution/silhouette-connect-plug-in-overview

 

Jon

[newbryford]

I should also mention that I've been invited to the DEMU Showcase at the end of the month to demo the potential uses of this machine - hence this little experiment.

 

Jon

 

Having watched Jon's demo from the other side of the room for the weekend, I think I want need one. It's given me   lot of ideas for a layout I'm building that probably needs a lot of consistently repeatable cut bits of plastic.

My Mother in Law has a cameo cutter, so I may have to borrow that in the meantime......

 

Cheers,

Mick

[jonhall]

I have to say I really enjoyed doing the cutter demo at Showcase, there was a constant stream of interest, and hopefully a few went away with some ideas - shame I wasn't on commission!

 

jon

[JCL]

haha, you and me both

[Tase]

I have to say I really enjoyed doing the cutter demo at Showcase, there was a constant stream of interest, and hopefully a few went away with some ideas - shame I wasn't on commission!

 

jon

An interesting demo at DEMU Jon. Appreciate the time showing what the cutter was capable of and for answering what were, in all probability, very basic questions from me.

 

Cheers.

[jonhall]

I've just noticed on the Silhouette America website their new machine is coming, the Curio, it looks like it can cut up to 2mm thick (presumably card) and can take up to 5mm thick, which might mean that a standard green cutting mat (3mm) might fit under the workpiece? http://www.silhouetteamerica.com/shop/machines/curio

 

Might be worth upgrading to/ holding off a purchase until that's out?

 

Jon

Edited June 7, 2015 by jonhall