A Guide to using the Silhouette Cameo Cutter

[MikeOxon]

Can you recommend a suitable diamond dressing tool? Or suitable dimensions. One of my problems with plastic and metal is marking out, so this could be very useful.

 

If I order a CB09 and blades is it best just to buy 60° ones then, as they work just as well as 45°, but may, or may not, cut deeper?

 

This is something I'd like to read more on, as it's part of my plan to try to print colour overlays to minimise painting and lettering.

1.  I show the diamond dressing tool in action, in my blog post about a GWR Tilt Wagon.  Mine came from Amazon though I can't be sure if the current version is identical to mine.

 

2.  I haven't found that the 60° blade cuts any deeper in practice (it won't cut through 20thou plasticard)  The limitation seems to be the pressure that the cutter can exert, rather than blade angle.  I can't say which angle is 'better'.

 

3.  I've written about printing colour overlays in my blog post 'Instant Chocolate (with Cream)'  If you browse through the list of topics on my blog, there are several others relating to using the Silhouette cutter, which you may find of interest.

 

Mike

[raymw]

Tungsten carbide will most likely do the job, instead of diamond, such as http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p46004?table=no

[JCL]

Good morning everyone. For people that are new to this thread, later this weekend I'll amend the first post to put links to the following:

 

- Mike's original Inkscape tutorials including the recent worked examples

- These tutorials

- MikeOxon's registration work and that diamond cutter blog post

- Answers to the initial problems people have such as scaling when importing DXF files

 

If anyone else has any other links worth adding, then please let me know and provide the link

[Stanley Melrose]

I bought a Silhouette Portrait a while ago and having looked in the box did nothing more.  As I was going to be away for most of August, I loaded Inkscape and the Silhouette software on my little laptop with the intention of trying to get my head around creating some bits and pieces.  Of course, the weather was extremely warm for the whole time we were away so indolence ruled and nothing was even contemplated.  perhaps tis was as well because no sooner had we arrived home than Mike Trice started his excellent tutorial and I now have my first drawings almost ready for trial cutting.  What I have done is to draw some alternative sides for available proprietary (Hornby non-dorridor) coaches.  I have sanded off all the detail on the existing sides and and cut away the existing window areas.  My plan is to glue in place the overlays that I intend to cut with the Portrait which will alter the type of the coaches.  I will back the outer sides with inner layers (including glazing) to thicken them up where I have removed the existing windows and door detail

 

Now my question is whether I can get away with using 5 thou styrene for the additional sides.  I reckon the sanding I have given the existing coach sides won't be far off removing 5 thou of material and the additional width certainly wouldn't be any worse than glueing etched sides in place.  So, will 5 thou styrene cut OK and will it be free from the cutting mat without too many problems?  What I have read on this thread seems more concerned with cutting 10 thou and thicker material so I thought I'd seek advice before trying myself.

 

All assistance and suggestions gratefully received - and I did wonder if I might be better off using 0.12mm Synaps artificial paper which has claims that it will not tear?

 

But I must repeat my thanks to Mike for his excellent tutorial as without it I doubt if I would have got as far as I have.

 

Stan

[Siberian Snooper]

I bought a Silhouette Portrait a while ago and having looked in the box did nothing more.  As I was going to be away for most of August, I loaded Inkscape and the Silhouette software on my little laptop with the intention of trying to get my head around creating some bits and pieces.  Of course, the weather was extremely warm for the whole time we were away so indolence ruled and nothing was even contemplated.  perhaps tis was as well because no sooner had we arrived home than Mike Trice started his excellent tutorial and I now have my first drawings almost ready for trial cutting.  What I have done is to draw some alternative sides for available proprietary (Hornby non-dorridor) coaches.  I have sanded off all the detail on the existing sides and and cut away the existing window areas.  My plan is to glue in place the overlays that I intend to cut with the Portrait which will alter the type of the coaches.  I will back the outer sides with inner layers (including glazing) to thicken them up where I have removed the existing windows and door detail

 

Now my question is whether I can get away with using 5 thou styrene for the additional sides.  I reckon the sanding I have given the existing coach sides won't be far off removing 5 thou of material and the additional width certainly wouldn't be any worse than glueing etched sides in place.  So, will 5 thou styrene cut OK and will it be free from the cutting mat without too many problems?  What I have read on this thread seems more concerned with cutting 10 thou and thicker material so I thought I'd seek advice before trying myself.

 

All assistance and suggestions gratefully received - and I did wonder if I might be better off using 0.12mm Synaps artificial paper which has claims that it will not tear?

 

But I must repeat my thanks to Mike for his excellent tutorial as without it I doubt if I would have got as far as I have.

 

Stan

The 5thou will cut ok, as long as the bit you want is not too narrow and the cutting mat too sticky that you can't peel the bit you want off without damaging it.

[JCL]

Cheers SS. Stanley, have a look at this post as well http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79025-a-guide-to-using-the-silhouette-cameo-cutter/?p=1298101

 

I'm speed reading this thread, it's interesting going back to have a look at what people have achieved with the cutter. There's a lot of good stuff in here from all of the contributors.

[BG John]

Not quite a Silhouette question, but part of a wagon I'm designing to make with it. Can anyone recommend the best way to draw the circled lettering in Inkscape? I'm trying to produce a colour overlay for the painting and lettering. The squarer lettering is coming out quite well, but I'm struggling with the curvy bits.

 

 

Edited September 25, 2016 by BG John

[MikeTrice]

Personally I would initially use the text tool and find a font that is close, then convert to a path and edit that.

[MikeTrice]

Quick test going through the fonts installed on my PC. This is "Frankiln Gothic Demi Cond":

 

Once you find something close, click on "Path->Object to Path" then "Object->Ungroup" to be able to edit the individual letter's paths.

 

Edit: You may find you need to use letters from multiple fonts. For instance there might be a better match for the "&" in a different font.

Edited September 25, 2016 by MikeTrice

[BG John]

Thanks Mike. Starting with a rectangle was going well for the bits I've done, and good practice for drawing coach sides! So my mind wasn't really on modifying a font. There's no point doing all this design work just to build one wagon, so I might find some matching numbers other than 2 and 1 in a suitable font.

[raymw]

Not sure if possible in your software, but the way I've done it for a few characters (working from a mobile phone photo of a business card), is enlarge the image as much as you can, then manually trace the outline of the individual letters in your cad software, and shrink it back down again. You need to estimate the 'true edge' of the lettering when it's blown up and you trace it, due to the blurring of the boundary. I'm assuming you can get a background image (jpeg/tif whatever) into your cad program. I've found all the automatic line tracing software to fail when working with photos.

 

With all due respect to Mike, 'Franklin Gothic' is nothing like the original font, (but it may not be discernible on a small scale wagon) and by the time you've found a more similar font, messed around with it, it is quicker to trace the original (for just a few letters)

 

hth

 

 

Best wishes,

Ray

[BG John]

Not sure if possible in your software, but the way I've done it for a few characters (working from a mobile phone photo of a business card), is enlarge the image as much as you can, then manually trace the outline of the individual letters in your cad software, and shrink it back down again. You need to estimate the 'true edge' of the lettering when it's blown up and you trace it, due to the blurring of the boundary. I'm assuming you can get a background image (jpeg/tif whatever) into your cad program. I've found all the automatic line tracing software to fail when working with photos.

 

With all due respect to Mike, 'Franklin Gothic' is nothing like the original font, (but it may not be discernible on a small scale wagon) and by the time you've found a more similar font, messed around with it, it is quicker to trace the original (for just a few letters)

 

hth

 

 

Best wishes,

Ray

That's what I did with the easy characters, like the U, L, Y, 1 and the cross, but I got stuck with the S. I tried reshaping a rectangle, and tracing round it with the mouse, with it blown up as big as possible on my 23" screen. See my second picture, with the ruler and guidelines, which is a screenshot from Inkscape. If I spent a very long time on it I might be able to tweak it enough to be happy with it, but my sanity wouldn't last long enough to do the rest of the wagon! And I want to make more wagons using a similar technique, if I can perfect it.

 

I'll try searching for a suitable font next.

[allan downes]

 Whatever happened to those rub on letters where there seemed to be a font for everything !

 

Cheers.

 

Allan.

[BG John]

 Whatever happened to those rub on letters where there seemed to be a font for everything !

 

Cheers.

 

Allan.

I had a quick look for some recently, but couldn't find much. Anyway, if I wanted to do it the easy way, the Broad Gauge Society do transfers for this wagon. The idea is to learn how to do it myself, so I can apply the technique to other rolling stock.

[raymw]

Hi, I downloaded inkscape, just to try. The software I have used (designcad3d - just 'cos I've always used it), allows a line to be traced by clicking on the start, move mouse, click again, move, click again. I haven't found if inkscape does that, by default it seems to want you to create separate line segments. Anyway, the curves are approximated by short straight lines, but I can easily move and connect line end points, whatever, to make a continuous outline in dc3d. I would think inkscape could do that, but I never found it. When you scale it down, the straight lines do not show as straight lines - half a dozen or so will cover the curve of a 'P' most likely. (there was a thread wrt laser cutting, iirc dxf files were needed, but the curves in whatever software was being used did not translate to splines in dxf, so maybe the same happens with the cutter software, anyway, in other words you worry over drawing curves, and it gets changed to straight lines anyway for plotting in their version of hpgl. The problem with many straight lines representing a curve, is that the drive motor software, unless specifically designed, does not smooth out the speed changes for small changes of direction, so in laser cutting, wood machining, burns occur.

 

By you drawing the straight lines, you can define how many there are, so the burn effects are minimized. (I know the cutter should not 'burn', but there is some 'awkwardness?' when direction changes, and you can define how that is handled better than any software.) 

 

fwiw, font design is interesting, and if you were to actually scale down the full size lettering, you may not be able to read it, but a suitable readable small font when scaled up could look ugly.

 

I don't think you need to try and find centre points for arcs/whatever you do, for the curved letters, just trace them with straight lines, see what happens.

 

There are web sites that you upload whatever characters you have (as a jpeg) and it will give suggestions for fonts. but the ones I found were not very accurate, and surprisingly linked mainly to fonts that they sold, apart from common stuff like courier.

 

I suppose you could draw a circle using centre/radius, and trace another using straight lines, and cut them out, see what happens for different sized circles.

 

Best wishes,

 

Ray

[BG John]

I don't need to cut the lettering. The idea is to produce a coloured layer to avoid painting and lettering, similar to the way Kirtleypete does it.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/100227-painting-locomotives-without-much-paint/

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/98308-saltdean-lbscr-in-0-gauge/

[raymw]

Makes it easier, then. Load the image, trace the shapes, save to a new layer, or delete the image. Not sure if inkscape does fills, or if it will do the lines in the way I'm used to I mentioned before. I haven't downloaded the help file, but any drawing package should do the basics - it certainly allows tracing and layers.

[Stanley Melrose]

 Whatever happened to those rub on letters where there seemed to be a font for everything !

 

Cheers.

 

Allan.

Letraset?

[raymw]

Hi,

a few seconds to show what I mean, shows the points used, but scaled down (and the point display can be turned off) will look fine. Not done in inkscape, but should be just as quick for anyone who knows how to trace shapes. I'm guessing inkscape can let you fill colours, and fill white if that's what you want.

[raymw]

Sorry to keep nagging, but in inkscape, it is easier. However, I do not see it as a cad program, more useful for graphics/ freehand drawing, so it won't be my goto. It seems a bit icky to set scales, at first sight.

Anyway, get the image as big as you can, then use the calligraphy pen tool, (ctrl+f6) to fill in the letters, then use the erasure (shift e) to clean it up, if needed.  You can grab the original image object and discard it. No idea how you get things to the sizes you need in the final print.

[JCL]

I've just posted this into Post#2 (The Index post). I managed to get Mike's latest tutorials and then to page 45 before falling asleep. If there's anything I've missed in those pages, please provide a link and I'll add it.

 

Frequently Encountered Problems

• The rounded square import problem
  • http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79025-a-guide-to-using-the-silhouette-cameo-cutter/?p=1559539
  • http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79025-a-guide-to-using-the-silhouette-cameo-cutter/?p=1565555
• The Resizing Problem

Initial Tutorials

 

My initial tutorials (from a list by MikeOxon later in this thread). Note that some of this information will have been updated later in the thread or in other tutorial threads.

• Uses for Silhouette cutters
• Index to pages on this thread
• Software/materials/consumables
• File types/Studio/Inkscape/Corel/Serif/etc
• Preparing a project
• Project - Coal Merchant's Office-1
• Project - Coal Merchant's Office-2
• Project - Separating/Cutting/Cleaning up
• Maintenance of the machine
• Project - Studio files

Silhouette in Detail

• Blade Depths - Mike Trice
• Blades, Scribers and Penholders - Mike Trice
• Cutting Mats - Mike Trice
• Diamond tip scriber for Brass - MikeOxon

Printing and Cutting

• Printing and Cutting 1 - MikeOxon
• Printing and Cutting 2 - JCL

Inkscape Tutorials

• Introduction to using Inkscape to produce cutting files - Mike Trice
• Completing the 4mm NER 6 wheel coach - Mike Trice
• Using Inkscape to Create Cutting Files a Worked Example - Mike Trice
• Barnum Coach Bogies - JCL

Edited September 25, 2016 by JCL

[Stanley Melrose]

Brilliant - many thanks!

 

Stan

 

 

I've just posted this into Post#2 (The Index post). I managed to get Mike's latest tutorials and then to page 45 before falling asleep. If there's anything I've missed in those pages, please provide a link and I'll add it.

 

Frequently Encountered Problems

• The rounded square import problem
  • http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79025-a-guide-to-using-the-silhouette-cameo-cutter/?p=1559539
  • http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79025-a-guide-to-using-the-silhouette-cameo-cutter/?p=1565555
• The Resizing Problem

Initial Tutorials

 

My initial tutorials (from a list by MikeOxon later in this thread). Note that some of this information will have been updated later in the thread or in other tutorial threads.

• Uses for Silhouette cutters
• Index to pages on this thread
• Software/materials/consumables
• File types/Studio/Inkscape/Corel/Serif/etc
• Preparing a project
• Project - Coal Merchant's Office-1
• Project - Coal Merchant's Office-2
• Project - Separating/Cutting/Cleaning up
• Maintenance of the machine
• Project - Studio files

Silhouette in Detail

• Blade Depths - Mike Trice
• Blades, Scribers and Penholders - Mike Trice
• Cutting Mats - Mike Trice
• Diamond tip scriber for Brass - MikeOxon

Printing and Cutting

• Printing and Cutting 1 - MikeOxon
• Printing and Cutting 2 - JCL

Inkscape Tutorials

• Introduction to using Inkscape to produce cutting files - Mike Trice
• Completing the 4mm NER 6 wheel coach - Mike Trice
• Using Inkscape to Create Cutting Files a Worked Example - Mike Trice
• Barnum Coach Bogies - JCL

 

[runs as required]

Not quite a Silhouette question, but part of a wagon I'm designing to make with it. Can anyone recommend the best way to draw the circled lettering in Inkscape? I'm trying to produce a colour overlay for the painting and lettering. The squarer lettering is coming out quite well, but I'm struggling with the curvy bits.

 

Sully - Square on side view.png

 

Capture.JPG

I've been lurking on these Silhouette and inkscape threads because I'm wondering whether to take the plunge into a Silhouette cutter.

I'd like to ask if BG John's question can be answered satisfactorily another way.

I've been reasonably successful over the years in producing orthographic scale plans sections elevations of buildings, vehicles etc from photograph views using Photoshop.

 

So would it possible to print out scale elevations of the Sully wagon sides (or complex lined out carriage liveried sides) on card and have them accurately cut out on the Silhouette, overlaid with other pre-printed elements and laminated together.

Provided one could suitably colour the exposed card edges, presumably the whole could then be fixed/varnished, eliminating painting and the difficult tasks of applying lining and lettering.

Have I overlooked something obvious like getting an identical registration of a print-out against a Inkcscape vector file.

 

There's a thread here where LBSCR locos are finished in printed out livery.

 

dh

[Rob Pulham]

Thanks for that Rob. Having seen a large amount of Silhouette based 7mm builds from you any advice on cutting for 7mm would be gratefully received.

 

 

 

 

Hi Mike,

 

My methods are similar to your except that I mainly use 20thou for the body sides and ends - 3 layers with 10 thou used for details of metal work (hinges/washer plates etc.). I will add further details over the next few days.

[MikeOxon]

I've been lurking on these Silhouette and inkscape threads because I'm wondering whether to take the plunge into a Silhouette cutter.

I'd like to ask if BG John's question can be answered satisfactorily another way.

I've been reasonably successful over the years in producing orthographic scale plans sections elevations of buildings, vehicles etc from photograph views using Photoshop.

 

So would it possible to print out scale elevations of the Sully wagon sides (or complex lined out carriage liveried sides) on card and have them accurately cut out on the Silhouette, overlaid with other pre-printed elements and laminated together.

Provided one could suitably colour the exposed card edges, presumably the whole could then be fixed/varnished, eliminating painting and the difficult tasks of applying lining and lettering.

Have I overlooked something obvious like getting an identical registration of a print-out against a Inkcscape vector file.

 

There's a thread here where LBSCR locos are finished in printed out livery.

 

dh

It's the way I've made my coaches - see my blog posts ...  (link below)

Mike

Edited September 25, 2016 by MikeOxon