Jumped in and bought a Silhouette cutter. Can anyone recommend any online tutorials?

[Citadelgrad]

That's pretty much my request.  I imagine the learning curve is pretty steep, but I have never used one, and don't know anyone who has one in my circle of friends.  There are Silhouette tutorials by the company, but emphasize scrapbooking and crafts.   I looked around youtube, but it's pretty sparse as far as my google abilities are able to uncover.

 

Thanks

 

Bill

[denders]

Have you looked through information over at Scale Model Paint Masks?

 

Forums - Scale Model Paint Masks

 

Silhouette also has stuff too. It's not about making masks for models, but it should feed you information.

 

Silhouette 101 – Silhouette's Blog

 

[Citadelgrad]

 

41 minutes ago, denders said:

Have you looked through information over at Scale Model Paint Masks?

 

Forums - Scale Model Paint Masks

 

Silhouette also has stuff too. It's not about making masks for models, but it should feed you information.

 

Silhouette 101 – Silhouette's Blog

 

I did register over there, and started to pick through the posts, but I did not see anything basic. I was hoping to jump right to some content that discusses mask making rather than general crafts, but I will do what I have to do to figure this puppy out. 

 

Thanks,

 

Bill

[denders]

Okay.

 

Well, I have access to AutoCAD and I have a caliper, so I started measuring on the canopy part(s) and made a drawing for the canopy masks. I exported a dxf file from AutoCAD and imported it into Silhouette Studio. I cut the first version of the masks and tried them out for fit. I made measurements and readjusted the mask drawing and tried them out again. Some pieces were good the first time around, some of them took a second and third try. Once I had what I thought was a good set, I cut a set for use on the model.

 

 

Some other notes.

 

I did update my copy of Silhouette Studio to the Designer Edition. 

I tried connecting via bluetooth and had issues, then got it to work, but it still seemed hit and miss for connection via bluetooth so I just used a USB cable extender to use USB all the time.

You do need to use the USB cable the first time when you activate the software/cutter connection, IIRC.

 

[Citadelgrad]

1 hour ago, denders said:

Okay.

 

Well, I have access to AutoCAD and I have a caliper, so I started measuring on the canopy part(s) and made a drawing for the canopy masks. I exported a dxf file from AutoCAD and imported it into Silhouette Studio. I cut the first version of the masks and tried them out for fit. I made measurements and readjusted the mask drawing and tried them out again. Some pieces were good the first time around, some of them took a second and third try. Once I had what I thought was a good set, I cut a set for use on the model.

 

 

Some other notes.

 

I did update my copy of Silhouette Studio to the Designer Edition. 

I tried connecting via bluetooth and had issues, then got it to work, but it still seemed hit and miss for connection via bluetooth so I just used a USB cable extender to use USB all the time.

You do need to use the USB cable the first time when you activate the software/cutter connection, IIRC.

 

Thanks for that, Dave.  I appreciate it. 

[denders]

Oh yeah, circle templates are helpful too.

[Citadelgrad]

Does anyone use a program other than AutoCAD?  I am not an engineer, and will have to pay for whatever I end up using.  

 

Thanks,

 

Bill

[denders]

Bill, I used AutoCAD from the start just because I've been using it since the DOS days and I'm very familiar with the commands. I think you should be able to create most anything you need with Silhouette Studio itself. In case you haven't, you can download the Basic edition free from Silhouette's website. You'll need it to set up the Cameo and the cut the masks. I upgraded to the Designer version because I thought I may need to mess around converting the stuff from AutoCAD into SVGs to import to Studio. It turns out that I didn't need to do that. I'll probably, start to work out creating masks with Studio because AutoCAD is on a different computer, and then I can bypass the need to pass the files from one computer to another.

[themongoose]

I bought the Designer version of the silhouette software and so far have done all i need in it. Somewhat similar to denders. I print a copy on paper, try it out, make some measurements and then recut it. Once the paper fits i make the final cuts.

 I find i can scan tons of stuff into the SW and then go from there. Look for straight on pics whenever possible for the least amount of extra work.

 I use tamiya and maketar masking material. You can also cut frisket with it. If you use any of these let me know and i can give you the settings so you don’t mess up your pad the 1st couple times trying it out.

 

[Sepp]

I use Inkscape to draw - it's free.    Inkscape also presents quite a learning curve, but it has an extensive support and advice community and there are very many tutorials online.

 

You'll almost certainly have to spend time finding fonts to suit your need if you dont intend to draw characters from scratch.

 

I don't try to import the svg file I produce directly to the Silhouette, I capture what I want to use as png (or occasionally jpg) and drag that in. MOSTLY, the Silhouette's trace tool picks up the egdes AOK, although I have had one or two that needed a bit of head scratching to get to work the way I wanted. 

[Woody V]

On 5/28/2021 at 1:56 PM, Citadelgrad said:

Does anyone use a program other than AutoCAD?  I am not an engineer, and will have to pay for whatever I end up using. 

 

I use an ancient version of Adobe Illustrator (CS4), but found that I only need the most basic tools to draw whatever I need. You can work within tolerances of .001" simply by entering the dimensions you need. Once you're finished, export to .dfx, import into Designer via the "Open" command and cut. For Oramask 810 I use a depth setting of 1, 1 pass and the speed can be almost anything. I started slow, but got bored waiting.

I've also found this setting helps:

[Citadelgrad]

Thank you. 

[mozart]

How much more basic do you want it than this , designing using the Silhouette software.

 

 

Edited June 2, 2021 by mozart

[Citadelgrad]

On 6/2/2021 at 8:45 AM, mozart said:

How much more basic do you want it than this , designing using the Silhouette software.

 

 

Thanks Mr. Mozart.  Love your music.  I appreciate the help.