Welcome back to my new series “Let’s Explore v4“!
If you are just joining me you can check out my first post of the series HERE – about Tab 1 of the Page Setup Panel.
Today I am going to be going through the features of Tab 2 on the Page Setup Panel in Silhouette Studio v4.
This panel is located on the right side of your v4 software at the very top.
Tutorial written in v4.1.206
This panel is about your Grid spacing. Do you want your Grid to show? Do you want your designs or fonts to ‘Snap to grid’? What increments do you want your grid to show at? What color do you want your grid?
So let’s jump in and go through each option that is available to you. It is all a matter of personal preference and once you understand what each feature does, then you can decide what you want to use.
1 – Show Grid
This option allows you to turn the Grid lines on or off on your Design mat. These grid lines can be useful when you are designing and spacing out objects.
2 – Snap to Grid
If you have this option checked then your design will jump from grid line to grid line. If you un-check this option you have more control over moving your design in smaller increments.
3 – Show Guides
By checking this option, you can pull “Guides” down from the top ruler or over from the right side ruler. If you click on the ruler, either on the top or right side and hold down and drag, it will drag a “guide” line out and you can place it where you’d like on your design mat. This is another tool used to line up designs or for example make sure you have a design in a square. These “guide” lines do not cut and they do not save to your file. Rulers are an upgrade feature, therefore this is an option only for those who have the Designer Edition upgrade or higher.
4 – Snap to Guides
This works the same way as the ‘Snap to Grid’ feature does. If you have it checked and have placed guides on your Design mat, when you move your design, it will snap to the guide lines you have placed.
5 – Ruler
You can turn the rulers that are along the top & right side on & off by selecting this. Rulers are an upgrade feature available in the Designer Edition upgrade or higher.
6 – Crosshairs
This will toggle a cross-hair pointer at the end of your mouse pointer on your screen. If you look closely, you can see the lines running horizontally & vertically from the red square.
7 – Square vs Isometric
You can choose whether your grid lines show up in a square pattern or for further design purposes, you can change them to an Isometric pattern. Below on the left, I have Square chosen and on the right I have chosen the Isometric.
8 – Spacing
This is used to change the spacing of your grid lines to the increment you want. You can change the spacing by using the slider bar left or right, highlight & type a new number or by the arrow keys to the right of the number.
9 – Divisions
You can choose the number of divisions that your grid spacing is divided into. Below you will see I have my grid spacing set at 2″ for both photos, but the photo on the left I have my Divisions set for 5 and on the right my Divisions are set at 10.
10 – Color
You can change the color that your grid lines show on the screen. There are several colors pre-selected to choose from or you can select a custom color from the color box.
These are the features of the Page Setup Panel – Tab 2.
Most of these features are used for designing purposes within the software and you will find each user develops their own preferences for what they see on their screen.
I like to have my mat revealed 100%, while another user may not like that look at all. Now, you know what each feature is and what it does, so you can decide how you like your design mat to look when you are using the software.
I did mention that a few of the features are upgrade features. This means that in order for them to appear on your screen you would need a software upgrade. There are 3 steps of upgrades – Designer Edition, Designers Edition+, and Business Edition. You can find out what features are unlocked with each software upgrade by viewing the chart HERE at the Silhouette America website.
If you would like to purchase an upgrade to your software, I recommend buying through an authorized Silhouette retailer such as Swing Design. After your purchase, you are sent a instant code and can enter the code and activate your upgrade immediately.
Click HERE to be directed to the Swing Design site.
I hope you have enjoyed learning more about the Silhouette Studio v4 software today.
I have made a video of everything covered in the series today.
Check it out here:
The design used in today’s video is called Drink Your Wine We Have Crafts to Do by Lori Whitlock and can be found HERE.
Feel free to post your questions & project photos on my Facebook group at Silhouette Secrets with EllyMae.
Save this for future reference by pinning the image below.
Enjoy !
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Looking for more in-depth, step-by-step classes, check out all of my online Silhouette classes on my Teachable site HERE.
You are doing such a superb job with your tutorials. They are easy to read and pleasant to listen to. I often find some tutorials are laborious to read, but yours are not. Great job!
Thank you for these v4 tutorials. You have done them so well. They are clear, easy to follow, make sense and are understandable. For the very first time, I I learned why print border displays the way it does. Because I have TWO printers, it was an important issue.
Anyway, I just wanted to let you know how appreciative I am that you took the time to so clearly explain changes/functions in the new version. Thank you!
Thank you for your comment! I’m so glad it helped!