Replicate Panel – Object on Path

I am sure you have seen other projects where people had a design replicated multiple times in a shape and you’ve said “How did they do that?”

Well, today we are going to explore how to do that right in the Silhouette Studio v4.

The Replicate Object on Path tab can be found under the Replicate Panel on the right side and is tab 3 on the panel.

First add the design and the shape you want the design to follow onto the design mat.

For this design, I drew a heart using 2 circles and a square turned 45 degrees, then placed them overlapping and welded them. I resized the heart down to a manageable size. And then drew a perfect circle by holding down my Shift Key and dragging my Draw Ellipse tool out.

Now let’s take a look at the Object to Path tab.

1. Show Grab Handle – Click on the Object you want to move to the shape to select it, then click on Show Grab Handle button in the panel. A grab handle will appear in the object and you click and drag that towards your shape.When you drag it on to the shape, it will replicate copies of that object around the shape. And you get another little circle (drag handle) on the shape to the right of the original object. By clicking and dragging on this drag handle you can increase or decrease the spacing between the objects on the path, this will also change the number of objects around the shape.
   
   

   *If for some reason the object will not snap to the path, try this – right click on it and choose Make Compound Path. Sometimes strange things happen and even though a design isn’t really a compound path at all, this seems to work to help it to decide it can snap to a path. 
   
   

   Here I moved the drag handle so there is more space between the objects. Notice that the numbers change on the panel as well under the Position.

   

2. Perpendicular – Change the orientation of the object on the path by leaving this box checked or un-check it to change the angle of your object.
3. Start Angle – Change the rotation angle of your object on the path to an exact angle.
4. Increment Angle – Change how each object is placed in relation to the previous object. In this case, each heart is rotated 90 degrees from the previous heart.
   This creates a pattern of your design around the shape. With this option, you can make many variations of the same design.
5. Start Position – Change the position of the original object on the shape by changing. In this photo, I have changed the position to 0, which places the original object at the 3 o’clock position. You can also move the grab handle on the original object and move it manually too.
6. Section Length – Changes the length between the beginning and end object on your path.
7. Number of Repeats – Change the number of times the object is replicated on the path.
8. Step length – Change the distance between each object on the path by adjusting this figure. This will change number of objects on the path.
9. Release Copies – When the design is complete, click on this to release the objects from the path and remove the shape your were using as your path.At this point, all of your objects are now single objects, as you can see by the selection boxes around each. I would suggest grouping these together before you go further, so you don’t accidentally move one.

And there you have the Replicate Object on Path – how cool is that?

What will you do with this neat feature?

Want to start at the beginning of the Let’s Explore v4 series – click HERE.

 

 

Enjoy !

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