Let's Explore v4 - Line Effects - Silhouette Secrets+ by Swift Creek Customs

If you have been around the Silhouette software for awhile, you may or may not have noticed that there was a change in the software. This change seemed to happen overnight and it’s not one that would severely impact a user, but you may see the differences in tutorials.
With the release of v4.2.479, the Sketch Panel changed to the Line Effects Panel.
With this new change came a few more options.

Let’s take a look at the Line Effects Panel and what it looks like in versions v4.2.479 and higher.

Tutorial is written in Silhouette Studio v4.3.372

If a user only has the Basic (free) Silhouette software, then they will have less options in their Line Effects Panel. This is also a change from before. In versions prior to v4.2.479, you didn’t have the option to select anything under the Sketch Panel in the basic version.

If a user has the Designer Edition, Designer Edition Plus, or Business Edition upgrades they will see several more options in the Line Effects Panel.

Line Effects Settings

Let’s take a look at the sections on the Line Effects Panel.

1 – Fill Effects
Add a sketch fill to any design.
The options include: grid, stripe, concentric, spiral, zig-zag, curly, cross-hatched, scribble, and charcoal.

Each of these fills will act differently depending on the design being applied to. Change the Spacing and Angle to see what will look best for the design.

2 – Edge Effects
Add a sketch line to the outside edge of a design.
The options include: plain, scribble, double effect, curly, rough, and charcoal.

3 – Release Effects
Releasing the sketch when it’s finished takes it out of editable sketch mode and then makes it a vector design.

This opens up a whole new world of possibilities in editing your sketch design. Once the sketch is released, then you can access individual point editing on the sketched design and can manipulate it how you like.

Each of the gray points is an edit point that can be manipulated in this design.
Now, not only do you have the gray edit points, but the sketch fill lines have been released so you can move those as well. Keep in mind that a red dot means that it is an open point and not a closed object, so you will not be able to fill this with color. You can move the red dots towards each other and connect the dots to change the sketch fill.
For more information on Edit Points check out this post HERE.

Each of the red lines you see on the screen is a sketch line.
When a design is filled with line style fills, each line is more data. Be patient with your computer in processing all of this data.

On the 2nd tab of the Line Effects Panel, there are even more options that you can adjust the sketch fills with.

Each has multiple options and varies according to what fill and edge effects you have chosen to start with.

Each design you choose is going to vary in what sketch fill looks good, what spacing might work, what angle might work, etc.

The best way to see what is going to work is to just start playing around with your design.

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I am going to use 3 Fall Leaves by Lori Whitlock – Design #33053 as an example.

Here is the Scribble fill with the spacing adjusted up and the Scribble edge effects.

Here is the cross-hatched fill with the double edge effect.

Here is the curly fill effect with the rough edge effect.

And here is the zig-zap fill effect with the charcoal edge effect.

As you can see, each line effects fill & edge effect will give you a different look.

Now, something to keep in mind is that when you fill the object with sketch fills, you are adding more data with each red line that you add in. This demo page took over 75 minutes to sketch out. There is one drag mark on the page and that is from when it rolled back through to the starting point. I could adjust it a little bit and try to prevent that for future projects. The more you do it, the more comfortable you will feel with it.

You can also add in a cut line, change the color of the cut line, and then use the Cut/Sketch by Line Color to cut out around the sketch designs as desired.
Since I am using a Cameo 4, I do need to swap out the tools, but that just takes a second.
By using the Sketch/Cut by Line Color, I can turn on and off the line color I want to work with so it allows me time to swap out the tools. Just make sure you do not unload the cutting mat after it’s done sketching.

For more information on the Cut/Sketch by Line Color, check out this post HERE.

Sketching can be a lot of fun and give your projects a unique look. Whether you are using a design that you have filled with a Line Style effect or are using the sketch pens with a sketch design as shown below, they are a lot of fun to play with.