Let’s Explore v4 – How to Thicken a Knife Line

The Knife Tool in Silhouette Studio can be an awesome tool to add into created and editing designs.

One thing to keep in mind is that the Knife tool can be data heavy because you are asking the software to reorganize all the data of the file or the area that you are trying to “cut” through.

If you are not familiar with using the Knife Tool, I recommend reading through this tutorial explaining all of the features on the Knife Tool
Let’s Explore v4 – Knife Tool post HERE

Depending on the project that you are working on you may want to increase the size of the Knife Line that is going to be cut. For instance, if you are cutting a “bridge” for a stencil, you could increase the Knife Line width in order to make it a little wider “bridge”.

I am going to use the stencil project as an example.

If I want to create a “bridge” on the R and the A in the word CREATE, I can use the Knife Tool to draw a line. By holding the Shift key down when using the Knife Tool, it draws a straight line.
When increasing the Knife line thickness, make sure to uncheck the Auto Apply box. This will allow us to make changes to the Knife line before they actually “cut” through the design.

Let’s take a closer look at the size of the default Knife line.

The width of this line is really small. If we were to cut this line, it would just make a slice through the R and not create an actual “bridge” with any width to it.

With the Knife line selected, open the Line Style Panel on the right side.

Next to the Thickness in the Panel, increase pt size and you will see the Knife line grow in thickness.

Next, click Apply in the top Knife Toolbar.

It will now “cut” a thicker line where we have placed the Knife line.

Here is a comparison of the default knife size versus the thicker line we created.

On the left is the thicker knife line we just created and on the right is the default line.

Play with the pt thickness of the line. Each design or project may vary. Larger designs may need larger size “bridges” or cut lines.

Try different line thicknesses or even rotate the line in order to create different effects for your design.

Once you are done editing the text, make a copy of everything and pull it off to the side. It’s always a good idea to have an original. Then select the entire design and text, right click and choose Make Compound Path, then fill it with color. It will give you an idea of what the stencil will look like.

I challenge you to just open the software and just play!
We would love to see what you are creating or learning with!
Feel free post on the
Silhouette Secrets+ Facebook Group.

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Enjoy!

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