New machine release – Cricut Venture™

Cricut® announced the release of a new machine called the Cricut Venture™ and I’ve been asked by several my thoughts on it. I figured this would be the easiest way to answer that.

Thoughts on the new Cricut Venture™ Cutting Machine

First, please understand these are my personal opinions only from my experience! And we can all be friends!!! No matter what cutting machine we choose to use, we can still be friends. Each user may have different purposes or reasons for the machine that they choose. The following information is my own personal opinion and not everyone will agree 100% with me…. AND that is OK!

Next, please understand that I do not have a Cricut Venture™ machine and do not plan to get one as I publish this, as that is not the direction I am going. However, I do have years of experience with Cricut® products as that is what I started with almost 20 years ago and I work with many users who are still Cricut® owners, but might be utilizing the Silhouette Studio Business Edition software as an alternative to Cricut Design Space®.

My ultimate goal is to help YOU choose a cutting machine that will be the best fit for YOU! The best one for YOU…. is the one YOU will take out of the box and use. If it just sits in the box, it isn’t doing anyone any good.

On that note, whatever cutting machine you do get.
GET IT OUT OF THE BOX!
I say this for several reasons.
First, it is not doing you any good just staring at the box. It’s not going to bite you and it’s not going to be magic straight out of the box! Get it out!
Next, almost all cutting machines have a limited time warranty on them. All brands! Get it out of the box and start using it just in case there might be an issue with the machine! This is NOT machine specific, but in general!!! All electronic equipment has a chance of not working properly or having some random issue that happens.
If you wait a year or two to open the box and you encounter an issue, there is NOTHING you can do about that! The machine warranty is over! You now have a giant paper weight and that is not the company/brands fault.

I highly recommend this especially for a user buying a new machine that’s just been released! Get it out of the box and use it!

Affiliate links may be present in the following blog post and as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

—————–

Again, please understand this is my opinion only. If you are still reading, I hope that you will read the entire post completely so you’ll understand why I share what I do.

I am going to cover some very basic things that stand out to me right off the bat. This will not be an in-depth comparison post, but hopefully will give you some thinking points to consider.

First thoughts on the Cricut Venture™

The Cricut Venture™ was announced as a new innovative large format cutting machine with a unique space saving design.

Price

It comes in with a hefty price tag of $999.99 upon the initial release.

Why do I use the word “hefty”?
I add this adjective because it is quite a bit higher than other comparable machines on the market.

As a comparison, the Silhouette Cameo Pro and the Siser Romeo machine both come in at a lower price point than the new Cricut Venture™.
Silhouette Cameo Pro retail value $499.99
Siser Romeo retail value $699.99
*sale prices may be lower than the retail value

Both the Silhouette Cameo Pro and the Siser Romeo are 24″ cutting machines that can cut matless with any lined material and with a cutting mat too!

These 2 large format cutting machines have been on the market for a bit now. The Silhouette Cameo Pro was released in November 2020 and the Siser Romeo was released in November 2022.

I do own, use, and am proficient in both of these 24″ cutting machines.
No matter what machine you have, especially in a large format cutting machine, they do require a very specific setup for best success!
We troubleshoot a lot with both Silhouette and Siser machine users and the biggest issue we see is someone not having the machine set up properly and not taking the time to learn it! Those are 2 of the most important factors with any machine!

Limitations

When comparing the new Cricut Venture™ to the Silhouette Cameo Pro or the Siser Romeo, I see several limitations right away.

Software

All Cricut® machines utilize the Cricut Design Space® software. This is an online software and they control it and whatever you create in it.

This is ultimately the reason that I outgrew Cricut®. I had maxed out my capabilities with their software and I wanted more.

Cricut Design Space® also does not allow you to export your work from their program. They control you and your work!
This is a limit to any business owner in my opinion or even a crafter.
For more information, I would highly recommend you read the Cricut® terms of use closely. No one does, but it might surprise you what is included in that fine print that you agree to.

While they are now releasing a large format cutting machine that is being promoted for business owners, they still control YOU. If their server is down, so are you!

I’ve had many argue with me that they do have an “offline” option as well, but it’s not really offline if you have to take special steps to save things into the “offline” form in order to be able to access offline. In my opinion, that’s not the true meaning of offline.
Completely offline to me means that you do not need internet at all to use it!

Do you need to have Cricut Access™ to use the new Cricut Venture™?

I asked this question on the Cricut Facebook Page and the answer I received was
“The Cricut Venture will use Design Space.” – Cricut.

That does not answer my question and leaves me with even more.
Anyone can use Cricut Design Space®, but there are certain features they have rolled out for Cricut Access™ only and you cannot use unless you have Cricut Access™.

Since they did not say yes or no to my question, I’ll watch and see if you do have to pay for Cricut Access™ in order to use the new Cricut Venture™.

*Update – I asked an influencer & Cricut Access is not needed.

Materials

The new Cricut Venture™ can cut matless, however, it is specifically designed to cut Cricut Smart Vinyl™. The Cricut Smart Vinyl™ comes in 13″ and 25″ widths.
This is a major limitation in my opinion!
One of the main reasons a user would invest in a large format cutting machine is to be able to cut matless.

If we look at cost alone, especially for a business, bulk rolls of Oracal adhesive vinyl and Siser HTV are much more cost effective when selling or even just creating in general.

There are 2 roller lock positions on the Cricut Venture™.
At the 13″ width and the 25″ width. It was designed intentionally with these limits, so the Cricut Smart Vinyl™ is the only product that it can use matless.

Find the Cricut Venture™ supplies available at Michaels HERE to compare prices.

Cutting Mats

The Cricut Venture™ has 2 sizes of cutting mats that can be used.
A 12″ x 24″ and a 24″ x 28″ cutting mat.
These are specially designed cutting mats for the Cricut Venture™ only.

It CANNOT utilize the other Cricut cutting mats for older models.
Now, on this point, I fully agree with specific cutting mats for the machine.

The larger you go with a cutting mat, the heavier the mat is. This also means that the machine has to be designed in a way that it can securely grip the mat in the machine all the time. This means stronger rollers. And with the new design of the “space saving” feature, it is really going to have to hold on tight to work against gravity with the cutting mats. This also means that the cutting mats have to be designed to withstand the pressure of the stronger rollers too!

Print then Cut

This is one I’ve seen asked a lot with this new machine.

Is the print then cut space larger?

The answer is yes, if you have a larger format printer to allow you to print larger sizes.
However, it doesn’t affect the print then cut space of smaller media types.
There are still limits to the print then cut size on the average crafter size materials.
Maybe they will change that in the future as it’s one of the things I see requested by users.

Design

One of the features of the new Cricut Venture™ is the unique 45° angle of the machine. This feature is designed as a “space saver” feature and being promoted that you do not need as much space to use the new machine as other 24″ cutting machines.

My first thought is, that it does not seem like a good idea for functionality and lifespan, especially when working with a large format cutting mat. Now, working with rolls of vinyl, you may not have too many issues (Cricut Smart Vinyl™ of course).
But, a cutting mat is a different monster!

I’ve been using the Silhouette 24″ x 24″ cutting mat since before it was released in November 2020 as one of the original tester. It is the same thickness as a Silhouette 12″ x 12″ cutting mat but it is 4x the size. Extra size = extra weight.
The Cricut Venture™ cutting mats are redesigned from the original Cricut® mats for durability with the Cricut Venture™.

And we are all still living on Earth, so we are still affected by GRAVITY!
Not only is the cutting mat heavy but gravity is also affecting that.

Only time will tell how that affects the machines lifespan.
But, lifespan on a machine has never been a goal of Cricut®, as we have seen several past models no longer supported.

—————–

Now, those are my first thoughts and my own personal opinion based on my experience with cutting machines.

That does not mean it isn’t the right machine for YOU!

It might be and that is great!
I hope it does everything you want it to do and more!

I was asked my thoughts several times and these are the things that jumped out at me first. Over time we will see what happens.

I know there will be some who do invest in a Cricut Venture™ and I would love to hear your experiences with it! Both initially and down the road with extended use.

I will be following along on the journey through other Cricut®bloggers as well.

—————–

If you are still reading this, thank you for sticking around and hearing my thoughts!

I want to briefly touch on how most Cricut® users find and follow me.
That is typically through the Silhouette Studio software!
Well, not the software directly but the fact that I’ve been teaching and troubleshooting the Silhouette Studio software since 2016.

If a Cricut® user starts to feel the limitations of designing or working in Cricut Design Space®, using outside software to design in is an option.
Cricut Design Space® does allow the import of SVG files.
This is great!

With the Silhouette Business Edition upgrade, you can design and save SVG files.
As with any new software program you are using, it does take time to learn!
And that’s where my background is.

The Silhouette Studio Business Edition upgrade can be found at these locations:
Crafter Cuts (use code SECRETS to save 10%)
Check for additional sales at Silhouette America , The Vinyl Spectrum, Swing Design

Find more tutorials on the Silhouette Secrets+ website to help learn the Silhouette Studio Business Edition software HERE

I also have step-by-step Silhouette classes available on my Teachable site HERE. While I use a Silhouette machine to cut, each class is heavy on designing in the Silhouette software and could be used to learn how to create files you can use and export as a SVG.

For more details on how to Save as a SVG from Silhouette Studio Business Edition,
check out this post
Let’s Explore v4 – Save as a SVG

No matter what cutting machine you choose, get it out of the box!
And use it!

If you are in the market for a large format cutting machine, where can you find it?
Cricut Venture™
Silhouette Cameo Pro – use code SECRETS to save 10%
Siser Romeo

Or you may be ready for a more professional plotting machine to invest in.

If you are a Silhouette Cameo Pro user or a Siser Romeo user, I have more resources that can help too! Remember I said that the setup is one of the most important steps!

Check out this video on the Swift Creek Customs YouTube channel
Siser Juliet, Romeo, and Silhouette Cameo 4 Cutting Machines – 5 Differences

Find more on the Silhouette Cameo Pro HERE
Find more on the using Siser Romeo HERE

Enjoy creating!

THANK YOU for your support! How can you help? Click HERE & buy a coffee.
Every little bit helps with the cost of running the site.

**This post may contain affiliate links. What that means is that I may receive compensation if you purchase through the links I have provided. The price you pay for the product or service is not higher but I may get compensated for sharing.