Have you seen edit points pop up in Silhouette Studio before?
Do they intimidate you?
Well let’s see if we can change that.
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What are Edit points?
Edit points are basically the data points the Silhouette reads to make a particular shape of the object. Each edit point has qualities on how it is supposed to act such as straight line, corner, curved, etc. and this is how a shape is made up.
The edit points will come up on an object if you double click on the object or use the keyboard shortcut letter “A” with the object selected.
If you draw a circle, it is made up of 4 edit points.
A square also has 4 edit points but the type of edit point are different than the above circle.
By clicking on an edit point, you can see what property it has in the Point Editing Panel.
Why Edit Points Might Not Show
In order for the edit points to appear, the object has to be a single object and an ungrouped object.
For instance, if I type out text, it is not treated as a design. So the edit points won’t appear.
If it is converted to a path, the edit points still will not appear because even though it’s acting as a design, it is still grouped together. If the design is ungrouped the edit points will appear because all the pieces are now separate.
Or if the design is made into a Compound Path, then the edit points will appear.
Altering Edit Points
There are many ways to change the edit points.
By clicking on an existing point, it turns white, indicating that it is the point selected.
It will tell you what kind of edit point it is. This one is a corner. Grab the blue squares on either end and this will adjust the outcome of this edit point.
To select multiple edit points, hold down the Shift key & drag the selection box around all the points you would like to select. Then make changes to a group of edit points all at one time by moving or choosing a new property for those selected.
All edit points that are selected will show as white points.
Point Editing Panel
When the editing points are active, the Point Editing Panel should pop up or click on the Edit Points tool on the left side menu.
This panel has many options for how you can alter an edit point(s). The name of each tells you exactly what behavior it will have.
Each design you work with will react differently to what is changed.
Remember, edit points are the data points that your Silhouette software relays to your Silhouette machine to connect the cut.
The Cameo machine needs to hit every single one of those edit points in order to make the cut. Some files such as dxf files or traced images can have lots of edit points and this can make the Cameo sound odd when cutting. The Cameo is not broken, but has to connect each of those edit points to make the cut.
Simplifying Edit Points
Some files can have the edit points simplified without changing the look of the design.
For instance, this Leafy Mandala by Rhonna Farrer from the Silhouette Design Store has a lot of edit points when I first opened it.
In the Edit Points Panel, select Simplify.
You should notice less edit points in the design.
In this case, the design did not change in the look at all, but the edit points are now much less.
The best way to learn how edit points act is to find a design and just play around with the different options.
While they can look intimidating when they pop up on the screen, once you understand their purpose and how they work, I think it makes it seems a lot less daunting when you see them.
Designs used in this post are from the Silhouette Design Store:
#MoreCoffee by Kolette Hall – Design #179647
Leafy Mandala by Rhonna Farrer – Design #215137
Feel free to post your comments and questions below or on my Facebook group at Silhouette Secrets with EllyMae.
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Enjoy !
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Keep in mind that once the text is changed by welding, converting to path, releasing the warp, etc. it is no longer editable text and is now a vector image. For more information on this and the 
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Here I have decreased the grid spacing on all the designs to 0.500 inches. This places more of the design and stipple into a smaller grid area on the original object.
Here I increased the Stipple spacing to 0.100 inches.
Here I scaled all of them down to 50%. As you can see, with each option, the look of the design changes and you can hardly recognize which options that I filled each with.
Above, the Angle is set for 135 degrees on all the designs.
Above, I have changed the offset to 0.250 inches and you can see that on all of the hearts, it has started the fill pattern 0.250 inches from the edge of the design.
This option only changes the visual look of your design and does not change how big of a point the pen or tool will stipple.
You will notice that the top text, the red lines from the characters overlaps the letter next to it. If you sent it to cut like this, it will cut out the red lines exactly how they show, so your letters would have cuts through them.
By choosing to weld the font first, you can join the letters together so it cuts as one smooth piece. After you have welded, any piece of the text that is not overlapping will now be a separate object – like the dots of the i, so you want to make sure to Group them together to keep the text moving as one design.
When you weld text, it does change it from editable text to a vector image, so make sure to make a copy & pull it off to the side so you have the original in case you need to go back.
On top is the original design. Mom is typed out and behind the names.
When you select both designs and choose Subtract, it subtracts out the names (top layer) from the Mom design (bottom layer).
This works well for things like layering HTV where you don’t want the bulk of layering on your shirt or if you are using glitter HTV that is not recommended to be layered.
Tip: with this design, I would create an offset of the original names and then use the offset to subtract from the Mom design. It gives you a little more flexibility in placement when you apply it to the shirt.
I used a 0.20 offset on this design. Then moved the original name text away and used the Mom (bottom layer) and the offset (new top layer) to Subtract.
Since I used an offset, this will allow you to place your names text inside of the area when applying the HTV and you won’t have to worry as much about shrinkage and getting it perfect.
Move the name text back on top of your Subtracted design to get an idea of how it looks. On the top design, you have to get the exact placement of the names lined up with the bottom layer. On the bottom design, you will notice there is a bit of white showing around the name text, this will be beneficial when you are applying HTV so you don’t have to worry as much as about the HTV shrinking when you press each color.
I used 
So above I drew a heart and moved it behind my Mom and name layers. Make sure to align the design how you want and then I chose Subtract All and it cuts out the top 2 layers from the very bottom layer (heart).
This works great for making designs that you don’t want to have the bulk of materials overlapping.
Again you could use an offset to help with ease of getting it lined up and not worrying about shrinkage.
Draw a heart over the photo, select both the photo and circle, then choose Crop and it will take that shape out of the layer under it.
