Silhouette v4 Archives

Posted on December 5, 2018July 14, 2019 by silhouettesecretsplus — 6 Comments

Let’s Explore v4 – Media Layout Setup Panel

Do you have the Business Edition upgrade? If not, there are so many neat features that are unlocked with it.
I have to admit that I have not used this much as all, but after today, that will be changing.

Media Layout Setup Panel

What is it? If you have the Business Edition upgrade this is an additional way to view your design to be cut and make some changes to it, without actually altering the design on the Design View.

So let’s explore the different views.

Design view is the normal view a user sees when the Silhouette software is opened. The drawing tools are located on the left side, the panels are on the right side, and the document tools and Quick Access Tool bar are at the top.

Media view is an option if you have the Business Edition upgrade active on the software. This view shows how things are processed as they appear for a cut job. The Media view does not show color or patterns.

The Media Layout Setup Panel is found on the right side of the Silhouette Studio software, at the very bottom.

If you have a larger computer screen, you may see all the icons displayed on the right side like this.

If you have a smaller computer screen, then you may have a fly out arrow to click on and then more icons will appear like this.

The Media Layout view will open up with a split screen panel and you can choose between either side for which one is active and you are making changes in.

*Believe in the Magic of Christmas by Lori Whitlock – Design #162472

Now, let’s take a more detailed look at the Media Layout Setup Panel.

Show Media Layout Split – Screen – Check the box if you would like the Media layout to split screen with the Design View layout.
Media Layout Setup Tabs – there are 4 tabs to chose from
– Tab 1: Media Size, Cut Border & Orientation
– Tab 2: Copy & Separation
– Tab 3: Nesting
– Tab 4: Tiling
Media Size – Change the Page Size, Width & Height of the Media Layout View
You’ll notice that changes made on the Media Layout Screen do not change the Design View side on the left side. This is a way you can make changes to what will be cut without changing the actual Design mat itself.
Cutting Mat – Change the Cutting mat size of the Media Layout View
Reveal Mat – Slide the arrow over to reveal the cutting mat grid on the Media Layout View
Cut Border – Change the Cut border left, top, right, and bottom dimensions.
As you can see above, on the right side the red cut border line changes as the measurements are changed under the Cut Border section.
You could adjust these to where the material is placed on the mat or place it anywhere on the mat you like and it would only cut there.
This might come in handy if the top left corner is no longer sticky but the middle of the cutting mat still has lots of stick left to it.
Orientation – Rotate Cut Job – this will rotate the design on the cutting mat on the Media layout.
Checking this box, will rotate the design 90 degrees on the cutting mat shown on the left side, but the original design stays in tact on the left side.While those features can be useful, I find the other tabs are even more interesting.

Media Layout Setup – Copy Tab

Next, is Tab 2 – the Copy Tab. Here is where you can tell the software to cut multiple copies of a design without actually adding images to the original Design mat.

Copy rows – Add the number of rows you would like to cut and the Media Layout View will duplicate the design that many rows. It will show this on the right side in the Media Layout View only and leave the original design unchanged.
Copy columns – Add the number of columns you would like to cut and the Media Layout View will duplicate the design that many columns.
Limit to Media – Click this button to limit the design to only the Media area selected, no matter how many columns or rows you enter, the software will change it to fit on only the Page Size and mat you have entered on the first tab.
Horizontal Separation – Increase or decrease the horizontal spacing between the designs on the selected media.
Vertical Separation – Increase or decrease the Vertical spacing between the designs on the selected media.

This is another way you could tell the software to cut multiples of an image without actually having to Replicate the design on the Design view.

Either way will work, but it is another option and one I will be using in the future when cutting multiples of the same design.

Media Layout Setup – Nesting

And to add even more options to the Media Layout, the 3rd tab is the Nesting tab. This has several options in how it will nest the designs together before cutting.

Nesting Active – Check this box to turn the Nesting feature on.
Interlock – The software looks for more paths to move shapes together. This works well for designs that are not square or hexagons.Here the Interlock is off:

In this one, the Interlock has been turned on and you can see it Nests the design a little different.
Maintain Grain – This option allows the design to rotate only 180 or not at all, in order to work with materials that may have a grain to them. So the design stays on the same grain of the material.
For example, if you were cutting an object out of a wood grain paper and you wanted to make sure that the grain of the paper ran the length of a wood piece you were cutting instead of cross ways through it.
Align – When align is on, the software will align the pieces of the design that are at an irregular angle.Here the Align is on:

Notice the leaves are vertical.Here Align is off:

Now the leaves are rotated to a different angle.
Whole Words – Choose whether the software divides the text into a whole word or individual letters to place it for the cut.Here whole words is on:
And here, whole words is off and it rearranges the individual letters:
Maintain Groups – When on, this maintains the items that are grouped together and treats it as one object. When off it will treat each piece as an individual object.Maintain Groups on:

Maintain groups off:

As you can see above, it treats it quite differently depending on what option you choose.
Rotations Parameters – Tells the software how many rotations of an object is allowed when nesting it on the mat.This is 2 Rotations:

This is 4:

You can see above how it changes the spacing a bit when more rotations are allowed.
Padding Parameters – This is the minimum distance between 2 shapes after it’s been nested.Here the padding is 1:
And here the padding is 3:

Once again, it changes how the nesting is done by the software.

This is just another way that shows the possibilities of the Silhouette software. I do learn new things everyday about what it is capable of.

So many projects to create, so little time to do it!

I hope you take advantage of the Media Layout Setup Panel in a future project.

I would love to see it on my Facebook group if you do.
Find me here at Silhouette Secrets+ with EllyMae.

Enjoy!

**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.

Posted on July 3, 2018August 16, 2025 by silhouettesecretsplus — 1 Comment

Master the Nesting Panel in Silhouette Studio

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

Let’s Explore v4 Tutorial – Nesting Panel in Silhouette

If you have the Designer Edition upgrade to the Silhouette Studio, the Nesting Tool is available in the software.

This feature allows you to “nest” the design together to either conserve material or create a new design.

Let’s Explore the Nesting Panel.

Set Selected Shape as Boundary – Select a shape to be the nesting boundaries.
Make copies of the design across the page, then draw a rectangle.

Select the rectangle and choose Set Selected Shape as Boundary.

The rectangle turned blue and is now the nesting boundary. Then select all the designs and choose Nest.

It will nest the design within that shape.

Use Cut Area or Use Selected – With a shape selected as a boundary, the “Use Selected” option is checked.

If the entire page size is being used, then the “Use Cut Area” is checked.

Only Shapes on Media – Choose whether you want to include all the designs that are on the design page, no matter where they are, such as the holding area or only designs on the Media.With Only Shapes on Media checked, it will only nest the designs showing on the design mat.

If Only Shapes on Media is unchecked, then it will nest all the designs, no matter where they are on the page.

Align – This will align as many designs with each other as possible. Here align is unchecked and the Rotations is increased to 4.

With Align checked, it gives a different nesting option.

Padding – Increase or decrease the amount of space between each design when it’s nested.Above the Padding is at 1 and below the padding has been changed to 5 and allows extra spacing or padding between each design.

Rotations – Choose how many times a design can be rotated to make it nest with another design. Here the rotations have been increased to 12 and changes the nesting a little bit.

Nest – Choose this when you are ready for the design to nest according to the settings you have chosen.

Why would you use this?

Do you have a piece of material that is 5″ x 7″ and you want to fit as many of a design as you can on the material without manually adjusting each design? The nesting tool will help, let the software work for you.

Or how about nesting a design within a larger design?

This would be a great start to filling the shape with words and then you can add more to it.

Keep in mind that you do need the Designer Edition software upgrade or higher to access this feature.

Designs used in this post:
I Love Wine by Sophie Gallo Design #208790

Have fun playing with this fun tool!

Check out the A to Z resource to learn even more about Silhouette HERE.

Save this for future reference by pinning the image below.

Screenshot of Silhouette Studio showing the Design Page Nesting settings with options for boundary selection and cut area usage, featuring a design with text and heart motifs.

Enjoy !

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Posted on May 1, 2018April 26, 2023 by silhouettesecretsplus — 4 Comments

Let’s Explore – Transform – Shear

Today we are on the final tab of the Transform Panel – the Shear tab. This Panel is available if you have the Designer Edition upgrade to the software.

This is another tool that is often overlooked. Why would you use it?

You can change the look of a basic shape, design or even font to give it a new look.

The Shear tab is found on the rights side of the Silhouette Studio v4 under the Transform Panel.

Below I have a few examples of how you can use this tool to change the look for a font or design.

Let’s check it out and see some examples.

Horizontal Shear Preset- Shear or skew by preset degrees on a horizontal line – choose between -30, -15, 0, 15, or 30 degrees.
Horizontal Custom – Shear or skew by typing in a custom number and it will shear to that degree on the horizontal line.
Vertical Shear Preset – Shear or skew by preset degrees on a vertical line – choose between -30, -15, 0, 15, or 30 degrees.
Vertical Shear Custom – Shear or skew by typing in a customer number and it will shear to the degree on the vertical line.
Show Shear Handles – Check the box to show the Shear Handles that you can grab and skew your design manually instead of putting in a certain degree designation.

This can make the designs or shape you have in your library go a lot further when you know that you can manipulate and change them.

For instance, I took 2 basic shapes and created this rough sun design.

By cutting a circle in half, I created the main sun part. Then I took a rectangle and used the Shear Handles to manipulate each copy of the streaks.

Want to give your signature a more realistic slant to how it would be written?

Do you have a font that does not have the Italic option? Then create your own.

Whether you are creating your own designs or just want to play around, the Shear tool is definitely something to play around with.

Enjoy !

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Looking for more in-depth, step-by-step classes, check out all of my online Silhouette classes on my Teachable site HERE.

Posted on April 25, 2018April 26, 2023 by silhouettesecretsplus — 7 Comments

Let’s Explore v4 – Transform = Move

Did you know that you can Move objects on your Silhouette Design mat specifically into place?

Pretty neat when you start to look at it.

Under the Transform Panel on the right side, then the 4th tab at the top of the Panel is the “Move By” tab.

This allows you to move an object to an exact location on the Design mat.

Directional arrows – Move left, move right, move up, move down – choose which direction you want to move your design.
Distance – Set the exact distance you want your design to move.
Here is the original design placed on my design mat:

*Running Out Wine Cardio design #222003 by Megan Hardy Design

Now see how it moved exactly 3.25″ when I select the design and click on the Move right directional arrow.
X and Y coordinates – Set the exact X and Y location of your design on your mat.
If you look in my above photo, when I moved it 3.25″ to the right, it also added in the X and Y coordinates. This means that I can also move something by changing those numbers. Here I entered my X as 5, so it moved it 5″ from the left side and my Y as 3″, so it moved it 3″ down from the top.

You can also choose how it applies the X and Y coordinates by selecting the position on the square that you want it to apply from.
My photo above has it applied in the top left corner.
But you can choose what position works best for you, whether it’s the Center of the design or another location as well.
Apply – Click here to apply the Move or hit Enter.

And that is how you can move things on your design screen to the exact location you want.
Can you move it manually? Yes, you sure can!
Drag and move it where you want.
Or you can use the Move tools and place it exactly.
Just like so many other functions in the Silhouette software – there are multiple ways to do things!

Enjoy !

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.

Looking for more in-depth, step-by-step classes, check out all of my online Silhouette classes on my Teachable site HERE.

Posted on April 18, 2018April 26, 2023 by silhouettesecretsplus — 13 Comments

Let’s Explore v4 – Rotate

Hi everyone! This week we are continuing on our journey to explore more of Silhouette Studio v4.

We are looking today at the Transform Panel – Rotate tab. You will find this on the right side of the Silhouette Studio v4 as shown below.

If you want to manually rotate an object, you can do that on the design screen by grabbing the green circle at the top of the design when it’s selected and hold down the mouse button and drag it left or right.

Softball Mom by SM Designs

But if you want something more precise, then you want to use the Rotate tab on the Transform Panel.

Let’s take a look at how this can help.

Rotate to 0, 90, 180 or 270 degrees – Choosing one of these options will rotate your object to the exact degree you choose.
Custom – Change the numbers in the box to a specific degree you would like it to rotate to.
Rotate by 45 or 90 degrees, 180 degrees, -90 or -45 degrees – Using this option will move the design exactly the distance you select. For example, in my photo above, I have it selected at 30 degrees. If I now choose -45, it will rotate it to the left exactly -45 degrees from where it started at 30 degrees, placing it at 345 degrees.
Custom – Type in a custom amount if you want something in between the standard options.
Apply – You can click this after changing the custom amount or just hit the Enter key.

There are many reasons that you would use these rotate tools.

For instance, let’s draw a heart. Now, you’ll notice that the Drawing tools on the left side does not have a heart shape. So let’s make one. Select the Draw and Ellipse tool and then hold down the Shift key and drag your mouse on the design mat. This will draw a perfect circle. Now, let’s fill it with color so it’s easier to work with. (Check out the Let’s Explore Fill Panel here)

Next, make a copy of your circle. There are several ways to do this – Ctrl+c and Ctrl+v, right click & choose copy and then again for paste or hold down the Alt key and drag a copy off, or use the toolbar (QAT) at the top.

And then draw a perfect square by choosing the Draw a Rectangle tool and holding the Shift key down. Fill your square with color as well.

Now let’s use the Rotate tab to turn our square to a 45 degree angle.

Next move the square up to meet the circles and align them how you like it. You may need to enlarge your circles (select them both and resize) to get the dimensions of the heart to align.

And there you have drawn a heart shape using just the basic shapes in the Silhouette software and the Transform panel – Rotate tab. Make sure to select all your shapes and choose weld or it will cut out the individual shapes.