Creating Good Cuts from Image Files

 

Those Noisy Image Files

In our eagerness to complete a project, we often rush through the creation of the objects involved and then wonder why our Silhouette Cameo 4 sounds so LOUD when cutting objects created from imported images, but very quiet when running professionally developed files. In the image above, the design on the left runs relatively smoothly, quickly and quietly. The design on the right runs slowly and the machine makes a chittering racket while it's cutting. 

Let's work with a typical image file and see how to correct it.

Import the Image File

In Silhouette Studio, start a new project. In the Main Menu, select File > Merge...

This will open a dialog box where you can browse your machine to locate an image to cut. In this example, I chose a PNG file and then zoomed in on it so I could see its details better.

This is a very simple image and should cut perfectly, right? 

In theory, it should, but look carefully at the borders between the yellow and the blue - they're jagged and the blue and yellow mix together along the edges that are not perfectly vertical or horizontal. This image may look nice when used on a web page, but it can cause trouble when cutting unless some editing is performed first. Let's see how to fix it up.

Trace the Image to Convert to a Cut File

 First, we have to change it from an image to something that the Cameo will cut. Click on the "Trace" icon to open the Trace Panel. 

Click on "Select Trace Area" and draw a box around the image.

Adjust the settings as desired. In this case, I simply went will the default select of "Solid Fill", and clicked "Trace". 

If the default settings don't trace the image well enough, try adjusting some of the settings in the trace dialog. The yellow shows what will become cut areas. 

After the image has been traced, select it and move it off the mat or delete it if you won't need it for reference.

Observe the red lines. The lines look like they're scribbled and aren't perfectly straight, even though they should be straight. If this is cut now, the machine would chitter and skree like crazy and the look of the final project may be less than ideal.

Check Edit Points

Click on Edit Points, then select the traced image.

 

The square outline looks fine, but it isn't needed for this project - it was merely the outer border of the imported image. The rest of the image has too many edit points. 

To begin cleaning up the image, the outline square needs to be removed. Click on one of the points on the outline square and hit the delete key. Hit the delete key several more times to remove all 8 points that make up the square. This leaves the main part of the image, which is what we want to use for our project. 

Offset FTW

It is possible yet tedious to remove the extra points by deleting them all. The challenge is that they are not connected in a straight line and you can't select a bunch at once to remove them in groups. 

The easiest method for cleaning out surplus edit points I found was to use Offset.  The Offset feature will duplicate the original shape a little bit larger than the original but with clean lines.

Open the Offset Panel by clicking on the Offset icon in the right-side button ribbon.

Select the image, click on Internal Offset. Adjust the Distance to a relatively small value. I chose 0.015. Click "Apply".

It won't look all that different, but if you click on the selected image and move it to the side, you will see a second copy with lines that look a lot cleaner and thinner than the original. 

Select both images (hit Ctrl + A to select all items on screen). Click on Edit points and compare the results: 

The one on the right is the original version, and the one on the left was created from the offset. Because there are fewer points on each of the lines, the new version will cut much more quietly than the original. The final result will also have smoother edges and look more professional. 

I added some lettering and a horizontal weeding line at the bottom to smoothly separate the design from the extra vinyl. 

I clicked "Send" and watched it cut. 

It ran great on this lovely HTV. I weeded it part way before I caught my error:

Do you see what's wrong? This is HTV - Heat Transfer Vinyl. The carrier sheet is on the side that becomes the outside once the HTV is ironed to the material. You can't use transfer tape to pull it off the carrier then iron it to your shirt because the part of the Vinyl that bonds with the shirt is facing up right now. 

This is how it needs to be placed to iron it onto the mouse pad. 

That is definitely not going to work. The only bright side is that I was able to adhere it to a scrap of fabric to prove that I was not going to melt the main material I planned to apply it to. 

The instructions for the HTV says that it has to be heated to 300 F for 20 Seconds. Will it melt? Glad I have a test scrap and a bad cut for testing!

Well, it looks like the scrap survived unscathed. I still used a piece of teflon between the material and the heat press just in case the material melted. I didn't want to have to clean my heat press if I could help it.

Success! 

Now on to the real version...

Select the whole design, then in the main menu, select Object > Mirror > Flip Horizontally. 

Now, it's properly mirrored for HTV. I won't forget that again... or will I?

Hit Send and watch it cut. Weed away the background material. 

When I placed the design on the material, because it was to be at the top of the material and I wanted it to heat evenly, I added a scrap of the material above the top of the main piece then covered everything with a teflon sheet before pressing. 

The extra scrap piece above the main piece may not have been necessary, but it did ensure that the press was completely flat and touched all parts of the HTV. 

So that's the story of HTV done wrong (top) and done right (bottom). Don't forget to mirror your project when cutting HTV!

HAPPY CRAFTING!