Well, yesterday I became the proud user of a Silhouette SD for at least 60 days! Since then I've been able to cut out my friends finely detailed rosettes for instrument soundboards without an issue. And I'm getting closer to fine tuning the reg. mark type cuts as well.

Mel, if you could point me towards the designing of custom carrier sheets I would be most greatful. Also, I'm working on the reworking of a ccg and am looking for advice on photo quality stock that can be printed on both sides. I've already set up my cutting templates (which work incredibly well) and am also looking into low mil lamination. Any advice would be most helpful.

Should there be a need for reworking WWG files for use with the Silhouette SD, I'd be willing to give a hand.

Take care,

Greg Krywusha

Oh, and I forgot this really, really, really important bit if you end up converting WWG sets:

Don't put anything too close to the regmarks. A great rule of thumb is to visualize each mark as a square--if anything's inside the square, there's a high probability that the machine will fail the regmark scan.

You will need to provide a GSD file for each page, and the PDFs will need the regmarks stamped onto each page, as described in the tutorial that Highland Piper linked to. Illustrator files won't do--nobody's going to drop $OUCH on Illustrator just to use the Cutting Master plugin to cut stuff, but ROBO Master comes free with the machine, so the target file format should be GSD.

Most importantly, you'll need to coordinate with an UK or European tester to verify that the files work on both the North American and European models before Denny makes anything go live.

-Mel

Thanks for all the wonderful information. I'm quite the amateur with this new machine....so I'm gonna' take baby steps as I go forward.

I will look into the technical info. in regard to the GSD files just as soon as I get a firm handhold on the machine. Sorry to hear about the heavy cost of Illustrator. I know it's hefty, but it does work like a charm... perfect in CS4. So I'll have to work a bit backwards to standardize for the free software.

Take care and thanks again,

Greg Krywusha

Glad to help!

Yeah, Illustrator is awesome. I tried it with the CS4 tryout a while back, and it was pretty easy to convert PDFs with existing vector line data into cuttable AI files. Stupid easy, in fact.

As an end user format, though, GSD works better. I can't really remember offhand, but if Illustrator can export to AutoCAD R13 DXF format, you ought to be able to load those into ROBO Master to create the GSDs. (Just make sure there's nothing but lines in it--no shapes or splines, just lines.)

So, it'd be PDF>Illustrator>DXF export>ROBO Master, and as I mentioned before, if there's already-existing vector path data, the conversion process is HUGELY simplified.

-Mel

Thanks for the advice. I'll try smaller pieces to work on and see if doing the cut out option works. In all honesty, the piece is being done on the "hardest" piece of vellum of the samples given to me. If we were working on a 3-5 layer rosette, I don't think it would be this problematic.

It's just weird that after one pass of cutting, it was able to cut through about a 1 inch line of circumference with no issue. All the other lines were lighter. It's just a shame that the Silhouette SD is the most versatile cutter as far as not being stuck utilizing patterns. But, I've read that other cutters actually have "deep cut" blades capable of cutting chipboard.

I'll keep ya posted....

Greg Krywusha

I just pulled the trigger on a Silhouette SD. I'm at the point on my Winterhaven build that I'm going to have to start making crenelations (20 wall sections and 10 towers), this definitely looks like the way to cut them out!

It might even make me do some more Hinterlands builds

When I get it, I'll do a play-by-play on converting the crenelations to a cuttable format.

Mel, are you in Austin?

loyd

Man - you don't know site... you are missing out on a huge part of Cardstock gaming modelling

Lord Abaddon of Wormwood

I would buy one of these cutters in a millisecond if the sets I'll be buying (I'm still in the prep phase!) were compliant. I just don't have it in me to make the guides myself.