Silhouette Cameo

Silhouette Cameo
Manufacturer	Silhouette
Model	Cameo 3
AKA	{{{aka}}}
Obtained	Purchased through Pledge Drive early 2018
Location	Craft Room
Team	Craft & Textiles
Induction Required	No
Booking	{{{booking}}}
Status	Defunct
Tools:   all pages • list • Power Tools • Broken tools     {{}}

The Silhouette Cameo is a computer controlled cutter that can cut through vinyl, card, fabric and paper up to 12 inches wide. The Cameo supports automated cutting heads, has two carriages (so draw and cut operations can be done in one pass) plus registration marks for aligment, and more.

It was purchased through a pledge drive in early 2018.

Manuals

• Getting started with your Cameo Silhouette

Software

• Silhouette Studio - basic edition is free, available here.

Induction Notes

non-induction machine.

Machine Setup

The cutiing mat is translucent plastic with a square grid. It may be found hanging up over the Craft room light switch, behind a big green cutting mat. It is worth keeping the backing sheet for the cutting mat. It stops you from needing to refresh the spray mount so often when the glue dries out.

When spraying with spray mount it's worth covering the non-sticky sections of the mat with masking tape, else the rollers of the machine pick up the glue which can effect how well it works.

Its generally worth using the cutting mat most of the time even if you are cutting a full width bit of vinyl. Unless you are a wizard at getting your material perfectly straight the rollers tend towards eating it.

The blade depth doesn't need to be stuck out lots and lots if you are cutting a thin material. For vinyl, paper and thing card usually setting 2 is sufficient.

Before cutting its worth removing the blade to check it doesn't have a build up of fluff round the razor. When cleaning it beware cutting hazards.

Make sure the blade is seated back where it was when you replace it.

Using the PC software

https://youtu.be/J-k6vlZT_BU

Software Notes

Silhouette Studio does not appear to be able to import SVG files ( only tested with Inkscape "Inkscape svg" and "Plain svg" exports ). But it will accept .dxf files from Inkscape, albeit with the content incorrectly sized.

Special attention areas

some suggestions were offered by Arthur Moore during the pledge drive

Resources

• Advertising video clip (YouTube)
• Silhouette Cameo (EduTech Wiki)
• Silhouette Cameo using Inkscape (libertyseeds.ca)
• Multiple action with Inkscape (github.com)
• Guide to different blades (Silhouette School)

See also

• Laser Cutter