Silhouette Studio: Taking the Fear Out of Version 4 – Quick Access Tool Bar (Part 2)
This site includes affiliate links. If you purchase from these links you will not pay more for the product, but I may earn a small commission which helps defray the costs of keeping the site running. I am also a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn commissions by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. I appreciate your support!
Last week I introduced you to Silhouette Studio’s Quick Access Tool Bar, or “QAT” for short. There are many options in the Quick Access Tool Bar, all of which can also be accessed via menus, shortcuts, and individual panels, but having them readily accessible via the QAT is a real time-saver – it’s one of my favorite features! In my last post I discussed the Fill, Line, and Text options along with the Scale, Move, and Align Tools. This week I will cover the remainder of the options which allow you to quickly group/ungroup, arrange, weld, offset, duplicate, and delete objects and then I will touch on how the QAT displays even further options when tools such as the knife or eraser are selected.
Silhouette Studio Version 4.1 – Quick Access Toolbar (Part 2)
Group/Ungroup
Grouping is a means of combining multiple objects into a single unit that can then be manipulated (selected, moved, filled with color, scaled, offset, etc) all at once, but it does not affect cutting in any way. The Group option will be greyed-out in the Quick Access Tool Bar unless multiple objects are selected. There are three ways to select multiple objects:
- Click and drag. Using a mouse, click in an area of the workspace that is outside the objects you want to select (this can be above, below, to the left, or to the right of the objects). Holding down the mouse button, drag the cursor until all of the desired selection is enclosed within one large bounding box. (I usually begin at the upper left and drag diagonally to the lower right.)
- Shift-Click. Press and hold the SHIFT key on your keyboard and click with your mouse on each object that you want to select until all are enclosed within one large bounding box.
- Select All. From the Edit menu, choose “Select All” (shortcut: CTRL/CMD + A). All objects in the workspace will be selected, including those in the grey holding area.
Once the objects are selected, click on the Group icon in the QAT to combine all objects into a single group.
Grouped objects can be easily ungrouped as well. When a grouped set of objects is selected, the Ungroup option will be available in the Quick Access Tool Bar. Clicking on the Ungroup icon will release the group back into individual parts. If multiple groups of objects are nested within a larger group, it will be necessary to click on Ungroup multiple times in order to completely separate the entire group.
Note: If you are trying to select multiple objects using the click & drag method but not “catching” all the objects within a large bounding box, check your Preference settings. Open the Preferences menu and click on the Tools icon. Under “Selection Tools” make sure “Select shapes touching drag box” is the option set for “When Drag Selecting”. For more information on setting Silhouette Studio tool preferences, see Silhouette Studio Preferences: Tool Options.
Arrange Objects
When two or more individual parts of a design overlap, it’s helpful to think of them as a stack of objects, with “front” indicating the top of the stack and “back” referring to the bottom of the stack. The Arrange Objects tools allow you to place each individual object where you want it to appear in the stack.
- Bring to Front – places the selected object at the top of the stack
- Send to Back – moves the selected object to the bottom of the stack
- Bring Forward – moves the selected object one layer up in the stack
- Send Backward – moves the selected object one layer down in the stack
(All examples below are based on the original order of the layers.)
Weld & Offset
The Weld tool is used to combine multiple shapes into a single shape. Any overlapping shapes can be welded together, but welding is most often used with cursive fonts to eliminate the cut lines between overlapping letters. Once text has been welded, Studio views the new shape as an image, which means the text is no longer editable. Unlike grouping, there is no option to “unweld”. If, after welding two or more objects together, you are unhappy with the results, your only choice is to use the Undo feature to return your design to its pre-welded state. Keep in mind that once you have closed the file, you will no longer be able to use the Undo feature.
Clicking on the Offset tool in the Quick Access Tool Bar opens the Offset panel, where you can choose from either a regular or internal offset, enter the desired offset distance, and specify round or square corners.
Duplicate & Delete
The Duplicate and Delete tools are rather self-explanatory. To use either of these options, simply select a single object, group of objects, or multiple objects and click on the desired icon. The Duplicate icon will make a copy of your selection and place it slightly to the right of the original selection. The Delete icon will…you guessed it…delete the selection.
Point Editing, Eraser, and Knife Options
Up until now, each of the QAT options I’ve discussed are displayed when the Selection tool is active. The Selection tool is located at the top of the column of Document Tools shown on the left side of your screen in Silhouette Studio and is indicated by an arrow icon.
Among the other tools in the column are the Point Editing tool, the Eraser tool, and the Knife tool. When any one of these tools is active, the QAT will display options unique to the active tool. Each of these tools, and their related Quick Access Tool Bar options, will be discussed in more detail in future posts.
I hope you’re steadily becoming more comfortable with Silhouette Studio Version 4 and no longer fearful of updating your Studio software. If you’re NOT comfortable, what are some of the roadblocks you’re facing? Leave a comment below or message me on Facebook because I’d love to help. And keep visiting my blog for more posts on not only Silhouette Studio Version 4, but more of the really wonderful things you can do with a Silhouette machine!
Until next time,
This post may contain affiliate advertising. This means that if you click on a link in the post, I may make a commission based on your purchase. The price you pay for the product or service is not higher, and the commissions I earn help keep Caught by Design online. Thanks for your support!
Looking for other posts in this series? Here’s where you can find them:
Silhouette Studio: Taking the Fear Out of Version 4 – Overview
Silhouette Studio: Taking the Fear Out of Version 4 – Page Setup Panel
Silhouette Studio: Taking the Fear Out of Version 4 – Send Panel
Silhouette Studio: Taking the Fear Out of Version 4 – Quick Access Tool Bar (Part 1)
Lycia is a lifelong crafter whose goal is to help others find value, confidence, and joy in whatever they create. She geeks out on using technology to supercharge craft projects with Silhouette Studio, Design Space, Glowforge, sublimation, etc.! Lycia teaches these skills and more through online tutorials and videos as well as in-person classes at both the local and national levels.
In the past I had tried and tried and tried Suggestion #1 but it never worked.
Suggestion #2 hit a home run with me, and I’ve used it multiple times today on a Christmas card project for which it was the perfect solution! Not using the Print and Cut screen allowed my projects to be used the size Publisher made them in the PDF, so they didn’t have to be manipulated and shrunk to fit once the PDF was opened in the Cameo 4 program.
My work around had been to make 2 copies in Publisher and 2 PDF files. The PDF with words had no frame and had to be reversed carefully to flip properly during the printing. The 2nd one had the cut lines. I would print the words, turn the paper over, then print the PDF with the cut lines from the screen that marked PRINT and CUT Registrations. Then it could be cut with the Cameo 4. It took forever.
In the last month I have Googled and Googled using hundreds of words and have read “HUNDREDS” of tutorials on the Internet, but no one had written about Suggestion #2, so you gave me the most productive day I’ve had while using the Cameo 4.
Thanks a million!
Please send me a link to sign up for your blog.
Merry Christmas and a most wonderful New Year!
YAY!!! I’m so glad it helped! If you’d like to subscribe to the blog (and I hope you do!) there’s a subscription form on each page. On a mobile device, scroll a little more than halfway down the page to just after the “About” info and you will see a place to enter your email address. On a desktop computer, the form is in the sidebar to the right. Happy cutting!
I read your blog posts. Thanks so much!
I had such a simple project for my newly purchased Cameo 4: Cut out 5 squares that have typed words in them,but this brand new machine won’t cut out just the 5 squares as it tries to cut out the letters inside the square — not just the outside edge of the shape. If I use trace, the squares never fill with the yellow, but some words are turned red to be cut.
If I put just the 5 squares on the page without any words, it will cut them out. But that is not what I bought the machine to do. How would I get the words on the page without hand cutting the words and gluing them on the 5 squares. That doesn’t make sense.
I design reading/phonic pages for children and need a quick, easy way to cut out about 5 squares or rectangles per page.
I thought the Print and Cut feature would be perfect as a PDF file could be imported into Studio, printed, then cut on the outer edges.
Alas! The program tries to cut the words that are in the square. I’ve gone to various tutorials and tried many things but nothing has worked to just cut the outside edges of these squares if they contain words.
Making the pattern with Studio tools is not an option as the program is way behind MS Publisher.
Would a Pix & Scan mat do the job?
Hi B. Thanks for commenting! Hopefully I can help you. A PixScan mat will do the job but you’ll have to go through some unnecessary and time-consuming steps. I have a couple of suggestions for you. #1 Try setting the design to Cut Edge rather than Cut. When you’re in the Send Panel, the bold red lines indicate which sections will be cut. If that doesn’t work (and it still shows the words being cut), move on to suggestion #2. Select the PDF and set it to No Cut. Using the drawing tools, draw the square you want to cut and duplicate it as many times as needed, then align with the squares on the PDF. You can save the squares design in a master file and change the PDF as needed. Keep in mind that if you’re creating a Print & Cut, you’ll need to use registration marks for the most accuracy. However, if you have a little wiggle room with the design, just be careful when you place the printed page on the mat as well as when you load the mat into the machine and you can cut without the registration marks. If you still have questions, feel free to comment again or to email me directly.