Learn New Things Every Day

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This week is in full-swing with preparations for this weekend’s Sewing Summit. I’ve been hard at work on my business cards (I’ll share once they’re done) & have come across a few road blocks. Chris & I recently upgraded to a Solid State 27″ iMac (HOT!!) and while Penelope was at preschool this morning I discovered that Mac OS X’s Lion does NOT play well with the CutMaster for CraftRobo Illustrator plugin. Once I figured this out, I was in a panic. What the heck am I going to do?!? How on earth am I going to use my Silhouette now!? How am I going finish my business cards in time for Sewing Summit?

I spent a frantic two & a half hours searching online for CraftRobo patches or new downloads, trying to export & tracing in Silhouette Studio & emailing friends to see if they could convert the files for me. I found out: CraftRobo won’t be coming out with an update until November 2011 (Serious?), tracing in Silhouette was not promising and I wasn’t getting responses from friends soon enough. Just as I was about to give up, @Drew_Noland piped up on twitter & suggested I read an article by Maggie Muggins Designs about the subject. The first part of the blog talks about the plug-ins (which don’t work for Mac at the moment), but at the end was the saving grace. You can import graphics into Silhouette Studio if you export your Illustrator files as an AutoCad Interchange File or .DXF. A couple other things: make sure your graphics are outlined, not filled & not compounded or grouped before exporting.

Hallelujah. My sanity has been saved. I just thought I’d post this little tidbit up here in case anyone else finds themselves in the same predicament as I. Hopefully this can help someone else!

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    1. Carmen J says:

      Oh, yikes! I’ve soooo been there. Trying to make everything compatible when you switch systems can be such a nightmare. I swear it’s worse than transferring college credits. And it’s always, always, always right before you need to do something that was a piece of cake before. Hope the rest of your prep is less stressful!

    2. Danelle says:

      Can’t wait to see your business cards Melissa! I’ve wanted to get a silhouette machine for quite some time now but it’s quite an expensive thing to buy and get shipped to New Zealand, and when I was originally looking at it I couldn’t seem to find if I could just draw my own things in Illustrator and print/cut straight from there. So it sounds like you can do that now easily? I’d love to know more about it if you ever do a post on the machine. :D

    3. Melissa, if you upgrade your Silhouette Studio software to the Designer Edition (just $49), you can save your Illustrator file as a SVG file and open in Silhouette Studio. It’s super quick and easy. More info here… http://blog.silhouetteamerica.com/2011/09/tutorial-new-silhouette-studio-designer.html

    4. Shelby says:

      Hi Melissa! Sorry to hear about your setbacks, I’ve had a few myself recently with my crafts. Luckily it looks like we both overcame our roadblocks!

      Anyway, I am writing because I am new to using the Silhouette and I know I’m not using it to it’s full potential. If you ever have some down time or need an idea for a post, I bet I’m not the only one who would appreciate some tips on how to get the most out of the Silhouette. I don’t even know about what this software is that you’re mentioning (not Illustrator, the other stuff) and when I googled it, I must admit I still don’t really understand.

      Thanks a lot!

    5. Maggie Reno says:

      Hi! Thanks for mentioning my name and HAPPY I could help. I know what you went through myself, because I tried EVERYTHING before finally finding a solution. It’s amazing how little support there is for Illustrator to Silhouette, even though there are a lot of people using it that way. I hope all is working well for you now. Is RoboMaster’s update going to be for the Mac? I’d love to know as I have a lot of people contact me because they can’t get the plug-in to work on the Mac.

    6. Stéphanie says:

      HI ! Melissa !
      Don’t know, if you remind me. A french girl !
      I feel crazy, i just buy my Silhouette.
      I had the same problem but i use the same technic, i saved in dxf and go to silhouette studio !
      thank you for you help to buy my silhouette !

      xxs

    7. Stephanie says:

      HI Melissa,
      Don’ know if you remind me. A French girl.
      I feel totally crazy, i just buy my Silhouette.
      I had the same problem first cause i use illustrator CS5, and after use the same technic. I export in dxf and go to silhouette Studio.
      Thank you for your help to buy my Silhouette.

      xxs

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