# Converting Coreldraw designs for use with Silhouette Cameo



## RudViolet (Apr 2, 2012)

Hey guys,

I have a DTG printer and up until now all my Coreldraw designing has been geared towards printing straight onto tshirts. But recently I've bought a Silhouette Cameo for vinyl cutting. Some of my designs simply aren't suitable for vinyl cutters, I know, but some are basic lettering with basic images all in the one block colour. In order to cut them on the Cameo, I'm told to open my design and use the 'trace' command. But when I do this it doesn't trace round the very outline of the image, there are red 'cut' lines actually in the middle of the lettering, as well as at the most ridiculous places within any colour blocks that there may be. A quick example: say, I have a vector image of a square that's coloured in blue. I save it as a GIF or JPEG etc then open it in the Cameo studio software. I 'trace' the image and not only is there a red line round the outline, but also maybe a red 'cut' line in the shape of a circle (or a pear) within the square.... 

Maybe I was too hopeful but I was expecting the Cameo to simply recognise all the outlines/inlines and cut them out ignoring any colouring or filling that may be there....

Probably not explaining myself very well, but if anyone has any notion of what I mean, and if you can offer any help, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Many thanks.

Jyl


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## AndWik (Mar 16, 2013)

Hi Jyl! Our advice to you, either do an export to svg, with an already given outline, from Corel or give Silhouette Connect a go. With Silhoutte Connect you cut "directly" from Corel/illustrator. It will cost you a few bucks but it will give you instant payback not being frustrated using regular Silhoette Studio. Wish you all the best! /Anders


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## RudViolet (Apr 2, 2012)

Thanks for your reply Anders.

I presume you've used Connect yourself? I'm just wondering if you know of any instructional/educational videos on the net that would show me what it can do before I buy...?

Thanks


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## AndWik (Mar 16, 2013)

Hi Mel!

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8rcEE5aQG0[/media] it shows an example of a way to solve, what i think is, your problem. Its in spanish but the video/picture talks for itself. 
Or [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrXmV6t3Ch0[/media]
were Matt explains how to install the software. 

Good luck to you!

/Anders


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## Corel Whisperer (Sep 1, 2010)

If your designs are already vector why trace them again. Try saving as a PDF in Corel and then opening that file in you Silhouette program and send to the cutter.


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## sandyj (Jan 18, 2011)

To get a trace around just the outside edge in Silhouette Studio, change the trace settings as follows: Uncheck High Pass Filter and change Threshold to 100% That should change the design to a solid color. Then click Trace Outer Edge.

Also, when you bring in the image (you can just drag and drop), it will come in very large. Trace it BEFORE you reduce the design, to get the most detailed outline. If you resize first, the trace will be poor. Once you have the image outlined, group the 2 objects, then resize.

I purchased Silhouette Connect a month ago and have found it fairly buggy. Sometimes it will open from Corel, but mostly I get an error message and Corel crashes (v. x4). I don't know why it happens and am hoping it gets resolved soon as the Connect plugin has real potential.


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## RudViolet (Apr 2, 2012)

Thanks for the replies guys.

My problem was that my vectors were designed using print in mind. So they were kinda messy 'underneath'.... the wireframe view was a whole mish-mash. The Cameo was therefore tracing all these extra lines. So what I've done is to convert the vector to Bitmap (RGB 24-bit) and then directly back to vector (using 'outline trace' 'high quality image') Therefore making one image which I then exported as a DXF file to be opened in Silhouette Studio. It's worked a treat!

Thanks for taking the time to reply with advice, I really appreciate it.


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## AndWik (Mar 16, 2013)

Glad you worked it out!


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