Kevin Futter

If it comes to it, I'll just get hold of a cheap PC laptop and use that for such things. Would be handy for certain applications with my 3D printer, too. Kev

It's the macOS upgrade, as I was having issues before and after I installed the Silhouette upgrade. Lots of users are reporting this problem from what I can see, so there's no need for me to pursue it individually. But it's really up to the Silhouette company to ensure that their software stays compatible with the latest versions of the operating systems they support. But to be honest, Silhouette Studio has never felt like a fully polished product on the Mac - from the crude and unattractive user interface, to the less than stellar performance, and even the lack of proper OS integration (Command+Q doesn't work to quit?). We'll have to see how this pans out, but I hope they can address it quickly! Some of the reports of issues I'm seeing go back to September, however... Kev

So I ruined a decal on a build today: I've tried to touch it up with paint, but the results are pretty underwhelming, so I figured it was time to mask and paint. Yesterday I upgraded my Mac to the latest version of macOS (Sonoma 14.1.2), and upon opening Silhouette Studio today to begin creating a mask, I found it to be slow and buggy - graphics would import with red horizontal lines corrupting them, the "set trace area" tool was really sluggish, and the trace function itself didn't work at all. So I thought I'd better see if there was a software update for Silhouette Studio, and there was! Sadly, it made no difference whatsoever, and even the drawing tools don't work now. This is what I get if I attempt to draw a simple circle: Looks like I won't be using Silhouette Studio - or my Portrait - for a while! Kev

Welcome aboard, Phil! Kev

Welcome aboard, Paolo! Nice to see you here. Kev

Welcome aboard, Phil! Kev

For basic mask cutting, I'm still happy enough my 2 - and I really don't cut enough of them to justify an upgrade, unless there were some significant advantages to doing so. But having a machine capable of dealing with a wider range of materials and applications really piqued my interest. It's just a bit expensive for casual use, and I probably wouldn't get great value out of it. Kev

Thanks, Gene. It's not something I'm seriously considering, but I'm certainly intrigued by its potential. Kev

I'm curious to hear if anyone is planning to buy (or already has) the new Curio 2. It seems to offer a significant increase in utility and functionality over an older machine like my Portrait 2. The ability to engrave acrylic sheet or even wood is appealing, though it does come at a cost. And I guess for anyone whose sole use is to cut masks for their models, it's way overkill. But as a general crafting tool with a wide variety of applications, it seems to have a lot of potential. Anybody considering it? Kev

That would be a shame if it's OOP. Please let us know how you get on with the new stuff! Kev

Tamiya does sell its famous masking material in flat sheets, but I haven't been able to get hold of any so far. I'm currently waiting for BNA to get them back in stock. Kev

Welcome aboard, Rick! I'm very interested to hear about your experiences with laser cutting masks, so please keep us informed! Kev

They're not super small, Max, being around 6mm in overall height. The border though is a fraction of a mm, and it seems the root cause of the issue is that there's not enough surface area underneath them to maintain adhesive contact with the backing sheet. I'm going to try the hybrid approach on a mule, and see how well it works. Kev

Yeah, they were the settings I used for the first attempt. They've worked pretty well up until now for simple outline masks, but not so much when I introduced the very thin border. I also discovered that there were sections that hadn't cut through at all - especially around the S characters. Hence my increasing the blade depth a notch. Kev

Well, blade depth certainly wasn't the issue, as when I pulled the vinyl off the cutting mat, I discovered that in some areas it had cut right through both the vinyl and the backing sheet! Kev

Woody pointed me to the following article, where point #1 seemed to be the best fit for what I'm experiencing: https://silhouetteamerica.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/35000206362-vinyl-lifting-off-backing-during-cut-job So the first thing I did was check the blade, and lo and behold, there was a big ole chunk of vinyl stuck to the assembly: This was from the immediately preceding cut job, however, and not the cause of the original problem. The next thing I did was slow the speed down to the lowest setting as suggested in the article, and use the 'test' function to see if the triangle-in-a-square was behaving properly - and it was not. So I slowed ratcheted the blade depth up a notch and tried again, but initially couldn't get the test cut to locate properly (hence the cut lines in the mat in the photo below). After sorting that out and doing a successful test cut, I decided to try printing the design, and if anything, the result was worse: At this point I'm going to abandon this approach, as even if it's solvable, I don't feel like wasting the time and vinyl on it. Instead, since the outside border needs to be white, I'm going to use the successful outside cuts I've already done to paint in the white, and then use the inside designs to print decals to go over the white painted sections. As long as the decals print at the correct size relative to the masks (and I locate them properly on the model!), it should do the job. Thanks everyone for your input! Kev

Thanks for your input, fellas. A bit of adhesive build-up on the blade certainly makes some sense, as it only has to happen once for the problem to be self-compounding. All my other cuts on that same sheet so far have been fine in that respect, and it's only the latest cut involving the thin border that seemed to trigger the issue. I'll take a look at the blade in the morning and check it for detritus. Stand by! Kev

I managed to figure this one out for myself: basically, the settings in the "Send" panel had defaulted to 'cut edges' without me realising it, and making sure that it was set to 'cut' instead, fixed that particular problem: However, the cut still had some issues, with lots of lifting and displacement of the cut shapes: I'm not sure if this is completely salvageable to be honest, but also don't know what caused it, or how to prevent it happening again. I suspect I might be better served printing these particular examples as decals, rather than masks. Kev

Some of you will be aware of my 3D-printed BOMARC build happening on LSP. I'm at the point where I need to create some paint masks for its various markings, but have hit a bit of a wall with regard to creating the required US Air Force text. Creating the text itself was easy enough: just download the required Amarillo font and get the sizing close enough. The problem started when I tried to create the thin border that needs to go around most of the text. I used Silhouette Studio's 'offset' function to create the narrow border to produce what you see in the image below: The problem is that only the offset border gets cut! The internal lines are ignored completely. Then I read somewhere that if I use the "release compound path" function, I can separate out the internal elements (bottom example in the image above). This worked, but I had the same issue with the internal lines not cutting (i.e., the open elements in A and R). So, I'm at an impasse now. Ideally I'd like the upper version to cut with all lines in situ, but have no idea how to get Silhouette Studio to recognise all lines as cut lines. Can anyone offer any suggestions? Kev

Welcome aboard, John! Good to see you here. Kev

Welcome aboard, sir! Kev

Welcome aboard! Kev

Welcome aboard, sir! Would love to follow your investigations into laser cutting. Kev

Thanks, Danilo. I've added a screenshot of them to the upload. Kev

Thanks for posting this. Can you let us know what's in the file? I have this kit, so an overview or description would be handy. Kev