Welcome to Lesson 18! We are almost done with our Bootcamp series. Today we are learning all about the Trace feature and how to use it. Last week we learned all about the Offset feature and how to use it in Silhouette Studio. Silhouette Boot Camp is filled with mini lessons that help us learn the terminology used in the Silhouette Studio software so that we can cut any design we can dream up with ease!
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What Does Trace mean in Silhouette Studio?
Trace as defined in Silhouette Studio is making images or files into cuttable images that have lines that silhouette recognizes as cut lines. This is why we have the trace feature. In simple terms if you find an image online or one of your files that you would like to make into a cuttable image silhouette trace feature is how you can achieve this. I use this feature all the time.
How Do I use the Trace Panel?
Copy the image you would like to trace. Either by using shift/command/4 for Mac, or by using the snipping tool for PC. Once you have the image saved open up Silhouette. Select your file from the open file option. Just remember where you saved it. Highlight the image you would like to trace. The Trace panel is found on the right hand side of your screen. (Butterfly with an outline around it) Click on Select Trace Area. Before you trace you can select High Pass Filter. High Pass Filter means the trace lines start from the beginning/outside of the image to the inside, this is a nice option to create a basic cutting area for a detailed image. You can also change the Threshold number to remove fussiness in your image. When you higher the threshold the small dots that appear on your image can be eliminated when you have a lower resolution image. When you select the trace area you will see yellow lines around your object, these lines show you where silhouette is capturing the cut lines. Select Trace Method. There are a few Trace options. They are Trace- the outer and inner lines are traced, Trace Outer Edge- cut lines are created around the outer part of your image, Trace & Detach- this will cut out the image from the white background ( this is usually only used when you don’t want images to overlap or you want to remove the background from your image.)
Where Do I find Trace in Silhouette Studio?
The Trace menu can be found in a few places.
- Right hand side of the screen, Trace icon (butterfly with a square around), click on it and you will find the trace menu.
- In the top menu, click Panels, then select Trace.
Example of using the Trace Panel:
For my girls birthday she wanted a Descendants theme. She also requested that the party favors were Mal’s spell book…… so what did I do I decided to make each girl her own. Using the trace feature made this project a little easier. I downloaded an image I found online, traced it, and then cut the image out using gold vinyl and placed it on a black diary book. They turned out super cute and all the girls loved their spell books.
When to use Trace:
When you have an image you would like to use the is not available in Silhouette Studio. You can pretty much find any image you have ever needed online.
That’s about it for lesson 18! I hope you find yourself using the Trace feature often. Tune in next week to learn all about Fill/Gradient and how to use it in Silhouette Studio.
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