Cutting SVG files with your Silhouette machine

I took this file as an SVG and cut it with my Silhouette.  I went a step further by modifying and welding the skull I drew for this card on it and it cut great.  I didn't like how the tic marks stood out and will delete those next time--this cut file didn't really need them as it's easy to see where to fold.

We had a Monster High themed New Year's Eve party.  My girls loved it and I'm pretty sure nobody else had a party quite like ours.

I wanted to do a post for those of us who used to be Cricut/SCAL users but have jumped on the Silhouette bandwagon--I LOVE my Silhouette! I have gobs of SVG files and wanted to show you how to turn your SVG's into DXF files and cut them with your Silhouette machine.

Does this work with every SVG file? I don't know. So far it's worked for the few files I've tried it with but you could run into some issues with a file that has quite a few tic marks for scoring--not sure how that would turn out since since a tic mark has to be drawn as a teeny tiny rectangle for SCAL to cut it.

First, you need to download Inkscape. It's free and you can download it here.

1. Open your SVG file in Inkscape. Go to File>Open and choose the file you want to open--make sure the file type is changed to all file types or you will be searching for Inkscape files to open.

2. Once your SVG file is open, go to File>Save as and save as a dxf. (Desktop Plotting Cutter (R13) *.dxf) If a box pops up click OK.

3. Open the latest version of the Silhouette Software and go to File>Open. Make sure the file type is set to AutoCAD Interchange File (*.dxf)

You can also do a PDF this way but instead of File>Open in Inkscape you would choose File>Import and then choose your PDF File. Once you get it saved as a .dxf and open in Silhouette Studio, you should be able to mess around with line settings and make some score and some cut, etc.

If you have questions, please e-mail me at annie21211(at)yahoo(dot)com and I'll do my best to help!