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How To Open And Edit .svg Files With Your Silhouette Cutting System

Nikki · July 1, 2013 · 23 Comments

Today’s topic of conversation: .svg files.

And no, this is not a “tech” post, but it is this month’s Silhouette tutorial, so if you’re not a Silhouette CAMEO or Portrait owner, I won’t be upset if you stop reading now. If, however, you are a Silhouette cutting system owner, or would like to be soon, you may want to keep reading… .svg files can bring a lot of fun to your projects!

Back to those files…

Until I bought my Silhouette CAMEO, I did not know what .svg files were, and I imagine many of you don’t know either.

So, .svg files are Scalable Vector Graphics. (See where the svg comes from?)

Simply put, it’s a format for some graphic design files.

And why are these important to us Silhouette owning crafters?

Because we’d like to be able to use these in our projects, right?

There are a ton of sites that offer free .svg files. (Some of them will even send one to your inbox every morning!) A quick google search will give you some of the most popular. I chose SVGCuts.com today to feature, just because I loved this little hot air balloon so much, and I thought it was a generic enough design that many of you would get use out of it. Below you’ll find a video demonstrating exactly how to open and manipulate an .svg file. The same steps can be applied to any .svg file you’d like to work with!

If you’d like to pick up the hot air balloon file for yourself, you can find it here: http://svgcuts.com/blog/2013/06/15/hot-air-balloon-svg/

Filed Under: Blog, Silihouette Projects Tagged With: Ask Nikki, Crafts, Paper Crafts, Silhouette CAMEO

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lori LaBricciosa says

    July 1, 2013 at 10:33 am

    thank you,thank you,thank you!!!!!

    Reply
  2. Karen says

    July 1, 2013 at 1:52 pm

    Thanks a milion!!!!

    Reply
  3. Chriss America Real says

    July 1, 2013 at 2:40 pm

    Hi,

    I upgraded to the Silhouette Studio Designer Addition and it has opened up a whole new world of designing for me. I love it! Thanks for the tutorial!

    Reply
  4. Nikki says

    July 1, 2013 at 3:37 pm

    Thanks, girls! So happy I could help!
    PS..Chriss, I couldn’t agree more! The Designer Edition is perfect for those of that would like to edit designs a bit, or even experiment with creating our own! There are other software programs out there, but I don’t think they’re as user friendly!

    Reply
  5. Kim says

    December 10, 2014 at 6:08 pm

    I didn’t realize you need the designer edition to open up .svg files. Is there any way I can import a design I made in Illustrator into the Silhouette program that came free with the Silhouette to be cut?

    Reply
    • Nikki says

      December 11, 2014 at 9:23 pm

      Kim,
      If you’re on a Mac you should be able to open PDF files in Studio, which may help you some, but you are limited by pixel count, so you may lose some detail along the way.
      You could always take a screenshot of your designs in Illustrator, but again…your dimensions will be quite smaller because of the lower pixel count, and you’ll lose some of the detail of your design.
      Take a peek online right now. With the holidays approaching there are lots of Silhouette sales going on and you may be able to pick up the DE upgrade at a discounted price!

      Reply
  6. mary heller says

    January 24, 2015 at 9:24 pm

    I’m new to the silhouette cameo and upgraded to the designer edition have tried for 2 days to download the svg file… NO LUCK I’ve gone to prefences checked center still won’t work . Is there anything else I can try

    Reply
    • Nikki says

      January 29, 2015 at 12:05 pm

      Mary,
      You should be able to open it just like any other file. Click “File” and then “Open” and find the SVG wherever you have it saved on your computer.
      Tell me a bit more about how you’re trying to open it and maybe we can figure out what’s going wrong!

      Reply
  7. billy says

    March 29, 2015 at 3:24 pm

    Hi im new to cameo….hope any one can help..
    im trying to rotate my image that ive copied from google..
    the image rotates but the cut lines dont ….
    any help please….

    Reply
    • Nikki says

      April 27, 2015 at 2:49 pm

      Hi Billy!
      If you want them both to rotate together, click and drag so that they are BOTH selected. Then rotate them!

      Reply
  8. Alisha says

    August 7, 2015 at 12:32 pm

    I was curious if you could open adobe file with the cameo? I have all of the adobe Photoshop and illustrator programs and really don’t want to have to buy a diff. program in order to do graphics. I just started a paper goods business and it would be wonderful to be to expand the projects that I can do.

    Reply
    • Nikki says

      August 21, 2015 at 4:18 pm

      Alisha, You can open image files however no cut lines will come with them. You’ll have to do some tracing to get them there, and actually cut out the pieces you’d like. If you’re only talking cutting an outline around a design you’ve created in your illustrator programs, that’s not that big of a deal. If you’d like to cut out lots of the individual pieces of your designs…that’s a bit more work!

      Reply
  9. tayler says

    September 27, 2015 at 11:20 pm

    I have had my cameo for a year now. I have never had any trouble importing SVG files. I have not purchased the Designer Edition because I have never had issues with opening the files. However, there are a few SVG files that give me the error “the type of file you are attempting to import is not supported.” I’m confused because after I received that error, I tried to open another SVG file and it worked. So, why do some files open and others don’t?

    Reply
    • Nikki says

      October 19, 2015 at 8:03 pm

      Tayler,
      You are either one lucky person, or it has to do with which version of the software you are using. Have you updated lately?

      Reply
  10. Jack says

    April 22, 2016 at 11:37 pm

    I’ve used easy cut studio to edit .svg Files on my mac and Windows OS

    Reply
  11. Laura Schadt says

    October 26, 2016 at 3:38 pm

    How can you convert the scale of an svg rhinestone template when it does not load the correct size?

    Reply
    • Nikki says

      November 4, 2016 at 9:31 am

      Laura,
      You have to be careful scaling rhinestone templates because you don’t want to change the size of the holes for the stones.
      Do you have the DE edition of the software? If so, there are easy ways to fill a shape with rhinestones. Let me know and I can help walk you through it!

      Reply
  12. Amber McCarthy says

    February 23, 2017 at 7:34 pm

    Please help!! New to all of this and so frustrated!! I am using silhouette cameo 3 with DE software. I want to be able to use free SVG from Pinterest for example and can’t figure out how to do it. Does the SVG need to be saved or transferred first to my laptop? If so how do you do this? Then secondly I would need to import it to my software. Thanks in advance.

    Amber

    Reply
    • Nikki says

      March 27, 2017 at 2:15 pm

      Amber, you need to save any files you’d like to use to your computer…just putting them on your desktop is fine. Inside your Studio software, click “File” and then “Merge” from the dropdown menu that appears. Find the SVG and click to open it. It should appear right in your software!

      Reply
  13. Denise Dunbar says

    May 9, 2018 at 5:10 pm

    OK — I have the Cameo 2, purchased the designer edition. I am trying to cut an SVG “Red Sox” logo that I purchased on ETSY. I have it in my library. I do trace it – all turns yellow (like Silhouette School says) — I go to print it – NOTHING. What am I doing wrong. Thanks in advance as I am going crazy – want Mothers Day projects done for this weekend.

    Reply
    • Nikki says

      December 3, 2018 at 9:20 pm

      Denise, are you trying to print the design or cut it with your CAMEO? If you’re printing, you don’t need to trace it first. Maybe you mean you’re trying to cuth the design?

      Reply
  14. easycut software says

    October 23, 2019 at 2:10 am

    I upgraded to the easycut Pro version and it has opened up a whole new world of designing for me. I love this vinyl cutting app! Thanks for the tutorial!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Freebie | 9 SVG Cut Files for Hanukkah – Scrap Booking says:
    December 12, 2014 at 10:00 am

    […] Cricut machines, but if you have the Silhouette Studio Designer Edition Software, you can try using this tutorial to convert them to Studio […]

    Reply

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