This is very helpful, and I've found some backgrounds or grids have to be ungrouped before they will crop. (Instead of cropping to the shape they cut the shape out of the background leaving a blank space)
+Greta Movassaghi This is why I left the part about having problems intersecting in the video ... so viewers will know that you sometimes have to adjust things before you can go ahead. BTW, in this program, I did not crop. That was in Silhouette Studio.
Hi Karen, I'm working on a sheriff's dept logo in the shape of a police badge. I need to put an outline around it. About a 1/8". Can you help me?? thanks
Hello! I have the SCAL 4 non pro. I can get all of the way to where I need to select all and right click and select merge. There is no merge option. Any suggestions?
I also have SCAL 4. You can type Ctrl+Shift+B to merge or its available in the object button in the ribbon. Unfortunately I was unable to get my pattern to show up inside my chosen letter. I haven't figured out how to get that result. Sorry I'm not able to help you more than that.
I just purchased scal 5 and am learning how to use it. I cannot get this project to work. My background is a jpg that I traced in and when I do the final step of merging all I get is the letter merged with shadow and nothing in the center of the letter. I am on a pc. Also I tried to go to the facebook page you refer us to for backgrounds and it says it is not available.
Karin I am having trouble with this. I have had to pick the shadow layer and the background and sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't. Then I go to merge and that works but I don't know how to join it all so that it does not cut out the background separately from the border in some cases (but not all). What am I missing?
Please join my SCAL group at facebook.com/groups/vinyladdictions/ and post your question with screenshots of what happens step by step so I can determine what is going wrong.
You can only make the background using on e letter not a word? I can get it to work on my mac for one letter but doing a word it doesnt work. Any tips?
Hi, I can't get this to work. I am fine until I get to the point where I have the shadow layer and the background selected. I select the path to intersection and at that point, my background layer disappears. I selected all then merged the layer but all I am left with is the original letter with inner layer removed. Do you have any idea where my background is going? I followed the directions very carefully but I also noticed that some of your options are in different places. My merge option is in a drop down from the top and I also noticed in your second example that as you hover over the image you are seeing a faint image of the layer behind your working layer. I don't see that at all on my computer. I am working on a PC with SCAL 4 Pro. I am pulling my hair out trying to figure out where I am going wrong. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks
This is for SCAL4 PRO but the technique does not work in the regular SCAL4 (non pro version) This was disappointing to find out because that was one of the reasons i bought scal so now i still have to do this in another program. If anyone knows of a workaround for regular SCAL4 please post.
This is not a pro function at all. The path and object commands are identical in the basic and pro versions. Are you using the Windows version of SCAL 4? If so, the Merge command is in the Object menu. For some reason, it is not available as a shortcut command so you cannot reach it by right clicking. If it were a PRO only feature, I would have mentioned it ;)
BTW, the best place to get help with SCAL is in my SCAL Education & Support group on Facebook. I can't show you how it works in the basic version here, but in the group, I would be able to post screen shots or even a short group video. The group is here facebook.com/groups/SCALusers/
Thank you for the info. Yes I use Windows. Also I didn't mention that I was trying to save my filled object creations as SVG, not a SCUT4. I need them to be SVG for Etsy. I did contact craftedge support because I was going crazy trying to figure out how to fill shapes with patterns and save them as an SVG and they told me it was not possible because SCAL4 didn't support a clipping function at this time for SVG fles. If that is wrong or there is a work around, I would love to know how to do this correctly. I will join your group and if you could post this in your group for the basic SCAL4 I would be SOOO grateful, Thanks again.
I am so sorry Joanna, I did not receive a notification of this comment. The link to my SCAL group is at the end of my first reply to you above. I can't imagine these files cannot be saved in SVG format. I am checking and will write back.
Exactly as I expected. Of course you can save it as an SVG file. Are you using File, Export? I just created an S with a patterned fill using the same technique. I exported as SVG, the file saved. I opened it in Silhouette Studio as an SVG file and it opens perfectly. I can't show you a screen shot here, but it's perfect. I just opened it in Illustrator as well and it's fine.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge publicly. I appreciate your soothing voice and teaching skill. I will have to give this method a try.
Thank you. Let me know if you have problems.
Thank you for the video - You explain the process very well
Thank you!
This is very helpful, and I've found some backgrounds or grids have to be ungrouped before they will crop. (Instead of cropping to the shape they cut the shape out of the background leaving a blank space)
+Greta Movassaghi This is why I left the part about having problems intersecting in the video ... so viewers will know that you sometimes have to adjust things before you can go ahead. BTW, in this program, I did not crop. That was in Silhouette Studio.
Thank you Karen!!
WOW 😎
Hi Karen, I'm working on a sheriff's dept logo in the shape of a police badge. I need to put an outline around it. About a 1/8". Can you help me?? thanks
Right click the object and under Appearance, choose Add a Shadow Layer. This creates what is called an offset in other programs.
Hello! I have the SCAL 4 non pro. I can get all of the way to where I need to select all and right click and select merge. There is no merge option. Any suggestions?
I also have SCAL 4. You can type Ctrl+Shift+B to merge or its available in the object button in the ribbon. Unfortunately I was unable to get my pattern to show up inside my chosen letter. I haven't figured out how to get that result. Sorry I'm not able to help you more than that.
I just purchased scal 5 and am learning how to use it. I cannot get this project to work. My background is a jpg that I traced in and when I do the final step of merging all I get is the letter merged with shadow and nothing in the center of the letter. I am on a pc. Also I tried to go to the facebook page you refer us to for backgrounds and it says it is not available.
Karin I am having trouble with this. I have had to pick the shadow layer and the background and sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't. Then I go to merge and that works but I don't know how to join it all so that it does not cut out the background separately from the border in some cases (but not all). What am I missing?
This all depends on where you have your main and background layers (which is front and which is back).
I have the background in the back and the shape in the front
Please join my SCAL group at facebook.com/groups/vinyladdictions/ and post your question with screenshots of what happens step by step so I can determine what is going wrong.
I see one thing I did wrong was to check blackout on the shadow. I am trying all of my efforts once again. I submitted to join your group also.
You can only make the background using on e letter not a word? I can get it to work on my mac for one letter but doing a word it doesnt work. Any tips?
And does it have to be a svg file?
You can do it one letter (shape) at a time or you can merge all the shapes and then fill them.
Hi, I can't get this to work. I am fine until I get to the point where I have the shadow layer and the background selected. I select the path to intersection and at that point, my background layer disappears. I selected all then merged the layer but all I am left with is the original letter with inner layer removed. Do you have any idea where my background is going? I followed the directions very carefully but I also noticed that some of your options are in different places. My merge option is in a drop down from the top and I also noticed in your second example that as you hover over the image you are seeing a faint image of the layer behind your working layer. I don't see that at all on my computer. I am working on a PC with SCAL 4 Pro. I am pulling my hair out trying to figure out where I am going wrong. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks
I am on a Mac so that is probably why there are slight differences.
See also Greta's comment below.
where do you get the pattern fills?
I posted that in the description below my video.
thank you :)
i airbrush and im wondering if theres a way to have just the lines that make the image to be cut like a stencil
This is for SCAL4 PRO but the technique does not work in the regular SCAL4 (non pro version)
This was disappointing to find out because that was one of the reasons i bought scal so now i still have to do this in another program. If anyone knows of a workaround for regular SCAL4 please post.
This is not a pro function at all. The path and object commands are identical in the basic and pro versions. Are you using the Windows version of SCAL 4? If so, the Merge command is in the Object menu. For some reason, it is not available as a shortcut command so you cannot reach it by right clicking. If it were a PRO only feature, I would have mentioned it ;)
BTW, the best place to get help with SCAL is in my SCAL Education & Support group on Facebook. I can't show you how it works in the basic version here, but in the group, I would be able to post screen shots or even a short group video. The group is here facebook.com/groups/SCALusers/
Thank you for the info. Yes I use Windows. Also I didn't mention that I was trying to save my filled object creations as SVG, not a SCUT4. I need them to be SVG for Etsy. I did contact craftedge support because I was going crazy trying to figure out how to fill shapes with patterns and save them as an SVG and they told me it was not possible because SCAL4 didn't support a clipping function at this time for SVG fles. If that is wrong or there is a work around, I would love to know how to do this correctly. I will join your group and if you could post this in your group for the basic SCAL4 I would be SOOO grateful, Thanks again.
I am so sorry Joanna, I did not receive a notification of this comment. The link to my SCAL group is at the end of my first reply to you above. I can't imagine these files cannot be saved in SVG format. I am checking and will write back.
Exactly as I expected. Of course you can save it as an SVG file. Are you using File, Export? I just created an S with a patterned fill using the same technique. I exported as SVG, the file saved. I opened it in Silhouette Studio as an SVG file and it opens perfectly. I can't show you a screen shot here, but it's perfect. I just opened it in Illustrator as well and it's fine.
How do you cut the pattern?
Unless I'm misunderstanding, you just send it to the cutter.