Adding Weeding Lines in Silhouette Studio (Why and How)

Weeding lines aren't just for those with Silhouette Studio Business Edition. You can manually add them yourself even if you have the basic software.

Weeding lines are hugely helpful because they divide the negative space around a design into more manageable sections.

Did you ever try to weed a large piece of vinyl only to end up with the excess sticking  - and maybe even ruining - your cut piece because you couldn't keep it out of the way?

You almost need 3 or 4 hands at times to help weed or at least a close pair of scissors to cut the excess.  With weeding lines, you're essentially having the machine cutting the excess into smaller sections so it's much easier to work with.

Silhouette Studio Business Edition has the option to add auto-weed lines. If you don't have the Business Edition upgrade, however, you can still manually add weeding lines yourself. In just a few steps you'll be on your way to easier weeding.

Open up Silhouette Studio.

Using the Draw a Line tool while holding down the Shift key down draw a straight line.  Holding down Shift just makes sure the line is perfectly straight.

Select the line you drew and use your favorite method to replicate the line.  I selected the original line and used the keyboard shortcuts to copy and paste several more lines.

Start with six or seven copies. You can always add or delete more as needed.

If the lines are all uneven, you can quickly align them by selecting all of the lines and from the Quick Access Tool bar clicking "Align Center." This will line them all up.

Now you're ready to add your design to the same work area.  If you're opening it from outside Silhouette Studio go to File > Merge and navigate to the file.

If you're opening it from the Silhouette Studio library find the file in the library > right click it and select "Merge."

This design is from Chameleon Cuttables and can be purchased from So Fontsy which includes the 100% Commercial Use license.

If you opened your design first before drawing the weeding lines, you need to make sure the design is 'in front.' Select the design > right click > bring to front.

The position of the design and the lines is what is going to help you weed the vinyl.

So...what you are looking to avoid is creating extra small spaces. I have circled the problem areas.  If you leave the lines like they are now you'll have to weed two little pieces of the counter inside the "a" and "e" instead of one since the line splits right down the middle of the counter. 

To avoid this, you'll have to move some of the lines slightly.  Click on the line you need to adjust and use your arrow key (NOT YOUR MOUSE) to nudge the line up or down depending on what is needed.   Ideally the line will go through the middle of the letter and not the counter.

Once all your lines are positioned nicely select all of the lines but NOT the actual design you want to cut.  Right click > Make Compound Path.

Be sure you DO NOT include the design in the compound path.

It's harder to tell when the design has a solid fill, but if we cut like this the weeding lines would be going straight through the design itself.

I have removed the fill (below) and made the design transparent for this next step so you can more easily see what's going on.

Open the Modify panel.

Select the weeding lines and the design and click 'Subtract All.'

 

You can see that now you have weeding lines in all of your excess/negative area, but not through your design.

The space between the weeding lines will come up as sections of horizontal vinyl rather than one large piece of vinyl that would otherwise be going around your entire design and is much more challenging to weed.

Here's how it looks as you are weeding...(apologies this was from a different project, but it's the exact same technique).

 

So as you can see on this other large piece I worked on, using weeding lines, it makes weeding large (or even smaller) areas much easier because you are not fighting to keep the vinyl away as you pull up the rest of the negative space.

Note: This post may contain affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing products through my links, I received a small commission. That's what helps fund Silhouette School so I can keep buying new Silhouette-related products to show you how to get the most out of your machine! 

Thanks for coming to class today at Silhouette School.  If you like what you see, I'd love for you to pin it!