How to Gradient Fill a Multi Piece Design in Silhouette Studio

If you've ever used the Silhouette Studio gradient fill tool you may have noticed it has one big draw back: when you add a gradient to a multi-piece design or text it puts the gradient on each individual piece or letter instead of across the entire design.   The good news is there is a work around for this.
I'm going to show you how to do this using two examples: a design and text.  For both I've simply selected them > click Gradient Fill (highlighted in blue along the top tool bar below) > and picked the gradient. Here's the result.

You can see that each individual piece or letter is getting the full gradient.

But if you want the gradient across the entire design you need to go one stop further.

First draw out a box about the same size or slightly larger than the design or text you want to fill. make sure the text or design is 'in front of' the box).

Move the design off to the side (this is optional but I find it easier) and fill the box with the gradient you want.

Move the design or text back on top of the filled in box. Select both the and from the Modify window (in blue along the top tool bar below) click "crop."

Ta da!

See the difference vs simply filling in the design or text with the gradient?!

I recently used this technique when making a card that had a spray of butterflies. I wanted the butterflies that were "closer" to be a lighter color and the ones further away and smaller to be darker.  I added a few 3D butterflies on top, but you can see how the gradient worked on this card.

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