How to Trace Multi-Colored Layered Images in Silhouette Studio

Tracing is perhaps one of the biggest challenges for Silhouette users.  Tracing in Silhouette Studio is one of those things that takes practice because every design and every trace will be different. There's no exact formula for making the perfect trace that works across the board. That's especially the case with tracing multi-colored layered designs.

One thing to keep in mind with tracing layered images is you need to combine a lot of Silhouette Studio tools and build on the basics that you know about compound paths, fill colors, grouping and ungroup, edit points and the Modify tools to successfully trace a layered image.  For this reason - please know this should be considered an advanced Silhouette tutorial.

Why not just use trace and detach? Trace and Detach is one of my favorite tools - for print and cut.  But when you want to layer vinyl or heat transfer vinyl or give paper dimension, as many Silhouette Crafters do, trace and detach literally falls flat.

While this Silhouette tutorial will lead you through tracing a multi-colored layered design, please

know the process will not be exactly the same for every image you try to trace - the techniques, however will be.

Let's walk through this multi-layered tracing tutorial using this cupcake as an example.  While you're tracing this image make sure you do not re-size any of the layers or the original at all! If you download the PNG (because you don't have Silhouette Studio Designer Edition and can't use the SVG) you will need to trace to break up the image into parts.

Start by bringing your design into Silhouette Studio and opening up the trace tool.  What you are going to do is trace several times. What you are NOT going to do is try to trace this entire thing in one foul swoop. It will never work.

Click "Select Trace Area" and draw a box around the design. Just part of the design gets a yellow line around it right off the bat. In this case it's the brown areas with a little of the green. If I uncheck "High Pass Filter" as I almost always do, now only the brown areas are filled in yellow.  This is exactly what we're looking for.

Click "Trace" and then pull the trace away from the original image. Move it to the side and fill it in with brown using the Fill Color tool so you remember which layer it is.

Now click the "Select Trace Area" again and, again, draw a selection box around the design. This time we want to focus on another section: the icing. Again, uncheck High Pass Filter, but this time adjust the Threshold bar a little bit until another section is filled in yellow. Click "Trace" and move the layer away from the original design.


This was actually a two for one...and this is where your knowledge of how other Silhouette Studio tools work will come in handy.

If you right click > release compound path you will gain access to two layers.  First, delete the sprinkles - you already have them.



 Then separate the two icing layers and fill each with color.

In order to curve the bottom of the darker icing layer you can use the brown layer and "Subtract All." First, bring the brown layer to front. Then release the compound path of the brown layer and de-select the sprinkles.

Select only the bottom brown part and the pink icing at the same time. Go to the Modify window and click "Subtract all."

Move the icing layer away and ungroup it. Delete what you can.

Whatever is still attached to the main icing piece can be deleted by deleting individual edit points. Double click the design to access the edit points and then start deleting them. If you're not sure how to delete multiple edit points in out foul swoop, check out this Silhouette Studio shortcut!

Now you should have something that looks like this...

Repeat the tracing process again, this time focusing on the wrapper area. Uncheck high pass filter, and adjust the threshold until you get another good trace! (1)

Click 'Trace' and again, repeat the process as necessary: release compound path (2) > ungroup > separate > modify (3)  > delete (4). Remember, you may not need all of these steps depending on the image you're tracing.

And finally, after you've traced all of the sections of your design, you should have something like this...which can be now used to cut on vinyl, paper, heat transfer vinyl or whatever layered design you're going for! 

Note: This post may contain affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing products through my links, I receive 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!

Get Silhouette School lessons delivered to your email inbox! Select Once Daily or Weekly.

Subscribe Here!