How to Turn Off Silhouette 3mm Kraft Blade Hooks and Loops

There's a setting buried in the Send panel that will allow you to turn off the hooks and loops that automatically turn on when using the 2mm and 3mm Silhouette Kraft Blade. 

The ability to turn off the series of hooks and loops, called Smart Cuts, often helps to cut thick, dense materials without the blade getting stuck in the material.

The 2mm and 3mm Kraft blade should only be used with big bold designs not those with any type of small intricate detail. 

Start in Silhouette Studio by creating or opening the design. 

When you're ready move to the Send panel and expand Tool 2 (if you're using the 3mm Kraft Blade) or Tool 1 (for the 2mm Kraft Blade).  

Let's say we are going to cut this tree design on a piece of craft foam. When Craft Foam is selected as the material we get a series of loops and hooks around the design.  They're needed to help turn the blade, but unfortunately every one of them is an added opportunity for the blade to get stuck in the material. 

You can't turn off the Smart Cut on pre-existing materials in your material list. So you need to add a new custom material. 

There are a series of steps here that you'll need to do to create a custom material - either completely from scratch or by copying an existing material (which is ideal since the rest of the cut settings will be duplicated).   

This process needs to be done just once for each material you want to cut without the Smart Loops. Once you create the custom material it will be saved this way in your Material List. 

How to Custom Material Settings in Silhouette Studio

Click the More button. 

If there's already a default material in the list, you can right click that material and click "Duplicate" then it will show up at the bottom of your material list. Again this is ideal. (For example if I want to cut craft foam without smart loops, right click Craft Foam > Duplicate). 

Otherwise, scroll to the bottom of the Materials List and click the + sign to add a new material. It will be called "New Material" by default. 

For this option you will also need to click the + sign tab in the lower panel (in blue) to add the Carriage 2 tab.

How to Disable 3mm Kraft Blade Loops and Hooks aka Smart Cuts 

Now working in the Carriage 2 panel:

• Change the material to "Other"
• Check the Disable Smart Cuts box
• Set the Blade, Speed, Passes and Force cut settings accordingly if you created a brand new material. If you duplicated another material the cut settings will have copied over. 

I would suggest you also rename the material to indicate the Smart Cuts are turned off. This can be done by right clicking the material name and selecting "Rename" 

Click Save.

Return to the Send panel and change the selected Material to the new custom material you just created. 

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