Trick for Placing Material on Silhouette Cutting Mat...So You Never Miss Cut!

You can place even small scraps on your Silhouette cutting mat and accurately cut them...if you know this trick.  

Read on for my best tips on making sure your Silhouette CAMEO or Portrait cuts in a precise spot even when your material is very small. 

Sometimes you don't want to use a full 12x12" of material to cut a small design..or sometimes you just have a whole bunch of random and odd-shape scraps that you want to put to good use.  

Your Silhouette machine can cut VERY precisely and hit even a small target if you set it up correctly. 

Start in Silhouette Studio's Send panel by selecting your machine from the machine list. Your machine doesn't have to be connected to do this, but you do want to pick the connection for the correct machine model. 

Go to the Design area and open and scale (size) your design.  

This design I'm working with is from So Fontsy's Amazing Crafters SVG Bundle.

You can place the design anywhere in the work area - but up against a corner or the edge is the easiest spot. 

Open the Page Setup panel and make sure the Machine, Feed Type, and Cutting Mat settings are all set to "Auto".   Auto will match the size to the machine you picked in the previous step in the Send panel. 

In the Page Setup Panel slide the Transparency bar so it's around 80%. You should only have a 1" grid. 

(If you have smaller grid lines click G on your keyboard to turn off the secondary grid.)  Not only will this show you the grid, it will also reveal - tiny as they are - grid numbers. 

These match the grids and grid numbers on the Silhouette cutting mat. 

From the left tool bar use the Draw a Rectangle tool to draw out a rectangle to fully cover your design. Take note of the boxes it covers on the virtual mat.  

Those are the same boxes you will want your material to cover on your cutting mat. 

In this example I need a piece of heat transfer vinyl that's covering boxes 1-10 across and 1-6 down. 

Once you place the material, be sure to delete the rectangle if you don't want it to cut. Or keep it and use it as a weeding box. 

If you have other designs in the same work area, even if they are being cut on a different material, you can use the same trick to know exactly where to place those materials on the same Silhouette cutting mat. 

I was cutting different parts of the same design here on different color glitter HTV.

The lower design is covering boxes 9-12 down and 1-10 across. 

I ended up using my 15" Silhouette CAMEO Plus with the 15" mat, but I needed to cover the exact same grid blocks.

Here's how my mat looks with the two different materials on it - exactly in the same position as the designs in Silhouette Studio. 

Now when I cut, as long as my mat is loaded correctly, I know my CAMEO will cut preciously on my material. 

This works even with really small scrap pieces too - just always be sure to position the material by matching the grids! 

Wanna know the trick to weeding super thin and delicate HTV designs like this? Check out my video on the ONE thing step you can't skip. 

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!