Using the drawing tools in Silhouette Studio Designer Edition software is very easy. The Silhouette software has quite a few drawing tools. In this tutorial, let’s get started using the most basic drawing tools.

When you open the software, you will have a empty document. We should talk a little about the workspace. As you can see, the Drawing area is solid white with a red border along the edge. The grey area around the Drawing area is the Holding area. You can also draw an object in this area but it will not be sent to the Silhouette^R cutting machine or your printer (for Print and Cut). Only objects that are inside the red border will be sent to your printer or directly to the Silhouette for cutting.

One feature that is useful when drawing or editing objects on the Drawing area is the grid. Let’s turn on the grid now.

1. Click the Grid icon in the upper right menu to open the Grid pane.
   
   
2. Check the box for Show Grid, to add the grid to the Drawing area.
   
   As you can see in the Spacing section, the default grid line setting is one inch with 4 subdivisions. The grid lines are grey, which can become a problem when using some SVG files, which also have grey lines. So, I like to lighten the grid lines.
   
   
3. In the Color section, use the shade slider to reduce the saturation and make the grid lines less prominent.
   
   

Now we are ready to use some basic drawing tools.

Let's draw a line.

1. Select the Line tool from the Toolbar at the left.
   
   
2. Click and drag with the line tool on the Drawing area.
   
   If you prefer, you can click twice on the Drawing area to set the start and end points for your line.
   
   As you can see, Silhouette displays the width and height measurements as you draw. As with most drawing software, holding down the Shift key will force you to draw a line at 45 degrees, either vertically, horizontally or diagonally.
   
   

Let’s draw a rectangle.

The Rectangle tool will draw a square or rectangle object.

1. Select the Rectangle tool.
   
   
2. Click on the Drawing area to begin drawing the rectangle or square.
   
   
3. To complete the drawing, release your mouse button or click a at a second location on the Drawing area.
   
   As with the Line tool, Silhouette displays the width and height measurements as you draw and holding down the Shift key will force equal width and height.
   
   

Let’s draw a circle.

The Ellipse tool will draw a circle or oval.

1. Select the Ellipse tool.
   
   
2. Click on the Drawing area to begin drawing the circle or oval.
   
   
3. To complete the drawing, release your mouse button or click at a second location on the Drawing area.
   
   As with the Rectangle tool, Silhouette displays the width and height measurements as you draw and holding down the Shift key will force equal width and height.
   
   

Silhouette, Silhouette Studio, Silhouette Connect, PixScan, Silhouette CAMEOR and Silhouette Portrait are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Silhouette America, Inc. Product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Silhouette America, Inc.