Introduction to the Silhouette Cameo® 4

Welcome to the Silhouette Cameo 4 training video. This video will help you to learn all about the Cameo 4, Silhouette's 12-inch width precision cutting machine. To get started, let's go through the unboxing process. The Cameo 4 includes the following items in the box. The Cameo 4 machine, a power cord and adapter, a USB cord, an auto blade, a cutting mat, a multi-purpose tool used for adjusting the blade or removing the Bluetooth device from your machine, and a set of tool adapters that can hold older blade styles in the Cameo 4. In addition, the Cameo 4 purchase provides users with the following free content. Silhouette Studio basic edition software, 100 exclusive designs that are downloaded to your library once you register the and a one-month subscription to the Silhouette Design Store, which provides you with a $25 value credit for digital download content. The Cameo 4 uses a powerful design software called Silhouette Studio. This program will allow you to send jobs from your computer to the Silhouette machine. While there are paid upgrade versions available with select enhanced tools, the basic edition of Silhouette Studio can be downloaded for free from the Silhouette website at www.silhouetteamerica.com forward slash software. Select your computer's operating system to download the software. Once downloaded, double-click to run the installation program and follow the on-screen prompts to install the program. You can alternately download the software when you register your at www.silhouetteamerica.com forward slash setup. Either way, once the Silhouette Studio software is installed on your computer, you can open it from your new desktop icon. We're now going to hook up your Cameo 4 machine to your computer or laptop. First, connect the USB cable to your Cameo 4. Insert the other end of the USB cable into one of your computer's USB ports. Next, plug the power cord into an outlet. We recommend you plug it into a power strip if one is available. Plug the other end into your Cameo 4. You're now ready to power on your Cameo 4 by pressing the power button on the right-hand side of the machine. The panel should light up and you'll see an illuminated Cameo logo on the machine indicating that the power is on. With your Cameo 4 plugged in and powered on, go to the send panel in the Silhouette Studio software. Here, you'll see your machine status. It should be listed as ready. You may also see an option to update the Cameo 4 machine's firmware. If you see this, click on the option to update. This process should only take a few minutes to complete. You'll need to leave your Cameo 4 powered on and connected during this process. Once the firmware update has been completed, you'll be notified through the software. If your computer or laptop is Bluetooth enabled, you can choose to use a Bluetooth connection instead of the connection with the USB cord. The Bluetooth button on the Cameo 4 will allow you to toggle the Bluetooth option on and off. You'll find a Bluetooth connection option in the Silhouette Studio software if Bluetooth is available on your computer or laptop. The Cameo 4 has two tool chambers. The first chamber is for basic cutting with the included auto blade or drawing with a sketch pen. This chamber provides enough force to cut through most standard materials including cardstock, vinyl, sticker sheets, and heat transfer materials. The second chamber provides more powerful force for using alternate tools that are sold separately. These tools are for cutting through specialized materials such as fabric, felt, acetate, leather, wool, and craft foam. The auto blade included with the Cameo 4 is used to cut through most common materials. The auto blade must be placed into the first chamber. Simply unlock the slot and drop the blade in. You may wish to push down on the blade prior to locking the chamber back into place in order to ensure the blade is seated all the way in the machine. The auto blade will automatically be set to the proper blade setting based on the material settings in the software. Other tools for the Cameo 4 are available for purchase separately. These include a pen holder for sketching with various pen types, a rotary blade for cutting through fabrics, felts, and wool materials, a craft blade for cutting through leather, crepe paper, and craft foam, and a punching tool to mark weeding points for materials such as vinyl and heat transfer. All of these additional tools are sold separately. These tools will be labeled with a 1 or a 2 to indicate which tool chamber they are loaded into. All tools have a small metal strip on the back. The Cameo 4 has an auto tool detection feature which will read the strip and automatically set the software to the tool type that has been inserted into your machine. This helps to ensure your settings in the software are always accurate according to the tool types you are using. Cutting mats or materials are gripped by the machine's rollers. These rollers can be adjusted to various distances depending on your cutting mat or materials width. Available settings are at letter size, A4 size, 12 inch material size, and 12 inch cutting mat size. The machine will come set to use the broadest setting for the 12 inch cutting mat. To adjust your rollers you're going to release the lock lever and adjust your center rollers and then press on the lock icon on the pinch feeder and slide over to your smaller mat size and then return the lever to its locked position. To return to a larger mat size you're to follow the same steps and lower the lever and press on the pinch feeder to slide it back out to your wide position and adjust the center rollers again to center on your material and raise the lever to lock. To load a cutting mat or material into the Cameo, simply align the left hand side of your mat or material with the load line indicator on the left hand side of the machine. Once your material has been placed up against the rollers, press the load arrow. This is the arrow pointing upward. When your job is finished, unload your mat or material by pressing the unload arrow. This is the arrow pointing downward. The Cameo 4 model includes a built-in roll feeder. This is located at the base of the machine and simply slides out as needed. You can then fold the roll holders up into place. The roll feeder can be set to hold 9 inch or 12 inch width rolled materials so that you can feed longer lengths of material into the machine. The Cameo 4 model also includes a built-in cross cutter. After cutting rolled materials, you can select an option in the software to feed your material to the back of the machine so that you can cleanly slice off your project and create a new leading edge for your next job. Once your material is advanced to the rear of the machine, you can lower the cross cutter track and slide the cross cutter blade across it. This will slice your material. Once finished, raise the cross cutter track back up and lock it into its resting position. While some other leading brand cutting machines require a cutting mat for cutting all project types, the Cameo 4 offers matless cutting options for select materials. There are three different styles of cutting based on what type of material you are using. The first option is regular cutting with a cutting mat. Most materials can be placed onto a cutting mat and sent through the machine to be cut. The next option is kiss cutting without a mat. Materials that have their own backing such as vinyl, heat transfer, and sticker sheets can be fed directly into the Cameo without a cutting mat. The Cameo can then perform a cutting action that cuts through the material surface but not all the way through the backing. The last option is pop-out cutting without a mat. This is unique to the Cameo 4 model. Select paper and cardstock materials that do not have their own backing can be fed directly into the Cameo 4 without a cutting mat. The Cameo can then perform a special cutting action which cuts all the way through the material even though there is no cutting mat. The resulting cut job can then be popped out of the material. Now that we know how to load your blade and material into the machine, let's make a basic cut job. We'll begin by going to the Silhouette Studio software. We'll open your library from the library tab in the upper right hand corner of the screen and then double click on a design to open it into your design space. Once your material is loaded and your blade is in the machine, click on the send tab in the upper right hand corner. Here you can select your tool type which is generally automatically selected, your action which for this tool is cut, and your material type. We're going to use basic cardstock. You can see here other general settings that can be adjusted as needed. Once all your settings are selected, you can now click on the send button. Your Cameo will then begin to process your job. One thing we'd like to point out here is that the Cameo 4 boasts one of the industry's fastest cutting speeds clocking up to 30 centimeters per second. In a side-by-side comparison with other leading brand cutting machines, this can be up to two or even three times faster. As with all other Silhouette cutting machines, the Cameo 4 is capable of using a print and cut feature. With print and cut, you can set up cut lines around printed images in the Silhouette software and then send your designs to your home printer. You can then simply feed your printed sheet into the Cameo where the built-in optic scanner will find registration marks on your printed material and cut out around the contour of your printed designs. This allows you to create amazing projects such as custom stickers, custom tags, custom temporary tattoos, and a whole variety of other customized printed craft projects. In addition to being able to draw and design your own projects or utilize the fonts you already have on your computer, Silhouette offers additional content that can be downloaded to customize your library experience. Boasting over 150,000 designs and fonts, the Silhouette Design Store has something to fulfill every project need. You can find content any hour of the day or night and immediately download it for use. And once downloaded, it's yours to keep and use it as much as you'd like. Content can be purchased individually without any obligation or you can select one of the subscriptions available for a low monthly cost, allowing you to download even more at a great value. The Silhouette Design Store can be accessed in the Silhouette Studio software by clicking on the store button in the upper right hand side of the screen or online at www.silhouettedesignstore.com. If you find yourself wanting more software features, Silhouette Studio offers a few upgrade options to provide additional design tools and the ability to import and export additional file types such as SVG or PDF files. For more information on features and upgrade options, visit www.silhouetteamerica.com forward slash software and select the upgrade options button. You can learn much more about how to use your Cameo at www.silhouette101.com. Here you'll find free video classes, free ebooks, and project walkthroughs that will have you creating amazing projects with your Silhouette Cameo in no time. Be sure to also follow Silhouette on Facebook and Instagram and sign up for our newsletter at www.silhouetteamerica.com to stay informed about updates and new products.