If you're reading this, then you probably purchased my Circle Monogram Alphabet on Etsy. If you haven't purchased it, what are you waiting for? Go get it so you can follow along!
First of all, I only recommend using the Silhouette Studio software if you plan on using your Silhouette to cut your monogram out of vinyl, fabric, stencil material, etc. If you just want to use the monogram as a digital file to create wallpapers, logos, etc., then I would recommend using a vector graphics editor like Illustrator or Inkscape to edit the SVG file that also came with your download. A program like Illustrator has a lot more capabilities than the Studio software, so you will be able to do more cool stuff with your monogram. Plus, using
a vector graphics editor will allow you to save your monogram as a file type other than .studio, which is the only file type Studio software exports.
Alrighty, let’s get to cutting.
1. Make sure you have downloaded and installed the latest version of the Silhouette Studio software.
2. Open your Silhouette Studio software
3. On the top left hand toolbar, click the Open icon
Find the Circle Monogram Alphabet.dxf file on your computer and open it. Your drawing area should now look like this
4. If you click anywhere on the alphabet, you will notice thatthe entire alphabet is one object. We need to be able to work with the letters individually, so we need to break down the object into smaller pieces. To do that, the first step is to “ungroup” the objects. The ungroup button is on the very bottom left hand toolbar
Select the object. If your ungroup button is grayed out, there is no more ungrouping you can do, so skip down to the next step. If your ungroup button is active, click it until it becomes grayed out. Make sure you have “ungrouped” as much as possible before you move onto the next step.
5. Right-click (or control + click for Mac) on the object and when the menu appears, select “Release Compound Path.”
Now when you click on an individual letter, only the letter should be selected!
6. Almost done, just one small problem we need to fix. When we released compound paths in the last step, each individual line became it’s own object. So for letters like “A” or “B” the inside line is separate from the outside line
No worries, though. This problem has a super simple solution. Just select both the outside and inside lines, and on the bottom left toolbar click the “Group” button.
Ta-da! The two lines now form one single letter.
7. Repeat step six for all the letters that are made of two lines.
8. Start creating your custom monogram!
At the bottom of the alphabet I included two circles that are the exact size of the letters so you can arrange and align your letters within the circle. Once you have your letters in place, you can make the entire monogram as big or small as you need.
9. After you have finished arranging and sizing your monogram, move or delete the unused letters off of the drawing mat. Also make sure you move or delete the circle you used to align your letters.
10. Now you're ready to start cutting!
If you have any issues using the .dxf file in Studio or you have any questions, feel free to use the Contact tab at the top of the page to shoot me an email!