Hello all! I just got the Siser Juliet and set up Leonardo Design Studio to go along with it. Right now, I’m pretty new to the Juliet and the software. It’s pretty basic software- I’m used to Silhouette Studio, which has a lot more features. Also I have the Business version which has even more
features. And so, one of the things that was really confusing to me when I was trying to do this project, is the idea of how to send a collection of shapes to cut on the same cardstock still on the mat loaded in the machine, and continue cutting after the previous cuts.
In this case, I had shapes that I set up and cut initially on the Juliet. Then I decided that I wanted to cut other shapes, because there was still room on the piece of cardstock that was sitting in the Juliet. I imported some new shapes into Leonardo, and positioned them in the software above the initial shapes that were already cut.
Note that they look pretty similar, but they’re slightly different shapes that were meant to back cutouts from a separate print and cut.
I wanted to start the second cut of the new shapes where the previous ones finished, and anything I tried kept shooting the mat off out of the machine. So here is the way that I was able to achieve what I wanted…
After I imported the new shapes, I made them a separate color, so I knew which shapes were already cut and which weren’t.
Then I selected them. I clicked the Send Design button and chose selected artwork only. This was key. When I choose all artwork, the software seems to assume that you’re doing this all in one go. Any of the Positioning Options that I chose to determine what the blade should do, didn’t work.
Finally, I chose Selected Artwork only and then in the Positioning Options below, I chose Move Each Color Layer to Origin.
Remember that the blade was positioned at the end of the cuts from the first set of shapes. The reason the blade was there was because when I click Send to Cutter, I generally click Advance to End of Cut rather than Return to Origin. That way if I need to continue to cut, my mat in the machine is set up with the blade positioned at the spot where it came to rest after the previous set of cuts. It also alleviates the chance that the blade will cut a line through your cut shapes as it returns if you choose Return to Origin.
I also show in Leonardo how I create custom materials that I can use instead of the settings set up on the Juliet itself. My process is as follows:
I test on the machine, and then once I get the correct speed and force settings, I take a picture and usually set up a custom setting on the Juliet. More on that later.
I also take those force and speed settings and set up a new Material in Leonardo. You can’t set up blade depth, that is an unfortunate difference coming from the Silhouette world where you have at least some settings on the blade to guesstimate where to start with blade depth settings.
In any case, the reason I also set up the settings in the software, is that I ran into an issue where my Black Cat Cougar’s panel died and I had to use software to determine the cut settings, and to even move the blade housing. I am not sure whether that will work should the control panel on the
Juliet die, but it is worth the extra effort to have the settings saved where I can find them when I go back to cut that material again.
So here is where I accomplish the software cut settings. When you are ready to send your cuts to Juliet, and you are in the Cut panel, unclick the Use Cutter Settings checkbox. Then you will see a drop down list of Media Presets settings- either default ones from Siser, or custom ones created by you. If you click the three dots next to that drop down list of materials, you can create a new one with the force and speed settings determined from your test cuts. The tilde in that list of materials indicate your custom settings. When you go back to the Cut panel, the tilde doesn’t appear in the drop down Media Presets list, however it appears as though the custom ones are listed first.
On the Juliet side of things, in my case, my mat was in the Juliet with the blade positioned after the previous cuts. If you forgot to use the Advance to End of Cut setting or if you had unloaded the mat from the machine, you can always use the Juliet Hardware Control panel to position the blade somewhere after the previous set of cuts over the cardstock on your mat.
I showed how the cuts looked after performing the back to back cuts. The cardstock I used was American Crafts cardstock. It is a medium weight cardstock, and even though I needed slightly higher force (39 vs 21) than I needed for Epson Matte Printer Paper, the blade depth was fine where it was for both.
I also showed how I set custom cut settings on the Siser Juliet itself in its Cut Settings panel. I do this after experimenting with cut settings using the Test Cut button on the machine (works great!!). I had a little bit of trouble initially in the video because I never clicked the Update button after I changed the Speed and Force settings. So the process I use is as follows:
I do my test cuts and determine the best force and speed combinations- moving incrementally to where the machine cuts the material easily, but doesn’t gouge the mat. This will save your mat from wearing out quicker! Then I take a picture of it. Then I click on the button at the top that lists the current material setting in use. When I opened that panel for the first time, there were 3 Open materials. I clicked on an Open choice and typed in a new name and set the Speed and Force
as determined by my test cuts. After setting up the new material settings, you click on the material again to choose it and exit that panel. The first time you do this you also need to click the button next to the Material name on the Cut Settings panel. This will ask if you want to Update the settings for the material and, at this point, choose Update. You only need to do this the first time you are creating a new Material setting. Or if you decide to change the settings in the future, you would Update the settings again.
At the end of the video I wanted to say a few words about the (brand new) mats I was using. I had tried an off brand from Michaels, Makers Market, and I had ordered a set of 3- Light Grip, Standard and Heavy. My Epson Matte Presentation paper that I use for print and cuts, stuck and ripped on
the Standard, so I use the Light grip for that. I haven’t even tried the heavy duty grip one yet.
I thought the light grip might be a little too light for the somewhat heavier American Crafts cardstock. So I used the standard mat, and I just had one little area where it kind of stuck. I think I had an extra cut there that went off the mat so that might have screwed things up a bit. The rest of the cuts weeded really cleanly.
All in all I have been super impressed with the Siser Juliet machine! Enjoy yours!
