Milk carton file

Here's my first .cut file to share. It's pretty basic and I still have some tweaking to do.

I'll update the link when I have finished.

It was created using the George cartridge and fits on a 12x12 mat.

The link to the file: http://www.mediafire.com/?oi02dl9iulx

Previewing your design without the non-cutting parts showing

The preview button in CDS is a great feature, but sometimes all the non-cutting parts of the design can be a distraction.

Here’s an example:

This is not a particularly “busy” design, but the non-cutting lines and the boxes around each object, together with the crosses in the middle of each object still make checking your design for errors a little difficult.

To preview your design without all these distractions:

Click the New Page button
Make sure you are viewing the new page and click the Preview button

Now you will see your design without any of the non-cutting parts showing, like below:

This also makes it easier to see that some objects may need to be moved or adjusted in size. For example, it’s now easier to see that the left hand side of the frame above is a little too long.

If you find later that you don't want this page as part of your saved design, just select View, Delete Page (or press Ctrl D). Make sure you are on the correct page of your design when you are performing this step as you can't un-delete a page!

More on welding inside a frame - "Burping" your design

Sometimes when you weld an object/word inside a frame and click Preview, the inside of the frame won’t have welded correctly.

Here is an example:

The dollar sign has been welded into a frame made using the Base Camp cartridge. Here’s how it looks before you click Preview:

And here is how it looks after you click Preview:

Notice how the inside of the frame doesn’t appear.

Shari (sboz) from the Cricut.com message board has come up with a great term called “Burping” that describes what you need to do. Essentially what has happened is that “air” has become “trapped” inside the frame. If you expel that air your frame will cut correctly.

“Burping” is easy. Just select the last part of the frame you created (in the example above it was the right hand vertical side of the frame).

• Select Edit, Delete Shapes (or press the Delete key on your keyboard)

• Select Edit, Undo Delete Shapes (or Ctrl Z on your keyboard)

Now when you click Preview, this is what you should see:

If your frame still isn’t showing correctly, follow the above procedure again deleting different parts of the frame until you get the correct result.

Taking a screen shot of your DS screen and uploading it to the Cricut message board

Not strictly a Design Studio tutorial, but handy to have nonetheless when you want to upload screen shots of your work.

Note: These instructions are for those using Windows XP. The instructions for Windows Vista & Windows 7 are towards the end of this tutorial.

1. Hold down the Alt key and press the PrtScn/PrtSc key (usually the top row of keyboard keys towards the right after the F12 key). This copies the contents of your screen to the computers clipboard.

Tip: Just pressing the PrtScn key captures the contents of the entire desktop. Using Alt + PrtScn captures only the active window.

2. Open Microsoft Paint (Start, All Programs, Accessories, Paint).

Note: Do yourself a favor and right click on it and select "Pin to Start Menu". From now on you'll only have to select Start and you'll see it in your Start menu.

3. Select Edit, Paste (Ctrl V).


4. Select File, Save (Ctrl S) to save. (Make a note of the where you saved it - i.e. which drive/directory).

5. Give your masterpiece a name in the File Name box and select JPEG from the Save as Type box then click Save. (This creates a much smaller file size than a BMP file does).


To post your picture to the Cricut message board:

6. Start a new Post or select Reply to Post from where you wish to upload your picture.

7. Type your message if necessary

8. Below the message box you will see "Click here to upload!" and a check box with Embed picture in post. Tick the checkbox and click on "Click here to upload!".


9. At the next screen click on the Browse button.


10. Find your file, select it and click Open.


11. Click OK

12. Click OK at the File Uploaded Successfully screen.

13. Click the OK button at the bottom of the Post screen.

Note: You will not see the picture in your post until you go back and view the posted message.

Go take a look!

This is the fastest way but it's not the neatest way. You will probably find that the picture in the post is HUGE. There are a few extra steps you can take to post just the part of the screen you actually want.

14. Follow the above instructions up to number 3 (copying the image into Paint).

15. Click the Select Tool from the Paint Toolbar (2nd button, top row).

16. When you move your mouse over the image, the mouse pointer will turn into a cross hair pointer. Move the pointer to the top left of the part of the image you want to copy. (The section of the DS mat with your design on it).

Note: You may need to scroll down using the scroll bar (to the right of the screen) to see all of your design.

17. Click down with the left mouse button and drag across and down to draw a box around your design.

18. Select Edit, Copy (Ctrl C)

19. Select File, New (Ctrl N). You will be asked if you want to save the changes to your file. Click the NO button.

Note: You CAN save that file if you want - but you probably won't need it again.

20. Select Edit, Paste (Ctrl V). The image you selected will be copied into Paint.

21. The image should be surrounded by Grey.

22. If it is surrounded by WHITE you will need to scroll to the bottom right of the screen (using the scroll bars). Look carefully and you should see a small selection handle in the bottom right of the screen. Move you mouse over this handle until the pointer turns into a double ended pointer. (NOT a four handled pointer). Click down and drag this handle up and to the left until your image is totally surrounded by Grey.

Why? If you don't remove the extra white space the saved image will be too small and will be surrounded by white space. (The uploaded picture will be small but it will take up a lot of screen space on the message board).

23. Now, you can save and upload your image. Go back to step number 4 and continue to step number 13.

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Instructions for Vista and Windows 7

Windows Vista & Windows 7 have a handy tool called the Snipping Tool. You can use the Snipping Tool to capture a screen shot (or snip) of any object on your screen.

You'll find the Snipping Tool in your Accessories. To find it:

• Click the Windows Start button

•  Hover your mouse over All Programs

• When the Program list has expanded click Accessories

• Click Snipping Tool

Your screen will lighten and you will see this box:

• Click and drag your cursor around the part of the screen you want to capture. As you drag your mouse the part of the screen you are capturing will darken.

• Click the Save button 
• Select the directory you want to save to
• Type a name in the File Name box
• Change the File type to .jpg if necessary (jpg/gif/txt are accepted when uploading files to the cricut message board)
• Select Save

Now follow steps 6 - 13 above to upload your file to the message board.

I'm sure you'll agree the snipping tool makes capturing images so much easier!

Wish list of future features

While I definitely love the Design Studio software, there are things about it that could be improved. Here's my list of what I would like to see changed/added. Let me know if you have any to add to the list.

1. Speed up the loading time. Depending on the computer it takes anywhere between 30 seconds to over a minute to load. Do the fonts and keywords have to be loaded EVERYTIME?
   
   
2. The option of minimizing/sending to the back the opening Cricut image. It blocks a large portion of the screen while it is loading. Yes you can move it over to the side, but it's still in the way if you want to do anything else while your waiting for DS to load. (See item 1).
   
   
3. I would like the ability to turn on and off the gridlines in the mat. Sometimes they get in the way when you are checking to see if your welding has worked.
   
   
4. For the same reason I would like to be able to turn off the box around the shape.
   
   
5. This one is HUGE! I can't believe I forgot about it had to go back and add it now. Please give us the ability to weld inside a frame. At the moment if we weld something inside a frame, the inner part of the frame and some parts of the object that has been welded inside don't cut. Being the very clever people that we are, we have come up with a way to do it using 4 welded rectangles, but what happens if we want to use a different shaped frame eg. a circle/oval/heart...?
   
   
6. Group/ungroup option. This is a biggy. Being able to group a range of objects to manipulate them would be fantastic to have.
   
   
7. Select All/Select multiple. Another biggy! We should be able to select everything/multiple items on the mat and move them around. This would be very handy when welding multiple objects.
   
   
8. While we're on the subject of selecting - make it easier to select an object. Clicking inside the object to select it would be great.
   
   
9. Nudge buttons - It would be great to be able to click and hold the nudge button rather than having to click it repeatedly.
   
   
10. Shadows - Wouldn't it be fantastic if there was an auto welded shadow function. Create a design, weld it, then click shadow. Oh joy!
    
    
11. I'd like to see a mirror image option and a flip vertical option.
    
    
12. There definitely should be an Auto Save option. Computers are unpredictable and love to freeze and the most inconvenient time. Having a point that you can go back to rather than recreating your whole project if you have forgotten to save would be great. Even this Blogger software has Auto Save and it's FREE!
    
    
13. I'd like to be able to use the Shift/Caps Lock keys on my keyboard instead of having to click it on and off with my mouse. Not a big thing, but annoying just the same.
    
    
14. Make it easier to move that pesky cursor. The double click speed seems to have something to do with it, but really - we should be able to just click somewhere on the mat to move the cursor to that position.
    
    
15. Crop function. We need the ability to crop out parts of objects that we don't want to cut. Eg. if you just wanted the grapes from the Paper Dolls Dress up cartridge you could crop out the other fruits.
    
    
16. I'd like another keyboard shortcut. Delete All. There is a delete all option in the menu, but I'd like a keyboard combo that I could do the same - say Shift Del or something.
    
    The following are ideas/suggestions from members of the Cricut.com Design Studio Message board. Others may have suggested these ideas in posts that I haven't read (of forgotten) so if I've missed your name, my apologies. :)
    
    
17. The ability to nudge up & down would be great. Idea from Mandy
    
    
18. An erase option. Similar to a Crop feature, but could be used to erase smaller parts of designs (like the tails on the letters in Opposite Attract). Idea from Sarah (mommyto3bugs)
    
    
19. Make the measurements on the CDS mat easier to see. Idea from Kissakoala and Glenda
    
    
20. A percentage scaling option including Maintain Aspect Ratio that can be switched on/off. In other words, the ability to increase or decrease the size of a design (either individual pieces or with Select All, then "shrink" or "grow" it in one or both directions. Idea from JT
    
    
21. The numbering on the virtual mat and the "real" mat are different. The top and left edges are the same, but the numbering on the bottom and right hand side of the virtual mat are reversed. I'd like to see them match up. Idea from JT
    
    
22. The ability to change the speed of the cut. CDS seems to have taken over control of the cutting speed and sometimes it's too slow and is tearing the paper. Idea from Tammy
    
    
23. The ability to see which cartridges have been used in a design without having to click on each shape. Eg. a menu item somewhere called "current design". Idea from Karen
    
    
    Do you have any you would like to add to the list ?

Keyboard shortcuts

Every application has them. Here is a list of keyboard shortcuts for Design Studio.


Ctrl C - Copy

Ctrl V - Paste

Ctrl Z - Undo

Ctrl Y - Redo

Ctrl S - Save

Ctrl D - Delete Page

Ctrl A - Preview

Ctrl L - Clear Preview


Other things you can do with the keyboard:

Del - Delete Shapes

Use the up, down, left & right keys to move your selected shape/letter around on the mat.

Hold down the Ctrl key while you are using the up, down, left & right keys to move your shape in small increments.

Hold down the Ctrl key when you are resizing welded objects that you have grouped using the Select All feature. They will not only all be resized proportionally but they will stay welded.

Hold down the Alt key while you are moving your shapes around and the eight selection handles will disappear. This helps make placement of objects more precise. When you release the Alt key the selection handles reappear.

Pressing the space bar will move the cursor to the right 1 inch at a time.

Welded Shadows

Here is a pictorial demonstration on creating welded shadows!

Be aware - this only works on cartridges that have a shadow feature.

Cartridge used: George/Basic Shapes


1. Right click anywhere on the mat. You will see this box:2. Highlight the text “untitled page” and overtype it with a new name eg: Top layer

3. Press enter

4. Create your first layer. For this exercise I will be using the word “Welcome”. Type this in starting on the left hand side of the mat and using a size of 1.5/8"

5. With Kerning set to 0.000 click the Apply button

6. Using the Nudge buttons, make sure all the letters are overlapping.

7. Click the Preview button. This is what you should see so far. (Yours may be a different color). 8. With your word selected, click Weld. This should be your result.

9. Now would be a good time to SAVE!

10. Click the New Page button. Rename this page to: Shadow

11. Click the Shadow key on the DS keyboard

12. Click the Preview button

13. Open the View menu, and make sure “Keep preview as mat background” is ticked. If not, click on it to put a tick near it.

14. Move the cursor to the left of the mat and below the word “Welcome”.

15. Type the shadowed word “Welcome”

16. Select your shadowed word and move it up so the W covers the W of the unshadowed word.

17. Click Preview. The Shadowed “Welcome” will show up as a different color.

18. Click on the Shadowed E and nudge it to the left until it sits over the unshadowed E.


19. Repeat this process with the remaining letters.

20. Click Preview in between nudging each letter so that you can better see where the letters need to go. Lighter preview colors are easier to see. To change the Preview color, right click on the mat, Select Set Preview Color and click on any light color from the palette. Here is the finished result.

21. Making sure that you are still on the Shadow mat, select the word Welcome and click Weld.

You may need to fiddle with the nudging slightly but this should be the result.


22. To cut your design you can either cut one layer at a time or you can copy the shadowed word to the top layer, (or vice versa) and move it to the bottom of the mat. (Turn off Keep preview as background). Then on your real mat you can position your 2 different papers and cut both titles at the same time.

Welding inside a shape

Update: More recent version of DS allow you to weld objects inside ready made frames. You may still have trouble getting some parts of the object to cut however. Here's some info on how to fix that problem. http://myfaqcricutds.blogspot.com/2008/02/more-on-welding-inside-frame-burping.html

The following information is still relevant however, if you can't find the correct ready made frame for your project....




Who would have thought welding an object inside a shape could be so difficult? Many of us have tried and unfortunately it's not as easy as it should be. The trick is that you can't actually weld inside a frame. But you can make your own "frame" and weld inside that. Here is a step by step pictorial on how to do it. For this example I have used the George/Basic Shapes cartridge for both the frame and the object inside it.

Click Shift Lock on the DS keypad.

Click on the thin rectangle button key (below the question mark).



Click on your shape and using the Vertical Stretch handle, stretch the rectangle to the length you want your frame to be. Then using the Horizontal stretch handle, stretch/shrink the rectangle to the correct width.







Copy this shape (Edit, Copy/Ctrl C/ ) then Paste (Edit, Paste/Ctrl V/ ).

A new rectangle will be pasted on top of the original rectangle.


While this rectangle is still selected (i.e. you can see the selection handles) click the Turn 90 button once.

This will flip the rectangle horizontally.










Using the Free Move handle, move it up to meet the top of the vertical rectangle.

This will form the top of your frame.

Using the Horizontal Stretch handle, stretch this rectangle until it is the correct length.

(Note, when you use the stretch tool on the vertical shape, it stretches in one direction. When you stretch a horizontal shape it stretches from both ends).


Using the Free Move handle, position the top rectangle so that it meets the left rectangle.

Select each shape in turn and click Weld on both.

Click the Preview button to make sure your welding has worked. Remember, only the bold lines are the cutting lines.




Select the top rectangle and select Copy.


Select Paste, then using the down arrow on your computer keyboard, move that rectangle to the bottom of the vertical rectangle.

When you are close, hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard while clicking the down arrow. this will move your shape in smaller increments. You can also hold down the ALT key while moving your shapes to make the Selection handles disappear. This makes the placement of your objects easier. You may also find it easier to make small adjustments if you change your view to 200%.

You have now formed the bottom edge of your frame. Check that the bottom rectangle has the Weld option ticked.

NOTE: Don't be tempted to create the right hand rectangle yet because for some reason it won't weld properly if you do!

Now it's time to insert your shape. For this example I've used a star - also from the George cartridge.

Click on the first star shape on the DS keypad. This will insert a star onto the mat.

Select the star and using the Free Move handle move it inside the 3 rectangles so that the top point and the left point touch the top and left edges of the rectangle.








Using the Scale handle stretch the star until most of the points of the star meet the edges of the rectangles.



While the star is selected click Weld.













Now you can add the final side to the frame.

Select the left hand vertical rectangle and copy and paste it. Move the pasted rectangle over to the right side until it meets the two horizontal rectangles. Adjust the placement as necessary.


Again, check that it is welded.

Click the Preview button. You should have something that looks like this:



If any of the points of the star don't touch the side of the frame, you can use the Vertical and Horizontal stretch handles. However, it's not necessary that ALL the points touch the frame. It will just give you a different look if they don't.


Click Preview again to check your welding. Remember, only the DARK lines are the cutting lines.

Use the same process if you want to weld a word inside your frame. Just remember that everything must be welded.

Here's some more examples:

With this example I did the flower first and built the frame around it. Just remember to weld everything and add the right hand side of the frame last!

If for some reason your welding isn't working, delete the right hand side of the frame (select it and press the delete key) then undelete it (CTRL Z or Edit, Undo Delete Shapes).

And here's a great example from AnointedHands:

Selecting/deselecting objects

Sometimes it seems that no matter how many times you click an object, you just can’t seem to get those elusive "selection handles" to show. 

Here's a picture of an image on the mat. Note how it has a box around it and a plus sign in the middle (I’ve coloured them blue to make them easier to see). Clicking on these won't work. Nor will clicking on the crosshair in the middle of the object.

To select your image you must click on one of the image's lines. See where the black arrows are pointing:

Any line of your image will do. And you should only need to click once.

Still can't get it to work even though you are definitely clicking on a line of the object? Maybe the selection handles are just hidden. Press the ALT key to make them reappear.

Deselecting:

This is as easy as clicking somewhere else on the mat. If you single click, your cursor will stay where it currently is. If you double click (at the right speed...read below) your cursor should move to that spot on the mat.

Moving the cursor:

One of the frustrations that some users are having is getting the cursor to move to where they are clicking. I have done exhaustive testing (ok, I'm kidding - I tried a couple of times) and have found that the speed I double click has a lot to do with the problem. I have slowed down my double click and have much more success at getting the cursor to behave.

You can also use the up/down/left/right arrows on your keyboard to move the cursor.