Silhouette Cut Settings – Overcut

ByJill Lipscomb April 6, 2019October 12, 2020

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I LOVE die cut words! It is one of my most favorite things in the crafting world. There are hundreds of dies out there for die cutting words. There are lots of different fonts and words in dozens of combinations. I have one major complaint about dies when it comes to die cutting words: LIMITING. There’s only so many dies in so many combinations.

Enter the Silhouette digital die cutting system! (Pretend I said that like a circus announcer. hehe.) I can create any sentiment I want for any project in the size I want and pick just the right font. There are few things to understand about how the software and the machine work so that you can get the best cuts possible.

Honestly, I didn’t use my first Silhouette Cameo often to cut paper. It always tore and never cut all the way through the paper. Plus getting the paper off the mat was a nightmare. That’s no longer the case. Having the correct Silhouette cut settings makes all the difference in the world. The overcut feature being the one cut setting you need to know about. Let’s take a closer look at the overcut feature.

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Silhouette Studio Overcut Feature

The Silhouette Studio software has this amazing feature called overcut. First let’s answer two important questions: What is it? And why do you need to use it?

Overcut does exactly what it the same says. This feature tells the Cameo (or other versions of the machine) to overcut the line in the corners. This means the machine cuts the tiniest bit further than the design at the corners. The blade actually lifts up and turns in a different direction and then continues to cut.

If the overcut feature is not turned on in the Send panel then the blade does not pick up and the paper tears in the corners. This is where you run into issues and you grab that Xacto knife. Well, no more Xacto knives my friend! Use the overcut feature next time you’re cutting anything detailed.

There’s one more setting that’ll help!

Okay, so that’s not the only setting that makes all the difference in the world when it comes to cutting detailed images. The Passes setting needs to be set to at least 2. Check it out for yourself in the photo below. I picked an especially thin and dainty font to create a sentiment image for the front of this card. I cut the sentiment three times and stacked each letter just like I would if I had die cut in the traditional method. Look how clean those letters are!!! LOVE it!!!!