EveryCutFileHow to tell the lines apart in our files
The colors and group names tell you what each line is for; they don’t set anything on the machine. A dashed guide is only a way of painting the line (stroke-dasharray in the SVG standard): the path underneath is one continuous line, so a dashed fold left on Cut is cut right through.
| Group in the file | How it looks | What it is | Set it to |
|---|---|---|---|
| cut-outlines | Filled dark shape | The outline of each piece | Cut |
| cut-slits | Thin blue line | A slit cut right through, such as a closure slit | Cut |
| score-guides | Thin rust line | A fold | Score |
| fold-guides | Dashed dark line, in the belly band, place card and cable tag sets | A fold | Score |
Set the folds to Score in Cricut Design Space
- Upload the SVG, select it and choose Ungroup.
- Select only the fold layer and choose Operation > Score in the Edit bar (on a phone or tablet, Edit > Operation). Its color swatch now shows a slash.
- Select the fold layer together with the outline it belongs to, plus the slit layer if there is one, and choose Attach in the Layers panel (on a phone or tablet, Actions > Attach).
- Select Make and follow the prompts: Design Space tells you when to load the scoring tool and when to swap back to the blade.
Which scoring tool
Score uses a Scoring Stylus or a Scoring Wheel. The Scoring Wheel and Double Scoring Wheel work only on Cricut Maker machines, in a QuickSwap housing; the Cricut Explore 5 has its own Scoring Tool. After you choose the material, Edit Tools lets you switch to the scoring tool you own.
If Score isn’t in the Operation menu, the machine selected in Design Space doesn’t offer it. A file with no fold guides can still be scored: Shapes has a free line that you can set to Score and attach.
A worked example: the tuck-top box
Our tuck-top box is 210 × 140 mm (8.27 × 5.51 in) and folds into a 60 × 40 × 70 mm box. Counted from the file, its score-guides group holds seven score lines, 700 mm in all. Measured from the top left corner of the file:
| Score line | Where | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Three panel folds | x = 60, 100 and 160 mm, from y = 50 to 120 mm | 70 mm each |
| Glue-tab fold | x = 200 mm, from y = 50 to 120 mm | 70 mm |
| Top fold, under the lid and dust flaps | y = 50 mm, from x = 0 to 200 mm | 200 mm |
| Bottom fold, above the bottom flaps | y = 120 mm, from x = 0 to 200 mm | 200 mm |
| Tongue fold | y = 10 mm, from x = 120 to 140 mm | 20 mm |
The slits stay Cut
The cut-slits group holds four slits that must stay set to Cut: three 20 mm slits between the bottom flaps, at x = 60, 100 and 160 mm, and the 20 mm closure slit 8 mm below the top of the front panel, which takes the lid’s tongue.
Set the rust layer to Score, attach all three layers, and the whole net goes onto one 12 × 12 in mat: 8.27 × 5.51 in is well inside its 11.5 × 11.5 in cutting area.
The tuck-top box from the example →
Folds in Silhouette Studio
Designer Edition or higher opens our SVG; Basic Edition needs the DXF. Either way the folds arrive as ordinary lines, and Silhouette documents two ways to handle them:
- Dashed cut: select the fold lines and choose a dashed style in the Line Style panel. Studio cuts a line in the style it has, so the fold is cut as a perforation, short cuts with gaps between them.
- Settings by color: in the Send panel, open the Line tab. Each line color is listed with its own settings and can be switched on or off, so if the fold lines are a color of their own, they can have settings of their own, or be switched off so you fold by hand along a ruler.
From the maker’s documentation and reference works: Cricut: image upload instructions, Cricut: Canvas screen guide, Cricut: using Attach, Cricut: Scoring Wheel tools, Cricut: scoring with Cricut Explore 5, Cricut: change the mat or material size, W3C: SVG stroke dashes, Silhouette Studio editions, Silhouette: Studio 5 user manual, Silhouette: Basic Edition features.