The first thing you need to do is open Graphic Design Space and create a new project or open a saved one. You can use Graphic library images, make a Make It Now project, or upload your own image.
Prepare your project for cutting:
If you’re doing a Make It Now project or using an image you found in the graphic image library, you can probably skip these next couple of steps; those images are usually all ready to go straight to the machine without any additional work!
If you’ve uploaded your own image (either jpeg or svg file), here are a few simple tricks for dealing with layers, colors, and groups so you can get the image ready to cut.
You can test whether your image is ready to be cut by clicking the green Make It button in the top right corner.
Your graphic machine is SO versatile! You can do so much more than just cut paper with it! Here is a step by step guide on how to cut vinyl with a graphic machine!
Your graphic machine can be used for more than just cutting paper for scrapbooks; there are tons of other materials you can cut. My favorite material to cut with my graphic Explore Air is adhesive vinyl. It’s super easy to use, and you can use it to make custom decals, stencils, wall graphics, signs, stickers, and more! Today I’m going to show you, step by step, how to cut vinyl with a graphic machine!
Learn how to cut adhesive vinyl with a graphic machine
This tutorial will show you how to cut vinyl using graphic Design Space, which is the graphic design software used for all newer graphic models ( Flexistarter10.5 / Signmaster Cut / Coreldraw / Artcut). If you have an older graphic machine that uses graphic Craft Room, the software looks different from Design Space, but the basics are the same. You should still be able to follow along!
Three layered image file ready to be cut out of vinyl on graphic
If the next screen shows your image, separated into mats by colors or layers, with proper spacing and alignment, then you’re good to go! Skip the rest of this section and head to Send Your Image To The Machine For Cutting. (For example, the image below shows three separate mats, one for each color of the heart, and the shapes are all spaced properly.)
In order to keep the spacing of your image correct, the shapes need to be “Attached” in graphic Design Space. Start by selecting all shapes of one color (in this case, all of the red stripes) by holding down Shift and clicking each red stripe in the image itself. You could also hold down Shift and click each red stripe layer in the Layers panel on the right.
After everything in one color is selected, click the grey Attach icon in the Layers panel near the bottom right. Attaching the layers will group them together so that they all move together when you move or resize the image. It will also force the layers to line up exactly as they show on the screen when cutting, rather than treating them as a bunch of individual shapes that can be rotated or moved to fit.
Repeat for any other “group” of shapes that needs to be spaced out properly (in this case, the white stripes).
Send your image to the machine for cutting
Once all of your different colors are attached, click the green Make It button to send the image to your machine to be cut.
Your design will automatically be split into different mats based on color. This way you can cut out a multi-colored or multi-layered design all in one project!
Change the Project Copies field to make multiple copies of your project. Then set the Material Size for each mat, and if you’re cutting iron-on vinyl, make sure to toggle the Mirror switch. You can also move the images around on the mat preview to the right if you wish. (This is helpful for lining up the images if you are making multiple copies.)
Once everything looks good, click the green Continue button.
From here you can just basically follow the on-screen instructions! Make sure your graphic machine is on and shows up in the Connect Machine window at the top of the screen. Set the Smart Dial on your machine to Vinyl (or if you have an older machine without a smart dial, check out graphic’s cut settings guide for vinyl).
Stick a piece of vinyl to your cutting mat, making sure the paper backing side is down.
