I have recently released the Materials and Troubleshooting Resource Guide for Electronic Cutting Machines that includes blade, pressure and speed settings for Cricut, Silhouette and ScanNCut DX machines. One of my test readers mentioned that she didn’t know how to set any custom settings with her Cricut. Once she mentioned it, it seemed obvious that there are probably a lot of people out there who have never used anything other than the Cricut material pre-sets in Design Space with their machine.
Overall, I find the Cricut pre-sets to be pretty good and if you choose a Cricut material setting that is close to whatever material you’re using (assuming it’s not Cricut brand), generally it works. But, there are times when the materials menu in Design Space doesn’t have a pre-set for a certain material. Sometimes the non-Cricut brand material is so different in thickness from the Cricut version that you really need to change the settings in order for it to correctly cut. Adding your own materials with your own pressure settings to Cricut Design Space is the solution!
Today I am going to show you how to do just that. It’s really easy and once you’ve done it once, you will probably be doing it a lot more often, especially when troubleshooting.
Click HERE to download Cricut Design Space
Please check out the video tutorial below or scroll down for instructions with photos:
Where Do You Set Custom Materials in Cricut Design Space?
If you’ve never created a custom material in Cricut Design Space you are probably wondering where, oh where, do you actually do it? Well, it’s on the Make It screen where you set your base material.
First, click on the Browse All Materials link next to the Set Base Material instruction.
On the All Materials list that appears, look at the lower left hand corner and you will see a green link that says ” Material Settings.” Click on it.
Clicking this will open a long list of all of the pre-set materials that Cricut already has in Cricut Design Space for whatever machine you are using. You may notice that you can go into the pre-sets and edit them here if you want to (as well as any custom materials after you’ve added them).
I hesitate to do that with the Cricut pre-sets because Cricut has really researched the presets so I prefer to add my own material with its own settings. To do so, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the list. Click on the Add New Material link in the lower left corner.
Name Your Material and Set the Custom Settings in Cricut Design Space
Once you click on Add New Material, a box will open that asks you to give your material a name.
Name it whatever you like. I usually name it after the specific material, like Siser Glitter HTV as I did in this instance. Then click the Save button.
This will place your custom material alphabetically by name into the long list of pre-set materials that we scrolled past to get to the bottom. If necessary, scroll up until you find it. The green pressure bar slider will be open under the name, making it easier to find.
175 is the default pressure setting, but you probably want to change that. Slide the pressure bar up or down to the specific number you want to set for the pressure or use the + and – buttons to the right. You can find pressure settings for specific materials in my Materials & Resources Guide or do a bit of Web research if you aren’t sure what setting to use with your material. For Siser Glitter HTV, I set the pressure to 185. You can also change the Multi-Cut setting if you want the machine to automatically cut more than once and change the blade if that is appropriate for your material. I left the multi-cut and blade settings as is for my glitter HTV.
Click Save to save your custom settings.
Choose Your Custom Material as the Base Material in Cricut Design Space
Now you probably want to use your new material, so close out of the materials list and again click the Browse All Materials link. The All Materials list opens with its pre-set categories and if you scroll down, you will see there is a new section that has been added called My Materials.
This is where all of your custom materials will be added, alphabetically, so you can just click on them to choose them in the future. Click on the new material and it is now set as the base material for the first mat of your project.
Pretty awesome, right? And, not too difficult to do. The hardest part is figuring out what settings you want to use for your material (but that’s what my guide is for – lol, shameless plug).
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Questions, Comments or Suggestions?
If you have any questions, please leave me a comment below and I will get back to you soon. Want to just tell me how much you loved this tutorial? Please leave me a comment below – lol!
I would also appreciate any suggestions you may have for topics to cover related to the software for Cricut (Design Space), Silhouette (Studio) or Brother (Canvas Workspace) and any ideas you have for projects to make with the Cricut Maker, Cricut Joy, Silhouette Cameo 4 or the Brother Scan N Cut DX. Please leave any requests you have in the comments. I appreciate you taking the time to visit and read my blog. Thanks!
