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Today I’m covering Group vs. Weld in Silhouette Studio, the software for Silhouette Cameo, Silhouette Portrait and Silhouette Curio machines. They are functions you will want to use often but sometimes they can be confusing. What is the difference between them? When do you use one and not the other? Why do you want to use Weld instead of Group? You get the idea. While these functions may seem similar they are actually very different and I explain how and why you want to use them. You may also want to know how to un-weld and ungroup when you use them incorrectly and I am cover that as well. The video tutorial is linked below or scroll down just a bit for written instructions with photos. Thanks!
You may also want to check out my tutorial on Cutting Vinyl with the Silhouette Cameo 4
Please check out the video tutorial below or scroll down for instructions with photos:
Use Group to Resize & Rearrange
In Fig. A below, I’ve got a multi-colored design with a large heart and a bunch of circles. If I want to turn this into an iron-on for a t-shirt, the first thing I need to do is resize it to fit on an adult tee. To do this, I can click and drag over the entire design to select all of the objects and then resize it with one of the corner handles. That absolutely works but it does mean that I need to be careful when I click and drag to make sure I have every object in the design selected. If I miss one or two items without realizing it and go to resize, there is almost no way I can get those two objects resized on their own to be perfectly proportional with the larger size of rest of the design.
You’re probably thinking, “Well, that’s not that big a deal. You can just undo and then reselect all of it and resize it.” That is true, but like most people, I have limited time to craft so I want to be as efficient as I can be. Even though redoing it isn’t that big a time waster I’d rather just do it right the first time and be done with it. The easiest way to make sure that happens is to use Group to temporarily stick all the design elements together in one “group” that I can resize very easily and while I do that, all of the individual elements will remain proportional to each other. It also makes it easy to move all of those elements around; I can just click once and drag rather than needing to click and drag to select everything and then click and drag to move it all.
So, to Group the heart and circles, I need to again click and drag to select the whole design and then right-click and select Group (Fig. B). Another way to do this is to click the Group icon on the upper toolbar (Fig. C). Now I can resize it just as easily and move it around on the mat without worrying at all that I may miss selecting one star and have to redo it. It is super quick to do and is the primary reason I use Group – to keep a bunch of elements together so I can rearrange them, resize them or just move them around as I design a project.
How to UnGroup
Grouping is only a temporary state. If, for example, I don’t like how one circle is arranged, I can Ungroup the heart and circles by right-clicking and selecting Ungroup (Fig. D) or by using the Ungroup icon on the upper toolbar (Fig. E), rearrange that one circle and then group them together again. It makes changing the arrangement or resizing designs a lot easier!
Group by Color
Another reason to use Group, especially with the t-shirt design used here, is to be able to separate and move different colored elements around, on or off of the mat, while keeping them in their current layout. This is important so I can cut out my heat transfer vinyl for each color and then when I go to layer the different colored vinyl pieces together to iron on to the shirt, I don’t have to try and figure out where each individual circle goes around the heart. To do this, I will Ungroup the heart and circles and then hold down the shift key and only click on the pink circles and then right-click and Group them (Fig. F).
I can do the same for the red circles but this time I will use a different method. I can go to the Panels dropdown menu in the upper left of the window, click on Select By Color to open the Select By Color menu on the right. Click on the By Fill tab and then select the red fill color to quickly select only the objects that are that color – the red circles (Fig. G). I obviously don’t need to do this for the heart because it is only one element.
As you probably know, I can only cut one color of vinyl per area on the mat and since in Silhouette Studio, I am working on a representation of the actual mat and how elements are going to cut once I send the design to the machine, I need to rearrange my elements into areas where I can put down the correct color of vinyl. So, I need to pull the red circles and the heart off the mat so I can cut the pink circles out of some pink vinyl I put on the top portion of the mat (I should flip them too so I can iron them on properly but that’s another lesson)(Fig. H).
After the pink circles have been cut, I can move that group off the mat and put the red circles on the mat to have them cut with red vinyl (Fig. I) and repeat again for the fuchsia heart with fuchsia vinyl.
Finally, when I’ve cut and weeded all of my vinyl pieces, I can fairly easily put each layer back together by color to reproduce the original design and iron it on to the shirt (Fig. J). Pretty cool, right?
Use Group to Center Objects
You can also group objects in order to center or align them without losing their placement in relation to each other. This is particularly helpful with eyes when you want to center them on a character’s head or pupils when you want to center them in eyeballs. In the example below, I am want to make a monster head by creating some small circles for eyes, spacing them correctly to each other and then making them a group (Fig. K).
Then I can move them on to the square head shape, hold shift and click to also select the square shape, go to the Align tool on the upper toolbar or the Transform menu on the right toolbar and select the ‘center horizontally’ option to get the eyes to be centered on the upper portion of the square (Fig. L). This is a great way to use Group when you need to center multiple objects on top of another object but don’t want to lose the placement of the objects in relation to each other. I don’t use for this as frequently as the others, but boy, can it save me some time when I need it!
Welding Text
In the example shown below, I’ve got ‘love’ typed out in a cursive font but if you look closely, you can see where the cut lines of one letter overlaps the next letter (Fig. M) showing that each letter is going to be an individual cut. I really want the letters to be joined together so I can cut this out as one single continuous word.
To fix this problem, I will select the word and then go over to the Modify panel and click on the Weld symbol which looks like a rectangle combined with a circle (Fig. N). I can do the same thing by using the Weld icon on the upper tool bar as well (Fig. O). When I do that, you can see that the word has now lost the overlapping cut lines on each letter and is now just one continuous word that will cut out as one whole piece instead of four individual letters (Fig. P). You will need to do this for any cursive font you use where you want the word to cut as one piece and this is basically a permanent change. Once you weld it, you can’t go back in and change the spelling or edit the text at all.
Welding Shapes
You can also weld two shapes together as long as they overlap. If I move the two square shapes below and overlap them (Fig. Q) and then weld them, they become one new shape (Fig. R). This is basically a permanent change and, in Silhouette Studio, elements have to overlap in order to weld them. So, is there any way to Un-weld something?
Un-welding?
Technically you can Unweld something by using the Undo arrow (Fig. S).
You can Undo many, many times in Silhouette Studio if you need to and as long as you haven’t saved the design in between when you welded and when you realize you need to un-weld. But be aware that if you weld something and then work on a different part of the design only to realize you didn’t want to weld the first object, by clicking the Undo arrow you will have to undo everything you have done since then, one step at time until you get back to where you welded the first object. It’s not the ideal situation but at least you have a way to do it if you absolutely have to. If you are worried that you may need to Unweld something later, I would either wait until just before sending the design to the machine to weld objects or Duplicate them (Fig. T) before you weld them and put the copy off to the side in case you need to replace a welded item with its un-welded copy later. Then just delete the copy you made when you’re sure you don’t need it.
The Difference Between Group and Weld
Hopefully you now understand the differences between the two tools as I’ve gone along but let me summarize here:
Group: Combines separate objects into a temporary group; works well for combining elements that you want to move around or resize all together. Also works well for separating objects by color if you are doing a multi-color vinyl project for example so the objects will remain in their original placement by color even if you have to move them on or off the mat when it is time to cut out their color of vinyl (or whatever material). Objects can be easily grouped and ungrouped.
Weld: Basically “welds” objects together into a single new object; best used for script letters that you want to connect together into words or with shapes you want to merge. Objects must overlap to be welded. Pretty difficult to undo (but use the Undo arrow if you absolutely have to).
I hope this helps you Group and Weld when appropriate and you are now confident on how, when and why to use these two tools. If you have any questions, please leave me a comment below and I will get back to you soon.
I would also appreciate any ideas you may have for topics to cover related to the software for Cricut (Design Space), Silhouette (Studio) or Brother (Canvas Workspace) and any suggestions you may have on 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 below. I appreciate you taking the time to visit and read my blog. Thanks!
