UGH! It’s SO frustrating when your Cameo machine doesn’t do what you want, right? It’s such a great machine we expect it to be able to read minds. One of the most annoying things is when it’s cutting in the completely wrong place. There are several reasons why this happens. The bad news: I hate to break it to you, but it’s usually operator error. The good news: it’s usually an easy fix. Let’s look at 11 reasons why your machine may cut in the wrong place and how to fix it. That way you won’t have to put on your sour face.
Note: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you click the link and purchase something, I receive a small commission. You pay the same price. This helps me to be able to keep my business going and provide more tutorials. I will always be honest about my opinion of any product.
Reason #1: Firmware update needed
Firmware is the computer program that lives in the circuits of the machine itself. It helps it communicate correctly with your computer. If there’s something out of whack here, the communication breaks down and the machine doesn’t do what you and the software tell it to do. Just like you need to periodically update your computer software, so do you need to at times update the firmware on your machine.
There are 2 ways to find your firmware version:
- On the machine (Cameo 2 & 3 only): go into the settings by clicking on the gear icon on the machine screen. Then go to “About” on a Cameo 2; “Firmware” on a Cameo 3.
- In the Send area of the software: Click the smaller machine icon at the bottom right to open the machine detail dialog box. The firmware version is the number at the right.
To learn more about firmware and how to update it, check this post.
The fix: update firmware
Reason #2: Bluetooth issues
The newest machines — the Cameo 3 and the Portrait 2 — have the ability to cut without being connected to your computer via a USB cord. They can use a Bluetooth connection instead (this is completely optional). As I said, this is a fairly new thing, so there are still some bugs at times.
For information on setting up Bluetooth properly, check the Silhouette America website here.
If you are having an issue with the machine not cutting in the right place and you have gone through all the other reasons here, try connecting the machine to your computer with a USB cord. That will tell you if Bluetooth communication is the issue.
The fix: test using the USB cord
Reason #3: USB cord issues
Again, there can be a communication breakdown if there’s a problem with your USB cord. First, make sure the cord goes directly between the computer and the machine, not through a USB hub. Then try a different USB cord. These cords do go bad over time and often a new one will solve your issues. USB cords are pretty generic, so one from, say, your home printer may work on your machine. The specific type is USB 2.0 A Male to B Male. You can get one from Silhouette America here.
The fix: try a different USB cord
Reason #4: Incorrect page setup
Every time you start a new project, you need to check your page size. Too often, we get into the habit of just designing without checking that. When you first open the software, the page size will default to the full size your machine can cut. In other words, if you last connected a Cameo, it will be 12″ x 12″. If a Portrait, 8 1/2″ x 11,” etc. But if you’ve already been working in the software and open a new document, it’s the last size you set up in the page set up panel.
If you just start cutting without checking the page size, your machine may not cut where you expect.
To learn more about page settings, see this post.
The fix: always check your page setup when you start a project
Reason #5: Wrong mat selection
When you’re setting up your file in the Silhouette Studio software, you need to make sure you choose the correct mat or choose None if you are cutting without the mat. The mat has margins around the sticky area, including at the top. That means that when you have the Cameo mat selected, your machine will pull whatever you load in farther than if you have None selected. If you’ve got this set wrong, the machine will begin cutting too far down or too far up. To learn more about this, see this post.
Likewise, if you are using a smaller mat such as a stamp mat or Portrait mat on a Cameo machine, the margins are different.
The fix: choose the right mat and check Show Cut Border in page setup
Reason #6: Incorrect arrow orientation
This is usually an issue when you are cutting without the mat. You may not notice that with some sets of page dimensions, the arrow that normally points up on your drawing area moves to pointing left. If you are still expecting the arrow to point up, you will load the material incorrectly. The machine will actually cut in the right place, but it looks wrong to you.
This can also happen when you are using a smaller mat, change the layout orientation, or rotate the view.
For a full explanation of this, see this post.
The fix: learn to keep an eye on that orientation arrow
Reason #7: Wrong guideline used
Each machine has a line on the front platform that indicates where you are to place the left edge when you load. When using the mat, it’s the left edge of the mat. If you’re cutting without the mat, it’s the left edge of the material. So if you have your mat or material too far left or right of the line, it’s not going to cut in the right place (and it will probably end up coming out from under the rollers, which is a real mess).
For more information on this, see this post.
The fix: use the correct guideline
Reason #8: Wrong loading method
This will NOT pertain to the Cameo 3s and 4s and Portrait 2s and 3s.
On Cameo 1 and Portrait 1 machines are 2 different options for loading – Load Mat and Load Media. If you notice, your mat has some non-sticky margin at the top and bottom. That’s so you can cut all the way to the top and bottom edge of a 12” tall (Cameo) or 11″ tall (Portrait) piece of material. When you’re cutting without the mat, you don’t have that. You just have the top and bottom edges of your material.
When you load, the machine will pull the mat or material in until the blade is over the top left edge of the material. We have that margin on the top of the mat that we don’t on material without the mat. So when you choose Load Mat it goes in farther than with Load Media. That means that if you press the wrong load button, the blade is in the wrong starting spot .
For more information on this, see this post.
The fix: know the difference between Load Mat and Load Media and check the placement after loading but before cutting
Reason #9: Motor box moved for test cut and not reset
I recommend ALWAYS doing a test cut on EVERY job. It’s one of the wisest things you can do to save yourself time, money and frustration. Having said that, I don’t like the test cuts that are built into the software. You can see a whole post about that here, including a smarter method.
One reason is what happens when you do a test cut and then move your blade carriage over to do a second one. The issue is that the motor box does not return to the origin point but stays right there at the end of where it did the second test cut. Then when you send your project to cut, it uses that as the origin point instead of going back to the upper left corner.
The fix: make sure the motor box is starting in the correct place before sending the job to cut.
Reason #10: Paused or Cancelled jobs
When you pause or cancel a cut job, you have to make sure you follow the correct procedure. For instance, if you pause a job on the machine and don’t restart/cancel it ON THE MACHINE and then start a new cut, the process for the old cut is still the one the machine is working on. The new job gets added to the queue (order of jobs to be done) after the current one is finished. In other words, the machine thinks it needs to finish the first job before starting the second one. If you don’t realize this, your cut could start in the wrong place.
If you cancel a job on the machine and don’t wait long enough, that job will still show up in the Send area of the software. That means the software and machine still want to finish the job, so when you start a new job it starts cutting the old job, usually in the wrong place.
Also, when you cancel a job the motor box does NOT go back to the origin point (the upper left corner of the mat/material). If you send a new job without unloading, the cut will start right where the motor box stopped – usually down and to the right on the page.
For more on pausing and cancelling jobs, see this post.
The fix: check the Send area in the software and the machine screen to make sure jobs in the queue are cleared out before starting a new job
Reason #11: Machine turned off during the cut
If the machine is no longer getting power, when it’s turned back on it may still want to finish the job (good worker, that one). Or, because it didn’t finish with the blade housing going back to the origin point (upper left corner), it’s mixed up on where it is. So when you start a new cut, it may start halfway down the page or too far to the right, or it may even start up the old cut again.
This is one of those really oddball reasons for your machine cutting in the wrong place and the hardest one to figure out. That’s because it doesn’t always happen. Whether or not it happens and where it happens depend on how far into the job you were when you turned the machine off. So, just sometimes, odd commands get left in the machine’s brain and you need to get rid of them.
The fix
Fortunately, there’s an easy fix. Any time you have to turn off the machine during a cut, or if the power goes out, or if your toddler trips over the cord and pulls it out, follow these steps before turning it back on:
- Unplug the power cord from the machine and the wall.
- Unplug the USB cord from the machine and your computer.
- Start a brand new page.
- Draw a simple square.
- Take your blade out of the machine.
- Plug the cords back in and turn the machine on.
- Press Load (it doesn’t even matter that you don’t actually load a mat or material).
- Send the square to cut.
The machine will go through all the motions of cutting, and any weird commands still hovering in the machine from the earlier job will get cleared out with doing this simple job. You aren’t wasting any material because I had you take the blade out. You can then go back to the project you were trying to cut in the first place.
For more information on cancelling cut jobs, see this post.
Reason #12: Page mirrored
When you emboss with a Curio or cut HTV, you’re doing those things on the back side. Because of that, the software tries to help you remember to mirror the design. When you go to the Send area and have HTV as the material or emboss as the action, it asks you if you want to mirror. Here’s the problem: it doesn’t mirror the design — it mirrors the whole page.
Here’s an example. Let’s say you’re cutting HTV with the mat and you have it set to 10″ width. You’ve got a shape of the US on the left side of the page that’s 2″ x 3.25″.
You have a bad spot on the right side of the material where you accidentally cut a design with your force too low. But you’re not worried, because you’re using the left side of the material. You hit Send Mirrored and the software asks if you want to mirror. You think, “Oh, goodness! I’m so glad the software reminded me.” So you tell the software to go ahead and mirror.
You’re expecting it to do this:
Instead of flipping the US only, it flips the entire page like this:
But because the software doesn’t show you an indication of that on the screen, you’re surprised when it cuts on the right side of your HTV instead of the left.
Rather than using the Send Mirrored option, I prefer to use that as just a reminder to make sure I myself mirrored my design. Then I use Send As-Is.
The fix: Manually mirror the images yourself instead of having the software do it in the Send area.
Reason #13: Registration Mark Reading issue
Registration marks are used for Print and Cut projects. If the machine has trouble reading the marks (even if it appears to read them correctly), it can cut in the wrong place. If the cut is just a tiny bit off on the whole page, you need to do a calibration.
The fix: Check the list here.
Still not cutting in the right spot?
If you’ve checked all these things and are still having issues with the machine cutting in the wrong spot, it’s time to contact Silhouette America’s Customer Support.
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