Last week I shared several ways to alter a design to fit your project, and I used the Silhouette Design Store‘s free weekly design as a sample. I pointed out several problems with a design and showed how to fix them. You can find that post here. I also contacted Silhouette America about the issues and they have cleaned up the design. But what if you had already downloaded the original, flawed design? How do you get the corrected copy into your library? Did they fix all the flaws? That’s the topic for today’s post.
Note: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you click the link and purchase something, I may receive a small commission. You pay the same price. This helps me to be able to keep my business going and provide more tutorials.
Step 1: Delete the flawed design from your library
The first step is to get rid of the flawed design. Find it in your library. If you haven’t moved it, it will be in the folder titled Recent Downloads. Or, you can do a search for it.
Once you have found the flawed design, right click on it and you’ll see a new dialog box open. In that menu, select Delete Item.
That sends the flawed design to your software library’s recycle bin. It also initiates a sync of your library. That means your software sends a message to Silhouette America’s servers saying that you’ve deleted the design. It does that so that your Cloud library (the copy of your library that Silhouette keeps track of) stays the same as the copy of your library that’s on your computer.
Step 2: Empty the Recycle bin
Next, we need to empty that recycle bin. If you don’t the software still sees that flawed design as being in your library, so you wouldn’t be able to download the corrected one.
Scroll all the way down in the folder structure of your software’s library. The recycle bin is at the very bottom.
Right click on that folder and select Empty Recycle Bin.
The software will ask you if you’re sure you want to do this, since it’s permanent. But don’t worry — the design is still listed in your account as one you own. And as we know — if you purchase it in the Silhouette Design Store, it’s yours forever. So go ahead and choose Empty Recycle Bin.
NOW the flawed design is gone from your library.
Step 3: Re-download the corrected design
It’s time to get that corrected design into your library. There are (supposedly) 2 ways to do that. I’ll show you both and tell you which one actually works.
Download directly
Go to the Silhouette Design Store and navigate to the page for that design. You’ll see the message that you own the design and the option to download it.
Click Download and the file will copy into the Downloads folder on your computer. The trick is that it’s just a number as the file title. The clue is that the design ID number is in that title.
HINT: If you don’t know how to find the Downloads folder on your computer, there’s a simple shortcut. While in your internet browser, type CTRL+j. That opens a tab that shows items you have downloaded on that browser.
The file is zipped, meaning it’s compressed into a smaller space to make it easier to transfer the data from Silhouette America’s servers to your computer. You need to unzip it to expand it out again.
Your computer will ask you where you want to save the file. I just created a new folder for those designs. It saves as a normal .studio3 file. Back in Silhouette Studio, I can do my normal File>Open, navigate to that folder and open the design as I would open any other Silhouette Studio file I had saved to my hard drive.
I can then save it to my library with File>Save As>Save to Library. This again initiates a library sync so that my Cloud library matches the one on my computer.
The advantage of doing it this way is that although it takes more steps it can be quicker. I personally have over 11,000 designs from the Silhouette Design Store. That means my sync can take quite a while.
Sync your library
Your software will perform a library sync any time you make a change it in or when you tell it to. But that sync may or may not catch the fact that the design isn’t in your library. So you have to do something different. According to the Frequently Asked Questions on the Silhouette America website, you can go to the Silhouette Design Store, sign in and go to Account Settings. In there, click Recover All Downloaded Designs. You’ll get a this message:
“The Cloud Library will regularly sync your content between authorized devices. The recovery feature should generally not be necessary. However, if you are missing purchased content from your Cloud Library, please click the button to re-sync all purchased content to your authorized devices.”
You may not notice it, but there’s a little blue bar at the bottom where you can tell the site to look for missing designs.
That’s the one I’m going to do this time, and here’s the message I get:
The advantage is that it’s fewer steps and will look for all designs I might be missing. But as I said, with a large library it can take time. The message says that the missing designs will pop back in next time I open the software, but if it’s already open it does it right then.
Here’s the problem
Although with this method the software did find and redownload the design, it downloaded the flawed design instead of the corrected one. I have contacted Silhouette America regarding this one and they don’t know why that’s happening, other than to assume that it’s a syncing issue with version 4.2. They suggested I go back down to version 4.1, follow this method, then update again to 4.2. Not a great option. I will keep testing and update this post if we find an answer. For now, the best option is to use the first method I described.
Step 4: Check the design again
You want to make sure the flawed design has actually been corrected. Add the shape to your Design area and look for the problems you noticed before. In the birch trees shape I discussed in my post, there were some extra pieces on the branches and some bumps on some leaves. Those are the spots I’m going to check. Here’s what I noticed:
Upper left branch on trees 1 and 3
Here’s what the top left branch on the first and last trees looked like originally:
And now:
Some of the extra pieces have been removed, but not all. And the very tip still has a loop in it. That won’t cut right.
Grade: C-.
Bumps on leaves
These seem to have been corrected for the most part.
Grade: A
Leaf placement
There was a spot where a limb was poking up over the leaves.
That one is fixed. The others are not.
Grade: C-.
Bumps on branches
These haven’t been fixed at all.
Grade: F
New issue: Spots overlapping on trunks on tree 2
I noticed that some of the spots on the trees were really close to the edge of the trunk. When I zoomed in on the tree in the middle, I see that they are actually outside the trunk:
Apparently, the spots got moved as they were fixing other issues.
That’s not a problem if you plan to cut from different colors and then lay the pieces on top of one another in your project. But if you are going to make the trees all the single piece or use Subtract All to nestle them into one another, then it is. If that’s the case, you’ll need to move those over.
Grade: C
Uneven tops and bottoms on trees
This one is primarily a matter of personal preference, so it doesn’t necessarily need to be fixed.
Grade: Abstain
Let Silhouette America know
If you ever find another flawed design that you purchased in the Silhouette Design Store, let the company know. Just shoot them at email at support@silhouetteamerica.com. Tell them the name of the design and its ID number. Describe the flaws, including screen shots if you can. The more info they have, the easier it is for them to fix the flawed design. They are usually pretty good about taking care of issues in the designs. Ask that they inform you when it has been corrected. And then remember to thank them once they fix it.
If you don’t get a response through the email channel, look for the Silhouette Design Store group on Facebook. That is administered monitored by supervisors. Politely let them know about the flawed design there and ask that it be corrected.
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