Why Your Silhouette Design Store .SVG Files Only Work in Silhouette Studio

Beach Hut Favor Box: Little Luxuries Loft Purchased from the Silhouette Design Store

I love my new beach hut favor boxes from Little Luxuries Loft! I made 4 of them in just under an hour along with some cute beach tote bag favor boxes (print and cut files that worked like a dream). I was really on a roll and feeling really excited by this new found love for my Silhouette machine (Cameo 2), until, alas, my Silhouette Studio software (Designer Ed. 4.1) broke down again, for the third time since I updated to this version (think "Blah Bunny" moment here!) So I said, no more, lets just save all the .svg files from the Silhouette Design Store that I purchased and upload them to the Brother ScanNCut Canvas Software (I purchased the Brother after giving up on the Silhouette a few years ago). This is where I had my aha moment, they did not import correctly, the designs were broken. Aren't all .SVG files universal? They all have the same file extension, right? Isn't .SVG an open file format like .jpg? The answer I got was a big whopping no!

Flip Flop Shape Card: Silhouette Design Store

After stressing over this for some time I finally found the answer as to why the .SVG files I had purchased and downloaded from the Silhouette Design Store could not be imported properly into the Brother Scan N Cut "Canvas" software, even though Canvas and the Scan N Cut can read .SVG files!

According to The Gentlemen Crafter from the UK,  .SVG files  have 2 types, one is a universal file that can be read by all machines, however, designers can make these .SVG digital cutting files "proprietary" so that they can only be read by one particular software program. Based on the information below that I read on the Silhouette School blog and after reading the Gentlemen Crafter's note below, I'm going to assume that ALL .SVG FILES PURCHASED FROM THE SILHOUETTE DESIGN STORE can ONLY BE USED in SILHOUETTE STUDIO SOFTWARE. I wish someone had put that disclaimer in big words on the product description for these machines!!!

At first I felt disappointed and somewhat cheated and mislead, and then of course, you realize its a no brainer, once the information settled in.  Of course they are not going to want you to be able to use their design files in competitor software programs that work with competitor machines! Silly me.

It does appear that the .SVG design files available for purchase in the Silhouette store are "proprietary" .SVG files, ie. they include extra bits of code that can only be understood by the Silhouette Studio software, so if you try to import the design file into, lets say, the Brother Canvas software, which I tried to do yesterday, my designs appeared broken, or pieces of the design were missing.

So then I asked myself the question, whose designs can I purchase that I know will not be "proprietary" - I asked Lori Whitlock and I asked the SVG Cuts people. So far I've received a reply from Lori only.  If you buy files directly from her store, those files can be read by the Canvas software for ScanNCut users, however, because the Canvas software will not allow designs that are bigger than the 12x12 mat, they are imported so that they will fit inside the 12x12 mat, making them the wrong size to cut. You need to resize each design element and save them as separate files into your Canvas library, which is pretty time consuming, although doable.  Here is a link to her video tutorial where she explains how to do this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7cTogJPMHk

If you are interested in purchasing an .SVG file make sure you get confirmation that it can be used in your machine's software before you buy it is the number one lesson I learned from this whole experience!

Here are my sources of information so you can read them directly for reference:

1) Silhouette School Blog:
"Keep in mind, though, designs purchased from the Silhouette Design Store are protected against the ability to be exported in any format - including SVG."

While you can create a design inside the Silhouette Studio software and export it as an .SVG file using the Business Edition, my understanding is that the file will not work inside of other digital cutting machine software programs.

2) The Gentlement Crafter:
This is a copy of a note I received from him (he designs files for the Brother Scan N Cut Machine):

"Whilst SVG is a universal file format there is a 'plain' version and also 'proprietary' versions. This second group contains extra information added to it by certain graphics software or design packages in order to add advanced graphics features or extra information to the file.
It is, therefore, an assumption that if the SVG file, you are receiving an error on, was created from within the Silhouette Studio software, that it would have information added to it that relates to that software only. This could apply to print and cut designs as these would include both raster and vector information. The Scan N Cut can only see/read a 'plain' SVG and would therefore not be able to read those proprietary files.
Whilst Brother doesn't sell many files - which was their intention because the Scan N Cut was intended for designing with - there are literally gazillions of other designers out there that share and sell SVG files, including me via http://www.digitalcraftemporium.co.uk so you are likely to find what you want if you don't have the time or inclination to create it for yourself."