Silhouette help

You may need to try their Chat option to get technical help.

However, the files themselves don’t take up a lot of room on your computer unless there are images involved. I have literally thousands of Silhouette files, but they don’t take up that much space. Print and cut files take up more space than the plain cutting files.

If you need to really free up computer space, moving photos, movies, music, etc., to an external hard drive would free up a lot more space than just deleting Silhouette files.

Chat (online) and email are the only options, but chat is the quickest. Email responses can take a couple of days, and even then, they tend to give you answers copied and pasted from their help section. They sometimes do that with chat, but at least you can say, “I tried that already,” and get better help without waiting another two days.

If they are saved to your Silhouette library, they are stored on the Cloud.

I will give you step by step instructions. I am not trying to talk down to you, but you say that you are computer illiterate, so I will try to be as specific as possible. Forgive me if I tell you things you already know. I’d rather give you too much information than miss any important steps. The instructions I am giving you are for a PC/Windows based computer, NOT an Apple computer/device. If you have an Apple computer, then it might be different. I can’t help with an Apple computer.

When I am in the Silhouette software and want to save a file that is my own design, or any SVG that I downloaded from some other company, I open it in my Silhouette software, then save it to my computer hard drive or an external hard drive. To do this, I go to File, then choose the “Save as” option, not the “Save” option. That lets me choose to save it to either the Hard Drive or Library. If you choose library, it goes automatically to the Silhouette software library and is saved on the Cloud.

If you choose Save to Hard Drive, then you will get a window that (at the top) says This PC> and will be followed by whatever you saved something to last. Mine will be the documents folder, but I don’t know what yours will show.

At this point you choose a folder where you want to store it, or you may need to create a new folder.

When I choose the Save to Hard Drive, anew screen/window will open that says This PC> Documents> Silhouette Files 2022, because I have a file folder set up for storing just my Silhouette files, and the software will usually assume that I want to save it to that folder.

I am assuming that you probably don’t have a folder set up yet for storing your Silhouette files on your hard drive. To set one up, go to the little folder icon in the task bar (it’s on the bottom of my computer screen once it has booted up after being turned on). If your mouse curser is held over it, then a little banner should show up after a few seconds that says “File Explorer.” Click that folder.

You will get a new window. Mine says File Explorer at the top, and in the box, I have several options. I chose Documents to store my files. Double click documents (or pictures, or whatever folder you want to store them in, that you will remember). That will open a new window.

To create a folder for storing your Silhouette designs, click the “Home” option at the top. That will open additional options. Find the one that says “New Folder” and click it. A new folder will appear with the words “New Folder” in blue so then just hit the backspace key to eliminate the name. Type whatever name you want. Mine is Silhouette Files 2022, because I set up a new folder for each year, because I have a ton of files that I design or adapt. You could simply name it Silhouette Files. Once you name it, hit the Enter key.

Once you have a folder to store your designs (whether they are SVG files you have downloaded, or designs you have made/adapted in Silhouette), you can create additional sub folders. I have a sub folder in my Silhouette Files 2022 for SVG files I have downloaded, another file for Designs I have created, etc.

Once it is set up (which takes only a few minutes and is easier than it probably sounds), then I can choose to save my file to the hard drive, and the folder that will let me find it easily again.

Let me know if this helps or just confused you. If you are confused, let me know what needs to be clarified.