Best program to use with Cricut Expression for cutting svg..

I hate to say it, but if you want to use the machine for doing production work it would benefit you a lot to get a different cutter. Cricuts (and other consumer machines like Silhouette) cut sooo slowly and the mats and blades don't tend to last very long so you end up spending a lot more time and money on those things than you should.

I have had a Pazzles Pro for over a decade (still do, and it still works!) and recently upgraded to a Silver Bullet. It is SO fast and much quieter than any of the consumer machines. My Silver Bullet came bundled with SCAL4. You have to ask yourself honestly if it's worth dumping any amount of money into something that's not only old technology but that also can't really do what you need it to do.

I would look look online in some of the various cutter forums or on eBay for someone selling a slightly used machine at a discount. There are people who buy one thinking they'll use it (and then they don't) who end up wanting to sell it to recoup some of their cost on it.

I've BTDT recently myself. I'm taking a vector graphics class using CorelDraw and the version available now isn't compatible with my 6 year old laptop running Vista. When I asked my computer guy what to do, he basically told me the same thing which was, "You don't want to spend $200 upgrading old technology. Just put that money toward a new computer and you'll be money ahead in the long run." So not what I wanted to hear, but he's right. With my luck, I'd drop the money to upgrade the old one and then the hard drive would end up crashing or something and then I'd be in a real world of hurt.

**Angie**, have you used it before and been able to ungroup and move parts around? There is a simple way to do that with Group/Ungroup and Break Apart. As for multiples, you have to put the multiples on the screen, not depend on the cricut to cut more than one when you set the multi cut. Just copy and paste whatever you want multiples of
and place them where you want them. If you want to cut just one piece of a group file, copy just that piece and go to page 2. Paste it there and cut from page 2.
I love my Cricut Expression and SCAL 2. PM me if you need more help.
Nylene

It is more than likely your computer. Graphics programs need plenty of computing power to run right.

Make sure you have everything not necessary shut down. No browser windows open either. Open your task manager and shut down any unnecessary programs running in the background.

Do you do regular malware and AV scans? Also - some AV programs can interfere with programs like SCAL. Especially Norton or McAfee.

I gave up on SCAL after fighting it for two years. With the changes in Windows it just doesn't cooperate. I'm a technical person and the only computer I could get it to work on was my 16 year old sons. Can you imagine? Not the most convenient way to make cuts.

I finally broke down and bought a silhouette. The price has really come down and it does everything we always wanted SCAL to do. I'm sorry I can't be of more help. I feel your pain.

Yes it will. And for what you want to do, you really don't want to waste time with another Cricut.

The Silhouette machines can cut the .gsd files. No problem.  Like you, I have thousands, and I can definitely cut them on my Cameo.

I don't know what your size requirements are, but if price is an issue, the Portrait is the same size as the Wishblade and costs less than the Cameo.  However, if you are used to the 12x12 and 12x24 of the Expression, you would probably be happier with the Cameo.  It will allow you to cut multiples a lot more easily.

Edited to add:  if you never got rid of your Wishblade, but just couldn't use it once Windows XP came out, I have heard that it will run using the Silhouette software, which is a free download.  I do not know if there is anything special you need to do to make it work with the Silhouette software, though.