Silhouette Studio® Business Edition provides an automated Tiling feature, which is available only in the Business Edition’s Media Layout mode. The tiling feature gives you a method by which a larger job can be cut into a series of smaller tiles. Those tiles can then be assembled after the cutting process is complete to create the finished large-scale design.

For this example, we’ll use the Tiling feature to automatically segment a design that’s about a 23-inch-by-23-inch square into a series of smaller jobs that can be cut out and then assembled to achieve a final project.

Open the Media Layout Setup panel, which is the bottom icon on the right-hand side, and check the box to show the split screen. It’s important to make sure you set up your media size and mat selection in the first tab. We want to cut with the 12-inch CAMEO mat, and we have a square of vinyl that measures 12 inches by 12 inches.

Now go to the last tab for Tiling and check the box for Tiling Active. Drag the panel up higher on your screen if necessary. The following options are available in the Tiling panel.

Tiling Active turns the feature on or off, and it can be combined with other Business Edition features, such as Media Layout Nesting and Matrix Copy. Those features are covered in separate tutorials. When Tiling is active, the Design View will display a series of numbered tiles to display how the project will be split up into the resulting cut jobs.

These tiles can be controlled by the following tools:

“Configure Position and Size” gives options to adjust the tile sizes and positioning for how the design will be cut. The tiling panel is this main light blue area that can have its divisions manipulated for the smaller tiles. It’s also called the master tile.

If you check “Relative to Job,” the tiling panel will set its size based on the design you have in the Design View.

If you check “Relative to Media” the blue master tile will set its size based on the media size you set up in the first tab of this Media Layout panel.

“User Defined” lets you adjust the master tile yourself. You can use the sliders below or you can drag the nodes in the Design View. Whatever is encompassed by the blue tiling panel is what will be used to configure tiles to cut.

“Maintain Aspect” will keep the master tile at the same ratio while you adjust the dimensions above or you can uncheck “Maintain Aspect” and manipulate the design freely.

Choosing “Relative to Job” or “Relative to Media” will let you set a Panel Margin so that the Silhouette doesn’t cut all the way to the edge of your media.

Now let’s look at how to configure the grid, which refers to the divisions of the master tile.

“Automatic” will resize the tiles to the size of the project being cut. The tiling division lines will be positioned automatically according to the defined media size. This option provides the quickest results.

“Custom” allows you to edit the tiles by dragging the division lines and nodes. You may want to create your own division-line placement based on your particular design.

“Regular Grid” will resize the tiles to maintain width and height dimensions for the individual tiles, rather than sizing them according to the media size specifically. You can choose the number of rows and columns, and the software will keep these tiles uniform in size with each other.

The “Margin” option will create an overlap of the resulting cut, which may be useful based on your design or preference.

“Show Dimensions” toggles the display of tile sizes on and off in the Design View.

The check boxes under “Tiling” let you choose which tiles will be cut.

“All Tiles” will select all tiles to be cut.

“Selected Tiles Only” allows for selected tiles to be cut. You can use the input boxes, but I prefer to click in the Design View on the tiles to toggle them on or off. Look for the mouse pointer to change to a square with an arrow, and watch how the blue tile selections turn on and off.

“Separation” adjusts the separation dimension between tiles being cut.

That may seem like a lot of options to set up Tiling, but it’s a great feature that will help you break those large designs automatically into smaller pieces for cutting. You can let Silhouette Studio® do most of the work, or you can customize the tiling options depending on your design.

That’s the automatic Tiling feature in the Business Edition of Silhouette Studio®. Be sure to check out our other tutorials for Media Layout options and more!