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Tutorial: How to Use iPad Pro as a Drawing Tablet in Silhouette Studio

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Do you draw? Do you use Silhouette Studio? Do you have a Mac computer? Do you have an iPad Pro and an Apple Pencil? If you answered yes to all these – then this tutorial is for you! You can take all these things and combine them together to use your iPad Pro as a drawing tablet in Silhouette Studio!

How to Use Your iPad Pro as a Drawing Tablet with Silhouette Studio

  1. Enable the onscreen keyboard. Here’s how: Go to “System Preferences” then “Keyboard”. Check the box, “Show keyboard and emoji viewers in menu bar”. Tutorial: How to Use iPad Pro as a Drawing Tablet in Silhouette Studio - Great for Silhouette Cameo, Curio, Mint Owners who like to draw! By cuttingforbusiness.com.
  2. From the menu bar on your Mac, click the keyboard icon and select “Show Keyboard Viewer”. You’ll now have a mini keyboard on your screen. Tutorial: How to Use iPad Pro as a Drawing Tablet in Silhouette Studio - Great for Silhouette Cameo, Curio, Mint Owners who like to draw! By cuttingforbusiness.com.
  3. Open Silhouette Studio on your Mac.
  4. Install Astropad on your Mac and your iPad Pro.
  5. Open Astropad on both your Mac and your iPad Pro. You’ll need to make sure that both your Mac and iPad Pro are on the same wifi network. Tutorial: How to Use iPad Pro as a Drawing Tablet in Silhouette Studio - Great for Silhouette Cameo, Curio, Mint Owners who like to draw! By cuttingforbusiness.com.Astropad will connect and you’ll see Silhouette Studio displayed on your iPad. Tutorial: How to Use iPad Pro as a Drawing Tablet in Silhouette Studio - Great for Silhouette Cameo, Curio, Mint Owners who like to draw! By cuttingforbusiness.com.
  6. Close the welcome screen, and you can start drawing – right in Silhouette Studio! You’ll use all the same tools and all the functions you know in Silhouette Studio, but they will be right on your iPad Pro. These next photos show me designing a pineapple cut file. (As a side note – I’m not a great artist – but I’ll show you my process.) Tutorial: How to Use iPad Pro as a Drawing Tablet in Silhouette Studio - Great for Silhouette Cameo, Curio, Mint Owners who like to draw! By cuttingforbusiness.com.
    Tutorial: How to Use iPad Pro as a Drawing Tablet in Silhouette Studio - Great for Silhouette Cameo, Curio, Mint Owners who like to draw! By cuttingforbusiness.com.
    Tutorial: How to Use iPad Pro as a Drawing Tablet in Silhouette Studio - Great for Silhouette Cameo, Curio, Mint Owners who like to draw! By cuttingforbusiness.com.
    Tutorial: How to Use iPad Pro as a Drawing Tablet in Silhouette Studio - Great for Silhouette Cameo, Curio, Mint Owners who like to draw! By cuttingforbusiness.com.
    Tutorial: How to Use iPad Pro as a Drawing Tablet in Silhouette Studio - Great for Silhouette Cameo, Curio, Mint Owners who like to draw! By cuttingforbusiness.com.
    Tutorial: How to Use iPad Pro as a Drawing Tablet in Silhouette Studio - Great for Silhouette Cameo, Curio, Mint Owners who like to draw! By cuttingforbusiness.com.
    Tutorial: How to Use iPad Pro as a Drawing Tablet in Silhouette Studio - Great for Silhouette Cameo, Curio, Mint Owners who like to draw! By cuttingforbusiness.com.

Pretty neat, huh!? A few notes before you run off to try it yourself:

  1. I use Astropad Standard which costs a one time fee of $29. While this is expensive for an app, this is cheaper than a drawing pad and it works great. Astropad also works on iPhones and other iPads, but you wouldn’t be able to use the Apple Pencil unless you have an iPad Pro.
  2. Astropad says that they are working on adding in program keyboards for 2017. Until this happens, you’ll need to turn on the Mac keyboard viewer to type anything.
  3. You should be able to do this with Cricut Design Space as well as many other programs.
  4. Special thanks to Beau Lindsly Studio for originally introducing me to Astropad.
  5. If you don’t have a cap to keep up with your Apple Pencil top, grab one here.

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Tutorial: How to Use iPad Pro as a Drawing Tablet in Silhouette Studio - Great for Silhouette Cameo, Curio, Mint Owners who like to draw! By cuttingforbusiness.com.

Lauren Crudele

Tuesday 23rd of May 2017

Does this work on the go? or would i have to be in front of my Mac? I cant seem to figure out how to work on the go in the Silhouette Studio app on my ipad pro and be able to sync my work on to my desk top. Any advise?

Thank you

Christine

Thursday 25th of May 2017

No, you'd need to be within Bluetooth range of your devices.

Lynn

Tuesday 21st of February 2017

Do you have to pay twice? Once on ipad and then for mac?

Christine

Wednesday 22nd of February 2017

No - you only pay once.

Amber

Saturday 18th of February 2017

Do you have any advice for PC users ? I have a Wacom tablet , that I would love to use with my silhouette but there isn't much info regarding using them together . The little bit of information I have found seems like everything must be designed in a completely different software and then pulled into Sil design studio using the trace feature .

Christine

Sunday 19th of February 2017

Lots of Wacom users design and cut straight from Adobe Illustrator. You'd need the the Connect plug in: http://amzn.to/2kCoKkV.

Lisa-Jane Johnson

Thursday 16th of February 2017

I'm considering investing in an ipad pro but I don't have a Mac. Do you know if it is possible to use it with a normal PC / laptop?

Christine

Thursday 16th of February 2017

I don't know - I do know that you can use a regular iPad as well, but you could ask the folks over at Astropad.

Shari

Tuesday 14th of February 2017

Do you know of any plans to have this option with Android products?

Christine

Wednesday 15th of February 2017

No - you'd have to ask Astropad.