New Silhouette Studio Software (version 3)
Have you heard all the buzz with the major upgrade Silhouette Studio has just gone through? Version 3.0 of Studio has just been released (hopefully it will be easier by now to download it; the first day was crazy!). That means I’ll be doing my best to bring you new tips and tutorials. Suddenly most of my tutorials for version 2 are outdated, so I’m going to do my best to show you what’s new in version 3 as I learn it myself.
My initial impression is that there are some great new features we will all love. Of course there are a few bugs at the moment, as with any major software release, but hopefully those things will be straightened out soon. If you do have problems, Silhouette Support is ready to listen and to help.
I haven’t had much time to play with it yet, but these are the things I already love:
- Polygon tool.
- Ability to see both basic options and
advanced options at the same time. This is so great (I didn’t even know
I needed that one until I saw it). - Layers you can rename and move. Yay!
- They brought back the custom grid colors. That wasn’t a big deal, but I missed it when it disappeared before.
- Scroll bars on the side for when all the info doesn’t fit on the screen.
- Nesting tool. This is going to be great for both saving paper and for its design possibilities.
As always, if you have a question about your Silhouette machine or the software, please ask me in the comments and I’ll do my best to help.
Update 4/12/14: Word on the street is that the fixes for version 3.0.293 will be released in an update within the next few days. If you already have been using the new 3.0 version and are having some technical difficulties, help is on the way! If you are playing it safe and sticking with a “legacy” version (2.9.45 or earlier), keep it for now and you’ll soon hear when people are satisfied with version 3.
I’ve been using version 3 all week, and other than little glitches I like it quite a lot. I’ve been working on a couple of tutorials for the Cut Settings window, but some of that is supposed to change with the updated update coming soon, so I’m waiting to see the final format before I share screen shots with you.
I belong to the Sil Plus forum where one or two concerns have popped up, so, since I am not very techy, I've decided to hold off for a little while, until the glitches are resolved. Other than that, I'm really please about the new features and will pop in here every day to see how things are going.
I think that's a good idea, Lesley. At some point there will be as much information about the new version as the old, but until that starts to happen, version 2 is still going to be great. It's not obsolete by any means.
I have downloaded the new software and prepared a page of tags with names and a design to be sketched and then the outline of the tags to be cut. I couldnt get the tags to cut just the outside. Can you help? Hilary
Hilary, try the "Auto Weld" option (in the Advanced section of the Cut Settings Window), which is similar to the former "Cut Edge".
I have version 2.9.45d should I be downloading this version 3 for my SD model?
Thanks Lora
Lora, there will be a newer update coming within the next few days that will fix bugs and a few other features of 3.0.293 that was released on April 2nd. You should keep your 2.9.45 just a little longer until we see what the updated update will bring. 🙂 But it will work for your SD model when we get the go ahead.
Thanks Kelly I will wait for a newer update.
I use to be able to drag digital paper to a shape and print and cut. I tried dragging the digital paper today and it would not fill the shape rather it would open as an object. Do you know if this is a glitch and will be fix, or is the dragging from finder or windows no longer available for the fill feature. I have thousand pieces of digital paper and I would hate to have to import them into the software.
Thanks,
Wendy
Wendy, I do believe that's on the list of bug fixes.