Silhouette America officially released its “new” ModelMaker software this week, but it’s probably not for you. Even Silhouette is marketing this as an educational program, not a crafting one, but you may still be tempted since it bears the Silhouette name.
A little history… At least as far back as 2010 there was an educational software product called FabLab Modelmaker from a small British company named Aspex. Fablab ModelMaker allowed you to design basic 3d paper projects and cut (or print and cut) them on your Craft Robo, Original Silhouette or SD machine.
Silhouette hired Aspex to write the Silhouette Studio software and would eventually buy them out. The ModelMaker software languished with no updates for the Cameo and license key sales were halted. This week, Silhouette re-released the identical software with no new features except for the ability to cut to the newer machines. (The good news is they didn’t spend resources updating this with so many pressing issues on the Cameo side).
Unless you are a math teacher or home school mom, there’s not much to ModelMaker that would interest you. I say this because it’s old (7 years is a long time in 3D years), not designed for crafters, has a limited feature set (you can’t weld shapes together, for instance) and there are other free tools, such as Template Maker (covered extensively elsewhere on this blog) that are much simpler and better suited for paper crafter purposes. My tutorial on using Template Maker with Silhouette Studio DE is here.
But don’t take my word for it, you can get a free trial of ModelMaker here. (Users of Silhouette Studio v1 or 2 will immediately recognize the interface design.) The trial version has a 15 minute time limit and can’t save, but you can see how it works and if it meets your needs. Be sure to compare it to TemplateMaker, Sketchup or Pepakura depending on what your kind and level of 3d papercrafting need is.
ModelMaker does have the one feature we’ve been consistently asking for in Silhouette Studio, it can save as SVG. So maybe Silhouette will revisit their decision to remove this capability from Silhouette Studio. Never hurts to ask.
ModelMaker intro video circa Feb 2010
Silhouette’s re-release video
Thanks for the info Kay. I have been using the template maker for a couple of years now and I find it easy to use. I will certainly pass on the ModelMaker.
Great info as always Kay! Appreciate you!
It would be worth it for me to buy this “new” software if I could use it to EASILY save my current .studio files to SVG. Otherwise, I will pass because I have thousands of .studio files to convert and save on my external drive.
You are always such an incredible help to all of us. Thank you for the review and for your input !
I think whether you want this software or not really depends on what kind of crafting you do. There is a community of paper modelers and paper toy makers who could benefit from this software.
SketchUp doesn’t support flattening & export to SVG or cut files natively. There is a very old plug-in around, but I’m not sure if it’s compatible with the latest version of SketchUp.
Pepakura is very powerful, but it does not have built in modeling, so people need to learn another piece of software. No big deal if you’re into that sort of thing, but raises the barrier.
TemplateMaker is great if you are doing the geometric shapes it supports, but is not a free form modeler.
I bought ModelMaker and played around with it a bit today. It has a surprisingly user-friendly 3D modeler. It certainly has limitations, but you can make a lot with it if you want to. It doesn’t compare with 3ds Max or some other professional modeler. But Sil Studio doesn’t compare with Illustrator, either.
Thank you for your valuable input, Jasen. You are confirming what I said, be sure to check all the options out based on your particular needs. I am frustrated that I can’t combine shapes to make more complex models than what I can get from templatemaker, but rethinking based on your input, I can see where it might be easier to make a house and a roof on the same screen, for instance.
Kay, you are one of my favorite people! Thank you for all you do!
I’m surprised at the 15 minute time limit. That’s really not enough time to learn and experiment with a program. I love 3D designs and have often wished it was easier to make my own. I have a Mac, so Pepakura is not an option. I’ll be looking at Template Maker.
Thanks as always for your sage advice.
Thank you for the GREAT information! I probably would have seriously considered buying the ModelMaker down the road. I am very happy that you set me on a different course.
I really appreciate your very honest reviews.
thanks for the honest feedback