Silh Studio V3 … Let’s try this again

The folks at Silhouette America have been very busy for the last couple of weeks, heeding what they read here and what thousands of you told them via phone, email and social media about the first release of Silhouette Studio version 3.0.293 (or what Duane from one of the FB groups so aptly dubbed, the Titanic version.) I’m pretty impressed with the way Silhouette has handled this, owning the problems instead of blaming them on us, and reaching out even to those who were, ahem, harsh with their analysis.

I’ve been helping with the beta testing, version after version, sometimes more than one a day. And I’m not the only “real” user that SA pulled into the loop this time. I can tell you that we have been heard and that the most irritating things about the unfortunate earlier version have been fixed. And for those of you that are waiting to hear from me, I say jump on in, the water’s fine. You can download the new version here. Read the lengthy release notes here. Update: Download the new manual here.

SA has pledged to keep on working, so my updated, removed feature list is below. Please let them hear about any of these that are important to you.

-Ability to drag a pattern into a shape from the desktop or a folder in a new document (removed from standard in v2.7, now removed from DE). Now works but only when a document has been closed and reopened.

-Blade advance arrows. This is a problem for Portrait users who do not have arrow buttons on their machines and so, can not reset the origin or cut multiple test cuts. Portrait users, don’t stand for this. It severely devalues your machine.

-Ability to manually detect registration marks. This is a biggie for folks who like to push the envelope with specialty media and oddball techniques. Surely I’m not the only one.

-Ability to drop a file onto your SS app icon to open it. This no longer works, even for .studio files for some reason.

-Ability to import a font from the hard drive to the library. (this was removed from the basic edition previously and has now been removed from DE)

-Ability to open AI files in Mac version (this was never a published feature so SA not likely to admit it was removed or try to restore it)

-Number of color theme choices reduced from 8 to just 3 (changed for Silhouette branding purposes. In other words, its about them, its not about us)

And we still haven’t gotten the 3 biggest things I hear asked for 1) ability to save as SVG and 2)layers and 3)ability to edit keywords, etc for files in library.

Ok, technically V3 has layers now, but this is not the kind of functionality we waited so long for, or the level of polish we’ve come to expect from SA. It is clunky and confusing and, did I mention, upside down. As an example, take a look at a file after I imported a few layered images. You’ll see layers and sublayers, none of which I created, and all of them are named “Layer 1.” So for now, enjoy the other features, and let’s keep the pressure on SA to give us logical, useful layers like the competitors have had for years now. They can do better, and they will, but I’m not letting them off the hook until it is accomplished.

Here’s a video from Doodling Debbie that’ll show you around the new update.

A note about file types: This new version of SSDV3 lets you save as .studio3 (File>Save or File>Save As>Save As…) or .studio (File>Save As>Save as Legacy(V2)…)version. I plan to save everything as .studio (legacy) unless it specifically contains layers or some other feature of V3 that will not translate back to V2. I hope that most of you will use this strategy as well, to facilitate easier file sharing and to make it easier to go back to an earlier version if you need to. You will need to use Save As Legacy each time you save the file, as using Save alone will save a .studio3 version.

Now let’s get back to enjoying our Silhouettes!