3/16/17 update: Silhouette is obviously working hard to version 4 as I’ve reviewed at least 12 different iterations since this original post. Many of my complaints have been remedied, as indicated in the strikethrough text. My recommendations remain unchanged, however.
After first being hyped last May, Silhouette Studio version 4 arrived in public beta last week, but notably missing pretty much everything that was promised at its announcement, or anything from our longstanding wishlists. The only announced feature that is actually in the current beta of V4 is the progress bar, and that is not operational. The announced features we were looking forward to, like object on path, bar code print and cut, or font-related improvements are nowhere to be found. There has also been no mention of improvements or fixes to the cloud/library or Bluetooth issues. It’s clear that not much has been changed under the hood, as most of the bugs and design flaws in V3 (including things that used to work in V2.) are still evident in V4.
V4 does have a few pros. The new Photoshop-like panels are an improvement. Gone are the annoying nested scroll boxes. And the contextual toolbar is a plus for sure. 
DE users will be happy to know that Bring to Front/Send to Back can now work across layers.
A Discard All button has been added to the autosave panel. A Despeckling control has been added to trace, which is helpful for improving the cut and weed friendliness of a trace. And best of all, Silhouette Studio V4 now allows a limited (one color at a time) Trace by Color capability.
Magnet Trace (a DE only feature for background removal or creating a silhouette) has the potential to be a pro, but is not really in a usable state yet.
(Update: a pet peeve lost feature in V3 was the ability to drag and drop to the dock icon on a Mac to open a file, this has finally been fixed!)
As for the cons, I already mentioned that V4 carries over many of the bugs/design flaws from V3, most egregious of which is the poor performance of the eraser tool (and related functions like knife, and divide). Another of my pet peeves is the inability to design for a machine that was not the last one plugged in. And the slider ranges and toggle increments, originally destroyed in V3, are exactly the same in V4.
The new look, while an improvement, does not seem to have taken basic interface design principles into account. For example, some common tasks, like opening a new document, take more mouse clicks and mouse distance than before. You often have to travel past rarely used buttons or menu items to get to frequently used ones. And unless you stick with the tiniest button size, some buttons can fall off your screen altogether.
Activating cut lines and applying settings is now done in a separate mode, called Send. I find it frustrating to not be able to group/ungroup, make compound paths, etc while choosing/previewing cut styles and I end up having to backtrack quite a bit. It seems they fixed something that wasn’t broken here.
Odd changes have been made to the trace function. The high pass filter is now harder to turn off (and it should be off by default, IMHO), and because low pass and scale settings have been removed, there’s no longer a way to control how smooth the trace is. UPDATE: Silhouette heard our feedback, set high pass to off by default and brought back low pass. A key change is that the trace preview is no longer solid yellow but outlined, which means we have to unlearn the old paradigm and be careful to check for double lines.
They chose to randomly change some terminology, which can be a problem when certain terms like “Cut Edge,” albeit confusing, are entrenched in existing understanding, tutorials, etc. The increased reliance on hard to see and hard to describe icons, which are sometimes too similar to each other, or which serve multiple purposes, is likely to cause a good bit of confusion.
Not only are the promised text improvements not included, but working with text seems clunkier to me than in earlier versions because of the way the text panel is triggered. As far as feature removal, V4 no longer has a Save as Legacy option, so those who still find V2 superior (and it totally is!) are being further marginalized. Gone is the ability to set the area outside your mat to white so you can work at larger sizes without visual disruptions. Unfortunately, studio3 files created in version 4 do not work in version 3, they have to be merged instead.
Sticker makers were quick to see that they had lost the ability to set both kiss-cut and through-cut by line color. Indeed, what used to be advanced mode isn’t very advanced any more because only one material can be selected. That means that all you can change by line color, fill color or layer (DE) is the action (cut, draw, etc). You can’t set 2 different cut settings or 2 different draw settings, for instance … an unfortunate regression for those hoping to enjoy the full benefit of dual heads.
There are a number of things that just don’t work yet in V4 in its beta state, but this doesn’t appear to be a return of the V3 “Titanic edition” débâcle. Among the malfunctioning features are the Add New Material pulldown, the Transfer Properties eyedropper (DE), and most importantly, Cut Preview is not working reliably. I would expect these things to be repaired before V4 comes out of beta.
Bottom Line
So should you update? The answer is almost certainly no. V4 is still in public beta (where I hope it will stay for a long time). That means there is no support from Silhouette America, and little in the way of tutorials or troubleshooting help from the bloggers you count on. But here are more specific recommendations …
-If you have any Silhouette except Cameo3, install 3.6.057 from here. It is stable and does not involve you or your precious library in the still glitchy Silhouette Cloud.
-If you have a Cameo3, install version 3.8.188 from here. This is the most stable cloud version. There’s no non-cloud option for the C3, unfortunately. Be sure and back up your library before you install a cloud version.
-If you have a Mac and want to help find bugs, install the latest V4 beta version from here in addition to your current versions.
-If you have more than one Windows PC and want to help find bugs, install the latest V4 beta version from here on one of them, but keep your favorite prior version for important projects.
-If you do load V4, let Silhouette know any problems you find and your opinions on the changes using this link. Those of us who participated in the private beta were able to influence at least a few things in V4. Please take advantage of this opportunity. (As you can see from the strikethroughs above that reporting issues in beta is critical!)
-Whether or not you load v4, continue to let Silhouette America know what wish list items are important to you.
First thank you for sharing your expertise with all of us no so savvy computer and Silhouette users. Second I tried to download the version of DE for Silhouette you recommended, however it said that I already have a newer version installed. Is there a way to bypass that and get the earlier version. I don’t care for this one featuring the cloud. It doesn’t work well for me.
Hi Sherry, You’ll need to uninstall the newer version first, then you can install the older one. https://www.silhouetteamerica.com/faq/solution/software-downgrade
I haven’t been able to play with beta 4 much yet, so thanks for the tips on what to watch out for. I’ll be sending in feedback, and this is a great reference to make sure I don’t miss anything. 🙂
I downloaded V4 but didn’t install it because I was waiting for your opinion. Now I know NOT to install it (until I see that you say it is stable)! Thanks to your input.
Thank you Kay for keeping us informed. I never upgraded to the V3 with the cloud, I am running the V 3.6.057, and I am happy with it.
I love the way you tell it as it is Kay. I am most certainly NOT downloading this until it is not only released properly but I hear from those I trust opinions from that the version is stable. I am sick to death of trying version after version only to have to reinstate 3.6.057 due to library issues. I am waiting for a stable version 4 and if then, as I suspect it will, this also proves to be useless for me I will be switching machines and software to another brand. Don’t want to, but that is where I find myself.
Thank you for your in-depth review
Thanks very much for your info on this. I’m using v3.8.118ssde and I had the most awful problems with the library where I did an update library and it created duplicates of the some 600 items in there. With nothing to show which was the duplicate. It took me hours to sort it out. I emailed Silhouette but got no reply. I’d like to go back to v3.6.057 but I’m afraid that my library might not be backwards compatible and I might end up in a mess again. It takes so long to produce designs that I can’t bear the thought of losing any of my hard work.
Thanks again and I won’t be updating my Silhouette software again for a very very long time. If ever. Better the devil you know, etc.
Please join me in asking Silhouette for a repair tool to remove duplicates from the library as well as restoring keywords, etc. They need to clean up the mess they made for so many of us.
My email at the time didn’t get a reply. Is there any other way of sending bug reports/enhancement requests to Silhouette other via the standard customer services email addy?
Thanks once again for your sharing of all your expert knowledge with the rest of us, it’s very much appreciated. It really sounds like the next version won’t be an improvement and I wish I could go back to the previous version (3.6) but I can’t risk losing all my new stuff that I’ve created with this version (3.8). The very idea is terrifying. 🙁
Thank you Kay! I value your opinion and you have no idea how much I appreciate your honesty.
Thank you, Kay, for keeping us informed. And I love your practical advice and agree with you.
Teresa in Oklahoma
I recall why I chose Wordperfect as my writing tool back in the early-mid 80’s. Because it was advertised as having its UI designed by a behavioral psychologist and, even though the keyboard mapping of my Sanyo [the first MS DOS computer available for me] messed up all the keystroke combinations, I learned all the changed ones simply by trying random combinations while using Wordperfect’s context sensitive help.
Maybe Silhouette needs such an expert UI designer.
Y’r ol’ Bud,
Fike
My question is, Why would Silhouette release a flawed version with so many flaws? Why not work out the flaws before releasing? This seems to me to be irresponsible. I paid hard earned money for software and I expect it to work properly. Is that too much to ask?
Judy, the simple answer to your question is that Silhouette lets their users debug their problems. This has been a continuing problem since “forever” for us–the users. They apparently do not know HOW to produce test scripts to make sure they do not mess up things that work before the release garbage to the users. It is easier to let you correct the mess they create in your library.
They haven’t released it. Beta means full of bugs and flaws. It’s the fashion nowadays to release “public” beta versions of the software to let the customers see it in advance and do some of the testing. Stay away from beta products and/or don’t expect them to work. Wait for the proper (alpha) release…
Thanks Kay…so happy you review these software updates. I could get in a lot of trouble with these updates on my own. Great service.
Thanks,
Doris
Thank you, Kay, for your thorough review as always. It took me a long time to go to 3.3.637SSDE because of all the usual problems with releases. I think, if it ever comes to the point where I must upgrade to a newer version, I will toss the beast in the trash and transition in total to a different brand. Thank you, again!
Kay, you are the most trustworthy source I have found. Not only are your videos better than the company provides, but your “mater-of-fact” reporting is very helpful. I too am very concerned about the unnecessary changes, and lack of changes of issues we have reported requiring improvement. I am very concerned about your statement they have removed the low pass and scale settings for the trace command. The high pass filter just doesn’t work for all traces, my Silhouette will be an unnecessary tool requiring a new software and equipment purchase if they mess this up. What can we do?
The only thing we can really do is let Silhouette know how we feel.
Silhouette software is already terrible but V4 sounds horrendous! Think I’ll just stick with the problems I already have with V3.
Thank you once again for a “real” and honest review.
I found the tracing to be inept. I use both filters a lot and merge together in V3 but couldn’t figure it out in V4. Seems like they dumbed it down. Instead of changing the interface they should have redesigned the library. Storing files in a temporary storage location is not smart. Microsoft updates the OS and they are not in a location to be kept or backed up. They should do it like iTunes or Calibre where the files are in a My Documents location and all the library does is index them.
I sent my email to Silhouette and here is how they replied:
Thank you for your alerted concern. Please note that the V4 Open Beta version you are running is a Beta version and is not supported.
We are happy to receive bug reports or comments to help improve the program. You may submit any such feedback at https://www.silhouetteamerica.com/beta-feedback.
If you are having concerns of a terminal nature (software is crashing and cannot run properly) and are unable to sucessfully use the V4 Beta version, we would invite you to provide feedback at the link above, and then proceed to uninstall the current V4 version and return to the latest release version found at https://www.silhouetteamerica.com/software#update.
We look forward to continuing to further improve the new V4 software as we work toward a final release version. We appreciate your patience in the meantime.
It turns out the put the low pass filter back in, based on our feedback. Thanks for contacting them!
Well, their response was certainly a whole lot of nothing!
I have a Cameo2, my Silhouette version says it’s Silhouette Studio Designer Edition Plus Release 3.8.88ssae. What is this release and should I downgrade to the one you recommend? If I downgrade, will I lose my designs in the cloud? I’m a little confused!
If you are not having any issues, then stay where you are. If you should need to downgrade later you can do so without losing any of your designs.
Thanks Kay!
Kay, THANK YOU so much for your analysis and advice. I finally downloaded 3.6.057 to my Mac today, while keeping my older version 2 for safety’s sake. I’m very grateful that I can look here for info I can trust in the “real world” of how I use my Silhouette.
Will there be a notification somehow of the release of the final V4, I am waiting to use my new Cameo 3, it is still in the box. Thanks Kay for everything you do.
I’m sure there will be an announcement, but from what I’ve seen so far, there is no reason to wait for V4 because it is not addressing the Cameo 3 issues from what I have been able to discern.
Hi Kay, just wondering what you think of V4 that was just released? I’m hesitant to update due to past issues with former updates. Always respect your opinion with this software. Thanks
I’ve been beta testing extensively for months, and will be putting together my opinions soon.
Dear Kay-Clever (I like the name of your site) I like the articles you write. They are honest and interesting and helpful to the detail. (Not like others, that write a lot – but like things that do not work, so I cannot trust them any more. That looks too much sponsored.)
I totally agree with your recommendations, so I am still using v.3.6 because of the cloud – after I tried the cloud and had a hard time going back. I tried to open v4 a few days ago, before I read your article. I could not do it. Can I run two versions at the same time? I know I can do this on a mac with other software. Thanks for all your help.
I tried it with v2 together with v3 and it worked. Will try v4 again. Do not know why it did not work the firsr time.
Kay I still can’t find the scale option for tracing in v. 4 DE. Is it there and I’m just missing it? I used that all the time and am missing it.
In 4.1 it is below the low pass filter. Not sure in which exact version it was restored.
Thanks!
Hi Kay, I miss your comments about Silhouette and Tutorials. Since the installation of V4 it has been nothing but problems and the customer service in at the bottom of the lake. It takes anywhere from 48 hours to 4 days to get a response and then it is please send us the file your having problems with. Until V4 I never had a file be corrupt and not work as a print and cut before V4. Now it happens all the time and not just to me. I notice you don’t seem to be publishing much on Silhouette anymore. Your probably wondering why I writing you??? Well I’m hoping you have some pull with them to take care of the problems that are causing major problems for us small businesses. The amount of paper, ink, lost time and losing customers because the system isn’t working and lack of customer support is making me think I need another system. I have Business Addition and regret spending the money with all the problems. Here are a few things that would probably make the system run better: 1. Welcome To Silhouette Studio. We don’t need to see this everytime we open Silhouette Studio. The system would run faster without it and its irritating to see it every time.
2. Dido for What is Silhouette Cloud. It is redundant and a drain on the system. I personally don’t use the cloud because I have an external hard drive, which seems to be safer and less expensive.
3. Two libraries just make more work for me the customer and drains the system. I will be taking the time to move all my files to the desktop. Faster and easier to look in one place.
4. Page set-up opening automatically, when I don’t need to use it everytime is another drain on the systems.
5. System crashing is becoming a problem.
6. Corrupt files, lost files, and svgs not working in Silhouette are a major issue.
7. Silhouette your turning us into wino’s. Thanks Kay for listening. Frustration is at an all time high for this user. I need something I can depend on. Thanks Kay for listening and if you have any pull it would really be great.
Hi Sandi and thanks for your detailed comments. Please rest assured that I am inputting to Silhouette daily via the beta test program. I don’t have any more pull than others, but I am at least voicing the concerns of many. I still use and love Silhouette but have suspended tutorials while I focus on helping make the software better and while it is still very much in flux making tutorials quickly obsolete.