New 3D Modelmaker Software

[Jampot]

Don't know if anyone is interested, but just seen this on Facebook and the Silhouette School Blog. It's a new software which makes it easy to make 3D models. I know it's intended more for educational settings, but might be interesting for others as well. I haven't tried it or anything yet, just thought someone might like to know about it. Here is a link to it.

[DJG]

Thanks Sue but I don't think it's for me at least not till I've seen more about it

[Jampot]

I totally agree Doreen, but I can understand the idea for teachers of children from about 8 upwards. I would like to have a play with it, but I wouldn't want to buy it at the minute.

[grannyscrap]

I had an e-mail from Clever Someday about this. This is what was said:

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

I hope that helps.

[DJG]

I had an e-mail from Clever Someday about this. This is what was said:

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

I hope that helps.

Thank you for posting this it's most informative

[bobcookson]

Is the model making software produced by Make a Cut which they are currently offering on sale superior to the Silhouette software?

[DJG]

Is the model making software produced by Make a Cut which they are currently offering on sale superior to the Silhouette software?

I used to have make the cut some years ago but I've not seen the model making software

[cariad_1]

Making model buildings was quite popular last winter, I was wondering if it would appeal those who make those village buildings? I'm not one of those people but curiosity said I was going to download it but decided against it as it said it would take 4 hours to download! I think that was to do with my computer though.

[Stella]

Has anyone downloaded this? and if so how long did it take?

[DJG]

It's not for me