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Welcome to Scale Model Paint Masks!


Kevin Futter

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Welcome!

 

Scale Model Paint Masks is a site dedicated to providing a repository of downloadable paint mask files for scale modellers, driven by and for the scale modelling community. We cater for any genre of scale modelling, in any scale and of any era. Members are free to upload their designs, download other members' designs, and contribute to discussions in our forums.

 

Scale Model Paint Masks is brand new, and we hope to grow and evolve it over time. We plan to expand the forums to include tutorials, reviews, and anything else our members would like to see that fits our scope.

 

Note: only members are allowed to upload and download content or participate in the forums.

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Good to be here Kev!  This is going to work out a treat I think with the popularity of mask cutters lately. 

 

Question:

I just uploaded some files to the "downloads" section, but I only had the finalized .studio3 files that my Silhouette cutter uses. This is (I'm fairly sure) common among Silhouette brand cutters, but not so sure how common among any any other mask cutters.

 

Is the .studio3 format ok do upload in?

Edited by Out2gtcha
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6 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

Is the .studio3 format ok do upload in?

 

For now I'd have to say yes, but we're really only in the beginning phases of this journey, and that answer may change over time. Ideally it would be great to use a more portable format that any software can use, but I'm not sure such a thing exists. I'm hoping that once we get more experienced and expert users on board, they can school us in all the best practises, and we can adapt in light of that expert knowledge.

 

Kev

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17 hours ago, Kevin Futter said:

 

For now I'd have to say yes, but we're really only in the beginning phases of this journey, and that answer may change over time. Ideally it would be great to use a more portable format that any software can use, but I'm not sure such a thing exists. I'm hoping that once we get more experienced and expert users on board, they can school us in all the best practises, and we can adapt in light of that expert knowledge.

 

Kev

 

Sounds good Kev. The only reason I would say that may be a good option, is that about 99% of the lads I've talked to that have a cutter, have a Silhouette, and having worked some of these profiles up, I know how long it took to get them to that state, cleaned up, traced out, and in a format on the Silhouette that is easily scaleable. 

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I'm not familiar with the Silhouette cutters, but I'd be quite surprised, if the software couldn't read EPS-files. EPS is pretty much a standard file format in the graphics industry (however, PDF is more popular nowadays ... ).  All the vector graphics programs like Illustrator or CorelDraw or what have you support EPS, so I think it should be a good choice here as well.

 

Cheers

Rainer

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One of the areas I'd like to explore here is the ability of the various software packages used in mask production to convert to other formats used by other packages. For example, are there converter utilities for the Sihouette Studio format, or even DXF? Can someone who uses a Cricut machine download one of Brian's files, and convert it to a Cricut-compatible format for use with their machine? What formats do the various software packages support natively? I think answering these and similar questions here in the forums could provide great value to the community. Eventually I'd like to establish an FAQ section, where modellers can get their common questions answered quickly and easily.

 

Kev

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  • 1 year later...

 

On 7/24/2020 at 4:16 AM, Rainer Hoffmann said:

.  ... so I think [EPS-files] should be a good choice here as well.

 

 

I don't (necessarily) agree -- Silhouette Studio software comes in three versions - Basic, Designer, and Professional with prices of free, $50, and $100 respectively. Going by what I've seen on various forums over the past years, the Designer Edition is the most popular, being considered the best trade off between price and features.  The free edition can import ready to cut (no tracing required)  Studio/Studio3, GSD/GSD, and DXF files. The Designer Edition adds SVG and PDF (vector), while the Business Edition adds Ai, EPS, and CDR.  So I would say SVG (and PDF) would be better choices here than EPS. 

 

As with Out2gtcha's experience, the vast majority of modeling folks I've met use Silhouette cutters, and in that regard, the best file format of course would be Studio/Studio3 files since these would include blade depth, force, material settings, etc. Unfortunately, the file creator would need the Business edition to export vector SVG and PDF files for use in other software.

 

I agree that A FAQ/pin is a great idea ... it could include info like this on the Silhouette software.

 

Gene K

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