Silhouette Studio Issues on macOS Sonoma 14.1.2

[Kevin Futter]

So I ruined a decal on a build today:

 

 

I've tried to touch it up with paint, but the results are pretty underwhelming, so I figured it was time to mask and paint. Yesterday I upgraded my Mac to the latest version of macOS (Sonoma 14.1.2), and upon opening Silhouette Studio today to begin creating a mask, I found it to be slow and buggy - graphics would import with red horizontal lines corrupting them, the "set trace area" tool was really sluggish, and the trace function itself didn't work at all. So I thought I'd better see if there was a software update for Silhouette Studio, and there was! Sadly, it made no difference whatsoever, and even the drawing tools don't work now.

 

This is what I get if I attempt to draw a simple circle:

 

 

Looks like I won't be using Silhouette Studio - or my Portrait - for a while!

 

Kev

[Mozart]

This is really worrying Kev. With your tech knowledge are you going to pursue this issue? Do you know if it was the Apple upgrade or the Silhouette upgrade that has caused this? 

Edited December 2, 2023 by Mozart

[Kevin Futter]

10 hours ago, Mozart said:

This is really worrying Kev. With your tech knowledge are you going to pursue this issue? Do you know if it was the Apple upgrade or the Silhouette upgrade that has caused this? 

 

It's the macOS upgrade, as I was having issues before and after I installed the Silhouette upgrade. Lots of users are reporting this problem from what I can see, so there's no need for me to pursue it individually. But it's really up to the Silhouette company to ensure that their software stays compatible with the latest versions of the operating systems they support. But to be honest, Silhouette Studio has never felt like a fully polished product on the Mac - from the crude and unattractive user interface, to the less than stellar performance, and even the lack of proper OS integration (Command+Q doesn't work to quit?). We'll have to see how this pans out, but I hope they can address it quickly! Some of the reports of issues I'm seeing go back to September, however...

 

Kev

[Mozart]

Hmmm, I honestly don't know what I'd do model-wise if I couldn't use my Silhouette for the many tasks that I need.

[Kevin Futter]

45 minutes ago, Mozart said:

Hmmm, I honestly don't know what I'd do model-wise if I couldn't use my Silhouette for the many tasks that I need.

 

If it comes to it, I'll just get hold of a cheap PC laptop and use that for such things. Would be handy for certain applications with my 3D printer, too.

 

Kev

[denders]

Don't go too cheap Kev. 3D programs need plenty of RAM and video card. And I believe that Studio works better on better video cards too.

 

 

[Kevin Futter]

5 hours ago, denders said:

Don't go too cheap Kev. 3D programs need plenty of RAM and video card. And I believe that Studio works better on better video cards too.

 

Good points, Dave! Hopefully Silhouette will sort it out for me and save me the trouble.

 

Kev

[MichaelS]

On 12/2/2023 at 4:27 PM, Kevin Futter said:

 

If it comes to it, I'll just get hold of a cheap PC laptop and use that for such things. Would be handy for certain applications with my 3D printer, too.

 

Kev

 

Is it feasible to run Studio in a VM (virtual machine)? Pretty sure VMWare Fusion for Mac is free for personal use, which would be cheaper than buying a new laptop. (Assuming you have a copy of Windows to install.) I'm not sure this would be a better solution, but it might be an option.

 

mas

[Kevin Futter]

3 hours ago, MichaelS said:

 

Is it feasible to run Studio in a VM (virtual machine)? Pretty sure VMWare Fusion for Mac is free for personal use, which would be cheaper than buying a new laptop. (Assuming you have a copy of Windows to install.) I'm not sure this would be a better solution, but it might be an option.

 

mas

 

I did consider that, but I'm not sure any of the virtualisation platforms support Apple Silicon - I know that VirtualBox certainly doesn't. And having to emulate the CPU (or SMC in this case) puts a huge overhead in terms of performance demands onto the solution, which may render it impractical for all but the simplest tasks. I also don't have an spare copies of Windows, but I should probably still check it out as a viable solution.

 

Kev

[Kevin Futter]

I meant to report back on this ages ago, but one of the updates released since I made this post fixed the issue, and subsequent versions of Silhouette Studio have all been fine - not that I've really had any time to test them!

 

I've just (finally) upgraded from the Basic (free) edition to Business Edition, so being much more productive at the workbench so far this year (4 completions already), I'm hoping to be able to use the Silhouette solution for my projects more often.

 

Kev

[Mozart]

Way to go Kev, so many more options!