Shapelab News

The Shapelab 2025 Spring Update is here!

Dear Shapelab community,

We're happy to announce the latest Shapelab 2025 update, packed with features and improvements to make your sculpting experience even smoother in 2025. We’re also excited to introduce the first generation of Shapelab’s voxel tools! If you have Shapelab 2025, you can explore these new features today:

First Iteration of Voxel Engine & Tools – Check out the first work-in-progress version of Shapelab’s voxel features, designed to enhance modeling versatility—suitable for sketching, blockouts, and early-stage ideation workflows!
Sculpt Cursor Repositioning – Adjust your sculpting cursor with ease for a more natural feel.
Quick Switch – Instantly select any object/layer and jump into Edit Mode in one seamless action—combining scene navigation, object selection, and editing without breaking flow.
Cavity Masking – A new surface curvature-aware masking so you can target cavities or bumps selectively.
Brush Falloff Curves – Choose from multiple falloff curves to fine-tune your brush stroke behavior.
Enhancements to Quick Access Pie Menu – Customize your Quick Access menu with more of your favorite tools and actions.
…and more! Read the full release note here.

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We appreciate your feedback on the latest release! As always feel free to reach out with your questions to [email protected] and join Shapelab’s Discord to meet our amazing community!

[h3]For Shapelab 2024 Users[/h3]
Don’t forget that you can still upgrade to Shapelab 2025 at 50% off through the Shapelab 2025 Upgrade DLC until April 30, 2025. Be sure to select the correct DLC to apply the discount. If now’s not the right time to upgrade to Shapelab 2025, no worries—you’ll still be able to upgrade later at a great discount. Starting May 1, existing users can upgrade for 40% off. If you don’t want to upgrade, you can of course keep using Shapelab 2024.

Happy sculpting!
Shapelab team

Shapelab 2025 Now Available in Chinese

Great news for our Chinese-speaking community—Shapelab 2025 is now fully localized in Chinese (Simplified)!

We’re committed to making VR 3D modeling more accessible to artists worldwide. If you prefer using Chinese, you can now enjoy a seamless, fully translated experience in your language. For those who have been waiting for a localized version, now is the perfect time to jump in!

If you spot any translation mistakes, please let us know—we truly appreciate your feedback and understanding!

Best,
Shapelab team

Shapelab 2025 DLC - Minor Update and Fixes

Shapelab Help Center Release Notes
New Addons

Hidden State Storage: The show/hide state of objects (also known as layers) is now saved within the SL3D project file format.
Selection Groups: Selection groups are now preserved in the SL3D project file format.

Fixes and Improvements

Model Importer Enhancements: The 3D model importer now filters out incompatible entities, ensuring only manageable and usable assets are loaded into Shapelab.
Exporter Adjustment: The 3D model exporter no longer attempts to fix degenerate triangles, as this often resulted in unfavorable outcomes.
Desktop Brush Controls: Brush size can now be adjusted using the “+” and “-” keys on the desktop.
Regularize Brush Fix: The resolution slider was missing from the brush modifier panel.
Voxel Remesh Issue: Fixed an issue where voxel remeshing might not work immediately after inserting primitives.
Rotation Reset for Origin Editing: Resetting the rotation when editing the origin now functions correctly without affecting geometry or child objects.
Full and Single-Axis Reset: Corrected inconsistencies with full and single-axis rotation resets.

Group Selection Adjustments:
Prevented location/rotation resets when moving a group selection, avoiding large jumps.
Enabled rotation resets for multi-selected objects with individual origins.
Location and rotation behavior for multi-selection is now uniform.
Context Menu and Controller Input Bug: Resolved an issue where the context menu in scene mode disabled controller buttons and actions.
Thumbnail Glitches: Fixed a bug where reference images in a .sl3d file caused thumbnail glitches, such as images appearing outside the thumbnail square.
Custom Snapping Reference: Resolved an issue where the custom snapping reference failed to update to “scene root” if the designated object was no longer available.

Shapelab 2025 is Here!

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of Shapelab 2025, the next evolution of our cutting-edge VR 3D sculpting software! With many new features and improvements this version takes your creativity to the next level.

Special Launch Discounts:

For Shapelab 2024 Users: Upgrade to Shapelab 2025 at 50% off through our Shapelab 2025 Upgrade DLC. This offer is valid until December 31, 2024. Ensure you select the Shapelab 2025 Upgrade DLC to take advantage of this discount.
For New Users: Get 25% off the "Shapelab 2025" package until December 30, 2024.

[h3]What’s New in Shapelab 2025?[/h3]

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Customizable Environments

Experiment with different lighting and atmospheric settings.
Import HDRIs or customize your Skybox, Ambient Light, and Reflections.
Save and load your unique environments for future use.

Redefined Parametric Primitives

Fully enhanced shapes with new UI, presets, and parameters like bevel, chamfer, taper, and hole.
Gesture-based primitive reshaping for effortless modeling.

Custom Fixed Shapes & Kitbashing

Build your own shape library with imported objects or predesigned templates.

Cursor Snapping by Angle & Grid

Improved organization with angle and grid snapping constraints for tools and object movements.

Dynamic Brush Sizing

Keep brush sizes consistent relative to models or adjust dynamically with zoom levels.

Enhanced Navigation Settings & Scene Alignment Tools

Effortlessly align, zoom, and organize your workspace for a smoother workflow.

Improvements & Fixes

Enhanced UI, better performance, and numerous bug fixes for an optimized sculpting experience.

You can read the release note here: Shapelab 2025 release note

[h3] What’s Coming in 2025?[/h3]

Voxel-Based Tools for superior 3D stamping and clay drawing.
Complete Gizmo Overhaul for rotation, location, and scaling.
Additional Scene Mode Improvements for seamless object selection and context-based tools.
Sculpt Brush Enhancements for better precision and symmetry.

Have questions? Visit our FAQ page or reach out to our support team [email protected].

Best,
Shapelab Team

Mon, November 04, 2024 - Release Notes

Dynamic Topology, Trim Brush not Finding Normals

With dynamic topology, users could create edges so short that they exceeded the calculation and rendering limits of GPUs using floating-point numbers.
The issue primarily emerged with extensive use of the Trim brush, where, at a certain point, the app could no longer detect normals accurately.
To ensure stability, we implemented a minimum edge length of 0.001 mm. For users seeking even finer detail, there's still an option to increase the model's scale (apply scale rather than merely zooming) by, for instance, 100x, allowing highly detailed areas to be sculpted with 100x precision.

Tranform Gizmos and Snapping

Snapping with Gizmos on Multiselection - For multiselection snapping, the active object’s snapping configuration is applied, when its gizmo is used to control the entire group.
Rotation Snapping with Gizmos - Snapping increments are now treated as relative values when rotating objects with gizmos, preventing sudden rotation jumps.
Gizmo Activation and Deactivation - Previously, gizmos would remain on the active object even after deselection, and within a multiselection group, they didn’t transition correctly when the active object was changed. This has been corrected to ensure gizmos deactivate properly upon deselection and moved to the new active object in multiselection.
Rotation Gizmo Sensitivity - Using the cone cursor on the rotational gizmos previously led to biased rotation values, but this has been fixed. It now behaves as expected, allowing for smooth rotation when grabbing a ring at any point.

Issues Addressed with Parented Objects

When joining multiple objects, the results were sometimes incorrect if any contained a parent object. This issue has now been addressed to ensure better results.
When applying the position or rotation of an object using the picker, the results were inaccurate when multiple hierarchy levels were involved.

Brush with Steady Stroke Unintentionally Building the Mesh

The issue was that when the cursor rotated in place without moving, manipulation still occurred. Previously, if either the distance or angle deadzone was exceeded, manipulation would take place. We've updated this so that now, manipulation only occurs if the distance deadzone is exceeded.

Clone and Mirror Transform Values

When mirroring an object across a chosen origin, the object’s origin and geometry were mirrored correctly, but its rotation remained unchanged. This has now been adjusted to mirror the rotation values as well.

Smooth Strength to 0

It’s now possible to set the strength value of the smooth brush to 0, allowing it to regularize and adjust polygon density without altering the geometry.

Multiresolution - Subdivision Level Fix

Fixed an issue where deleting subdivision levels could, in some cases, cause the app to crash.

Quad Remesh Improvement

The quad remesh performs operations more frequently without returning an error message.