I don’t need any direct help, but I want to express my dissatisfaction.
I’ve been using Shapr3D since Apple’s keynote and I LOVED Shapr3D… I use it on my Macbook, iPad, and Windows PC.
But since the Parametric Design “crap” was introduced, Shapr has become increasingly useless for me. It lags and is brutally slow.
I am currently learning to use a different program, and so are many of my colleagues whom I introduced to Shapr3D. Unfortunately, this is a very bad development. I hope that Shapr3D will do something about this in the future and possibly offer an option to disable this feature, otherwise it is unfortunately no longer usable because it is much too slow.
Hardware:
iPad Pro m4
MacBook Pro m4 Pro
Desktop PC with i9, GTX3090, and 64GB DDR5
Shapr is no longer usable for me on any of these devices.
Yes, it is sometimes better when I export a design and import it again, but that should not be the solution for a program like this.
What type of models are you creating? How many bodies and edges?
The parametric concern comes up often but it usually boils down to hiding the history panel (just ignore it) and moving the required sketches to a folder so they aren’t polluting the items bar. But maybe you are implying that the parametric changes have slowed the app down. I don’t know if that’s true or not but maybe it’s related to the types of models that you regularly work with.
I would like to know b/c it helps set expectations on how well it will perform under various scenarios.
PS I’ve used shapr3d with m2 thru m5 and have used versions before and after the parametric change. I have had some issues with slowness loading larger models as well as with some operations that involve lots of bodies but nothing that stands out as unusable - especially when compared to other applications.
Shapr is still very usable as a direct modeler if you ignore the history stuff which you can do if you plan your design so that it needs little or no changes. Most simple designs do not. More complex design? YMMV.
Shapr has stalled because they are still working out the bugs from the change to history parametric design IMO. It’s in limbo. I check the “Announcements” every time I visit the forum. Stalled. Mired in tweaks and fixes.
Shapr is very good, especially considering the price point. I think and the parametrics is great too, once you get used to it. Actually this is the reason I started using Shapr, when they made the switch. It’s requires that you plan the modeling a bit in advance. But the benefit is that everything be possible to change easily later. The possibility to share models, drawings and visualize is great too, and steadily getting better. Not thinking about the ai stuff here, for me this is funny the first time, but not all that useful.
in my opinion just a couple of things that are missing in the modeling tools: more advanced draft options and getting the move tool parametric. Some tolerances options could also be included in the boolean operations, like onshape has. I’m sure this will come along nicely.
Let’s focus on @pascal.ploesser statement about it being slow. Given the hardware listed, I wouldn’t expect it to be slow but maybe there are aspects of his models that hit some weak points in shapr3d… or maybe it’s workflow related (e.g. too many button clicks to achieve xyz operation).
And try to split that in half, its complex enough where you will have to wait a bit and with that you can compare performance with someone else’s computer or software.
I use parametric sketching regularly. There are a few things I miss, but I really like that it has it because it makes it easier to transition to production when a model changes size. I think this is a necessary feature for development.
I have models that have 4500-5000 parts and I don’t experience any slowness at this level.
When I was using the free version, there were slow loading times, and I couldn’t even open the design on my iPad because the number of parts had grown so much. It couldn’t process it and Shapr3D simply quit.
But this was caused by the fact that in the free version you could use 2 designs and I designed everything in these two, which resulted in a lot of bodies and editors.
Since I’ve been using “1 job → 1 design” in the paid version, there have been no problems with this.
Parametric is a great feature - it forces you to plan your models better and build geometric systems instead of spaghetti. Looking forward to assembly support next year so I can stick to just Blender and Shapr3D!
Can you give us a base model that is slow for you? We could use a test model to share as a bench test.
I have:
Asus Vivo Flipbook 16
Processor Intel(R) Core™ Ultra 7 256V (2.20 GHz)
Installed RAM 16.0 GB (15.5 GB usable)
System type Win 11 64-bit
Pen and touch Pen and touch support with 10 touch points
And an i7 win 11 machine with 3060ti and 32 gigs of ram. Nothing great but both working fine with Shapr.
Even my Surface pro 6 worked fine when others were having troubles.
I build CNC machines, and I’m currently working on a tool changer, which has relatively few components, but I’ve already had to export and import the project twice.
Shapr has become extremely slow since this parameter was added, and I don’t understand why users are being forced to use it when it used to work perfectly fine before.
Please don’t do that, not necessary. Just merge the history.
It shouldn’t be slow, we worked a lot on the performance, and unless you have a parametric history with tens of thousands of steps, you should not notice any performance degradation compared to the pre-parametric version. The initial release indeed did have perf issues, but those problems have been ironed out since then. If you experience performance issues, please talk to our support team and they’ll help you sort it out.
I use an A9 iPad. (the frist 12.9”) and have only seen perf issues when doing an array with 80-100 copies, that was turned into bodies… Might be solved now..
But to answer your question: Is it still useable?
As far as the iPad UI I’d have to say no. The release a few versions back, that added the extra buttons for viz, dwg and model, really messed it up. Having to click more (…) to get to move/rotate indicates that Shapr either don’t care about the iPad or hardly test it, before release. Maybe just build it and see if it loads or something…. So so sad and the iPad is their biggest selling point, if you ask me. Especially once Apple get the 16” out….
Without sharing the model can you just share more information about the model? E.g. number of sketches, number of steps in the history at the point which you need to export/import (you may need to estimate based on the scrollbar height how many “pages” and how many steps per “page” are in the history instead of counting them).
Is it slow to load the initial file?
Is there anything in particular that may be more unique to your models (e.g. lots of splines or whatever)?
Which shader are you using when modeling (wireframe, shaded, or visualized)? Shaded is the most common and visualized was added recently and will obviously be slower.
Is it slow when loading, exporting, moving the model around, on specific operations?
Are you using the free version or paid?
Do you have optimize storage or keep projects downloaded enabled?
The slowness that I experience is on what I consider larger projects (e.g. a 3000 body model) when initially loading, selecting multiple items for some operations (e.g. 50 faces to replace face), manipulating many objects at the same time, importing/exporting similar sized objects. However, this is on less frequently used operations so I can’t say they are deal breakers.
You may have something specific in your model or usage that is causing the pain and I want to know what it is. One so that you can either get support from shapr3d and two so that I understand the potential limits of features or models that I have yet to encounter.
Have you tried occasionally merging your history? That cleans up the sketches and it doesn’t try to save so much background. I create a pretty extensive and detailed stainless steel product with lenses, gaskets, electronics boards, screws, caps, and sensors. My model uses mm scale and works on tolerances of no greater than .2mm and has bevels and fillets from .1 up to 5mmØ. It can be a little painful to open at times bc I have an assembly with sub-assemblies of between 5000 and 7000 bodies, but I’m only using a Mac Book Air.
The biggest issues I have are about removing fillets which sometimes corrupt bodies but I regularly, (when I get to a place I’m satisfied with) merge history to reduce parametric overhead. I do find the parametric feature useful, though it still acts wonky from time to time. Particularly as it regards the constraints features.
