Dear Shapelab community,

Last week’s Shapelab 2025 update was a major one, including new features, performance improvements, and—most exciting of all—the first iteration of our voxel-based modeling tools! These tools lay the foundation for hybrid sculpting workflows that combine the flexibility of voxels with the power of polygon meshes. It’s a big step forward for digital sculpting in VR!

If you’re currently using Shapelab 2024, you still have a few days to get the biggest savings on Shapelab 2025:

• Get 50% OFF of Shapelab 2025 until April 30 – exclusively for Shapelab 2024 owners! Ensure you select the Shapelab 2025 Upgrade DLC to take advantage of this discount. The DLC is already at a discounted price.
  
• Not ready to upgrade just yet? No worries. Starting May 1, Shapelab 2024 owners will still be eligible for a 40% discount—so you’ll continue to get significant savings even after this offer ends.

See the latest Shapelab 2025 features here:


If you have any questions, reach out to our support team at support@shapelabvr.com. Any feedback or feature requests? Fill out our request form: https://leopoly.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portal/3/create/33


Happy sculpting!
Shapelab Team

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.

We appreciate your feedback on the latest release! As always feel free to reach out with your questions to support@shapelabvr.com and join Shapelab’s Discord to meet our amazing community!

For Shapelab 2024 Users

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

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 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.

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.

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

• 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 support@shapelabvr.com.


Best,
Shapelab Team

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.

• Wintab Issue: Resolved the "Stuck on Initializing Workspace" problem after the Autumn update. For more details, please see here: https://leopoly.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portal/3/article/513146896
  
• Resolution Handling: Fixed issues with Absolute vs. Relative resolution, which occasionally led to missing UI elements and caused problems with the Mask, Paint, and Regularize brushes.
  
• Brush Inversion: Corrected the double context menu press for brush inversion, which was not functional with HTC Vive Controllers.
  
• Mirror Feature: Fixed an issue where sculpt parent selection for Mirror features was not possible with a void click.

Dear Shapelab community,

The wait is over! We just released an update to Shapelab 2024 - get ready for some new features and improvements, just in time for the spoooooky season!

Here are the main features:


Pen/desktop support!

Major brush improvements:

• New Crease brush
  
• Absolute (global, fixed) and Relative dynamic resolutions
  
• Trim additive mode
  
• Improved Clay brush
  
• Fill holes can be controlled
  
• Improved Smooth brush
  
• Mask improvements
  
• Snap / align cursor and alpha orientation onto surface
  
• Improved rotate along drag
  
• Spray buildup mode for Standard brush
  
• Alphas for “Move tool”
  
• Rebinding Primary analog stick left-right
  
• Reset brush

Scene mode changes:
Navigation improvements:

• Scene root (view) grabbing
  
• Object grabbing

Tool improvements:

• Laser vs Touch Mode for all Scene Mode Tools
  
• The Cone Cursor can be used along with the Create Tool
  
• Active object and Selection behavior
  
• Inverted Selection Tool
  
• Sweep Delete, Select and Deselect
  
• Quick Cloning
  
• Quick Scaling

Quad Remesh: Keep boundaries added

Performance improvements

Read the full update note for more information here.

We hope you will enjoy this new update to Shapelab 2024! Feel free to reach out to us on our usual communication channels to share your feedback, and join our Discord server to meet fellow Shapelab users!

Oh and one more thing… you can already test the new features by creating something scary for the Shapelab Halloween Challenge! Visit our Discord server to learn more and submit your work until October 31st for the chance to win a future Shapelab 2025 license!

Happy sculpting!

Best,
Shapelab team

- Preventing pointer raycasts from passing through the sculpt mesh to collide with UI panels behind it.
- Inverting a brush is now possible during manipulation.
- The close holes algorithm has been improved.
- A strength multiplier slider has been added under stroke mode.
- Native support for Pimax Crystal through PimaxXR has been attempted.
- Fixes have been made to the multiresolution mesh save/load processes.

Minor fixes for:
- Occasionally, the app did not register a grab input.
- Very slow controller rotations were smoothed too much, causing the object to occasionally drift.
- The invert button and other buttons were disabled while grabbing.
- The screenshot camera did not capture 3D environments.
- Non-functional developer tool could be accessed through the quick access radial menu.