Soapmaker3 Software

[The Ginger Alchemist]

Hello to all fellow creatives!

I’m looking for some advice please regarding Soapmaker3. I’ve just downloaded the free version as trying to be adult and organised, and thought like would play around with it, load a few recipes and get used to it, before investing in the Pro Edition.

However, I’m used to working with the Soap Calc and entering everything in grams or percentages and it then calculating the weight of everything that l need, including the water, plant milk, oils, and lye in grams based on my batch size. This is perfect for me.

I thought that with this information, l would be able to just enter it into Soapmaker3 and it would be simple. Now l don’t know if it is because l only gave the Free Edition, but it is not giving me the option to have weight in grams instead of ml, cups etc and volume for water, and the same for other things too.

I’ve looked in preferences to change it and it isn’t an option.

l have messaged Soapmaker3 and asked the question if it is an option in the Pro Edition, but haven’t heard back yet, and would also value any feedback from countries using grams/kg and who make using weighted measurement rather than volume.
Many thanks

Ginger xx

 

[lsg]

I really like Soapmaker Pro 3. It takes a while to enter everything in your inventory; but once you get that done and type in a recipe it will figure the cost, even per bar. Make sure that you enter your inventory for soap boxes etc.

 

[The Ginger Alchemist]

Hello and Thank you! Packaging is going on easily, but not the recipe because of the measurement options on the free edition.
Is there the option of choosing grams in the pro Edition instead of volume measurements for water?

 

[lsg]

These are not volume measurements, the water must be weighed, also.

 

[The Ginger Alchemist]

Yes, but l measure my water in grams and that’s not an option? Xx

 

[TheGecko]

Hello to all fellow creatives!

I’m looking for some advice please regarding Soapmaker3. I’ve just downloaded the free version as trying to be adult and organised, and thought like would play around with it, load a few recipes and get used to it, before investing in the Pro Edition.

However, I’m used to working with the Soap Calc and entering everything in grams or percentages and it then calculating the weight of everything that l need, including the water, plant milk, oils, and lye in grams based on my batch size. This is perfect for me.

I thought that with this information, l would be able to just enter it into Soapmaker3 and it would be simple. Now l don’t know if it is because l only gave the Free Edition, but it is not giving me the option to have weight in grams instead of ml, cups etc and volume for water, and the same for other things too.

I’ve looked in preferences to change it and it isn’t an option.

l have messaged Soapmaker3 and asked the question if it is an option in the Pro Edition, but haven’t heard back yet, and would also value any feedback from countries using grams/kg and who make using weighted measurement rather than volume.
Many thanks

Ginger xx

It's been a long time since I used the Free Edition, but under the Pro Edition you would go to "Tools", "Preferences", then select the second Tab..."Sodium Soap". Under Pro, there are seven Tabs with tons of options.

The majority of soap making is done by weight as opposed to volume, though you will often times see 'teaspoon' or 'tablespoon' because the ingredient/additive is so 'light' that you would need a micro scale to weigh them. You will also see Percentages, which is what I use when I relay my recipe so that a person can easily modify for batch size.

I admit that I currently do not take full advantage of all the features available in Pro. I bought it after I putting away an order and discovered that I had four bottles of Lemon Verbena. I then went through my entire inventory of FOs and discovered that I had a lot of duplicates and triplicate of FOs that I hadn't even used. FYI - You can only get the Inventory features in Pro.

But even as little as I currently use it, it was worth every penny I paid (honestly, it's not that expensive and it's a single purchase with free updates) because when I'm pursuing colorants and scents, I can check to see if I had purchased it before and if so, check my notes to see if I liked it or not.

 

[Tara_H]

Yes, you should be able to enter the weights - there are a couple of different places you need to set this though, so check through all the screens carefully!

I just bought it recently - tried the free version for a couple of days and then upgraded, and being able to do it all in grams was definitely something I tried it because it's a requirement for me. It did take a little while to get it all working, what I found was that in addition to the main preferences, there are extra option screens for some of the sub sections as well... I recommend exploring a lot and using the Wizard to get up and running.

 

[jcandleattic]

The majority of soap making is done by weight as opposed to volume, though you will often times see 'teaspoon' or 'tablespoon' because the ingredient/additive is so 'light'

This is where the specific gravity comes in handy with SM3 Pro

I’ve looked in preferences to change it and it isn’t an option.

Hmm, I've never used the free edition because I was part of the beta testing team way back when it was first introduced, but I am positive it has grams as an option in the Pro and even the Lite versions. Not sure why it wouldn't be in the free edition since the majority of soapers I know weigh in grams.
Maybe contact Crawford through customer support?

If you are a Facebook user there is a SM3 support group ran by Crawford where people can ask all sorts of questions, report glitches, etc.,

 

[The Ginger Alchemist]

Brilliant thank you all. There seems to be the option for grams in most but not the water on the free edition and like you guys, l always work in grams for everything - even a teaspoon l will weigh.
I’ve contacted the support team but I’m sure they are inundated with questions, and am impatient and then l found this lovely site!
The free edition is only a version 2? So I’m sure it’s been updated loads since then, and wouldn’t show all of the features anyway as they would want you to upgrade.
I definitely think I’m going to invest once my tax rebate comes through later this week xx

 

[earlene]

Option for grams in your base oils:

Options for input units:

Not ideal, but if you know the weight of One Fluid ounce of water (1 fluid ounces (fl oz) = 29.57352956 gram (g), then you can do the conversion on paper or type it into the notes.

An free version to see if you like it enough to purchase should at least be able to choose options for uniformity of measure! I think this was poorly thought out. Seeing this, I'd be hard-pressed to purchase even the lite version.

I wonder how many sales they have missed out on based on this type of thing?

 

[Tara_H]

Options for input units:

Try changing volume to ml, you still have it as cubic inches.

 

[The Ginger Alchemist]

I’ve changed it to metric gr and ml and will put weights in grams and all the info l need in the notes

 

[earlene]

I’ve changed it to metric gr and ml and will put weights in grams and all the info l need in the notes

I'm glad you found a way to make it work for you. I look forward to hearing more about your evaluation after you've used it for awhile.