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[BIG Release] Balsamiq Mockups 3!

Hello friends of Balsamiq! 🙂

Today is a big day for us: after almost a year of heads-down work, we are releasing the biggest update in our little company's history: Balsamiq Mockups 3.

Today we are shipping v.3 on the Desktop and in the Web Demo. The plugins and myBalsamiq will be updated to v.3 as soon as possible (think weeks, not months).

Balsamiq Mockups 3 is both simpler and more powerful at the same time.

The core editing experience should feel very familiar, but we have made what used to be hard simple - single-file projects, using reusable symbols, a more standard editing UI with left and right panels, immediate auto-saving.

We also added powerful features for the experts: tons of new keyboard shortcuts, a new Project Information panel, big performance improvements for large projects, a Trash bin, a hugely more powerful full-screen presentation UI, notes for the Project, Mockups, Assets, Symbol Libraries and Symbols, and the ability to open multiple Project windows at once.

We also gave the app a nice and modern new coat of paint, a new application icon, and even threw in a new huge set of icons at the last minute.

Oh, and we also fixed over 900 bugs while we were at it, because why not. 🙂

Balsamiq Mockups 3 is the culmination of almost a year of really hard work, almost a complete rewrite of our 6-year-old codebase.

In many ways though, this feels like a new beginning: Mockups 3 feels to me like the product I should have built from day one, had I known everything you have taught us in the last 6 years. The new UI also lays the foundation for what’s to come in the future. We have big plans, and we’re certainly not stopping here. In fact, the new codebase will allow us to add things really fast again. We hope you’ll continue to come along for the ride, helping us make Mockups the best it can be for all of us.

So, without further ado, here it is for download: Balsamiq Mockups 3.

We cannot WAIT to see what you’ll do with it.

Some useful links:

We took this opportunity to adjust the pricing of Mockups for Desktop for the first time, mostly to adjust for inflation after all these years. A single Desktop license went from $79 to $89 (full pricing info). Desktop licenses are still tied to you and not a particular machine, you’re free to use the app on any machines you own and use. Balsamiq Mockups 3 also comes with free minor-version updates, so you’ll be able to update to 3.1, 3.2, 3.3...for free. That’s probably a couple of years worth of updates.

When we ship v.4 (which will be native and probably sold via app stores), we’ll try to give existing customers a discount for updating, but we can’t promise anything as we’re pretty far away from that date and things are changing quickly with app stores.

For posterity, today's full release number is 3.0.2.

If you have any questions or find any issues with Mockups 3, you can email us at support@balsamiq.com or head to our new community forums. We're all-hands-on-deck and ready to pounce on any bug you might uncover! 🙂

As always, happy wireframing!

Onward!

Peldi for the Balsamiq Team

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Comments (8)

  1. Hi, Dmitry. Skins (Sketch and Wireframe) are now applied project-wide and are accesible via the Project Info panel use the icon that looks like a document in the upper right of the toolbar.

    That’s where you’ll also find settings for font, default font size and selection color. More info about this new panel is available here: http://support.balsamiq.com/customer/portal/articles/1895403-the-project-info-panel

  2. I don’t see second skin anymore. Wireframe has too thick lines, almost unusable

  3. Hello
    for our understanding, this new version is also for Confluence plugins ?
    Thanks in advance

    Achalme Jean-Marc
    • Hi Achalme, we are working on bringing the new version to all of our platforms. It will take a while, hang tight! 🙂

      Peldi Guilizzoni
  4. Congrats. Unfortunately, still full of bugs 🙁 This makes it very difficult to work with.

    * Unable to save the mockup without a loss of data
    * Desktop App crashes or freezes
    * Older mockups are incompatible (eg change of Icon Set)

    Just tried to go back to the previous version.

    Sebastian
    • Hello Sebastian, we’d love to hear more about the bugs you’ve encountered. Can you please send details to support@balsamiq.com if you haven’t already?

      We are also planning on a new update on Tuesday to fix a number of bugs.

      Peldi Guilizzoni
  5. Pingback: Issue 26 | UX Design Weekly - The Best UX Design Links Each Week

  6. Congratulations on your new release! I can’t wait to give it a spin.