MappSmith vs Maker Studio (formerly Laser Map Maker)

If you bookmarked Laser Map Maker, you will land on maker.studio. Both lasermapmaker.com and www.lasermapmaker.com redirect there. The map tool is now called Layered Maps and sits inside the wider Maker Studio membership.

You start from the product, not a blank layer stack. Pick a 3D layered map, an ornament, a clock, a key holder, coasters, tiles, a memory poster, a love story board or a golf course, and the shape, size, frame band and hardware come with it. Then frame the place.

Golf courses come in finished. Search the course and MappSmith lays out fairways, greens, tees, bunkers, water and trees on their own layers, with the course name and par. Golf was not listed on Maker Studio's public pages when we checked.

Fifty state outlines are already traced. Pick a state as the frame and the map, the cut line and the 3D preview all follow it.

You see the real piece first. The 3D preview stacks your actual woods and acrylics, explodes the layers, and flags loose pieces before you burn anything.

Maker Studio's $99 Hobby plan is credit-based. They say a layered map costs about 500 credits, so 25,000 credits works out to roughly 50 maps a year (our math, from their credits page), and Hobby is listed for personal projects. To sell, their terms point to Creator at $199. MappSmith is $99 for unlimited maps you can sell, and the 10-map pack includes selling rights too.

Want more than maps? See FoundryPass vs the Maker Studio membership below.

Maker Studio sells its map tool as part of a maker membership. So does Maker Foundry. The difference is what else is in the box. The FoundryPass puts MappSmith next to six more tools that cover the products laser and print shops actually sell: tumblers, patch hats, DTF transfers, vector cleanup, nesting and a settings library for every material on the shelf.

Both memberships have a map designer and a nesting tool. Only one of them also builds your tumbler wraps, your patch hats, your halftones and your vectors. If you sell more than maps, the FoundryPass replaces several subscriptions, not one. If you only sell maps, MappSmith on its own is $99 a year.

Already paying for one Maker Foundry app? The pass closes that subscription and refunds the unused time, so you never pay twice.

If you cut on LightBurn, the native project means no reassigning layers by hand. If you run an xTool, MappSmith's .xs opens straight in Creative Space with the processing already split into cut, score and engrave. See LightBurn maps and xTool maps.

1. 01Pick the productOrnament, clock, golf course, love story, state piece or a classic 3D layered map.
2. 02Frame the placeSearch anywhere on Earth, or use a US state outline as the frame.
3. 03Check it in 3DYour real woods and acrylics, stacked and exploded, with loose pieces flagged.
4. 04Send a proofShow the customer before you cut, so the name and date are right the first time.
5. 05Download and cutOne zip: a file per sheet, plus LightBurn, xTool and DXF.

Your old SVG, DXF and PDF exports keep working in LightBurn or Creative Space. Rebuilding a design in MappSmith is a search and a product pick. Run one real order through the 7-day trial and cut it on scrap; it is the fastest way to see the difference. Credit the map data on the piece or listing; see map attribution. The full three-way table is on the comparison page.