3D panel enhancements | Photoshop

  As of July 2024, Photoshop’s legacy 3D features have been removed. However, now in the Photoshop (beta) app you can seamlessly add 3D objects to your 2D Photoshop design using the Adobe Substance 3D Viewer (beta) app. Click here for more details.

The Photoshop 3D panel in Photoshop makes it easier for you to work with 3D objects. Modeled after the Layers panel, the 3D panel is structured as a scene graph/tree having root objects and child objects.

You can interact with 3D objects in the scene graph in several ways, such as:

  • Delete objects
  • Reorder objects
  • Reverse object order
  • Insert objects
  • Duplicate objects
  • Make instances of objects
  • Group objects

You can access these interactions from the context menu associated with a 3D object. Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS).

Some interactions are not available for certain types of 3D objects.

Display the 3D panel

  • Select Window > 3D.

Basic interactions

Interaction

Description

How to perform...

Not available for...

Delete an object

Deletes the selected objects
from the scene graph

  • Drag the object to the trash, or
  • Use the Delete Object
    command in the context
    menu

Objects under Scene, Environment, and View

Add an object

Adds a mesh or a preset 3D object

  1. Right-click the 3D object.
  2. From the context menu, select the appropriate option to add an object. For example, select Add Pyramid.

Objects under Environment
and Current View

Reorder an object

Changes the position of the selected object within the scene graph

Drag the object to its new position.

Objects under Scene, Environment, and Current View

Reverse order of objects

Reverses the order of the
selected objects within the
scene graph

  1. Select the objects.
  2. From the context menu, select Reorder Objects.

Objects under Scene, Environment, and Current View

Duplicate an object

Duplicates the currently selected object

  1. Select an object.
  2. From the context menu,
    select Duplicate Objects.

Objects under Scene, Environment, and Current View

Group objects

Groups the selected objects

  1. Select the objects.
  2. From the context menu, select Group Items.

Materials, constraints, and objects under Scene and Environment

Ungroup objects

Ungroups a group of objects

  1. Select the group.
  2. From the context menu, select Ungroup Objects.

Materials, constraints, and objects under Scene and Environment

Create an instance of a 3D object

An instance of a 3D object is a linked copy that reflects the changes made to the original object. If you want to modify the object and its instance independently, you can decouple the two.

Follow these steps to create an instance of a 3D object:

  1. In the 3D panel, right-click the mesh object. For example, right-click Hat.
  2. From the context menu for the object, select Instance Objects. This will create an instance of the object; for example, Hat1.

By default, the instance is linked with the original object.

Photoshop Instance of a 3D object
Linked instance: Changes made to the object reflect on the instance

Decouple an instance from the original object

When you decouple an instance from the original object, changes made to the original object are no longer reflected on the instance.

  1. Right-click the instance in the 3D panel.
  2. From the context menu, select Bake Instance.
Photoshop Decouple an instance from the original object
Instance decoupled from the original object

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