- Substance 3D home
- User guide
- Glossary
- Getting started
- Interface
- Interface
- Customizing your workspace
- Home screen
- Main toolbar
- Preferences
- Explorer
- Graph view
- Library
- Properties
- 2D view
- 3D view
- Dependency manager
- Resources
- Resources
- Importing, linking and new resources
- Bitmap resource
- Vector graphics (SVG) resource
- 3D scene resource
- AxF (Appearance eXchange Format)
- Font resource
- Warnings from dependencies
- Substance graphs
- Substance graphs
- Substance graph key concepts
- Creating a Substance graph
- Exposing a parameter
- Graph parameters
- Inheritance in Substance graphs
- Output size
- Values in Substance graphs
- Publishing Substance 3D asset files (SBSAR)
- Exporting bitmaps
- Exporting PSD files
- Sample Substance graphs
- Warnings in Substance graphs
- Nodes reference for Substance graphs
- Nodes reference for Substance graphs
- Atomic nodes
- Node library
- Node library
- Texture generators
- Texture generators
- Noises
- Noises
- 3D Perlin noise
- 3D Perlin noise fractal
- 3D Ridged noise fractal
- 3D Simplex noise
- 3D Voronoi
- 3D Voronoi fractal
- 3D Worley noise
- Anisotropic noise
- Blue noise fast
- BnW spots 1
- BnW spots 2
- BnW spots 3
- Cells 1
- Cells 2
- Cells 3
- Cells 4
- Clouds 1
- Clouds 2
- Clouds 3
- Creased
- Crystal 1
- Crystal 2
- Directional noise 1
- Directional noise 2
- Directional noise 3
- Directional noise 4
- Directional scratches
- Dirt 1
- Dirt 2
- Dirt 3
- Dirt 4
- Dirt 5
- Dirt gradient
- Fluid
- Fractal sum 1
- Fractal sum 2
- Fractal sum 3
- Fractal sum 4
- Fractal sum base
- Fur 1
- Fur 2
- Fur 3
- Gaussian noise
- Gaussian spots 1
- Gaussian spots 2
- Grunge concrete
- Grunge Damas
- Grunge galvanic large
- Grunge galvanic small
- Grunge leaks
- Grunge leaky paint
- Grunge map 001
- Grunge map 002
- Grunge map 003
- Grunge map 004
- Grunge map 005
- Grunge map 006
- Grunge map 007
- Grunge map 008
- Grunge map 009
- Grunge map 010
- Grunge map 011
- Grunge map 012
- Grunge map 013
- Grunge map 014
- Grunge map 015
- Grunge rough dirty
- Grunge rust fine
- Grunge scratches dirty
- Grunge scratches fine
- Grunge scratches rough
- Grunge shavings
- Grunge splashes dusty
- Grunge spots
- Grunge spots dirty
- Liquid
- Messy fibers 1
- Messy fibers 2
- Messy fibers 3
- Microscope view
- Moisture noise
- Perlin noise
- Plasma
- Caustics
- Voronoi
- Voronoi fractal
- Waveform 1
- White noise
- White noise fast
- Patterns
- Patterns
- 3D linear gradient
- 3D volume mask
- Alveolus
- Arc pavement
- Brick 1
- Brick 2
- Brick generator
- Checker 1
- Cube 3D
- Cube 3D GBuffers
- Fibers 1
- Fibers 2
- Gaussian 1
- Gaussian 2
- Gradient axial
- Gradient axial reflected
- Gradient circular
- Gradient linear 1
- Gradient linear 2
- Gradient linear 3
- Gradient radial
- Height extrude
- Mesh 1
- Mesh 2
- Panorama shape
- Polygon 1
- Polygon 2
- Scratches generator
- Shape
- Shape extrude
- Shape mapper
- Shape splatter
- Shape splatter blend
- Shape splatter data extract
- Shape splatter to mask
- Splatter
- Splatter circular
- Star
- Starburst
- Stripes
- Tile generator
- Tile random
- Tile random 2
- Tile sampler
- Triangle grid
- Weave 1
- Weave 2
- Weave generator
- Filters
- Filters
- Adjustments
- Adjustments
- Apply color palette
- Auto levels
- Channel mixer
- Chrominance extract
- Clamp
- Color match
- Color to mask
- Contrast/Luminosity
- Convert to linear
- Convert to sRGB
- Create color palette (16)
- Grayscale conversion advanced
- Hald CLUT
- HDR range viewer
- Height map frequencies mapper
- Highpass
- Histogram compute
- Histogram equalize
- Histogram range
- Histogram render
- Histogram scan
- Non-uniform histogram scan
- Histogram select
- Histogram shift
- ID to mask grayscale
- Invert
- Lighting cancel high frequencies
- Lighting cancel low frequencies
- Luminance highpass
- Min max
- Modify color palette
- Pow
- Quantize color (Simple)
- Quantize color
- Quantize grayscale
- Replace color
- Replace color range
- Threshold
- View color palette
- Blending
- Blurs
- Channels
- Effects
- Effects
- 3D texture position
- 3D texture SDF
- 3D texture surface render
- 3D texture volume render
- Ambient occlusion (HBAO)
- Ambient occlusion (RTAO)
- Anisotropic Kuwahara color
- Anisotropic Kuwahara grayscale
- Bevel
- Bevel smooth
- Cross section
- Curvature
- Curvature smooth
- Curvature sobel
- Diffusion color
- Diffusion grayscale
- Diffusion UV
- Directional distance
- Edge detect
- Emboss with gloss
- Extend shape
- Flood fill
- Flood fill mapper
- Flood fill to Bbox size
- Flood Fill to gradient
- Flood Fill to grayscale/color
- Flood Fill to index
- Flood Fill to position
- Flood Fill to random color
- Flood Fill to random grayscale
- FXAA
- Glow
- Mosaic
- Multi directional warp
- Non-uniform directional warp
- Reaction diffusion fast
- RT irradiance
- RT shadow
- Shadows
- Shape drop shadow
- Shape glow
- Shape stroke
- Summed area table
- Swirl
- Uber emboss
- Vector morph
- Vector warp
- Normal map
- Tiling
- Transforms
- Material filters
- Material filters
- 1-click
- Effects (Material)
- Transforms (Material)
- Blending (Material)
- PBR utilities
- Scan processing
- Mesh-based generators
- Mesh-based generators
- Mask generators
- Weathering
- Utilities (Mesh-based generators)
- Spline & Path tools
- Spline & Path tools
- Working with Path & Spline tools
- Path tools
- Spline tools
- Spline tools
- Paths to Spline
- Point list
- Scatter on Spline color
- Scatter on Spline grayscale
- Spline 2D transform
- Spline (Cubic)
- Spline (Poly quadratic)
- Spline append
- Spline bridge (2 Splines)
- Spline bridge (List)
- Spline bridge mapper color
- Spline bridge mapper grayscale
- Spline circle
- Spline fill
- Spline flow mapper
- Spline mapper color
- Spline mapper grayscale
- Spline merge list
- Spline render
- Spline sample height
- Spline sample thickness
- Spline select
- Spline warp
- UV mapper color
- UV mapper grayscale
- 3D view (Library)
- 3D view (Library)
- HDRI tools
- Node library
- Substance function graphs
- Substance function graphs
- What is a Substance function graph?
- Create and edit a Substance function graph
- The Substance function graph
- Variables
- FX-maps
- FX-Maps
- How it works
- The Iterate node
- The Quadrant node
- Using Substance function graphs in FX-Maps
- Warnings in Substance function graphs
- Sample Substance function graphs
- Nodes reference for Substance function graphs
- MDL graphs
- Bakers
- Best practices
- Pipeline and project configuration
- Color management
- Package metadata
- Scripting
- Scripting
- Plugin basics
- Plugin search paths
- Plugins packages
- Plugin manager
- Python editor
- Accessing graphs and selections
- Nodes and properties
- Undo and redo
- Application callbacks
- Creating user interface elements
- Adding actions to the Explorer toolbar
- Using color management
- Using spot colors
- Logging
- Using threads
- Debugging plugins using Visual Studio Code
- Porting previous plugins
- Packaging plugins
- Scripting API reference
- Technical issues
- Release notes
Interface
This page provides an overview of the interface, listing each window and its purpose. You'll find a summary and a link to a page that explains each window in more detail.
5 2D View
Scale of the interface
Designer acquires the specific scale of user interface elements from the OS. Therefore any adjustments to the scaling of the user interface should be done in the display settings of the OS.
To ensure display settings are applied correctly in Designer, sign out of your OS user session and sign back in after changing these settings.
Main menu and toolbar
The main toolbar lets you access extra menu's, like the Preferences window and has a few buttons to quickly create a new Substance graph and package.
- File: Lets you create new Packages and resources, as well as save and close packages you are currently working on. Functions from this menu are also available as quick buttons on this toolbar.
- Edit: Provides Undo and Redo functions (available as quick buttons below), as well as access to Preferences, for in-depth customization.
- Tools: Controls Substance Engine and lets you access the Plugin Manager.
- Windows: Lets you hide or show any of the windows (some are hidden by default), and lets you reset the window layout back to default.
- Help: Provides access to extra information and online resources, such as Substance Academy or this documentation website.
Explorer
The Explorer window is the main way of interacting with any kind of file and resource. It gives more options than the File menu in the Main toolbar This is where start and end every working session.
Graph view
The Graph view dock is the most important window in Substance 3D Designer. It displays the nodal networks of any kind of graph that is available in Designer (Substance graphs, Substance function graphs, MDL graphs, FX-Map graphs) and lets you build and edit them.
Properties
The Properties dock is the most technical window. It is always context-sensitive and will present sliders, dropdowns and other elements that change the behavior of a selected resource or Node.
2D View
The 2D View is the simplest previewing tool. It works together closely with the Graph: double-clicking on any Node in the Graph View will display into the 2D View the visual result.
3D View
The 3D View is the most interactive and most advanced preview window. Unlike the 2D View, it uses a number of different output maps to render a full material. This means you see all channels represented, such as Basecolor, Normal and Roughness.
Library
The Library dock provides access to all the content included in Designer's library by default, as well as your custom content. To better understand the difference between Atomic Nodes and the Instance Nodes in the library, make sure to read the Nodes Overview.