- 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
This page presents the ways of arranging the panels in Adobe Substance 3D Designer's user interface, and leveraging their features to enhance your workflows.
In this page
Windows menu
This menu lets you manage the main user interface elements of Designer. Each option is described in the Windows section of this page about the main toolbar. Here, we will provide additional concepts related to this menu.
Display/Hide a view
In order to display or hide a specific interface item, click its name in the Windows menu. Displayed items have a checkmark.
Populate a dock with a view
In Designer, a dock is a container which is separate from its content. This means a Library dock can exist and be empty as it holds no Library view.
The New Explorer, New 3D view and New Library view options create views, which will be placed according to the current state of the user interface:
- If an empty dock is available, the new view is created within it
- If empty docks are not available, a new dock is created to hold the new view
Tabbing docks
Docks may be stacked into tabs. This is useful to save screen real estate or aggregate views which relate to each other in some way.
You can tab docks by moving a dock using its title bar over an existing dock such as docks do not resize or move, but a frame appears around the target dock.
Undocking
A dock may be undocked into a floating window which may be resized and moved out of the main window, including off to another display.
This can be done in two ways:
- Moving the dock using its title bar and placing it either out of the main window or on an area of the main window which is not a dock. You may redock this dock either by moving it on another dock in the main window or by clicking the Redock button;
- Clicking the Undock button. An dock undocked with this method may only be redocked by clicking the Redock button.
Maximizing docks
Any dock may be maximised to fit the area or its parent window:
- Docked docks will spread over the entire area of the main window, excluding the title bar, main toolbar and status bar
- Undocked docks will spread over the entire display
Docks can be maximised in two ways:
- Placing the cursor over the dock and pressing the Shift+Space keystroke
- Clicking their Maximise button
Maximised docks may be minimised into the size and location they held before being maximised. This can be done in three ways:
- Placing the cursor over the dock and pressing the Shift+Space keystroke
- Clicking their Minimise button
- Opening the Windows menu and selecting the Unmaximise window option
When a dock is maximised, some interface behaviours may differ:
- Docks which appear/update automatically will do so in the background (e.g. Properties, 2D view)
- Menu items are disabled in the Windows menu
- Buttons are disabled in the dock title bar
- A dock maximised in the main window may not be moved using its title bar
Pinning docks
Pinning a dock prevents it from being populated with other content or a different view.
When a dock is pinned, any future content which should be displayed in its will instead create a new dock to host it. This new dock will not be pinned and thus can update and host new content.
To pin a dock, click its Pin button. You can then unpin it using the Unpin button to make it once more available to host any new content.
More than one dock can be pinned at a time, including multiple docks of the same type.
Pinning docks empowers you with the following abilities:
- Displaying and tweaking properties of multiple nodes at the same time
- Displaying two bitmaps or more concurrently
- Working on multiple graphs concurrently
Resetting the interface layout
The entire user interface can be reset into its default layout by opening the Windows menu and selecting the Reset layout option.
Their display state will also be reset, meaning that closed docks may be reopened (e.g. 3D view) and displayed docks may be closed (e.g. Console, Dependency manager, docks created by plugins).