Groups of primitives | Substance 3D Modeler

To create a primitive group:

1. Select one or more primitives.
2. Use the Group action in the Actions menu, or use shortcut Ctrl + G to group the objects.

Once you've created a group, it will appear in the Outliner, and you can scope into the group to make changes to objects inside it.

Primitive groups act as a supercharger for the primitives workflow. Primitive groups use combine modes to allow for two types of functionality:

1. Mixed combine modes
2. Grouped combine mode

Mixed combine modes

Just like primitive objects, groups of primitives also have combine modes. By default, when you create a group of primitives, the groups combine mode is set to None.

For example, in the scene below, the window is created by a group of primitives. A red cuboid subtracts to make the hole for the window, while blue cuboids are used to create the window frame.

Grouped combine modes

When a primitive group is set to any combine mode except None, the group behaves like a single primitive shape. In other words, the contents of the group are calculated first, and then the resulting shape is able to use combine modes to affect other primitives outside of the group. 

Notice in the video above, when the group's combine mode is set to None, the cylinders inside the group subtract from the grey block outside the group. But when the group's combine mode is set to Add or Carve, the Cylinders continue to subtract from the cube inside the group, but they no longer affect the cube outside the group. Instead the group acts like a single, self-contained object - just like a standard primitive shape.