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Substance 3D Stager

Substance 3D Stager

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  1. Substance 3D home
  2. Home
  3. Getting Started
    1. Activation and licenses
    2. Stager on Steam
    3. System requirements
    4. Accessibility
    5. Glossary
    6. Viewport navigation
    7. Supported formats
      1. Import & export formats
      2. Preparing models for use in Stager
      3. Importing CAD data
      4. End of support for Substance models
  4. Interface
    1. Interface overview
    2. Shortcuts
    3. Menus
    4. Viewport
    5. Assets panel
    6. Project materials panel
    7. Scene panel
    8. Actions and Properties panels
    9. Timeline panel
    10. Tools
      1. Tools overview
      2. Select tools
      3. Camera tools
      4. Environment Lighting tool
      5. Shape tools
      6. Sampler tool
      7. Magic Wand tool
      8. Canvas tools
  5. Objects
    1. Objects overview
    2. Standard models
    3. 3D Text
    4. Shapes
    5. Group
    6. Materials
    7. Camera
    8. Environment
    9. Physical lights
  6. Using Stager
    1. Stage 3D scenes
    2. Arrange objects
    3. Work with lights
    4. Render 3D scenes
    5. Add materials and textures
  7. Features
    1. Connected apps
    2. Coordinate system
    3. Snapping system
    4. Align and Distribute
    5. Collision based transformation
    6. Rendering system
    7. Apply images to models
    8. Material displacement
    9. Material projections
    10. Match Image
    11. Animation presets
    12. Publish scenes to the web
    13. Generative background
  8. Common issues
    1. GPU rendering is disabled
    2. Stager viewport is blank
    3. Stuck on splash screen
  9. Release notes
    1. All changes
    2. Version 3.1.0
    3. Version 3.0.0
    4. Version 2.1.0
    5. Version 2.0.0
    6. Version 1.3.0
    7. Version 1.2.0
    8. Version 1.1.0
    9. Version 1.0.0

Viewport navigation

Just like the physical world, virtual camera objects capture views of 3D scenes. There are two purposes for editing camera objects; navigation and composition.

  • Navigation is moving the camera to make scene edits.
  • Composition is moving the camera to create a final output from that camera.

This article covers camera navigation. Learn more about the full range of camera functionality in the camera object and camera tools documentation.

Camera tools

Most edits to camera position are done through the camera tools. Camera tools can be used with a mouse, trackpad, or stylus.

Name

Description

Shortcut

Orbit tool

Rotate the camera around the scene.

1

Pan tool

Move the camera up, down, left, and right.

2

Dolly tool

Move the camera forward and backward.

3

Note: Default shortcuts are shown

To use a camera tool

  1. Activate the tool on the toolbar or by shortcut
  2. Click and drag in the viewport to use the tool

There are additional camera tools that are useful for composition but less common for navigation. Learn more in the camera tools documentation.

Quick access for mouse

Use quick access shortcuts with a mouse to temporarily switch from your original tool to the camera controls — once you release the shortcut, your original tool will be available again.

Name

3-button mouse

2-button mouse

Orbit tool

Alt + left mouse button

Alt + left mouse button

Pan tool

Alt + middle mouse button

Alt + left + right mouse button

Dolly tool

Alt + right mouse button

Alt + right mouse button

Framing

Framing is an action, rather than a tool. It moves and dollies the camera to view a selected object.

Frame Selection

Pan and dolly the camera to view the selected object. If nothing is selected then the camera will adjust to view all objects in the scene.

Default shortcut: F

Camera history

Because navigation edits to the camera are done very frequently, the undo and redo history is kept separate from main document edits.

Camera undo

Steps back one step in navigation history.

Default shortcut: Home or Fn ←

Camera redo:

Steps forward one step in navigation history.

Default shortcut: End or Fn →

Axis indicator

In the bottom-left corner of the viewport you’ll find the axis indicator. It shows your current camera view relative to world space and helps you stay oriented.

Click and drag on the axis indicator to orbit the camera.

Hold shift to snap the orbit to primary axes (front, top, left).

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