Files workspace | Substance 3D Viewer

The Files workspace allows you to browse through 3D models in a local folder, so you can quickly view many 3D models without opening each file individually.

You can access the Files workspace in a few ways:

• From the Home screen, open a folder with the Open a folder button, or from the Recent folders list.
• Use File > Open Folder, or File > Open Recent Folders.
• With a file open, use the top button in the Workspaces bar to switch to the Files workspace.

You can also drag and drop a folder into the app on the home screen or any of the workspaces.

The Files panel is divided into two sections, the folder browser, and a current file section.

Browse through folders

The top section of the Files panel provides access to a folder browser, where you can traverse through folders and select 3D files to open.

Click a file to open it in Viewer, or click a folder to browse its contents in the Files panel.

While inside a folder, you can use the Back to folder button to move up the folder structure.

You can use the Sort button to rearrange how files are displayed in the current folder.

Use the options button to Open a different folder in the Files workspace, or open a file directly.

Current file information

The bottom section of the Files panel shows information about the currently open file and provides some controls to quickly position the model.

Use the buttons to position the model as follows:

• Move to ground moves the model so that the lowest point of the model is aligned with the ground plane.
• Move to origin positions the model so that the center of its bounding box is at the origin.
• Change up axis opens a menu where you can change which axis is considered up for the model.

Some 3D applications default to using a different axis as the up axis, which can result in models exported from those applications being oriented incorrectly when opened with Viewer. Use the Change up axis button to correct this issue.

The Files panel shows the following information about the currently open model:

• Face count: The number of polygons in the current model. Substance 3D Viewer doesn’t automatically triangulate meshes, so the face count counts N-gons as a single face.
• Vertex count: The number of vertices or points in the current model.
• Material count: The number of materials assigned to the current model.
• Up Axis: The up axis of the original file. Changing the up axis with the Change up axis button will not be reflected in this value.
• Default Prim: This value is used in USD files and can be useful to know for technical reasons. For more information about what the default prim is, refer to the USD documentation.

3D models are made of 3 basic components, vertexes, edges, and faces.

A vertex is a point in space that has a position.

An edge is a line that connects two points.

A face is a plane with 3 or more edges. Faces can also be referred to as triangles when they have 3 edges, quads when they have 4 edges, or polygons when they have more than 4 edges.