Documentation for Substance 3D Painter is now available on Experience League. After March 14th, HelpX pages will automatically redirect to the equivalent Experience League page.
Refer to the FAQ for more information about which documentation is affected.

User Guide

Shortcuts | Substance 3D Painter

Search
Substance 3D Painter

Substance 3D Painter

Open app
  1. Substance 3D home
  2. Home
  3. Getting Started
    1. Getting Started overview
    2. Activation and licenses
    3. System requirements
    4. Project creation
    5. Export
      1. Export overview
      2. Export window
        1. Export window overview
        2. Export settings
        3. Output templates
        4. List of exports
      3. Output templates
        1. Output templates overview
        2. Default Output templates
          1. Default output templates
          2. Predefined output templates
          3. USD PBR Metal Roughness Preset
        3. Creating Output templates
    6. Glossary
  4. Interface
    1. Interface overview
    2. Assets
      1. Assets overview
      2. Navigation
      3. Customizing the layout
      4. Filter by path
      5. Saved searches
      6. Advanced search queries
      7. Adding a new library
      8. Sub-library tab
    3. Substance 3D Assets
    4. Color picker
    5. Display settings
      1. Display settings overview
      2. Environment settings
      3. Camera settings
      4. Viewport settings
    6. History
    7. Layer stack
      1. Layer stack overview
      2. Creating layers
      3. Managing layers
      4. Masking and effects
      5. Blending modes
      6. Layer instancing
      7. Geometry mask
    8. Main menu
      1. Main menu overview
      2. File menu
      3. Edit menu
      4. Mode menu
      5. Window menu
      6. Viewport menu
      7. Plugins menu
      8. Help menu
    9. Project configuration
    10. Properties
    11. Settings
      1. Settings overview
      2. General preferences
      3. Shortcuts
      4. Libraries configuration
    12. Shader settings
      1. Shader settings overview
      2. Updating a shader
    13. Texture Set
      1. Texture Set overview
      2. Texture Set list
      3. Texture Set settings
      4. Texture Set reassignment
    14. Toolbars
    15. Viewport
      1. Viewport overview
      2. 2D view
      3. 3D view
      4. Camera management
    16. Miscellaneous
      1. Sliders
      2. Log
      3. Update checker
  5. Painting
    1. Painting overview
    2. Paint tools
      1. Paint tool overview
      2. Paint brush
      3. Eraser
      4. Projection
      5. Polygon fill
      6. Smudge tool
      7. Clone Tool
      8. Quick mask
    3. Path tools
      1. Path tool overview
      2. Paint along path
      3. Ribbon path
      4. Filled path
      5. Erase along path
      6. Smudge along path    
    4. Straight line   
    5. Lazy mouse 
    6. Symmetry
      1. Symmetry overview
      2. Mirror symmetry
      3. Radial symmetry
    7. Fill projections
      1. Fill projections overview
      2. Fill (match per UV Tile)
      3. UV projection
      4. Tri-planar projection
      5. Planar projection
      6. Spherical projection
      7. Cylindrical projection
      8. Warp projection
    8. Presets
      1. Presets overview
      2. Creating and saving presets
      3. Creating particles presets
        1. Creating particles overview
        2. Installing the particle editor
        3. Overview of the particle editor
        4. Creating a new particle script
      4. Photoshop brush presets
        1. Photoshop brush presets overview
        2. Exporting Brush Presets from Photoshop
        3. Importing Photoshop Brush Presets
        4. Photoshop Brush Parameters Compatibility
    9. Dynamic strokes
      1. Dynamic strokes overview
      2. Enabling Dynamic Stroke feature
      3. Dynamic Stroke Performances
      4. Creating custom Dynamic Strokes
    10. Advanced channel painting
      1. Channel painting overview
      2. Ambient Occlusion
      3. Flow Map
      4. Height Map
      5. Normal Map
    11. Vector graphic (.svg & .ai)
    12. Text resource
  6. Effects
    1. Effects overview
    2. Generator
    3. Paint
    4. Fill
    5. Levels
    6. Compare Mask
    7. Filter
    8. Anchor Point
  7. Baking
    1. Baking overview
    2. How to bake mesh maps
    3. Mesh map settings
    4. Baking visualization settings
  8. Content
    1. Creating custom effects
      1. Creating custom effects overview
      2. Generic filter
      3. Channel specific filter
      4. Generators
      5. Mesh map
      6. Mesh based input
      7. User data
    2. Importing assets
      1. Adding resources via drag and drop
      2. Adding resources via the import window
      3. Adding content on the hard drive
      4. Receiving assets from other Substance 3D applications
  9. Features
    1. Automatic resource update
    2. Automatic UV Unwrapping
    3. Physical size
    4. Smart Materials and Masks
    5. Subsurface Scattering
      1. Subsurface Scattering overview
      2. Enabling Subsurface in a Project
      3. Subsurface Parameters
      4. Subsurface Material Type
    6. Dynamic Material Layering
    7. UV Reprojection
    8. UV Tiles
      1. UV Tiles overview
      2. Image Sequence
    9. Color Management
      1. Color management overview
      2. Color management with Adobe ACE - ICC
      3. Color management with OpenColorIO
    10. Post Processing
      1. Post Processing overview
      2. Color correction
      3. Depth of Field
      4. Glare
      5. Lens Distortion
      6. Tone Mapping
      7. Vignette
      8. Color Profile
    11. Iray Renderer
      1. Iray Renderer overview
      2. Iray Settings
      3. Viewer and MDL Settings
    12. Plugins
      1. Plugins overview
      2. Autosave
      3. Resources Updater
    13. Sparse Virtual Textures
    14. Custom Shaders
    15. SpaceMouse® by 3Dconnexion
    16. Universal Scene Description (USD)
    17. Send to
  10. Technical Support
    1. Performance Guidelines
      1. Performance guidelines overview
      2. Mesh and UV setup
      3. Layer management
      4. Project resources and settings
      5. Conflict with background applications
      6. GPU VRAM and Drivers
    2. Configuring Pens and Tablets
    3. Exporting the log file
    4. Exporting a DXDiag
    5. Technical issues
      1. GPU Issues
        1. Crash when working with overclocked GPU
        2. Forcing the external GPU on Mac OS
        3. GPU drivers compatibility
        4. GPU drivers crash with long computations (TDR crash)
        5. GPU has outdated drivers
        6. GPU is not recognized
        7. GPU is not recognized and is mentionned as GDI Generic
        8. Issues with Nvidia GPUs on recent Mac OS versions
        9. Multi/Bi-GPU
        10. Running on integrated GPU
        11. Painter doesn't start on the right GPU
      2. Startup Issues
        1. Application failed to start because of Qt
        2. Crash or freeze during startup
        3. Software conflicts
      3. Rendering Issues
        1. Artifacts and glitches on Mac OS with Custom GPUs
        2. Blocky artifacts appear on textures in the viewport
        3. Mesh appears pink in the viewport
        4. Mesh flash to white when moving camera
        5. Some HDPI scaling values are not working
        6. Viewport appears broken or unresponsive on Ubuntu
      4. Stability Issues
        1. Crash during export
        2. Crash when opening or saving a file
        3. Crash while baking
        4. Crash with low virtual memory
        5. Windows Blue Screens
      5. Miscellaneous Issues
        1. Corrupted texture error message
        2. Shelf resources are gone after 7.2 update
        3. Error there is no disk in the drive
        4. Error with missing api-ms-crt dll
        5. Impossible to drag and drop files into the shelf
        6. Impossible to use the ALT keyboard shortcut on Linux
        7. Assets (or shelf) previews are empty
    6. Workflow Issues
      1. Export Issues
        1. My exported opacity map is totally black
        2. Texture dilation or Padding
      2. Tools Issues
        1. Normal map looks incorrect
        2. Paint Tool bleeds on other UV islands
      3. Project Issues
        1. Corrupted project file
        2. Loading files from a network
        3. Preserve brush strokes setting stays disabled
        4. Projects are really big
      4. Library Issues
        1. Thumbnails in the shelf look incorrect
        2. Error when importing a Font
      5. Viewport Issues
        1. Mesh faces disappear when looking at them from behind
        2. Viewports and textures are blurry or lack sharpness
      6. Plugins Issues
        1. Substance Source plugin doesn't load
      7. License Issues
        1. Maintenance is expired dialog on startup
  11. Pipeline and integration
    1. Installation and preferences
      1. Preferences and application data location
      2. Automated installation
      3. Retrieving the installation path
    2. Configuration
      1. Command lines
      2. Environment variables
      3. Firewall Configuration
      4. Querying Current Software Version
      5. Remote Desktop
    3. Resource management
      1. Shelf and Assets location
      2. Resource paths
        1. Add resource paths manually
        2. Editing resource paths manually
        3. Edit Shelf Preferences with Python
      3. Adding saved searches manually
      4. Preferences and content migration
      5. Excluding resources in a resource path
  12. Scripting and development
    1. Scripts and plugins
      1. Creating a Javascript plugin
      2. Remote control with scripting
    2. Shader API Reference
      1. Shader API overview
      2. Changelog - Shader API
      3. Libraries - Shader API
        1. Lib Alpha - Shader API
        2. Lib Bayer - Shader API
        3. Lib Defines - Shader API
        4. Lib Emissive - Shader API
        5. Lib Env - Shader API
        6. Lib Normal - Shader API
        7. Lib PBR - Shader API
        8. Lib PBR Aniso - Shader API
        9. Lib Pom - Shader API
        10. Lib Random - Shader API
        11. Lib Sampler - Shader API
        12. Lib Sparse - Shader API
        13. Lib SSS - Shader API
        14. Lib Utils - Shader API
        15. Lib Vectors - Shader API
      4. Parameters - Shader API
        1. All Custom Params - Shader API
        2. All Engine Params - Shader API
        3. All Rendering States Params - Shader API
        4. Layering Bind Materials - Shader API
        5. Layering Declare Stacks - Shader API
      5. Shaders - Shader API
        1. PBR Material Layering - Shader API
        2. PBR Metal Rough - Shader API
        3. Pixelated - Shader API
        4. Surface Shader - Shader API
        5. Toon - Shader API
  13. Release notes
    1. Release notes overview
    2. All Changes
    3. Version 11.1
    4. Version 11.0
    5. Version 10.1
    6. Known issues
    7. Old versions
      1. Version 10.0
      2. Version 9.1
      3. Version 9.0
      4. Version 8.3
      5. Version 8.2
      6. Version 8.1
      7. Version 7.4
      8. Version 7.3
      9. Version 7.2
      10. Version 2021.1 (7.1.0)
      11. Version 2020.2 (6.2.0)
      12. Version 2020.1 (6.1.0)
      13. Version 2019.3
      14. Version 2019.2
      15. Version 2019.1
      16. Version 2018.3
      17. Version 2018.2
      18. Version 2018.1
      19. Version 2017.4
      20. Version 2017.3
      21. Version 2017.2
      22. Version 2017.1
      23. Version 2.6
      24. Version 2.5
      25. Version 2.4
      26. Version 2.3
      27. Version 2.2

Shortcuts

This page list all the keyboard and mouse shortcuts available.

Shortcuts overview

For a quick overview of all the Shortcuts available, take a look at our graphic available in our tutorials .

How to change a shortcut


Click on the "pen" icon next to a shortcut to edit it and enter the new combination.Pressing the last key will automatically exit the edit mode and change the shortcut.

List of editable shortcuts

To reset a shortcut back to its default value simply right-clicking on it.

Action

Shortcut (Windows)

Shortcut (MacOS) Description
Hide UI Tab Tab Hide all the docks/windows of the interface to maximize the viewport(s).

Undo

Ctrl+Z

 ⌘+Z Cancel the last action and go back to the previous state.
Redo

Ctrl+Y

 ⌘+Y Go forward in the action list, redoing the action that has just been cancelled.
Painting
 F9 F9 Switch the interface to the Painting mode.
Rendering (Iray) F10 F10 Switch the interface to the Rendering mode.
Open project

Ctrl+O

 ⌘+O Open the file open dialog of the system to load a project.
Close project Ctrl+F4 ⌘+W Close the currently opened project.
Save project Ctrl+S ⌘+S Save the currently opened project.
Save as project     Save the currently opened project under a new name.
New project Ctrl+N ⌘+N Open the new project creation window.
Quit application Alt+F4 ⌘+Q Close the application.
       
Show/Hide manipulator Q Q Toggle the display of the manipulator used to control fill layer transforms.
Increase the manipulator size + + Make the manipulator bigger in the viewports.
Decrease the manipulator size - - Make the manipulator smaller in the viewports.
Cycle through manipulation spaces T T Alternate between Object and World space transformation for the manipulator.
Toggle warp edition mode Shift+V Shift+V Switch between the Warp transform and Edit vertices modes when editing a warp projection.
Translate tool W W Set the manipulator mode to translation.
Rotate tool E E Set the manipulator mode to rotation.
Scale tool R R Set the manipulator mode to scale.
Surface tool Shift+W Shift+W Set the manipulator mode to snap on the 3D model surface.
Symmetry L L Enable the symmetry along a given axis.
Pause engine computation Shift+Escape Shift+Escape Toggle engine computations.
       
Select Paint tool 1 1  
Select Paint tool + Particles Ctrl+1 ⌘+1  
Select Eraser tool 2 2  
Select Eraser tool + Particles Ctrl+2 ⌘+2  
Select Projection tool 3 3  
Select Projection tool + Particles Ctrl+3 ⌘+3  
Select Polygon Fill 4 4  
Select Smudge tool 5 5  
Select Clone tool (relative source) 6 6  
Select Clone tool (absolute source) Ctrl+6 ⌘+6  
Bake Mesh Maps Ctrl+Shift+B ⌘+Shift+B Open the Baking settings window.
Increase tool size ] ] Increase the size of the brush for the painting tool.
Decrease tool size [ [ Decrease the size of the brush for the painting tool.
Bake Mesh Maps Ctrl+Shift+B ⌘+Shift+B Open the Baking settings window.
Invert grayscale tool X X Invert the current grayscale value if the painting tool is on a mask.
Pick stroke material P P Enable the material picker tool.
Lazy Mouse D D Enable the lazy mouse behavior on the current tool.
Hide/ignore excluded geometry Alt+H Option+H Hide 3D model parts that were excluded via the Geometry Mask.
       
Camera Perspective F5 F5 Change the camera of the viewport to a Perspective view.
Camera Orthographic F6 F6 Change the camera of the viewport to an Orthographic view.
Display next channel C C Switch the viewport to the Solo view mode and display the next channel of the current Texture Set.
Display previous channel Shift+C Shift+C Switch the viewport to the Solo view mode and display the previous channel of the current Texture Set.
Display material M M Switch the viewport display mode to Material.
Display next mesh map B B Switch the viewport to the Solo view mode and display the next mesh map of the current Texture Set.
Display previous mesh map Shift+B Shift+B Switch the viewport to the Solo view mode and display the previous mesh map of the current Texture Set.
Toggle animation Space Space Pause/Unpause animation of the particles if a particle projection is in progress.
Export textures Ctrl+Shift+E Shift+⌘+E Open the export textures window.
Center the whole mesh F F Center the whole mesh of the current project in the middle of the viewport.
Toggle quick mask edition U U Enter/Exit the quick mask edition.
Clear quick mask Y Y Disable and clean the quick mask.
Invert quick mask I I Invert the current values of the quick mask.
Viewport layout 3D/2D F1 F1 Change the viewport display to show both the 3D and 2D view at the same time.
Viewport layout 3D only F2 F2 Change the viewport display to show only the 3D view.
Viewport layout 2D only F3 F3 Change the viewport display to show only the 2D view.
Swap 2D / 3D view F4 F4 Swap between 2D and 3D view in viewport and 2D UV view.
Texture Set isolate

Alt+Q

 Option+Q Isolate the current Texture Set in the viewport by hiding the other.
       
Use tool / paint Mouse left Mouse left  
Draw straight lines Shift+Mouse left Shift+Mouse left  
Draw straight lines with snapping Ctrl+Shift+Mouse left Ctrl+Shift+Mouse left  
Camera rotate Alt+Mouse left Option+left  
Camera snap rotate Alt+Shift+Mouse left Shift+⌘+Mouse left Snap camera rotation every 90 degrees angle.
Camera translate Alt+Middle mouse Option+⌘+Mouse left  
Camera translate (alternative) Ctrl+Alt+Mouse left    
Camera zoom Alt+Mouse right Mouse middle  
Stencil rotate S+Mouse left S+Mouse left  
Stencil snap rotate Shift+S+Mouse left Shift+S+Mouse left  
Stencil translation S+Middle mouse    
Stencil zoom S+Right mouse S+Right mouse  
Change tool Size / Hardness Ctrl+Mouse right ⌘+Mouse right Change size by moving horizontally, change hardness of brush by moving vertically.
Change tool Flow / Rotation Ctrl+Mouse left ⌘+Mouse left Change flow of current brush by moving horizontally, change rotation of brush by moving vertically.
Rotate environment Shift+Mouse right Shift+Mouse right Rotate horizontally the environment map used for the lighting in the viewport.
Auto-Focus (Depth of Field) Ctrl+Middle mouse    
Texture set selection Ctrl+Alt+Mouse Right Option+⌘+Mouse right  
Context menu Mouse right Mouse right Quick menu to access the properties window inside the viewport.
Set Clone tool source location V+Mouse left V+Mouse left  
       
Ignore stencil mask N N Temporarily disable the stencil (avoid to remove it entirely).
Resume previous stroke A A Allow to continue the previously created brush stroke to avoid discontinuities.

List of non-Editable shortcuts

Some shortcuts may only work if the mouse is over the specific window.

Example: copy and pasting requires that the mouse is over the layer stack.

Action Shortcut (Windows) Shortcut (MacOS) Description
Copy layer Ctrl+C⌘+CCopy the currently selected layer(s).
Cut layer Ctrl+X⌘+XCut the currently selected layer(s).
Paste layer Ctrl+V⌘+VPaste the layer in memory(s).
Delete layer DeleteDeleteDelete the currently selected layer(s).
Duplicate layer Ctrl+D⌘+DDuplicate the currently selected layer(s).
Group layer Ctrl+G⌘+GPut the currently selected layer(s) into a folder.
Copy layer content Ctrl+Shift+COption+⌘+CCopy the layer content (painting) and its effects.
Paste layer content Ctrl+Shift+VOption+⌘+VPaste the content (painting) and effects currently in memory.
Display mask in viewport Alt+Mouse leftOption+Mouse leftSwitch the viewport display mode to the mask of the specified layer.
Disable/Enable mask Shift+Mouse leftShift+Mouse leftToggle the state of the mask on a layer.




Drag & drop materialCTRL+Drag&Drop⌘+Drag&DropPress and maintain this key while drag and dropping a material (or smart material) into the viewport to only affect a specific part of the 3D model.




Manipulator constraint/snappingShiftShiftSnap transformation when adjusting the manipulator (translation or rotation) in 3D View. Constrain ratio when adjusting manipulator in 2D View.
Manipulator mirror transformationCtrl⌘Mirror manipulator points transformation around its pivot point in 2D View.

Adobe, Inc.

Get help faster and easier

New user?

Quick links

View all your plans Manage your plans
View quick links
Hide quick links

Legal Notices    |    Online Privacy Policy