This pages describes the user interface and features of the 2D View panel in Substance 3D Designer.

In this page

Overview

The 2D View is one of the main panels of Designer's user interface. Its main purposes are the following:

• displaying value or image output by a specified node or going through a specified node connector
• displaying bitmaps and vector graphics resources
• displaying additional information about the content it currently holds, such as color channels or exact color values
• controlling parameters' gizmos

When a displayed image or value is modified, the 2D View updates automatically to stay in sync with the current state of the data.
Multiple 2D View panels can be active at any time, and each can display different images or values. You can control when a new panel should be used by using the Pin feature of the user interface panel.

Displaying content in the 2D View

The most straightforward way to display any image in the 2D View is to double-click LMB...

• ...on a Bitmap or vector graphics resource in the Explorer
• ...on a node or node connector in the Graph View

Images can also be dragged and dropped directly into the viewport by holding LMB on a resource in the Explorer panel, or RMB on a node in the Graph View.

In the Graph View, you can send an image to the 2D View using the View output in 2D View contextual menu option, which is accessed by clicking RMB...

• ...on a node to display that node's output. If the node has more than one output, select the desired output in the submenu
• ...on empty space in the Graph View to display that graph's output. If the graph has more than one output, select the desired output in the submenu

When loading a graph, its first output is automatically displayed in the 2D View by default. You can disable this behaviour in the Preferences. Go to Edit > Preferences > Graph > Substance compositing graph and uncheck the View output in 2D view when opening a graph option.

Viewport

The viewport is the display area of the 2D View, and lets you navigate the displayed image using the following mouse and keyboard shortcuts:

Using a trackpad (macOS only)

• Pan: Two-finger swipe
• Zoom: Two-finger pinch / Two-finger swipe while holding Cmd

The image native resolution, color format and bit depth appear in the bottom left area of the viewport.

In addition to navigation, the viewport offers the following features:

Main toolbar

The main toolbar of the 2D View panel lets you do more with your displayed images, and offers the following features:

Display toolbar

The Display toolbar, which is located at the bottom of the 2D View panel by default, lets you control how the image is displayed in the viewport.

The leftmost section includes controls for color and transparency, while the rightmost section includes the viewport controls detailed in the Viewport section of this page.

Color channels

You can display a single channel of the image using the Color channels button. This opens a combo Box letting you select which of the Red, Green, Blue and Alpha channels should be displayed. The normal aspect of the image with all channels is restored by selecting the RGB option.

The following keyboard shortcuts can be used to quickly switch over to different color channels:

• RGB: C
• Red: R
• Green: G
• Blue: B
• Alpha: A

The icon of the Color channels button changes depending on the currently display channel(s).

Transparency toggle

Transparency display can be toggled on and off, using the / Show checkerboard button. When this is enabled, transparency is displayed using a checkerboard pattern.

There are two main ways to interpret transparency, which can be selected using the / Transparency mode button:

 Straight: transparency information is only stored in the alpha channel, and does not impact any other aspect of the image

 Premultiplied: transparency information is stored in the alpha channel, and also impacts the RGB channels since they are effectively multiplied against the alpha channel

To display correct colors, the appropriate transparency mode should be selected in the 2D View panel to match the transparency method which was applied when the image was created.

Color space

For the most accurate representation of color, images are displayed by default in a color space which matches the one used by the monitor.

The available controls and the effect of the / Color space button will depend on the Color management mode set in the Project settings. Learn more about these controls in the Color management section in this page.

Color management

The 2D View offers simple color management controls to let you choose which display color space should be used when displaying the image.

These controls will adapt to the current Color management mode set in the Project settings, as follows:

• Legacy: you can disp.lay the image in the  sRGB or  Linear sRGB color spaces;
• Adobe ACE: you can  enable color management and set the most appropriate color space for the current monitor as detected by the Adobe ACE engine, or  disable color management and display the image using the Raw color values;
  
• OCIO: you can  enable color management and set the most appropriate one for the current monitor as detected by the OCIO engine, use the combo box and select any of the display color spaces available in the OCIO configuration file currently used, or  disable color management and display the image using the Raw color values.