Quick Start Guide | Substance 3D Viewer (beta)

Getting started with Substance 3D Viewer (beta)

Learn how to navigate the interface, inspect models from every angle using intuitive controls, and capture and export snapshots or high-quality renders to share or document your work.

What you'll need:

Download sample files

Open a file or folder

There are a few ways to open files or folders in Viewer:

Drag a 3D file onto the Viewer window.
On the home screen, use the Open file or Open folder buttons.
If you already have a file open, use the File > Open options.

If you open a folder with Viewer, you can use the Files workspace to navigate and quickly open other files in the folder.

Open Workspaces for more control

Open Workspaces from the left side of the Viewer window. Each Workspace provides additional options to control certain aspects of your scene or model:

Use the Files Workspace to view different models, adjust the position of your current model, or view model information.
Use the Appearance workspace to manage materials on different parts of your model.
Use the Composition Workspace to adjust your canvas size or change the background image.
Use the Environment Workspace to adjust lighting in your scene.
Use the Generate Workspace to create 3D models or add additional context to your scene.

Look around your model

You can use a mouse or trackpad to navigate through your 3D scene. The default mouse controls are as follows:

To orbit around the asset, right-click and drag.
To move closer or further away, use the scroll wheel.
To move left, right, up, or down, middle-click and drag.

Use keyboard shortcut F to focus on your model or on your currently selected object.

Note:

Refer to the navigation bar at the bottom of the 3D Viewport for a quick reminder of the Viewport controls. You can also use the dropdown in the navigation bar to view controls for trackpad or a two button mouse.

Modify your model

Use the Appearance workspace to change the materials applied to your model:

If your model has Substance materials applied to it, you can adjust the material parameters here.
To apply different materials, open the Material presets at the bottom of the Appearance workspace, then drag and drop materials onto your model.

Modify your scene

Use the Environment workspace to adjust the lighting of your scene:

In the Environment workspace, you can adjust the brightness and rotation of the scene lights, change the background color, and adjust Ground plane settings.
You can also rotate the lighting in your scene at any time by holding Shift, then right-click and drag in the Viewport.

Adjust composition

Use the Composition workspace to setup your final composition.

Select Canvas size to adjust the width and height of your canvas.
Click the image selector next to Background image to select an alternative background for your scene.
With a background image selected, use the navigation controls to position your model.

Render and Export

By default, Viewer uses a real-time renderer that makes your models look great while still being super responsive. You can choose to instead turn on Ray tracing which will result in more realistic lighting and even better renders at a small performance cost.
At any point, you can click Export an image in the top bar to export an image of your scene. You can adjust some options for the export before committing. Higher quality levels and resolutions will take longer to export.
The Snapshot button allows you to copy an image of the Viewport to your clipboard and quickly paste it into other creative applications. You can also save the Snapshot to your files.