3D panel enhancements | Photoshop

Last updated on 14 Oct 2024

As of July 2024, Photoshop’s legacy 3D features have been removed. However, now in the Photoshop (beta) app you can seamlessly add 3D objects to your 2D Photoshop design using the Adobe Substance 3D Viewer (beta) app. Click here for more details.

The Photoshop 3D panel in Photoshop makes it easier for you to work with 3D objects. Modeled after the Layers panel, the 3D panel is structured as a scene graph/tree having root objects and child objects.

You can interact with 3D objects in the scene graph in several ways, such as:

Delete objects
Reorder objects
Reverse object order
Insert objects
Duplicate objects
Make instances of objects
Group objects

You can access these interactions from the context menu associated with a 3D object. Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS).

Some interactions are not available for certain types of 3D objects.

Display the 3D panel

Select Window > 3D.

Basic interactions

Interaction	Description	How to perform...	Not available for...
Delete an object	Deletes the selected objects from the scene graph	Drag the object to the trash, or Use the Delete Object command in the context menu	Objects under Scene, Environment, and View
Add an object	Adds a mesh or a preset 3D object	Right-click the 3D object. From the context menu, select the appropriate option to add an object. For example, select Add Pyramid.	Objects under Environment and Current View
Reorder an object	Changes the position of the selected object within the scene graph	Drag the object to its new position.	Objects under Scene, Environment, and Current View
Reverse order of objects	Reverses the order of the selected objects within the scene graph	Select the objects. From the context menu, select Reorder Objects.	Objects under Scene, Environment, and Current View
Duplicate an object	Duplicates the currently selected object	Select an object. From the context menu, select Duplicate Objects.	Objects under Scene, Environment, and Current View
Group objects	Groups the selected objects	Select the objects. From the context menu, select Group Items.	Materials, constraints, and objects under Scene and Environment
Ungroup objects	Ungroups a group of objects	Select the group. From the context menu, select Ungroup Objects.	Materials, constraints, and objects under Scene and Environment

Create an instance of a 3D object

An instance of a 3D object is a linked copy that reflects the changes made to the original object. If you want to modify the object and its instance independently, you can decouple the two.

Follow these steps to create an instance of a 3D object:

In the 3D panel, right-click the mesh object. For example, right-click Hat.
From the context menu for the object, select Instance Objects. This will create an instance of the object; for example, Hat1.

By default, the instance is linked with the original object.

Photoshop Instance of a 3D object — Linked instance: Changes made to the object reflect on the instance

Decouple an instance from the original object

When you decouple an instance from the original object, changes made to the original object are no longer reflected on the instance.

Right-click the instance in the 3D panel.
From the context menu, select Bake Instance.

Photoshop Decouple an instance from the original object — Instance decoupled from the original object

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