Questions/Answers

What are some possible reasons why 3DCoat does not start?

1) Video drivers not installed. Ensure you installed video drivers.
2) GoogleDrive/SkyDrive/OneDrive attached to the entire Documents folder.
3) Not enough rights to access Documents. Try to run as Administrator.
4) There is a conflict with Antivirus. Try to disable it.
5) You changed something related to Tablet drivers recently. Try to revert.
6) Data corrupted in the Documents folder due to crash/bluescreen. Try to delete files “This PC -> Documents/3DCoat/UserPrefs/Preferences/Options***xml”
7) If (6) does not help, rename the entire folder “This PC &gt Documents/3DCoat/” to any other name. All your old files will be there, so it will be your backup. “3DCoat” will create a new folder “3DCoat”.
8) Possibly you have problems with HDD integrity. It is worth running a disk scan for errors. Possibly you rebooted hard and the file system has errors.

NOTE: Repeating the startup message “Fatal Error / Out of memory” could be caused by corrupted data. Do step (7) above. Then manually copy your assets from the old user folder into the new one. Note which file causes the problem. It could be some texture with a damaged header.

What if 3DCoat crashes?

If 3DCoat crashes, in most cases the request to send the automated bug report will appear. It contains information that helps us to understand what happened prior to the crash. It does not contain the textures or the scene itself. The whole text of the report is listed in the browser’s window, you may review it if need. It is very important to send an automated bug report if it appears. It helps greatly to improve stability. If you do so, a similar crash will be fixed in one of the next builds. It is a good idea to tell about the circumstances of the crash, but it is not mandatory.

What if I can’t open my scene?

It may happen if the PC is rebooted during the save. 3DCoat saves scenes instantly, but the process of saving takes some time even after it looks like it is finished, and may take up to 10-30 seconds, even though you may continue to work with 3DCoat. So an immediate reboot may destroy the scene. Another reason is that there may be some errors on the hard drive. Please check your disk and avoid hard reboots. We recommend autosaving (look preferences) every 5-10 min to avoid data loss.

– I want to upgrade my video card to speed up 3DCoat. What should I choose? nVidia or AMD cards are better?

There is no reason to use multiple GPU cards at least for 3DCoat. Video RAM is important because it determines the maximum texture size that can be edited in 3DCoat. Every pixel requires 8 bytes, so you can easily calculate the max size of texture that can fit in memory. We recommend you buy cards with 4 GB of RAM or more.

The Windows release is for 64-bit Windows. 32-bit windows is no longer supported.

– Sometimes painting becomes slow. How to avoid it?

Painting over fewer big faces will be much slower than over divided faces. Try to avoid too big faces in UVspace. Divide faces that are too big whenever possible.

– Do I need to uninstall 3DCoat every time when I am installing a new upgrade?

No, you can install updates, and overwrite the installation, until the major version number changes.

– I am unable to register – every time I enter the serial number and press Register, 3DCoat restarts and asks for the serial number again. How do I exit the loop?

Try the following steps:

check if you copied the serial number correctly, perhaps you selected extra characters or missed some.
if you are on Win10 ensure that you are running 3DCoat as administrator.
if the problem persists after trying these tips try manually deleting the file License.dat from the 3DCoat installation folder.

– There are too many “hints” that get in my way. Is there a way to hide them?

If you are new to 3DCoat, it is recommended that you leave the hints enabled. The “hint” system is very helpful in learning how features work. Once you are familiar with the program, you can hide the “hints” anytime you want – just go to the menu Edit→Preferences→Show hints and uncheck the checkbox. You can turn on or off the big bottom hints separately using the “Show big hints on the bottom panel”.

– I am using Windows 64bit and 3DCoat does not respect my Wacom pen pressure. What should I do?

3DCoat works well with 64-bit drivers 6.08-4 from this page: http://www.wacom.com/downloads/drivers.php

– Can I move/rotate/scale the objects but not the camera?

Yes, you can. In “Sculpt mode” of the tools panel, select “Select/Move” command, here you can select the object you want to move/rotate/scale.

– How to adjust the pivot point?

In 3DCoat, the pivot center is dynamic, current pick point (where your cursor pointed on the model) is the pivot by default. You can set the pivot manually using the F key. Also, look at the Camera menu to pick the best pivot mode.

– What’s the normal maps standards difference between 3ds Max and Maya?

The green channel is reversed. You can select normal maps standards in the menu View→Options.

– Version 2021+: When DX and When GL?

Starting from the 3DCoat 2021 only GL Graphics Mode is supported.

– Version 2022 has only one Graphic Mode: GL (OpenGL).

Now use OpenGL acceleration, you may notice in the Geometry Menu Cuda support is no longer an available option it has been discontinued primarily because it has required the use of an Nvidia card.
Exclusively openGL on the other hand is graphic card agnostic: you can use both AMD or Nvidia cards in order to take advantage of this new GPU acceleration.

– What’s the difference between “Depth” and “Sculpt mode”?

In 3DCoat there are two types of sculpting. One is image-based sculpting and another is mesh-based sculpting. “Depth” is image-based sculpting, in this mode you draw the depth, and you’re actually creating vector displacement, the normal map and displacement are generated “on the fly”, if you want to get the normal map, just save it, no need to wait a long time for baking, because the normal map is generated in realtime.
When you enter “Sculpt mode”, you enter mesh-based sculpting. In this mode you sculpting, you’re really changing the vertex positions of the mesh. In this mode, if you want to get a correct normal map, you may use Textures→Texture Baking Tool.

– What’s the usage of the Cavity painting?

Cavity painting (dependent on the Cavity) allows you to paint in the crevices of the surface without affecting the rest of the area, and vice versa.

– Drawing with the shift key.

Different orders of the SHIFT key and LMB (left mouse button) will result in different effects. If you first press (and hold) SHIFT and then draw with LMB, you will get the surface smoothed. But if you first press (and hold) LMB then press SHIFT and draw, you will get a very straight line just like the way in Photoshop.

– Create seamless textures using 3DCoat.

It is easy now to use 3DCoat to create seamless textures and paint bumps. Just go to the menu File→Import→Image Plane, you may want to use the Textures→Offset tool as well. You can read more about it on the page.

Other Improvements and Functions

Free-form primitives and pose tools now support multi-selection and a new gizmo (if multiple elements are selected).

All retopo tools will support real-time symmetry updating. If you change something on one side of the existing symmetry – it will be done on the other side. Turn off “Retopo -Show mirrored” to see clearly how it happens. It is very important if you want to update the existing mesh without breaking the UV set.

PLY export/import with vertex color. Good for color scanners and for exporting to xNormal. It is the fastest way to produce an xNormal-compatible mesh.

OBJ files with vertex color are also compatible with xNormal.

The Logo tool now functions like “Import image as mesh” from the “File” menu. This new function allows both color and greyscale images to be used, first as a stencil or mask to project through producing an extruded polygonal mesh of a user-defined thickness and secondly to map a corresponding color image and a bump image on the top and bottom faces of the extruded mesh object.

Now, when you import a model with texture for vertex painting/color from the imported texture will be projected on the vertices of the imported mesh.

The Pose tool works through all volumes with rooted child volumes. Previously only one root was selectable. The ability to select several control points in FreeForm mode. Now the user can move only the gizmo in free form multiple selection mode. Baking displacement has been greatly improved.

The voxel measure tool has been given several new functions now it will measure the length of curves, lasso, and perimeter of the section.

Color accuracy is maintained when shifting between regular voxel and Surface modes.

Cavity painting in voxels has been greatly improved
– All boolean operations (even between volumes) will preserve vertex color. Resample will now preserve color in almost all cases. This is accomplished by re-projecting the color.

FBX Import/Export is supported with vertex color. Vertex weight map painting may be exported as a .lwo scene. Any layer may be used for this. You may choose between 0..1 or 1..1 mapping.

The Photoshop connection supports the Direct Painting of voxels.

Now both .obj and .lwo imported and exported models support vertex colors.

Consistently sized symmetry plane.

Exported .obj models are now compatible with Zbrush.

Direct painting over surface models: Both diffuse color and glossiness intensity are supported. Just switch to the Paint Room and begin using color painting tools. This function is “on” by default.
If you need to use regular painting methods (Per-Pixel, Micro-Vertex, etc.) deselect “View/Show voxels in paint room”.