{"id":2294,"date":"2022-09-19T19:30:07","date_gmt":"2022-09-19T19:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3dcoat.com\/documentation\/?post_type=manual_documentation&p=2294"},"modified":"2026-03-09T15:29:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T15:29:58","slug":"exporting-from-the-paint-room","status":"publish","type":"manual_documentation","link":"https:\/\/3dcoat.com\/documentation\/manual\/workspaces-rooms\/paint\/exporting-from-the-paint-room\/","title":{"rendered":"Exporting from the Painting Room"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There are only two categories of export that can be performed while working in the Painting Workspace:
1. Export of the polygonal model as defined in the UV Workspace.
2. Export all of the Painted Textures created in the Painting Workspace<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Without UVs there are no textures to export.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A UV layout<\/strong> defines how a 2D image or texture map is wrapped onto a 3D surface. UVs usually only become necessary when you begin painting textures or you want to bake out normal maps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All Texture Painting Data is contained within the various Layers which have been created in the\u00a0Painting Workspace<\/strong>. This data exists in the form of the five basic\u00a0channels that are created at the same time you Paint that information onto your mesh.
Separate maps are saved for each of the five categories of texture that you have created by painting onto your model: Diffuse Color, Glossiness Color, Emissive Intensity, Normal (bump) information, and Displacement information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As is the case when exporting data from the UV Workspace,<\/strong> on Textures > Export UV: Export the object without textures. This command is best used with the ‘Import UV-set’ option. This combination allows you to export a UV-set without textures, that can be used as morph target on other apps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Export Constructor<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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When you choose a preset, then changing settings doesn’t matter, the preset settings override the export settings that are on Preferences.
So things may change from one preset to another even if the exported normal map type is the same,  because Triangulation method, Normals Calculation Method or the Tangent space may be different from one preset to another and these three settings are included in every preset, plus some presets have settings set for Swap TB and Denormalized TB, which changes things too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Activate the Export constructor<\/em> command to see export presets<\/p>\n\n\n

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Export Diffuse or Albedo ?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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In 3DCoat, the difference between Diffuse<\/strong>, Color (Albedo)<\/strong>, and Base Color<\/strong> primarily comes down to whether the texture contains baked-in lighting information (like ambient occlusion or shadows) and the intended rendering workflow (PBR vs. legacy)<\/mark>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is the breakdown of the differences:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n