While most of the graphics card incompatibilities should now be fixed, there may still be still parts of the program that cause problems with some integrated graphics cards. For potential remedies if you run into problems, think to upgrade your graphic card to OpenGL based one.

- 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 too because it determines 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 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 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 tools panel, select “Select/Move” command, here you can select the object you want to move/rotate/scale.

- How to adjust pivot point?
In 3DCoat, the pivot center is dynamic, current pick point (where you cursor pointed on the model) is the pivot by default. You can set pivot manually using F key. Also look at Camera menu to pick 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 menu View→Options.

- Version 4#: When DX and When GL?
It depends on your hardware. 3DCoat v4.## has two Graphics Modes: DX (DirectX) and GL (OpenGL), usually GL mode runs much faster than DX mode on professional Quadro graphics card, while DX mode will run faster on game graphics card.

- 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 drawing the depth, you’re actually creating vector displacement, the normal map and displacement is generating “on the fly”, if you want to get the normal map, just save it, no need to wait 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 correct normal map, you may use Textures→Texture Baking Tool.

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

- Drawing with shift key.
Different orders of SHIFT key and LMB (left mouse button) will result in different effects. If you first press (and hold) SHIFT 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 very straight line just like the way in Photoshop.
v - Create seamless textures using 3DCoat.
It is easy now to use 3DCoat to create seamless textures and paint bump. Just go to menu File→Import→Image Plane, you may want to use Textures→Offset tool as well. You can read more about it on page.

When 3DCoat is run you can see the amount of free memory at left bottom corner. If this value becomes too low (200-300M) the program can work unstably.
This tutorial will help you to increase stability in easy way.
3DCoat consumes much memory for high detailed objects, so it is important to allow 3DCoat to use as much virtual memory as possible. So, please adjust virtual memory settings. MyComputer→Properties→Advanced→Performance→Advanced→Virtual Memory→Change
Please set this to 4096K.

3DCoat supports larger virtual memory range support. If you are using 64-bit Windows you will be able to use up to 4GB of virtual memory. So, using 64-bit windows with 3DCoat is a best choice.

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

All retopo tools will support realtime symmetry updating. If you change something on one side of 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 existing mesh without breaking UV set.

PLY export/import with vertex color. Good for color scanners and for exporting to xNormal. It is 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.

Voxel measure tool has been given several new functions now it will measure length of curves, lasso, 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 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 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”.