Interesting. Parametric modeling dosen't care about normals. Attached picture shows Planes with boundary connections. The boundaries normals are correct but the planes are not. When they are stitched together to start solid process every normal is flipped negative. Running the CadQuader it doesn't care but the normals when exported .obj file will have the normals that the step file normals are. Perhaps there should be a check to show the normals and a process to correct them before export to obj?  Hood.step

Windows 11

Thanks for the update, which OS?

Creating a Futuristic Minibus in 3DCoat#3dcoat #3dmodeling #scifi #vehiclemodeling #3dsculptingView the full article

Hello. I have not used 3D coat for a few months and am missing a left mouse click trick to realign vertices to the reference mesh. I recall that I could bring the topology back up to the surface of the reference mesh with a left mouse click when autosnap is on and whilst using the brush tool. I remember this being really useful when the retopology starts to get more intricate. However I have yet to get this working. Am I missing something? Many thanks!

Hi,   been using 3d coat for a while especially the 2d paint tool I m used to use the different modes in type of surface combined with plane orientation. Since 2025 (im using in the video), you can see its not working anymore when i use "pick before painting" or "during painting "with any orientation (forward direction and normal direction). Before i could see the drawing plane following the surface and aligning nicely. Same problem with any tools if I go "on plane" option let me know if the description with the video is clear, but would be great to have this fixed, i tried on 2026 and same problem thank you guys!!! 2026-11-11 16-19-02.mp4

I tested this again today on the latest macOS (27.2.1) and 3DCoat (2026.26), but am still running into the same crash. It looks like the same stack trace I attached in the original post, and seems to be a crash in Launch Services. Is this reproducible by anyone else? Last Exception Backtrace: 0   CoreFoundation                        0x7ff81786b80a __exceptionPreprocess + 225 1   libobjc.A.dylib                       0x7ff8131fb44c objc_exception_throw + 62 2   Foundation                            0x7ff813a1fd1e -[NSAssertionHandler handleFailureInMethod:object:file:lineNumber:description:] + 362 3   LaunchServices                        0x7ff818cbd960 -[_LSAEKeyDesc initWithAEKeyDesc:] + 259 4   LaunchServices                        0x7ff818da0be7 __LSOpenItemsWithRole_block_invoke + 122 5   LaunchServices                        0x7ff818cb27aa __FSShimFSRefs_block_invoke + 17 6   LaunchServices                        0x7ff818cb2614 +[FSNode shimFSRefs:count:reason:error:block:] + 572 7   LaunchServices                        0x7ff818cb2732 FSShimFSRefs + 140 8   LaunchServices                        0x7ff818da09cc LSOpenItemsWithRole + 124 9   3DCoat                                   0x101f8acd6 comms::cIO::Exec(char const*, char const*, bool, bool) + 698 10  3DCoat                                   0x102aa765c ExecuteCommand(char const*, char const*, char const*) + 80 11  3DCoat                                   0x102887b17 BaseConnector::AddConnector(unsigned int, BaseConnector*, char const*) + 645 12  3DCoat                                   0x1017185ff CopyPaste::SyncAllLayersZ(float) + 1279 13  3DCoat                                   0x101011c26 PenInterface::DoComm(BasicTool*, long) + 18 14  3DCoat                                   0x101f9ec40 ui_menu_simple::execute() + 68 15  3DCoat                                   0x101bbea58 BaseWidget::CallCallbacks(unsigned int) + 730 16  3DCoat                                   0x101bc3af6 Widgets::ProcessWindowsMessages(tagMSG&) + 932 17  3DCoat                                   0x101be5539 IntfWidget1::OnButtonDown(int) + 167 18  3DCoat                                   0x10189630e comms::cWidgets::HandleInputEvents() + 1322 19  3DCoat                                   0x10260b1e8 comms::cMain_OnRender(comms::cRect const&) + 123 20  3DCoat                                   0x10189f25e cMacMain_OneIterationOfMessageLoop() + 2312 21  3DCoat                                   0x1018a62be main + 22929 22  dyld                                     0x20523e0f5 start + 3253

Also, being this is the GPUPPP board, I would like to make some suggestions regarding the node room. I have enjoyed looking into it and creating some materials, masks and modifiers. In my time there I have found these would be useful: 1. Have a gradient node that can pickup colors form an image. Drawing a line on an image can sample the colors below and can produce a gradient from that, for coloring materials it would really be useful. 2. Have the delete key delete nodes in the node window. Using the right click menu can become slower when more nodes are involved. 3. Control over elements generated from certain nodes; like puting a gradient on generated cells form voronoi or tiles, adding random grays to elements, more granular control as a whole. I'll keep on working with the nodes and provide some feedback, hoping it is useful for others as well. Keep up the good work! 💪

Yeah, it's recognized, I have that in the console. Here is the return : Environment variable "COAT_PEN" = OpenTabletDriver Virtual Artist Tablet Pen (0) Environment variable "COAT_ERASER" = empty (define the name of your eraser input device from the list below) Environment variable "COAT_MOUSE" = Pulsar Pulsar 8K Dongle Mouse ----------------------------------------------------------------- Input Devices (source | "name" | mode) ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Mouse    "Virtual core XTEST pointer"        Disabled   2. Mouse    "Logitech USB Receiver Mouse"       Disabled   3. Mouse    "Logitech USB Receiver Consumer Control"Disabled 4. Mouse    "Pulsar Pulsar 8K Dongle"           Disabled   5. Mouse    "Pulsar Pulsar 8K Dongle Consumer Control"Disabled 6. Mouse    "Pulsar Pulsar 8K Dongle Mouse"     Disabled   7. Mouse    "stream-controller-helldivers-2-plugin"Disabled 8. Mouse    "Core Pointer"                      Screen      

This might be unrelated or some issue on my end...but for some reason the Cad2Quads application does not respond well when  in fullscreen mode...like in regular 3DCoat, the menus do not render and I have to manually resize the window and then it does work. I do not know if it has to do with my system or is it something other users also experience. Anyone else has had the same issue?  

Thanks for the response Carlos. What I am trying to achieve is to convert a Node Graph to finished static pixels, without needing to export but to keep on working in the model, just so that other tools work normally with the layer, a normal ppp layer, like the ones we've always had.  So, for instance, I made a procedural wood, and I want to treat the pixels on that layer like any other pixel non NG layer, is there a way of baking the NG material onto the layer and have it become just regular pixels? That is a destructive operation of course, but it may be what helps the most sometimes. I just couldn't find that info in the video. Thanks!

Hello Tapping the color picker hotkey (V) twice over the same color in 3DCoat switches the sampling mode to pick the color directly from the screen (including the UI or background) instead of the 3D object or layer. • First tap of V: Samples the color from the 3D model or active surface under your cursor. • Second tap of V (double-tap over the same color): Toggles or forces picking directly from the screen pixels rather than the underlying mesh/layer. At what resolution are you working ? The UV layout have enough islands space to paint in ?   You can check more details on color tools via the official 3DCoat Color Picker Documentation

Creating a Sci-Fi Hand in 3DCoat #3dcoat #scifi #3dsculpting #3dmodeling #3dartView the full article

I'm trying to blend colors for hand-painted textures, but the transition looks harsh and hard to smooth out. Also, when I use the color picker and paint, the color I get doesn't seem to match the picked color, as shown in the attached video. Any recommended brush, opacity, or viewport settings? Thanks.  

Bingo good quads!  Now off to see if it will hold up with something different. Different work flow. Now to add some sharp cuts and see what happens. Test2_hood.step

Apologies, on closer inspection #2 is also not applicable to 3DC2026.26. My suggestion copied from bug tracker:  In 3DC2026.26, in order to scroll a panel, I can drag with the pen/mouse inside the panel, it works ok. I suggest making the UI menus and panels respond to (2 finger) gesture drags, while keeping the mouse/pen pointer over the 3D viewport. This would enable people to peek inside panels, before they decide if they want to use something from the panel, while keeping their flow in the viewport. And mainly, it would enable us to scroll in a long Tools panel, where currently the pencil/mouse drag does not work (so I have to close sections in order to see the whole Tools panel).

Hello Sergy, thanks! I tried 3DC2026.26 and the gestures work well! I feel it is a real game changer and look forward to you resolving the node system rendering issues as you mentioned (right now, everything looks black), so that we can use the gestures in a workable whole. May I also suggest you also take a look at this related issue, in order to improve the gesture drag experience in the menus/panels as well! 

As of 3DC2026.26 point 1 of this post seems to have been solved, as I can scroll with the pen and touch at a good speed. I suggest focusing on #2. 

This is now discussed in this more comprehensive thread, which supersedes this thread.

Hi You can bake the materials as any other layer at export No, currently 3DC don't have saved cache file. When Inline Node is enabled, interactive controls—such as color swatches, curve editors, gradient ramps, and levels—appear directly inside the Node Inspector. This eliminates the need to open and confirm separate modal dialogs every time you tweak a value.