Stylus Pressure Modes

These modes all require a pressure sensitive tablet and stylus for them to function exactly as described.

Radius & Depth Pressure

Stylus pressure affects radius and depth.

Depth & Opacity Pressure

Stylus pressure only affects draw depth.

Radius, Depth & Opacity Pressure

Stylus pressure modifies radius, depth and opacity.

Droplet Pressure

Increasing pressure decreases radius and increases dept and opacity.

Constant Pressure

Draw with constant depth and radius, regardless of Stylus pressure.

Dot Stroke

Apply the current Brush with discreet dots. Dot spacing depends on the speed of your stroke.

Simple Curve Modes

These modes work by LMB clicking to place vertices for curves, and don’t necessarily need a pressure sensitive device to function. These modes function similarly to one another, but generally have some differences which are described in each of the tools below.

Vertex Lines

Creates perfectly straight lines. LMB click to place a vertex, repeat to place more than one. Once you place a second or higher vertex, the stroke will be applied along the line.

Vertex Curves

Creates interpolated curves. Click to place a vertex, repeat to place more than one. Once you place a second or higher vertex, the stroke will be applied along the curve.

Advanced Curve Modes

Similar to the Simple Curve Modes, these modes work by LMB clicking to place vertices for curves, and don’t necessarily need a pressure sensitive device to function. These modes function similarly to one another, but generally have some differences which are described in each of the tools below.

For the Closed Spline, Curve Stroke & 3D Closed Spline, there are some unique functions. Let’s look at those right now.

LMB click to add vertices to the spline. Each point has it’s own radius. Press ESC to end the spline chunk. LMB click again to start a new cnunk. Click RMB over vertices to change point sharpness or smoothing. RMB+Drag to change the vertex radius. LMB+Drag on vertices to move them. Hover brush over vertices and press DEL key to delete that vertex. Press ENTER to apply the stroke. The Curves Popup Menu contains more options, they are described below in the in the Curves Popup Menu section.

Curve Stroke

In this mode you may draw very accurate and controllable strokes defined by splines.

Closed Spline

Stroke with a closed spline. In this mode you may draw very accurate and controllable strokes defined by splines.

3D Closed Spline

Draw with a closed spline over a surface in 3D, whilst ignoring backfaces, and only applying to the area inside of the closed spline.

Lasso Modes

Square Lasso

Paint, sculpt or select with a square. After activation, press SPACE bar to enter the square size manually.

Rectangle Lasso

Paint, sculpt or select with a rectangle. This mode works with almost every tool. You can paint, freeze, fill, make planes, etc. with the rectangle. Press the Q key to constrain the shape to a square.

Vertex Lasso

Paint, sculpt or select by surrounding an irregular area. LMB click to add vertices to the lasso. Double LMB click or LMB click the first vertex to close and finalize the curve to apply the operation. Press ESC to cancel the lasso. Press BACKSPACE to delete the last placed vertex.

Stroke Lasso

Paint, sculpt or select with a drawn contour. Create by stroking with LMB, release LMB to apply.

Circle Lasso

Paint, sculpt or select with a circle. After activation press the SPACEBAR to enter a circle size manually. The first LMB click determines the center of the circle, stroking determines the size of the circle and releasing the LMB will apply the circle.

Ellipse Lasso

Paint, sculpt or select with an ellipse. Press the Q key to constrain the shape to a circle.

Other Modes

Stamp Mode

LMB+Drag to vary the size. Your first click determines the center of the stamping. The release of the LMB to place stamp, at the current size.

Stamp Drag Mode

LMB+Stroke to place a stamp, release the LMB to place the stamp. The size of the stamp is determined by your Brush Radius.

Curves Popup Menu

This panel has more functions for the Advanced Curve Modes. Let’s look at them now.

Apply

Applies the stroke to the curve.

Clear

Clears the curve.

Detach From the Surface/Attach to the Surface

When creating a curve on a Object, by default it will be snapped or attached to the Object. So that even when you navigate in the 3D Viewport the curve will still remain in the exact same place on the Object. Further, creating a curve outside of a Object, it will be viewport based and will stay in the same place on the viewport when navigating in the 3D Viewport.

By detaching, the curve will become viewport based and will not move when you navigate in the 3D Viewport. By attaching, the curve will be snapped or attached to the Object and will move when navigating as if part of the Object it is attached to.

Add Points/Edit Points

Adds and edits points respectively. In Add Mode, you can add new vertices to the curve and edit existing ones, though it can be cumbersome at times to edit the existing points in this mode. That is where Edit Mode comes in. It makes it impossible to add new vertices and only allows you to edit existing ones.

Transform All

Activates a viewport based Transform gizmo so you can move, rotate and scale the entire curve as one object.

B-Splines

When on, converts the curve to a B-Spline. When off, it’s converted to an interpolated spline.

Hide Helper Lines

Hides the helper lines of the curve.

Edit Points Table

A popup prompt with a full list of every vertex on the curve with their X, Y & Z positions. You can edit each of these to move them numerically.

Scale/Rotate

Allows you to manually key a value for the scale and rotation of the curve. By doing so, the curve will be come viewport based. If this is unwanted, be sure to reattached it the Object.

Flip Horizontally/Vertically

Flips the curve horizontally or vertically.

Save/Load

Allows you to save and load curve profiles. This is a very powerful feature, as you can import EPS files, amongst other file types, with vector graphics to use as part of a Brush, in the Paint or Sculpt Rooms. You can also save your curve profiles made in 3D-Coat, and reload them later, or share them with others. The support files for saving are:

• EPS
• Spline (3D-Coat proprietary file)

The supported files for loading are:

• EPS
• Spline (3D-Coat proprietary file)
• TGA
• BMP
• PNG
• JPG
• DDS
• TIF/TIFF
• EXR
• HDR