What's new in Dimension

Adobe Dimension makes it easy to composite 2D and 3D assets to build product shots, scene visualizations, and abstract art.

This release of Dimension rolls out new features, performance improvements, enhancements, and bug fixes.

We are very excited to announce a new service - Cloud Render (Beta). Cloud rendering allows you to upload your Dimension scene to the cloud and do the rendering on a server. You can then download the final result, freeing your computer resources and completing renders significantly faster.

Cloud rendering is free during the beta period. We can’t wait to hear your feedback!

See Rendering & Exporting in Dimension for more information.

You can now import Substance materials in .sbsar format. Substance materials are a way to parametrically generate textures, so you can get thousands of variations of patterns and designs from one material.

See Supported Material File Types for more information on Substance materials and where to get them.

Graphics placed onto models have had several upgrades in terms of quality and control. All graphics now maintain a higher resolution, with less pixelation and higher visual fidelity. Graphics now also have two modes: decal and fill. Decal mode lets a graphic float on top of the material while fill mode lets a graphic fill the entire material. Fill mode has new tiling methods for repeat and mirror.

See Customize the appearance of models, and Supported material file types for more information.

Dimension now allows saving both graphics and colors from Dimension into CC Libraries. Loading an image from Creative Cloud Libraries now maintains the image as a cloud linked file for editing and updating workflows. The Creative Cloud Libraries panel has also been updated to support the new custom grouping functionality.

Dimension now has… dimensions! You can choose from several 3D units of measurement and change the size of objects in dimensions to easily scale objects.

Access render setup in render mode. See Document Settings for more information on setting up your scene units.

• Spherical Panorama Environment Light Support: Dimension can now detect when you load a spherical panoramic image as an environment light. Dimension will no longer apply automatic spherical panoramic image conversion to images that are already spherical panoramas.
• Move Tool Helpers: The Move tool has some new alignment and distance indicators to help identify how far you’re moving objects.
• Magic Wand Edit Commands: You can now use the cut, copy, paste, and duplicate edit commands on magic wand selections, allowing you to break models up into multiple pieces.
• New Language: Dimension now supports Simplified Chinese as a language choice.

• VRay Rendering Engine Removed: With the development of the Adobe Rendering Engine we have now removed the VRay rendering engine as part of the Dimension core application. Support for external rendering engines may be considered in the future.
• Starter Assets: With the introduction of Substance .sbsar format support we have replaced most of the materials in the Starter Assets with Substance materials.
• Canvas Selection: The border of the canvas is no longer selectable, to prevent accidental selection changes. The canvas size label is still targetable.

This release of Dimension rolls out performance improvements, enhancements, and bug fixes.

• Improvements to Adobe Dimension Renderer startup speeds when using the render preview window.
• Improvements to Adobe Dimension Renderer final render speeds.
• Improved the performance for undo/redo actions.

Implemented a new preference to reduce noise in the final rendering when using the Adobe Dimension Renderer. This option increases the quality of the final renders by denoising the result, reducing total render times.

Dimension now directly supports the import of .ai file format, allowing you to work quicker with the files you have. You can choose artboards from Photoshop .psd and Illustrator .ai files when importing in Dimension. You can also now copy and paste both raster and vector graphics directly from the clipboard into Dimension.

Select artboards from the image picker pop-up window. See Accessing artboards for more information.

Dimension now supports adding multiple images with unique material properties and settings to models as different layers.

Apply a graphic by dragging it to the model. See Customize the appearance of models for more information.

You can now take advantage of saving camera bookmarks in render mode. Easily select the saved views you want to render and set up all of them at once.

Access render setup in render mode. See Rendering in Dimension for more information.

The Dimension canvas has been updated to have familiar 2D zooming, panning, and resizing controls. Using print controls lets you easily configure the size of your canvas based on physical units and print resolution settings.

Access canvas size print controls in design mode in the document settings. See Set Canvas Size for more information.

• Sampler tool color mode:

You can now use Sampler Tool to sample screen color and base color of materials and images before lighting and effects being applied

• Texture transformation:

In addition to material transformation, individual textures can now scale, rotate, and offset independently.

• Scene grid updates:

You can now control the grid visibility and color. The grid has had visual improvements to handle large-scale scenes.

• Camera undo/redo:

You can now view camera movement history independent of other document edit history.

• Focus canvas visualization:

The focus (depth of field) effect now has an in-canvas preview. The canvas preview is interactive to get an idea of the effect. The final effect must still be visualized in the render preview.

• New Languages:

Dimension is now also available in Korean [한국어]. For related Help documentation on supported languages, see Language versions. 

• Stock search in the Asset panel:

You can now search in the Asset panel with a term that shows some results and get a link to search Adobe Stock below the search results.

• New file formats:
  • Import .fbx, .stl, and .skp 3D models.
  • Import .ai images.

For related Help documentation on supported import/export file types, see:
Supported file types | 3D models
Supported file types | Images

• User Interface enhancements:

Single-clicking panel titles and labels no longer collapses or expands a section. Materials in the Scene panel have had their disclosure moved from right to left. The icons in the scene panel have been updated.

• Content panel: The content panel has a new icon and has been repositioned in the toolbar.

• Tool options: Tool options have been moved from the view control bar above the canvas to a pop-out window attached to the toolbar.

• Camera settings: The camera properties have been split out from the environment into a new camera object.

• Keyboard shortcuts: To support the new 2D canvas controls, the shortcuts for some tools have been updated.
  • Orbit Tool: Performs 3D camera rotation. The default shortcut is 1.
  • Pan Tool: Previously named the Hand Tool. Performs 3D camera panning. The default shortcut is 2. The alternate shortcut H has been removed.
  • Dolly Tool: Performs 3D camera zooming. The default shortcut is 3. The alternate shortcut Z has been removed.
  • Hand Tool: Performs 2D canvas panning. The default shortcut is H.
  • Zoom Tool: Performs 2D canvas zooming. The default shortcut is Z.