- Substance 3D home
- Home
- Getting started
- Interface
- Create with Clay
- Create with Primitives
- Get started with primitives
- Primitive parameters
- Organize primitives
- Organize your scene
- Render mode
- Export Mode
- Technical support
- Release notes
- V1.17(Current Release)
- V1.15
- V1.14
- V1.13
- Public Beta V1.17.50 (Current Release)
- Public Beta Archive
- V1 Archive
- V0 Archive
Actions menu
The Actions menu shows actions that are available in your current context.
The Convert to clay button appears in the Actions menu when a mesh or other convertible object is selected. Convert to clay converts an object to clay so that you can use the clay tools on it.
Actions
Selecting a group that contains multiple layers will make the actions below affect all the layers within that group.
The following actions are available in the Actions menu:
Add
In order from left to right:
Action | Description | Context |
---|---|---|
Create a new layer | Creates a new layer, scopes into the new layer, and switches to the Clay tool. | Always available |
Create a new camera | Creates a new camera at the position of the viewport camera | Available when not focused on a primitive container. |
Make stamp |
Create a stamp from the selected objects. |
Requires one or more layers to be selected. |
Actions
In order from left to right:
Action | Description | Context |
Duplicate selection
|
Duplicates all selected objects. The Select tool has shortcuts to quickly duplicate a selection without the Actions menu. |
Requires one or more layers to be selected. |
Flip selection | Flip the selected objects along an axis. 💻 Ctrl + click the translation control of the gizmo (the cone) to flip an object along that axis. |
Requires one or more objects to be selected. |
Delete selection | Delete all selected objects | Requires one or more layers to be selected. |
Grouping
Learn more about Grouping and scene structure here.
In order from left to right:
Action | Description | Context |
---|---|---|
Group | Create a group from the selected objects. | Requires one or more layers to be selected. |
Ungroup | All selected groups will be ungrouped. | Requires one or more groups to be selected. |
Merge | Flattens all selected objects into a single layer. This can be a slow operation when high resolution layers are selected. | Requires more than 1 layer to be selected. |
Linking
The Linking options allow you to change whether selected layers are instanced, or linked to other layers.
These options are a little unusual in how they behave. If you duplicate an unlinked object, it will create a standard duplicate. If you duplicate a linked object, you create an instance of that object. Any changes made to an instance will affect all other instances in the same way.
With the options in the Linking section, you can make an object an instance. So to create an instance:
- Select an object.
- Open the Actions menu.
- Select Make link.
- Create a duplicate of the object.
The duplicate behaves as an instance - any changes you make to the original or the duplicate will be reflected on the other object.
More instancing and linking information is available under Advanced scene assembly.
Action |
Description |
Context |
Make Link |
Set the selected objects to act as a link |
Requires one or more unlinked objects to be selected. |
Unlink |
Break the link between any selected instances and the objects they’re linked to. |
Available if any object in a selection is an instance. |
Resolution
In order from left to right:
Action | Description | Context |
---|---|---|
Increase resolution | Increase the resolution of the current layer or selected objects. Increasing resolution allows for more detail but can impact performance. | Requires one or more layers to be selected. |
Decrease resolution | Decrease the resolution of the current layer or selected objects. Decreasing resolution decreases the amount of detail possible but can improve performance. | Requires one or more layers to be selected. |
Symmetry and Repetition
You can learn more about Symmetry, Repetition, and Locking here.
Symmetry
Action | Context |
---|---|
Toggle Mirror symmetry. | Requires layer scope. |
Toggle Radial symmetry. | Requires layer scope. |
Toggle Kaleidoscopic symmetry | Requires layer scope. |
Set number of radial duplicates. | Requires layer scope and Radial symmetry must be enabled. |
Repetition
Action | Context |
---|---|
Toggle Mirror repetition. | Requires group or scene scope. |
Toggle Radial repetition. | Requires group or scene scope. |
Toggle Kaleidoscopic repetition | Requires group or scene scope. |
Set number of radial duplicates. | Requires group or scene scope and Radial repetition must be enabled. |
Visibility
Action | Context |
---|---|
Hide selection. | Always available, but no impact unless an object is selected. |
Show all - unhide all hidden objects. | Always available, but no impact unless objects are hidden. |
Isolate scope | When toggled on, any out of focus layers will be automatically hidden. |
Reference images | Hide or show reference images in VR. |
Boolean
Learn more about Booleans here.
The Live boolean toggle only appears when an object is set to use one of the boolean operators.
Action |
Context |
Begin Difference boolean operation. |
Requires one or more selected objects. |
Begin Intersection boolean operation. |
Requires one or more selected objects. |
Begin Split Boolean operation |
Requires one or more selected objects. |
Begin Union boolean operation. |
Requires one or more selected objects. |
Live Preview |
Requires an object to be in Boolean mode |
Clear |
Clear all current Boolean operations. |
Apply |
Apply all Boolean operations to selected object, or to all objects if no objects are selected. |
copy and paste
Cut, Copy, and Paste objects in your scene. Cut and Paste are useful for moving content within the hierarchy, while Copy and Paste are useful for creating duplicates of existing content.
Action | Description | Context |
---|---|---|
Cut | Remove the selected objects and put their data in the clipboard to be pasted elsewhere. | Requires one or more objects to be selected. |
Copy | Put the data of the selected objects in the clipboard to be pasted elsewhere. | Requires one or more objects to be selected. |
Paste | Create a new version of the objects in the clipboard. | Requires data to be in the clipboard from the Cut or Copy actions. |