Substance 3D Painter Keyboard Shortcuts

Tools on the number row

1 is the paint tool, 2 the eraser, 3 projection, 4 polygon fill, 5 smudge and 6 clone; holding Ctrl with 1, 2, 3 or 6 selects the particle or absolute-source variant. ] and [ change tool size and X inverts a grayscale tool so it subtracts instead of adds. P picks the material under the cursor, D toggles lazy mouse for smoother strokes, and L turns symmetry on. A resumes the previous stroke, which is useful after an accidental click.

Seeing what you painted

C and Shift + C cycle the viewport through channels — base colour, roughness, metallic, height — and M returns to the full material view. B and Shift + B step through baked mesh maps such as ambient occlusion and curvature, the fastest way to check a bake before painting on top of it. F1, F2 and F3 switch the layout between combined 3D/2D, 3D only and 2D only, F4 swaps the two, and F frames the whole mesh. Tab hides the interface for a clean look at the model.

Masks, modes and export

U toggles quick mask editing, where you paint the area a stroke may affect; I inverts it and Y clears it. Alt + Q isolates the current texture set. F8, F9 and F10 switch between baking, painting and Iray rendering modes. Ctrl + Shift + B opens the mesh map baker and Ctrl + Shift + E the texture export dialog, where output templates decide which channels are packed into which files.

Frequently asked questions