Make weird stuff
Sculpt with layers
Sculpting turns a solid part into a signed-distance field you push and pull with brushes, like clay. Strokes write into a layer that is re-meshed as you go, so faces, creatures and other organic shapes that would be tedious with primitives get pretty quick. The Cells tool (which replaced the old voxel editor) lays down grid-snapped blocks in the same surface, and Texture, Emboss, Engrave and Paint handle the surface finish.
Use it for hand-shaped detail, not exact geometry. Converting hides the original part instead of deleting it, so you can undo or show it again any time. Every stroke, and entering or leaving sculpt mode, is a normal undo step.
How to use it
Convert a part to sculpt
Select a part and run from the command palette or the Object section convert button. This opens the dialog.
Set resolution and convert
Set Resolution (cells along longest axis). Higher captures more detail but uses more memory and takes longer to bake. Leave Smooth lattice artifacts on to clear faint one-cell "zipper" noise. Click Convert.
Enter sculpt mode
With the sculpt part selected, run (the Sculpt pill on the object toolbar, or the command palette). The Brush tool palette opens in the left sidebar.
Pick a brush
The Brush grid has Draw, Carve, Clay, Smooth, Flatten, Fair, Scrape, Crease, Pinch, Inflate, Grab, Paint, Texture, Emboss, Engrave, Cells, Stamp, Select and Profile.
Choose a brush shape
Draw and Carve take a brush Shape: Sphere, Box, Capsule, Torus or Octa. Non-sphere shapes and the Stamp tool lay down one copy per shape width along a drag, and the Spacing slider sets the gap. Other tools ignore the shape.
Tune brush settings
Under Brush settings, set Radius (mm), Strength and Blend (mm) (how much each dab melts into the surface, 0 = hard).
Sculpt the surface
Click and drag on the surface. Shift-drag applies the opposite tool.
Texture, sharpen and paint it
Pick Texture, choose a pattern (noise, wood grain, carbon fiber, knurling, ribs, honeycomb, dimples, checker, leather or scales) and brush it on. The pattern is anchored to the part, so going over a spot again lines up instead of doubling. Hold Shift to press it in.
Emboss pulls the raised parts of existing detail further out and Engrave pushes the recessed parts further in. Flat surface is left alone, so only the pattern moves. Shift softens it back.
Then pick Paint and a Technique. Basecoat covers, Wash pools in recesses, Drybrush and Edge highlight catch raised detail, Glaze tints, Zenithal lights the faces that point up, Stipple speckles and Blend softens. One stroke is one coat, so go over it again to build up.
Enable mirror symmetry
Turn on Mirror X/Y/Z to sculpt symmetrically, with a per-axis plane offset in mm.
Exit sculpt mode
Run (the check button or the palette), or press Escape.
Tips
- Paint: Strength acts as opacity, and unpainted areas keep the base colour. Detail sets how big a recess or edge the technique reads, Contrast how picky it is. Shift flips a technique (a wash hits the raised areas, a zenithal paints the shadow side).
- Texture writes its relief against the surface as it was before the stroke, so repainting a spot doesn't stack. Size is the pattern repeat, Blend rounds it off, and depth scales with Strength.
- Emboss and Engrave have the same Detail (feature size) and Contrast controls. Lower Contrast if a faint pattern doesn't respond. One stroke is one step, so repeat to build up. They're handy for fixing a texture that came out too shallow or too deep without redrawing it.
- Crease reads the two faces meeting under the brush and pulls the surface back to their sharp corner. If the corner has been smoothed away there's nothing to read, and the ring turns red. Press L while pointing at a good stretch to lock the corner, then carry it along. The same lock freezes the plane for Scrape, Flatten and Clay, so they shave everything to one flat face. A wireframe shows the fit (blue while live, amber once locked).
- Cells adds grid-locked blocks (Shift removes). The radius slider becomes the block size, and the result is re-distanced into smooth blobs.
- Stamp imprints a scene part or a black-and-white image. Click or drag to imprint, Shift-drag to subtract. Images have Cut and Relief modes with a Depth control.
- Increase detail doubles the sculpt grid resolution. Small brushes refine automatically too.
- Auto-redistance re-solves the field after each stroke for steadier picking and falloff. Turn it off for faster strokes on big sculpts.
- Strokes save with the file, so you can still undo after reopening. turns the whole session into a time-lapse video.
- Draw, Carve, Smooth, Grab and the sphere brush are free. Clay, Crease, Paint, Texture, Emboss, Engrave, Stamp, Profile and the other brush shapes are part of Enhanced.