Surface Painter Palette

Use the Surface Painter as an easy way to override the surfaces of your project elements.

For a step-by-step workflow, see Override Surfaces With Surface Painter.

Open Surface Painter

Open the Surface Painter palette from one of the following locations:

Window > Palettes > Surface Painter

Document > Creative Imaging > Surface Painter

the Surface Painter command of the 3D Visualization toolbar

Note: Before using the Surface Painter feature, make sure you are not working in “legacy” intersection mode. (Uncheck this option at Options > Project Preferences > Legacy.)

LegacyIntersection.png 

Content Panel of Surface Painter

By default, the Content Panel of Surface Painter (at left in the image below) lists all the surface attributes of the current project.

See also Search for Surface (Surface Painter).

Double-click any surface to open its Surfaces dialog box.

SurfacePainterDefault.png 

Content Panel Lists All Surfaces of Current Project

Selection Panel of Surface Painter

When any element is selected in the project, all surfaces of all selected elements are displayed in the Selection Panel of Surface Painter (at right, in the image below).

The number of selected elements and the total number of their overridable surfaces is also shown.

Double-click any surface to open its Surfaces dialog box.

SurfacePainterSelectionView.png 

Selection Panel Lists All Surfaces of All Selected Elements

You may not be able to override a particular selected surface: for example, if the element or its layer is locked. In this case, a yellow info warning appears.

CannotOverride.png 

Open/Close Selection Panel

Double-click the splitter bar between the two panels to open/close the selection panel (or click the black arrow at the top of the splitter bar).

SelectionPanelOpen.png     SurfacePainterContentOnly.png

Customize the Surface Painter Palette

Use the options in the pop-up to customize the display of the Surface Painter:

SurfacePainterCustomize.png 

Display surface previews for either Cineware or Hardware acceleration engine

Choose preferred size of surface icons

Choose how to arrange the two panels: horizontal or vertical