XDECAL™ ****User-guide

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Getting started

Basics

Popup

Shader Editor

Decal Gizmo

Decal Palette

Default Material Library

Decal Assets & Texture Library

Tutorials

Changelog

Testimonials ◤◢

Additional info

Table of contents

Decal palette

Decal palette is the main place where you can browse files to make decals from, and manage the decal templates you've already created. It can be accessed in the 3D viewport via the XDECAL™ tab in the sidebar, via the dropdown icon in the menu bar (or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+D), and by enabling the Gizmo palette (either via a toggle or the Ctrl+D shortcut).

Actions

Some common actions you can do with the items of the palette are:

• Left Click if the item under the mouse is not selected, it becomes selected while others get deselected. If it is already selected, other items don't get deselected.
• Ctrl + Left Click toggle selection of the item under the mouse.
• Shift + Left Click select all items between the clicked item and the previously clicked one.
• Right Click show a context menu with some decal-specific actions.
• Double Click customizable action (defined in preferences).
• Ctrl + Double Click customizable action (defined in preferences).
• Alt + Double Click customizable action (defined in preferences).

Decals can be created from the palette items via the corresponding context menu operation or an equivalent double-click action. If multiple items are selected, more than one decal can be instantiated at the same time; in this case, they will be arranged around the 3D cursor in a grid pattern. For more convenient management, decal instances are also added to a hidden collection named ".Decals".

The top row of the UI panel contains the following items:

• Mode switch: toggles the palette between the file browser and the template manager modes.
• Settings toggle: shows/hides the palette settings.
• Items toggle: shows/hides the palette items (files or templates).
• Gizmo palette toggle: shows/hides the Gizmo palette in the 3D viewport.

What's displayed below depends on the palette mode

Decal Import (file browser mode)

Options tabs

Option tabs: selects which category of decal importing options to show below

File

• Paths: defines whether/how paths are converted to absolute or relative style on import.
• Reuse: defines how the already loaded images should be reused:
  • No: new image datablocks will be created even if the same files have already been loaded.
  • Yes: already loaded images will be used when possible.
  • Reload: use already loaded images + force reload them.

Frames

• Auto refresh: whether the imported images should always refresh on frame changes.
• Start frame: the starting frame for movies and image sequences.
• Image sequences: the method for automatically detecting image sequences:
  • None: don't detect image sequences.
  • Without gaps: gaps in frame numbers will result in separate sequences.
  • With gaps: gaps in frame numbers won't result in separate sequences.

Decal

• Default Dynamic/Baked: whether new decals should be dynamic or baked.
• Default Intersect: whether new decals should have Intersect option enabled.
• Scale: default scale of new decals.
• Orientation: what should new decals be aligned to (world, active object, view or 3D cursor).
• Alpha: how to interpret the alpha channel:
  • Don't change: don't change the alpha mode.
  • Straight: store RGB and alpha channels separately, with alpha acting as a mask.
  • Premultiplied: store RGB channels with alpha multiplied in.
  • Channel Packed: different images are packed in the RGB and alpha channels.
  • Ignore alpha: ignore alpha channel from the file and make the image fully opaque.

Material

• Material: the prototype material on which new template material(s) will be based. The dropdown allows you to select any material from the material libraries as the prototype.
• Material libraries: this popup allows you to configure the list of material libraries from which you can select prototype materials. Each entry is expected to be a path to a .blend file containing the materials. You can add new entries (via the + button), edit existing ones (by clicking on their name), change their order (via the ▴/▾ buttons), and remove them (via the x button).
• Overwrite: if enabled, existing materials will be overwritten (replaced) when new materials have the same names.
• Multi Tex: if enabled and the prototype material contains labeled Image nodes, those labels will be treated as PBR channel names. Under those conditions, when you import multiple images at once and their filenames consist of an identical prefix and a channel name, those images will be assigned to the corresponding nodes of the same material, instead of resulting in a separate material for each image.
• Texture synonyms: this popup allows you to configure the list of case-insensitive synonyms for PBR channel names (e.g., if the prototype material has an Image node labeled "COLOR" or "Diffuse", but you import an image with "albedo" in its name, the synonyms would allow it to still be assigned correctly).

Inherit

If this option is enabled, then upon decal instantiation the corresponding properties will be copied over from the active decal and/or from the material clipboard.

• Scale: the object scale
• Geometry: all geometry properties (except the aspect ratio)
• Material: the parameters of the active decal’s template material
• Clipboard: the material parameters stored in the material clipboard

Directory

Directory - Presets, Path, Open

• Directory presets: a configurable list of directory paths you wish to have for quick access. The + button adds the current directory path to the list, and clicking on an entry would navigate the palette file browser to the corresponding directory
• Current directory path: the path to the directory which contents is currently shown in the palette.
• 'Open' button: shows a file/directory browser window, which you can use to navigate to the desired directory and/or import some files as decals at the same time

Sorting, filtering by name & icon scale