At the left side of the PixPlant window is the 3D Preview area which renders the editing maps using Physically Based Rendering or Blinn-Phong algorithm for the Traditional Workflow, both with parallax or displacement mapping.

At the top you can select which open 3D maps are rendered. You can click the button at the right to Undock the 3D Preview into a floating window.

The bottom panel controls several aspects of the 3D rendering like the 3D model, which HDRI environment map for PBR or the enabled light.

Try clicking the Undock button at the top-right of the 3D Preview.

The 3D Preview separates itself from the main PixPlant window and can be placed in a second display, if available.

Have you noticed the ( i ) button at the bottom-left corner of the viewer? You can click it to get more information about the viewer and its controls.

To dock the 3D Preview back, click the window's Close button.

Back to the main PixPlant window, at the center you can find the Editor area, where maps of different types can be edited.

Above the Editor area, you can find tabs with the names of the map types for the current 3D Workflow: clicking one of these tabs selects which map type is being edited.

Click another tab to select a different map type.

If little changed when you switched the current map type by clicking in its tab, that's because no map is open in the Editor - editors are rather dull when not editing!

The buttons above the editor are the common New/Open/Save/Close operations, Undo/Redo and Copy+Paste functionality, as well as External Edit and a Feedback button.

Besides using these buttons to create/open/paste a file, you can drag'n'drop one or multiple files (or even a folder) into the Editor area, which will be opened into their respective editors via the Open Maps dialog.

Try dragging a file and dropping it into the Editor Area.

The map is now open in the editor. It can be zoomed and panned, and modified with the current Map Tool: see the Editor's ( i ) information button for help about this.

Notice the small panel that appears below the Editor area: it lists information about the current open map and features other settings like the Tiling Preview switch, which repeats the image along the borders for better visualization of its tiling.

But how to edit it? With the Map Tools.

The Map Tools stand at the right side of the PixPlant window. Each map type has its own tools (but many are similar across types) which you can use to edit the map (or even several maps at the same time).

You'll notice that there is a separator in lighter gray color dividing the tool names. Any tools above this separator can be used to create/extract/check-in a map, so they don't need a map to be opened and are always available. However, the tools below the separator need an open map to work (and are disabled if no map is currently open).

Let's try a tool: click the Paint tool whose header appears towards the middle of the Map Tools.

The Paint tool opens with a few settings controlling things like brush size and hardness. Try drawing in the Editor area.

To get information about a tool and what the available settings mean, open it and leave the mouse cursor for a bit over its title: the ( i ) info button will appear, which you can click for help.

Now click the Adjust tool, a few tools above the Paint tool. All sliders can be operated with the mouse wheel: try rotating the mouse wheel when the cursor is over a slider. You can also reset most sliders to a base value by clicking on its name or value labels, located at either side. Another trick with sliders is: pressing Ctrl while moving the wheel over the slider will change its value by smaller increments, for finer control.

At the top-right corner of the PixPlant main window, you will find three large buttons:

Extract 3D Maps: extract maps from an image opened in the {PBR?Base Color|Diffuse} Editor.
Guides: which you already know, as you're running this guide.
Global Settings: changes 3D Workflow or the global Tiling Mode. The Tiling Mode defines if maps should wrap horizontally, vertically or both (the default). This setting affects the behavior of map tools like Tiling Synth, Offset and Paint. For example: painting along the edges of the map will only wrap to the opposite size if the current Tiling Mode allows it.

Click any of these buttons to see the options that appear.

Try creating some maps by clicking the New Maps button at the top of the Editor area and check out the available tools for each map.

Remember that for contextual help, you can always click the nearest ( i ) button. Or look for a Guide that covers what you are trying to achieve.

We hope you have a great time with PixPlant!

The following video tutorials show some aspects of PixPlant's user interface:

Please watch in full screen by clicking the button at the bottom-right corner of the viewer.