Similar to Cinema 4D, or with a slightly option change in Maya, rotating/tumbling around objects can be done around a point of interest, in this case the mouse cursor location.

It is frustrating to try to rotate around / zoom from a point on an object in 3D space when the rotation origin is some arbitrary point in the scene. I'm guessing its 0,0,0 for Designer's 3D View all the time. Having that point of rotation / zoom be exactly where the mouse cursor is when the user 'alt+left/right clicks' clicks allows the user to more reliably navigate their object, especially if it's an imported mesh.

Worst case scenario for lack of this feature is an imported mesh like a pencil which is very long proportionally on its Y axis to its X. Trying to get a good angle of view on the extremes of the mesh in Y axis which are far from the 3d origin proves navigation for this scenario to be unnecessarily difficult. Rotation / scaling around mouse point would solve this.

Thanks for reading :)

A feature to quickly speedup workflow would be for Designer to choose whether to create a color or grayscale version of a node based on the currently selected node.

i.e. I have a Perlin node selected (grayscale node) and I want to crop it. I hit tab and start to type 'crop'. Ideally hitting enter would produce a grayscale version of the crop node automatically since Designer should recognize I'm trying to manipulate a grayscale node. Crop (color version) wouldn't make sense in this case.

I'm guessing there would be cases where this feature wouldn't make sense due to ambiguity of what the user wants - the user could possibly want to use either a color or grayscale version of a node to manipulate the previous node? But in this situation just default to whatever the user has typed in the node search field which is how the system works already.

Graph input parameters currently cannot be retrieved from within package functions (leads to "variable not found" error) even though at runtime, the variable would be resolved if the function was called within the proper graph. Also, there is no way to make global functions part of a graph (which would probably solve the problem), functions can only be at the package root or associated to an input parameter. This makes things inconvenient as some init code using graph input parameters cannot be made into function, hence need to be repeated in every location needing them (i.e. when duplicating an fx-map node).

There is no consistency across export dialogues, Painter has presets for exporting to Unity and other software with the right material conversion (e.g. Metalness maps with smoothness in the alpha channel) - currently these export options are missing from Alchemist and Designer when you want to export to bitmaps or individual textures.

It would be useful to have these export options for when you are exporting simply tiling textures (like for a terrain or large surface in a game engine).

My current workaround is to have a template Unity 5 Substance #Painter# project that I import the archived Designer or Alchemist material into, apply it to a generic 2d Plane model and then export it with the Unity preset. Why should I need so many extra steps to get my textures right?

I've encountered a number of graphs that use a Transform node after a Clouds (1/2/3) node to "zoom in" the clouds to achieve specific effects. Unfortunately, this creates the side effect of breaking tiling and requires other nodes to try to fix that.

Instead, it would be very helpful if the cloud nodes could have additional lower scales - the default Scale of 1 (and the minimum) is still fairly "medium density" in terms of detail. I'd like to see the same cloud effects, except 2x and 4x "zoomed in". In other words, the equivalent of a Scale 0.5 and Scale 0.25.

Something that would really speed up workflow is immediate typing focus when selecting (clicking) nodes that have a single type-in control (especially function nodes, like constant values).

In addition to selecting, it should also happen immediately after creating these nodes. But I think newly created nodes are selected immediately anyway.

The only issue I can see this causing is interference with hot-keys while such a node is selected. But as long as hotkeys are typical (eg, ctrl + key), it shouldn't be a problem. No different than trying to use a hotkey immediately after typing something into a typical control. The user can just press enter to get back to the normal state in either situation..

It'd be great to have an option to export the displaced mesh exactly the way it looks in the 3D viewport (or with translation for iRay view as those always differ).

Use Cases: A quicker path to a 3D print.
Especially when you're designing real world materials it would be great to have a tangible example when getting a render signed off on. Or just to quickly create prop pieces or stamping tools for specialty costumers.

Substance Designer Path:
1. Mesh goes into Substance Designer
2. Deformation is dialled in
3. Export to OBJ

Traditional Path:
1. Export Height Map
2. Apply as displacement map
3. Tweak height map with levels and curves
4. Export height map again because levels and curves wasn't enough
5. Test Render
6. Adjust Displacement Depth
7. Bake displacement to Mesh
8. Cook fancy dinner while waiting
9. Export Mesh to OBJ
10. Consume said dinner
11. Import OBJ to printer software
12. Print