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Sculpt tool presets

The following describes the default sculpt tools that appear on the Sculpt Tools tray:

Tool Name | Icon | Purpose
--- | --- | ---
Sculpt |  | The Sculpt tool builds up initial forms and moves vertices in a direction determined by the average of all normals within the boundary of the tool cursor. Use the Direction property to modify the default Direction setting (for example, Camera, X, Y, Z and so on).
Smooth |  | The Smooth tool levels the vertex positions in relation to each other by averaging the positions of vertices.
Grab |  | The Grab tool selects and moves vertices based on the distance and the direction you drag the tool. It is useful for making subtle adjustments to the form of the model. The Direction property can be modified to constrain the movement of the tool. For example, the XY direction settings constrains vertex movement in the XY plane.
Pinch |  | The Pinch tool pulls vertices inwards towards the center of the tool cursor. Pinch is useful for making an existing crease more sharply defined.
Flatten |  | Flatten is useful for designing and detailing. It levels the affected vertices by moving them toward a common plane.
Foamy |  | The Foamy tool is useful for designing initial forms and is not intended to be a detailing tool. It works in a similar fashion to the Sculpt tool but has a softer feel.
Spray |  | The Spray tool is used mainly for detailing surfaces and is intended to be used in conjunction with stamps. The image is stamped along the stroke in a random fashion. This tool uses a stamp image by default.
Repeat |  | The Repeat tool is useful for creating patterns on a surface. For example, rivets on the wing of an airplane, zipper effects, stitches on cloth, and so on. It uses a stamp image by default.
Imprint |  | Imprint uses a stamp image and presses or imprints the stamp image into the model’s surface. Dragging on the mesh positions and scales the stamp.
Wax |  | The Wax tool is useful for building up areas on a model. It feels like adding or removing material from the model surface, much like working with clay or wax.
Scrape |  | The Scrape tool is useful for minimizing or removing protruding features. It quickly calculates a plane (based on the vertex positions wherever the cursor is first placed) and then flattening any vertices above the plane.
Fill |  | The Fill tool fills in cavities on the model surface by calculating a plane (based on the average of the vertices within the tool cursor, then pulling the vertices under the plane towards that plane.
Knife |  | The Knife tool is used for cutting very fine strokes on a model’s surface, similar to how a real knife cuts into a soft surface. It uses a stamp image by default.
Smear |  | Smear moves vertices in a direction that is tangent to their original position on the model’s surface in the direction you stroke.
Bulge |  | Bulge displaces the region beneath the tool by moving each affected vertex along its own normal to create a bulge-like effect.
Contrast |  | The Contrast tool is the opposite of the Flatten tool. It is useful for designing and detailing and further expands the affected vertices in relation to each other by moving them away from a common plane.
Freeze |  | The Freeze tool locks affected vertices on a model so they cannot be modified while you sculpt. You can freeze vertices on the base subdivision level as well as on sculpt layers. By default, the affected faces appear blue whenever they are frozen. For more information, see Mask or freeze regions on a model.
Erase |  | The Erase tool removes sculpting from layers. Any sculpting that exists on the original base mesh remains unaffected. For more information, see Erase sculpting on a layer.
Mask |  | The Mask tool lets you paint opacity values on sculpted regions to non-destructively hide the sculpting on a layer. The Mask tool only works on sculpting layers, not on the base subdivision level for the model. Each sculpting layer can have its own mask. The Mask tool can also be useful for cleaning up artifacts resulting from scan data or map extractions subsequently applied as displacement maps. For more information, see Mask sculpting on a layer.

Related topics

Sculpting basics

Edit sculpt tool properties

Sculpt Tool properties