What’s new >
What’s new

Lagoon preferences

Preferences for changing not only the lagoon, but also marking menus has been added. Create your own marking menus, populate the lagoon with the options you use most frequently. If you never use a tool, take it out and replace it with one you do. This tab gives you complete control over these domains.

In addition to all this, now when you’re working, you can right-click to access a virtual floating lagoon. It uses the setting from the Lagoon Preferences.

These setting are saved to an .xml file, so you can save them to a portable hard drive, take them with you to use on any machine, and always have your custom setup.

Customizing lagoon icons

Click here to watch a demo.

Change the icons displayed in the lagoon, using the top section of the Lagoon Preferences.

1. For PC users, select Edit > Preferences.

   For Mac users, select SketchBook Pro > Preferences.

2. Click the Lagoon tab.
3. In the lagoon section, click an icon on the lagoon.

4. Click the icon you want in its place. The icon changes.

Custom marking menus

You can also customize the marking menu for an icon in the lagoon, adding tools that you commonly use. Once done, you can use clutch keys or right-click to access these custom marking menus without visiting the lagoon.

Lagoon position | Mouse | Stylus
--- | --- | ---
Hub menu | Press 1 and right-click | Press-hold 1 and pen-down
| Press 2 and right-click | Press-hold 2 and pen-down
| Press 3 and right-click | Press-hold 3 and pen-down
| Press 4 and right-click | Press-hold 4 and pen-down
| Press 5 and right-click | Press-hold 5 and pen-down
| Press 6 and right-click | Press-hold 6 and pen-down

In the Lagoon Preferences, at the bottom of the Default SketchBook Tools list, in the DIY Brushes section, all Do-It-Yourself brushes created are listed. Now, you can add them to any custom marking menu.

Changing a lagoon icon marking menu

Click here to watch a demo.

1. With an icon selected in the lagoon section of the Lagoon Preferences, click a tool in the Select Menu Location section. This displays the name of the tool in the Default SketchBook Tools section.

2. Scroll through the list of tools and select one to replace the current tool.
3. Click OK. The marking menu updates, changing the tool icon displayed.

Resetting your preferences

Click here to watch a demo.

At any time, you can reset your preferences back to their original state.

1. For PC users, select Edit > Preferences.

   For Mac users, select SketchBook Pro > Preferences.

2. Click the Lagoon tab.
3. Click Reset.

4. Click OK. This changes your lagoon and marking menus back to their original state.

Rulers

Two rulers have been introduced: a straight edge and an elliptical.

Straight edge ruler | Elliptical ruler
--- | ---

Only one can be used at a time. They can be accessed through hotkeys, R for the straight ruler and E for the elliptical. Before painting, the rulers displays guidelines; however, once you start painting, they disappear. Once you finish painting, they reappear. The last location of a ruler is saved, so that the next time you access a ruler it appears at the same place.

When a ruler is activated, at the top of the canvas, a hub appears. It provides the X and Y positional coordinates, along with the angle of rotation. The elliptical ruler contains additional A and B coordinates for the distance of each side from the center of the ellipse. As changes are made to the rulers, these values update.

Showing/hiding a straight edge ruler

Click here to watch a demo.

1. Select a brush and color.
2. Press the hotkey R to access the straight ruler.
3. To position it, click:
   - an outer handle to pivot the ruler using the opposite handle as the pivot point.
   - the middle handle to move the ruler anywhere around the canvas.
   - double-click any outer handle to reposition the ruler horizontally or vertically.
4. Sketch anywhere on the canvas. The stroke snaps to the ruler, creating a straight line of the length you sketched.
5. To hide the ruler, click the close handle .

Showing/hiding an elliptical ruler

Click here to watch a demo.

Use the elliptical ruler to make circles for car wheels or buttons on electronic products or the ellipse for creating curves for character lines on products.

1. Select a brush and color.
2. Press the hotkey E to bring up the elliptical ruler.
3. To position it, click-drag:
   - the square handle in the middle to move the ellipse around the canvas.
   - the rotate handle to rotate the ellipse around its center.
   - the proportional scale handle to equally scale the ellipse in all directions.
   - the non-proportional scale handle to scale the ellipse in one direction.
   - double-click any scale handle to change the ellipse to a circle.
4. Sketch using a circular motion close to or on the ellipse. The stroke doesn’t have to be perfect, since it snaps to the ellipse.
   NoteFor optimal results, use a stylus. With the mouse, the results may not be as accurate. If using a mouse, drawing slowly will reduce problems.
5. To hide the ruler, click the close handle .

Blur and Sharpen

These brushes enable you to change the appearance of the area they are applied to in the following way:

Blur

  Softens the areas it’s used on, making it appear out of focus.

Sharpen

  Makes an image look crisper; sharpening the areas it’s used on.

Simply paint over the area with the brush to use it. Open their preferences, by either double-clicking the brush or selecting Show Brush Properties , to change their size or strength. At any time, you can save these settings or reset the brush to its default settings.

Blurring an area

1. Open the Brush Palette and select the Blur brush .
2. Paint over an area to blur it.

Sharpening an area

1. Open the Brush Palette and select the Sharpen brush .
2. Paint over an area to sharpen it.

Brush Manager

Use the Brush Manager to organize and manage your Do-It-Yourself brushes. Click-drag to move a brush and change its position in the palette.

Organizing Do-It-Yourself brushes

Click here to watch a demo.

1. Within the Brush Palette, click the triangle to open the Do-It-Yourself brush section of the palette.

2. Click-drag and drop a brush over where you want it. The previous occupant of that position moves to the new occupant’s old position.

Texture Brush

Once a Do-It-Yourself brush is created, you can add a texture to it, creating a texture brush. You can set the shape and/or color and make a texture from a rotated stroke or capture something on your canvas to use as a texture. See Create a Do-It-Yourself brush.

Create a texture brush

In the Brush Properties of a Do-It-Yourself brush, you can create a texture brush by sketching a design and capturing it. The captured texture can also be rotated. When capturing a texture, one of the following Custom Texture settings can be selected:

- Shape + Colors – Uses the current paint color, as well as the selected shape, to create your texture. Whenever the texture brush is used, it uses the color set during creation.
- Shape – Creates a texture brush with no assigned color. Each time the texture brush is used, a different color can be set.
- Rotate to Stroke – Dynamically rotates the texture in the direction of the stoke.

Creating a texture brush

Click here to watch a demo.

1. Create a new stroke or import an image to use as a texture.
2. Create a Do-It-Yourself brush.
3. With a Do-It-Yourself brush selected, click Show Brush Properties to open Brush Properties.
4. Click Capture.
5. From Custom Texture, select either Shape + Colors or Shape and or check Rotate to Stroke.
6. Within the canvas, click the area to be captured as thetexture. The display in Brush Properties updates to show the texture and color.

   NoteWhen capturing the texture shape, SketchBook uses the current size of the Do-It-Yourself brush. If the complete shape is not captured, resize the Do-It-Yourself brush, then capture the shape again. See Resize a brush.

Saving a texture brush

Once you have created a texture brush, click Save at the bottom of Brush Properties to save the brush.

NoteAll custom brush can be saved.

Modify a texture brush

There are many ways to modify a texture brush, from resetting it, opening its properties and changing settings, changing a stroke, or assigning a permanent color to it. See the sections that follow for more information.

Resetting a brush

To restore the previous setting of a Do-It-Yourself brush. All texture brush data is deleted and the original properties settings are restored.

Click here to watch a demo.

1. Select the texture brush in the Brush Palette.
2. Click Show Brush Properties to open Brush Properties.
3. Click Reset. The original settings of the Do-It-Yourself brush return and the texture is removed.

Changing texture brush properties

Click here to watch a demo.

To change attributes of a texture brush.

1. Select the texture brush in the Brush Palette.
2. Click Show Brush Properties to open Brush Properties.
3. Edit the brush properties.
4. Click Save to save the changes.

Changing a texture

Click here to watch a demo.

To change the stroke used by a texture brush.

1. Create a new stroke or import an image to use as a texture.
2. Select any pre-existing texture brush in the Brush Palette.
3. Click Show Brush Properties to open Brush Properties.
4. Click Capture.
5. Set Custom Texture options.
6. Within the canvas, click the area to be captured as thetexture. The display in Brush Properties updates to show the texture and color.
7. Click Save to save the changes.

Setting color on a Shape texture brush

Click here to watch a demo.

To set a different color for a texture brush.

1. Create a Shape texture brush. See Creating a texture brush.
2. In the Color Palette, select a color. The texture brush color updates.

Do-It-Yourself brushes

Now, you can export and import Do-It-Yourself brushes. They can be shared and taken with you to use on other machines. Email brushes to friends to try. You created a brush on a Mac and want to use it on Windows – no problem! Export the brush, save it on a jump drive, then on the other machine, import it.

Exporting a Do-It-Yourself brush

After a Do-It-Yourself brush has been made, you may want to save it to use again or share with colleagues. The Export button, in Brush Properties, allows people working on different platforms to share brushes. You can also bring these brushes to a client or use when working on another machine.

1. Create a Do-It-Yourself brush.
2. Either double-click the Do-It-Yourself brush in the Brush Palette or select Show Brush Properties .
3. At the bottom of Brush Properties, click Export. This opens Save As.
4. Name the file and click Save. By default, the file will be saved in the CustomBrushes folder in SketchBook Pro; however, you can change this.

Importing a Do-It-Yourself brush

After a Do-It-Yourself brush has been exported, you can import one of your own it to use again or try one created by a colleague. It doesn’t matter what the platform was that the brush was created on.

1. Select any brush, other than a Do-It-Yourself brush.
2. Open the Brush Palette by clicking the brush in the Lagoon.
3. In the Brush Palette, click New Do-It-Yourself Brush . This opens the Create Do-It-Yourself Brush dialog.

4. Click Import. This opens Open. By default, it opens to CustomBrushes folder in SketchBook Pro.
5. Select a custom brush file and click Open. The brush will appear in the Brush Palette.

Symmetry

The Symmetry tool enables you to turn mirroring on and off as you sketch, using hotkeys. The X hotkey displays a vertical axis of symmetry and Y a horizontal axis. Anything drawn on one side of the axis is mirrored. The axis of symmetry and a close button are always present. Regardless of canvas orientation, the axis is always centered on the canvas.

Sketching with symmetry

Click here to watch a demo.

1. Select a brush and color. See Choose a brush and Choose a color.
2. Press X or Y (depending on the axis of symmetry) to enable symmetry. Any strokes are then mirrored across the axis.

   NoteIf you transform a layer (see Edit a layer) or any of its content, symmetry may be lost.

Add Image: import into a new layer

If you have an image you would like to add that needs to be imported to a new layer, in the general preferences, check Add Image: import into a new layer.

Adding an image to a new layer

1. Select Edit > Preferences to open the Preferences window.
2. In the General tab, ensure there is a check next to Add Image: import into a new layer.
3. Click OK. Now, when you use File > Add Image..., the image that is imported appears on a new layer.

Non-proportional scale

Layers and selected items can both be non-proportionally scaled. You can scale in one direction, instead of uniformly.

To non-proportionately scale the layer, in the Transform Layer puck highlight the top of the middle circle, then do one of the following motions:

- Drag up to stretch the layer length.
- Drag down to squish the layer length.
- Drag to the right to stretch the layer width.
- Drag to the left to squish the layer width.

For selected items, in the Transform Layer puck highlight the top of the middle circle, then do one of the following motions:

- Drag up to stretch the item.
- Drag down to squish the item’s length.
- Drag to the right to stretch the item’s width.
- Drag to the left to squish the item’s width.

Rotate canvas

When drawing, use this to reposition or rotate your sketch to create a more comfortable brush stroking angle. Think of this as rotating your paper when drawing. Use either of the following rotate canvas functions to change the orientation of the image.

Rotating your canvas

Click here to watch a demo.

To rotate the canvas, you can do one of the following:

- Hold down the Spacebar, mouse over the rotate ring of the puck that appears, then click-drag to freely pivot the canvas.

- In the lagoon, flick toward this icon.

  Mouse over the rotate ring and click-drag to rotate the canvas.

Autodesk Area

This new feature, found in the Help menu, takes you to Area (http://area.autodesk.com/sketchbook), a place where you can link to SketchBook Pro and other Autodesk communities.

Buy SketchBook Pro

This new feature, also found in the Help menu, takes you to our e-store, where you can purchase SketchBook Pro, from anywhere in the world.