Artisan V2 Quick Reference Guide
Menu
You can access all of the major functions of Artisan by using the menu bar.
Tab Bar
The tab bar focuses the Categories panel and Toolbar to a specific area.
The categories content changes depending on what tab you have selected.
Control Bar – View Navigation
Orbit Move the camera around the model while maintaining the same distance by holding the left mouse
button down and moving the mouse.
Drag Move your view around the screen by holding the left mouse button down and moving the mouse.
Look Around Change the view point of the camera without moving your location by holding the left mouse button
down and moving the mouse.
Walk Move around or through the model by holding the left mouse button down and moving the mouse.
Hold the Shift key to move through objects.
Track In Move the camera in a straight line towards, or away from the model by holding the left mouse button
down then moving forward or backwards.
Fit to Model Centres the camera and zooms out so that the whole model is visible in the window.
Control Bar – Render Controls
Render Scene A render to screen that gets progressively more accurate. This is used for feedback and validation
before generating renders to file.
Cancel render This control is only enabled whilst an image is being rendered to the screen. Clicking it will interrupt the
render.
Sub-image When activated, click and hold the left mouse button down to drag a box in the model window around
Render the area to render. When you press the Render Scene button, only the selected area will be rendered,
giving you a rapid feedback. This is useful where you want to check only a certain part of the image.
Control Bar – Snapshots
Create Snapshot Creates a SnapShot of the current state and puts it in to your SnapShots tab. A saved snapshot contains
all the data in the current scene, so you can recreate it (drag and drop onto the model) or render it later
(right click on the snapshot thumbnail in the snapshots tab).
Control Bar – Link to Online resources
Launch Artisan This will open your default web browsing application and take you to our website,
Website [Link] . The website contains tutorials, downloads, galleries, and help.
Modal Controls – Materials Tab
Select Paint Click the button to highlight it, left click on a piece of geometry that you would like to copy the material
Material properties of. When the properties have been captured, the dropper pipette will turn red.
Paint When the dropper pipette is red and Select Paint Material is selected, you can click the Paint tool to use
it. To apply the captured material properties of the dropper pipette, right click on any geometry.
Add Material to You can capture all the material properties in the model to a single archive for use with other models.
Archive You can export these archives to other computers too.
Modal Controls – Lighting Tab
Edit Lighting Clicking this will display the Edit Lighting window. From the Edit Lighting Dialog you can change the
settings of the current lighting scheme.
Modal Controls – Background Tab
Edit background Click this to either change the colours of the background or browse to an image file to use as a
background.
Add Background You can add the current background to an archive to use with other models. You can export these
to Archive archives to other computers too.
Modal Controls – Camera Tab
Create Model Creates a Model Camera that saves the current camera and model location and puts it under the
Camera Custom tab in the Camera tab. Drag and drop the camera icon from the custom tab at any time to
regenerate that viewpoint.
Portrait / Toggles between Portrait or Landscape for the Aspect ratio set from the camera/aspect ratio panel.
Landscape
Add Camera to You can add the current camera to an archive to use with other models. You can export these archives
Archive to other computers too.
Modal Controls – Snapshots Tab
Save Last Render When you have completed a Render Scene of the current view, you can save the image as a file.
to File
Render Scene to This opens the Render to File dialog so that you can render an image of the current scene to file.
File
Render This opens the Render to File dialog. By default all of the current snapshots are selected. You can
SnapShots to File uncheck any of the snapshots you don’t want to render. An alternate method is to select one or more
Snapshot thumbnails from the bottom pane, right click and choose Render from the menu.
Show in Depending on your operating system, this will open up your file browser where your Artisan session is
Explorer/Finder saved, which includes the images you have rendered.
Print All Depending on your operating system, this will open up your print wizard to print all the rendered
SnapShots images associated with the SnapShots you have taken.
Renders
Add SnapShots You can add the current scene as a SnapShot to an archive to use with other models. You can export
to Archive: these archives to other computers too.
Categories Panel
Within the categories you have two tabs, Presets and Custom. Presets are content that are supplied with Artisan and Customs are content
you have either generated yourself or downloaded from other sources, such as the Artisan website.
Materials Tab Headings
The headings in red are materials. Materials define a colour or texture, a finish and
(optionally) a bump.
Click on the headings to populate the content panel at the bottom of the screen.
Drag and drop materials from the bottom panel onto the section of the model where you
want to apply the material.
Headings in Green are finishes. Finishes define reflectance properties only.
Finishes are used to add to existing textures or colours from your CAD system in order to
enhance realism.
Alternatively you can add a finish to a pre-applied Artisan material to adapt its appearance.
Drag and drop finishes from the bottom panel onto the section of the model with the
colour/texture/material you want to adapt.
Headings in blue are bumps. Bumps define the surface roughness of a material.
Bumps are used to add realism to existing textures or colours in order to enhance realism.
The Bumps from Colour section will take the existing colour texture as the basis for
defining bumps.
2D patterns will be oriented on the surface of your model.
3D Bumps are solid patterns independent of the surface.
Drag and drop finishes from the bottom panel onto the section of the model with the
colour/texture/material you want to adapt.