Adobe Substance Painter Update unnecessarily complicated zooming

[Aci_YT]

Ever since I installed the new Substance Painter update today, I am unable to zoom in by scrolling my mouse wheel while holding ALT.
In earlier versions this didn't matter, and since rotating and panning requires you to press ALT anyways, it's much easier to keep it pressed while zooming, too.

However, since this update, nothing happens when holding alt and scrolling, instead you need to zoom in with the right mouse button which is slower, or let go of alt.
Please at least give us an option to revert this, since it slows me (and I assume others too) down a LOT, and since ALT+Scroll isn't a shortcut used by anything else either.

[Oscar2364281464p6]

Did you try to use just scrolling without using Alt key?

[Aci_YT]

Yes, like mentioned above, it works when letting go of alt.
This messes with my muscle memory though and since ALT+scroll is not used by any other function, there's no reason for it to not work to scroll.
It's just a little thing, but keeping it in only has advantages

[Cody24365743swh7]

Yep, it's breaking my brain too. Here's to hoping they revert in the next update.

[Deformiter]

Another unneseccary change by Adobe that's caused hours of frustration. Holding ALT is the standard, removing the ability to zoom while holding ALT shows a disgustingly poor understanding of the requirements of Artists using this software. How can I fix this? It is productivity breaking, no other application requires me to let go of ALT and some require me to. Why is Adobe "trying to be different"?

[Cyril Dellenbach]

Hi @Aci_YT and hi everyone,

Thanks for the message.

I 100% get the frustration and I personally dream of a convention between all the 3D software for common navigation shortcuts. Unfortunately, we are far from this dream, and most of the 3D software have their specificities.

To be honest, I was a bit surprised when I discovered this thread, because the middle mouse wheel alone has always been the shortcut for zooming inside Substance 3D Painter. Does someone remember the version of Substance Painter where you could hold the alt key for zooming? I would love to make some tests on this version.

With that being said, I am taking this thread as a suggestion and I'll bring this up to the team.

Best regards,

[Aci_yt]

Thanks for the reply @Cyril Dellenbach!

Yeah, a couple of versions ago you were able to keep ALT pressed and still zoom using MMB, which was useful since pressing ALT is important for panning and rotating, so you could just leave your finger on the key when zooming instead of having to let go like you do now
While I did get used to this eventually, I'd still like to have the option to be able to keep alt pressed, especially since that combination doesn't seem to be assigned to any other action 🙂

[Deformiter]

Hi @Cyril Dellenbach,

Substance Painter 2018.3.3 had the functionality to zoom while holding ALT (and the other 2 main camera movements, orbit and pan). I've taken this video that shows it working perfectly. https://streamable.com/c4nggf

I've been using 2018 since I bought it and never really needed to update, I recently got onboarded with a studio that's using 2023 and this missing functionality is killing my productivity.

[danc99051508]

@Cyril Dellenbach Was there an update on this? even if it wasn't by default and could be enabled by a check box would be very grateful to have this functionality back. It's very jarring to control everything else relating to the camera by holding alt then releasing it just to zoom then re-pressing to continue moving the camera around the object.

[danc99051508]

Can't edit my last response, however, I've had a look at past versions and holding alt and using the scroll wheel was enabled in version 7.4.3, unfortunately I can't use that version as it doesn't have a lot of the new features like UI scaling that was later added etc. It was disabled in update 8.1.0

[Kitty34699923a3h8]

it's almost been a year @Cyril Dellenbach

are there any updates on this?

[Deformiter]

Hi@Kitty34699923a3h8 

It seems that Adobe really doesn't care about this, it's just another product under their belt afterall, can guarantee if Algorithmic was still the owner of the software, this issue would have been rectified ages ago. I see this has been going on for so long that my streamable video has expired.

I would like to remind @Cyril Dellenbach that the functionality existed and was later removed, seemingly by Adobe employees who don't understand 3D and the processes involved. Reminds of of the Substance Designer "nod" video that was released, quality control from this company is horrendous.

[Cyril Dellenbach]

Hello @Kitty34699923a3h8,

Thanks for the reminder.

I've brought the complaint to the team, but to be clear, the shortcut for zooming has always been the mousewheel alone. I've tried with 7.4.3 as @danc99051508 suggested, and yes it works, but it's simply "allowed", not expected nor a functionality. There's probably a feature that has been added since preventing the zooming while holding ALT.

I understand that some people got used to, and muscle memory is hard to forget, but to be honest, this is not a current priority. We've discussions regarding shortcuts in general (IMO we have more problematic issues on this regard than this ALT behavior), and when we'll work on the topic, that will be the time to bring ALT + Zooming on the table once again.

In the meantime, if you need to hold ALT for zooming, you'll have to stick with ALT + RMB. You can edit the Zoom speed in Edit > Settings > General > Camera options > Zoom Speed

Regards,