Manual

Overview

picoCAD 2 has three main modes; modeling, texturing, and animating. Making a model often requires a lot of going back and forth between these modes. Generally it is good to start with modeling, then do the texturing before moving on to animation.

The UI is intentionally sparse in picoCAD 2 and most interaction with the model is made by clicking on the things that are to be modified. Left click to select and move. Right click to show additional/advanced options. In most cases arrow keys or WASD can also be used to finetune selections.

Getting stuck? There is help to get. Check out this 5 minute primer on picoCAD 2 basics!



Also check out the Tips & Tricks and Troubleshooting sections. Or ask the friendly community on Discord.

Modeling

The modeling mode has four viewports, each showing the model from a different perspective. When editing a model, use the different viewports to make the required changes. To control the camera, use the mouse or arrow keys in each viewport. Zoom with the mouse wheel. SPACE will bring a viewport into fullscreen.

The top right viewport shows the model in 3D. Use buttons in the viewport to control how to display the model.

Adding mesh primitives

To add a primitive to the scene, either use the [+] button, or right-click empty and space, and select the mesh to be added. If using right-click, the mesh will face the camera in the viewport where it was added.

Modify vertices and meshes

Click vertices to select them and drag them to change their position and as a result the shape of the mesh. To select multiple vertices, either hold down shift and select them one by one, or use the mouse to mark a rectangle around the vertices to be selected. If retangle select is used, it will select all vertices within the rectangle, not only to top most.

To move a mesh, grab it with the mouse and drag it.

Each mesh has a center point used when rotating or scaling. To move this center point, start dragging the mesh and then hold SHIFT to move the center point instead.

Face & Mesh Control

Each face on a mesh has different properties. These can be controlled both per face and for the entire mesh. Right click a face and select the corresponding property to change it.

The right-click menu also allows for a number of modification of the selected face or mesh.

Traditional copy/paste/cut controls also work for meshes for quick duplication.

Project Overview

Pressing O, or clicking the list button in the lower left of the program will bring up the project overview.

With a lot of meshes the project can be difficult to manage. Use the overview to:

• lock meshes to prevent editing
• hide meshes from view
• organize meshes into folders
• rename meshes and folders (double click)
• merge folders into a single mesh (right click)
• duplicate meshes/folders (right click)

Shortcuts

Using keboard shortcuts will eventually speed up the workflow considerably.

Texturing

Use the texturing mode to map face UV coordinates to the texture, as well as draw the texture itself. Textures in picoCAD are limited to a resolution of 128x128 pixels and 16 colors. Either import a png via the menu or drag and drop it on the program. If the image has more than 16 colors, the colors will be reduced using best effort methods. In addition to this, one of the 16 colors will be treated as transparent - manage colors properly!

UV Mapping

Select a face to modify. Select multiple faces by holding down SHIFT. Once selected their UV mapping will be highlighted on the texture. Select UVs with mouse or rectangle select and then move them on the texture. Changes will be displayed on the model in real time.

Sometimes the default UV mapping can end up rotated or flipped. To remedy this, right click the UV map and select either rotate or flip. Hover over a face or UV map and press R to rotate the UVs or H to flip them.

Make sure the UV tool (pointer) is selected when modifying UVs.

Drawing

Draw directly on the texture with traditional pixel art tools and see the result on the model in real time.

A good idea for beginners is to stick to the grid when making textures. It makes it a lot easier to handle.

Use the tools on the left to draw the texture and the palette on the right to select colors. If secondary colors are activated in settings, use left mouse button on the palette for primary color and right mouse button for secondary color.

Icon	Tool	Shortcut	Usage
	UV tool	V	Adjust selected UV maps.
	Pen	B	Freehand drawing. Hold SHIFT for locked axis drawing, and straight lines between clicks.
	Eye dropper	I	Selects color to use.
	Fill bucket	G	Flood fills an area.
	Line		Draws a line between two points.
	Rectangle		Draws a rectangle. Click again to toggle to filled rectangle.
	Circle		Draws a circle. Click again to toggle to filled circle.
	Marquee select		Mark an area to be moved or copied/pasted.

Toggle the grid on and off with the grid button (bottom left), and zoom in and out (bottom right). Zooming is also possible via the mouse wheel.

Additional shortcuts

Palette and shading

picoCAD 2 allows only 16 colors on the texture, and one of those will be treated as transparent. Use the palette (press P) to set up colors as well to describe how each color changes when shaded.

The top half of the palette controls is used to select and edit specific colors in the palette. Select a color, and then edit it using the tools available. Click the bg and alpha buttons to select which colors to use as background and transparent respectively.

Use regular copy/paste controls to copy and paste colors.

Icon	Usage
	Swaps the position of two colors in the palette. Select the second color by holding SHIFT and click.
	Creates a gradient between two colors in the palette. Select the second color by holding SHIFT and click.
	Select between a number or predefiened palettes.
	Let the picoCAD 2 robot set up the shading ramps. Results my vary.

The lower half is used to manage picoCAD's unique shading aesthetic. To control how a color is shaded, simply drag the color it should be shaded into to the ramp below it. Holding the mouse over each color will display the selected colors on the preview cube below. For a quick start, use the robot button (bottom left) to estimate shading. If the palette gets messed up, use the reset button to get the standard palette and shading ramps.

Animating

Animations in picoCAD 2 work on a single timeline. Each mesh has four tracks, and each track can have a number of clips attached to it. Each clip modifies a property of the mesh, like position, rotation, or scale. As each mesh is animated separately, it may be neccesary to merge groups of meshes into a single one for a smoother workflow.

When applying rotating clips, the center point of each mesh will be used. The center point often moves around while modeling, so it might have to be re-adjusted before animating. In modeling mode, drag a mesh and then hold SHIFT to move the center point to where it needs to be.

General workflow

• Select a mesh in the model.
• Drag a clip from the clip library to a track on the mesh's timeline.
• Edit the properties of the clip.
• Scrub the timeline using the mouse, or play the animation (play button or SPACE), to view the result.
• Repeat until satisfied.

Animation clip types

All animations are relative to the mesh's current transform.

Clips are color coded depening on which property they affect, as well as showing an icon.

Once placed, clips can be freely moved around on the timeline with the mouse. Clip duration can also be changed by dragging the side handles.

Clip	Type	Animation
	Movement	Moves the mesh along the desired axis.
	Rotation	Rotates the mesh around the desired axis.
	Scale	Scales the mesh along the desired axis.
	Visibility	Hides the mesh.
	Oscillation	Modifies the clips main property back and forth in a sinewave pattern.

Animation clip properties

Use copy/paste (CMD/CTRL + C/V) to duplicate clips across meshes.

To change timeline length, double-click the timer at the end of the timeline.

Hold CTRL to disable snapping.

Exporting

GIF export

GIFs are a great ways to share picoCAD 2 models. Whether on social media or elsewhere.

Use the controls to apply the desired effects and outcomes. Use the mouse to control the camera and decide starting position and angle of the model.

When happy with the preview, click the render button and picoCAD 2 will spend some time to render the GIF frames. Once done the output folder will open automatically.

Sprite sheet export

Render a large amount of images of the model, during a full rotation. Great option for getting a 2D versions of models into 2D games.

The view will update in real time, showing how the final sprite sheet will look. Use the mouse to drag the sheet around if it is bigger than the screen.

When happy with the result, hit the export button and it will be saved to disk. The output folder will open automatically.

GLTF and OBJ/MTL export

Use these to export to the import friendly formats GLTF or OBJ/MTL which can be imported in to any modern game engine or 3D program.

When clicked, three files will be produced.

for GLTF
  modelname.gltf, metadata
  modelname.bin, geometrical data
  modelname.png, texture data

for OBJ
  modelname.obj, geometrical data
  modelname.mtl, material information
  modelname.png, texture data

Depending on the setup, some or all files maybe required during import. See documentation of the importing program on how to do this best.

Texture export

This will simply output a png of the current texture.

Settings

Settings are available via the main menu and offer tweaks to the experience.

If for some reason settings need to be reset, hold R during the boot sequence.

Tips & Tricks

• Plan ahead! A little thinking about which primitive meshes that will be used will make it a lot easier.
• Everyone's workflow is different. Don't be afraid to experiment. Making art should be fun.
• Try to keep textures and faces at roughly the same size/ratio.
• Texture space can run out quickly, only draw half of symmetrical graphics and reuse rotated or flipped.
• If a model has a lot of meshes that look the same, complete the texturing before duplicating them and it only needs to be done once.
• Use the camera bookmark frequently to get to the desired viewpoint of the model.
• Copy and pasting uv coordinates makes reusing textures super fast.
• Check out the examples in the examples folder. The additional_meshes file has some useful models. Thanks to Speak the Sky for providing
• You can have multiple copies of picoCAD 2 open at the same time and copy data (meshes, uvs, etc) between them. If Steam wont allow it, just open picoCAD 2 via the file explorer instead.
• Learn the shortcuts for the most common actions.
• Backups are made automatically and frequently so check the backup folder if you messed up.
• Join the discord!

Troubleshooting

Last Words

When I released the first version of picoCAD (made in PICO-8) I thought that at best it would be a curiosity that a handfull of people would be interested in. Tens of thousands of download later I'm both delighted and humbled by how was recieved and it is clear that it fills a gap between traditional pixel art applications and fully featured 3D modelers.

Thank you so much for all the encouragement and cheering on along the way to make picoCAD 2. Special thanks to the community on my discord that not only have been invaluable in testing and providing feedback, but also has kept my motivation up and my sanity intact by creating cool art with the program.

Where the original picoCAD was firmly set in the limitations and restrictions of PICO-8, picoCAD 2 has all the possibilities to keep growing and being updated for a long time. Let me know your thoughts!

❤️ Johan