21. The OP Settings tab¶
3D Viewport ▸ Sidebar (N) ▸ OP Settings. Everything global lives here: the defaults new images are made with, how bakes are run, and the two set-system settings. Almost every box is a foldout, so the tab is short until you open something.
Settings you might expect here but will not find: the paint size dropdown, UDIM, Flatten and Create Setup Asset are in the main OP Painter panel next to the stack (Cache All is in both places); the exporter has its own panel.
Emboss OP Painter buttons — top of the tab, outside any box. Raised or flat operator buttons in the OP Painter tab. Cosmetic.
Channel visibility & custom channels¶
Choose which channels you want to work with (chapter 6). Add your own here too, see chapter 18.
Flatten settings¶
These control the Flatten button in the main panel (chapter 5).
| Setting | Choices | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Target | Active Object Set · Active Object · Bake Plane | which geometry the flatten is run on; the object set is the default |
| Destination | Create as new Layer on / off (off by default) | on: the result lands in a new layer (or a sibling sublayer when only sublayers are selected); off: it flattens into the existing layer or folder hub |
| Material scope | Active Material (default) · Material Set | flatten just this material, or every material of the set |
| UV | Global OP UV (default) · Object UV Map (+ a UV Map picker) | which UVs the flattened textures are laid out in |
GPU baker and the Cascade cache¶
- Use Torch — use the GPU baker for supported bakes (on by default).
- Enable Cascade Cache — the cache system's switch, enabled when you first press Cache All. Chapter 20 covers the workflow.
- Cascade GPU UV debug PNG — diagnostic images, leave off for normal work.
UV Rebake settings¶
Used for Cycles UV transfers when rebuilding an object set (chapter 16.2). Leave Extrusion and Max Ray Distance at 0 for automatic values. Raise them if the transfer has holes or misses changed geometry. Rebake debug logs is for diagnostics. The GPU transfer does not use these distances.
Mask / Paint Canvas Format¶
Defaults for new mask canvases and custom-channel images: Format, Color Depth, Colorspace, Alpha Mode. Use EXR for float, TIFF for 8-bit; Straight alpha is the painting default.
Settings apply when images are saved next (existing files on disk are not rewritten just by changing a dropdown).
Image Bus Channel Defaults¶
The same image settings, per visible built-in channel. Colour channels start with PNG, 16-bit, sRGB; value and normal maps with EXR, 32-bit, Non-Color. Changing a default updates the existing tagged channel images too.
Custom channels use Mask / Paint Canvas Format instead.
Image Settings (Global)¶
Blender's sampling and colour-space settings for the image nodes inside your sublayers. Use these for global changes, or the Node Inspector for one image. The panel tells you how many nodes will be affected.
Object Set Settings · Material Set Settings¶
Object Set Mode (Single Object / Per Material) and UI Layout (Column / Row of five) are described in chapter 16.2; Collection Filter and Exclude Names in chapter 16.1.
Custom Output Setup¶
For choosing and adjusting shaders, start with chapter 14. This box connects custom folder results to their inputs.
- Enable Custom Output, choose Custom Folder and enter the folder's exact name.
- Press Add to Output List (the folder must already exist in your stack).
- In the added row choose Shader, then Input. For example, feed your Mask 1 folder into MaterialBlend's Mask 1 input.
- Use Save Mapping as Preset to keep the mapping for later projects.
Each custom output feeds one input of one picked shader. Choose None to stop that connection. Inputs without a custom connection keep their automatic channel wiring.
Default Input Colors sets the fallback values for unwired outputs. Apply to Existing Groups updates groups already in the file.
Saved Output Presets keeps reusable mappings. Use the preset controls to load or delete them, and Open Presets Folder to copy them to another machine. If a preset depends on a shader from your own .blend, that shader must be available there too.
Popup Icon Settings¶
Generator Icons, Filter/Anchor Icons and Custom Gen Editor are currently registered settings, but they do not change the asset popups or editor placement in this build. Leave them at their defaults.
Startup Settings¶
Stack source on file load decides what happens when a file has both scene stacks and a saved OP_Painter_Data text:
- Merge (recommended) — per set: keep a non-empty scene stack, fill in missing or empty ones from the saved text.
- Rebuild from saved text — replace every scene stack from the text. Destructive for changes that exist only in the scene.
It takes effect on the next file load.
Utilities¶
Refresh Icons reloads Overpaint's own UI icons — use it if the panel's icons draw blank or wrong after a Blender icon-atlas hiccup. Generator and filter thumbnails come from the asset library and need no refresh.