Shapr3D’s user interface has been designed to incorporate digital pen input from the beginning. It makes it a uniquely great match to be used with Wacom devices.

Choosing your Wacom device

With or without screen

The most immediately visible difference between different Wacom devices is whether they have a built-in display:

• Pen displays feature a built-in screen, and are sold under the brand names “Wacom One” and “Cintiq.”
• Pen tablets are screenless, and are sold under brand names such as “One by Wacom” and “Intuos.”

There are advantages and disadvantages to both. Pen displays are less portable and more expensive, while using a pen tablet takes some getting used to, as you need to look at a separate screen.

Shapr3D works perfectly with both types of devices, but we recommend devices with a built-in screen, as they are more intuitive to use.

Touch or no touch

Wacom sells both pen displays and screen-less pen tablets with multi-touch support in addition to pen input.

At the moment, we only support multi-touch input for view navigation on pen displays, but not on pen tablets. While you can rely on the built-in and customizable shortcuts that the Wacom driver provides for pen tablets, you won’t be able to navigate the 3D space with touch input as you would on an iPad.

For the best experience, we recommend touch-enabled pen displays, but the app works perfectly without touch input as well.

Which pen to use

You can safely get started with the pen that was shipped with your Wacom device. For the best experience, a pen specifically designed for 3D applications is recommended, such as the Pro Pen 3D. Notably, its additional button allows you to navigate in 3D space using your pen only, which many users find more convenient than using the keyboard and the mouse.

View navigation 

If you have a touch-enabled pen display, you can navigate in 3D space using touch gestures, the same way you’d navigate on an iPad or on a touch-enabled Windows device. If you have a screenless pen tablet or a pen display that has no touch input, view navigation happens with the pen.

Navigating with the mouse

If your device doesn't support multi-touch input, you can use the pen for sketching and the mouse for view navigation as a fallback.

Navigating with the keyboard

With the default settings, you can navigate the 3D space using a combination of keypresses and either hovering your pen over the tablet, or touching and dragging it over the surface. You can use the following modifiers:

• Shift: Tumble (also called Orbit)
• Ctrl: Pan
• Alt: Zoom in 3D space
• Space: Focus the view to the face under the pointer 

💡Tip:💡 The onboarding tutorial in the app teaches you these gestures when you get started. To revisit it later on, go to the Learn tab, and select Redo the Basics.

Navigating with pen buttons

If you’d like to navigate with your pen buttons, we recommend the following assignments to perform common tasks efficiently:

* Only available on 3-button pens

Configuring your Wacom device

1. Open your tablet's driver settings (Windows Tablet Properties).
2. Turn on Use Windows Ink before you start the app.
3. Assign the buttons on the pen to specific navigation controls.
4. If your tablet has additional buttons, you can assign them to Shapr3D's most-used keyboard shortcuts.

💡Tip:💡 Make sure to complete our onboarding tutorial when you first start the app!