Autodesk SketchBook (Desktop): Customizing the Lagoon
Autodesk SketchBook (Desktop): Customizing the Lagoon
These tips are ideal for intermediate or advanced users that spend a lot of time in SketchBook. A few customizations can go a long way toward quickly accessing commonly used tools and brushes and improving productivity. By default, the Lagoon (the round UI element) is found in the bottom left corner of the canvas. This hub houses lots of useful tools. It is gesture driven, like the Layer Editor. To view the tools in a Lagoon marking menu, tap an icon. This exposes the tools within that category. Keep the stylus down as you drag to the tool you want to select. The tool is selected when it’s highlighted. Now you can lift your pen. Before jumping into customization, let’s run through the default settings for each category. 1A) Interface Controls Starting at the top and moving clockwise, we see a half circle button with the marking menu icon. Here, you’ll find all the options for different Window UI layouts. 1. Full UI – Displays the default SketchBook layout 2. Title Bar Off – Hides the standard Windows/Mac UI Bar 3. Lagoon Right – Flips the Lagoon to the other side of the canvas (great for lefties) 4. UI Off – Hides the UI (with the exception of a half-moon button) and uses full screen mode (great for presentations). Press the half button to bring the UI back. 5. Title Bar Only – Hides the Lagoon, displaying only the title bar, toolbar, and a half moon button. Press the half button to bring the UI back.
1B) Tools & Views
Next up is Tools & Views. I use this one all the time - mainly for the View Snap tools (Fit to View and Actual size). You’ll notice a lot of these tools can be found in the toolbar. You might not need to use the Lagoon, as much, as a result. This is where customization can be useful!
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Zoom/Rotate/Move Canvas (Spacebar) Fit to View (Ctrl+0/Command+0) Ruler (R) Ellipse (E) Layers Symmetry X (X) Symmetry Y (Y) Actual Size (Ctrl+Alt+0/Command+Option+0)
1C) Brushes
This is the first category I typically customize. Since I tend not to use many of the standard brushes, loading the Lagoon with custom brushes makes more sense for me.
Pencil Airbrush Paintbrush Hard Eraser Brush Palette – Opens/closes the Brush Palette, which contains a customizable group of brushes 6. Ballpoint Pen 7. Switch Between 2 Brushes (S) 8. Marker 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
1D) Colors
The default colors are useful when getting started and are good for quick mark-up or annotation. Customize this menu gives you the freedom to load different colors or entirely replace it with more brushes or tools that suite your workflow. TIP Check out the color at the bottom of this menu (it looks like a checker board). This is an alpha color that transforms any brush into an eraser. It's very handy when needed a fine eraser. 1E) Edit
Edit contains some very useful tools. Clear is my most used Lagoon tool. I leave this section untouched, as I use all of these occasionally and have adapted to this layout over the years/versions. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Select (M) Lasso Select (L) Clear Canvas (Del) Copy (Ctrl+C/Command+C) Paste (Ctrl+V/Command+V) Cut (Ctrl+X/Command+X) Crop To Selection Move/Rotate/Scale Layer (V)
1F) Files
Lastly, is Files, where basic functions like Save, Open, New, and page flipping are found. 1. Previous Image – (Not available for the Mac App Store Edition) Opens the previous sequentially named image listed in your directory 2. Open (Ctrl+O/Command+O) 3. Save (Ctrl+S/Command+S) 4. New (Ctrl+N/Command+N) 5. Next Image – (Not available for the Mac App Store Edition) Opens the next sequentially named image listed in your directory, if one is available
2) Customize To get started, select either Edit > Preferences (Windows) or SketchBook Pro > Preferences (Mac). In the Preference window, select the Lagoon tab. There are some critical points you need to get this job done, and once you know how, it's a matter of repetition until you’re happy with the configuration. The upper portion of this tab manipulates the lagoon itself, so you can change or rearrange the icons that appear on it. You can choose to rearrange the existing icons or select new ones from the Custom Icons – Hotkey Assignments list to the right of the lagoon. In the bottom half, is the marking menu content associated with the selected icon in the above section. Select an icon in the lagoon above to load its marking menu tools.
To the left, in the Default SketchBook Tools list, the current selected tool is selected in the list. To change the tool in this location of the marking menu, simply scroll through the list to find a new tool and click it. It’s pretty straight forward once you’re familiar with the workflow. You can always revert back to the default lagoon by hitting the Reset button in the bottom left.
3) Changing Lagoon Icons
You can manually swap out or rearrange the existing icons with any of the choices to the right. Simply click the icon you want to change. Once highlighted, select an icon from the list to the right. It will update the lagoon in this tab. * The actual lagoon WON'T update until you click OK and close the Preference window. * You cannot change the Interface Controls icon.
3A) Customizing the marking menus From here, it’s a simple repetitive workflow. Select the item you want changed and choose its replacement from the list. Remember, you aren't limited to colors here. You can use any tool, including custom brushes you've created. I’ve included the colors I chose, just as a reference.
3B) Importance of naming your custom brushes When creating custom brushes, there are a few reasons why it is important to name them. The first is lagoon customization. Without names, you will have a hard time identifying your custom brushes from a list of Do-It-Yourself-Brushes and Do-It-Yourself-Brush-copies. I learned this lesson the hard way, and had to backtrack to name all the brushes I needed for the Brushes marking menu, as seen below.
4) Marking menu hotkeys Before wrapping up, I should note that the marking menus associated with the hotkeys 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 will change - based on your customization of the lagoon. The new custom marking menus will always be pinned to those hotkeys. The defaults (below) will be wiped out. The only way to reset them is to tap Reset to set them.
These tips are ideal for intermediate or advanced users that spend a lot of time in SketchBook. A few customizations can go a long way toward quickly accessing commonly used tools and brushes and improving productivity. By default, the Lagoon (the round UI element) is found in the bottom left corner of the canvas. This hub houses lots of useful tools. It is gesture driven, like the Layer Editor. To view the tools in a Lagoon marking menu, tap an icon. This exposes the tools within that category. Keep the stylus down as you drag to the tool you want to select. The tool is selected when it’s highlighted. Now you can lift your pen. Before jumping into customization, let’s run through the default settings for each category. 1A) Interface Controls Starting at the top and moving clockwise, we see a half circle button with the marking menu icon. Here, you’ll find all the options for different Window UI layouts. 1. Full UI – Displays the default SketchBook layout 2. Title Bar Off – Hides the standard Windows/Mac UI Bar 3. Lagoon Right – Flips the Lagoon to the other side of the canvas (great for lefties) 4. UI Off – Hides the UI (with the exception of a half-moon button) and uses full screen mode (great for presentations). Press the half button to bring the UI back. 5. Title Bar Only – Hides the Lagoon, displaying only the title bar, toolbar, and a half moon button. Press the half button to bring the UI back.
1B) Tools & Views
Next up is Tools & Views. I use this one all the time - mainly for the View Snap tools (Fit to View and Actual size). You’ll notice a lot of these tools can be found in the toolbar. You might not need to use the Lagoon, as much, as a result. This is where customization can be useful!
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Zoom/Rotate/Move Canvas (Spacebar) Fit to View (Ctrl+0/Command+0) Ruler (R) Ellipse (E) Layers Symmetry X (X) Symmetry Y (Y) Actual Size (Ctrl+Alt+0/Command+Option+0)
1C) Brushes
This is the first category I typically customize. Since I tend not to use many of the standard brushes, loading the Lagoon with custom brushes makes more sense for me.
Pencil Airbrush Paintbrush Hard Eraser Brush Palette – Opens/closes the Brush Palette, which contains a customizable group of brushes 6. Ballpoint Pen 7. Switch Between 2 Brushes (S) 8. Marker 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
1D) Colors
The default colors are useful when getting started and are good for quick mark-up or annotation. Customize this menu gives you the freedom to load different colors or entirely replace it with more brushes or tools that suite your workflow. TIP Check out the color at the bottom of this menu (it looks like a checker board). This is an alpha color that transforms any brush into an eraser. It's very handy when needed a fine eraser. 1E) Edit
Edit contains some very useful tools. Clear is my most used Lagoon tool. I leave this section untouched, as I use all of these occasionally and have adapted to this layout over the years/versions. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Select (M) Lasso Select (L) Clear Canvas (Del) Copy (Ctrl+C/Command+C) Paste (Ctrl+V/Command+V) Cut (Ctrl+X/Command+X) Crop To Selection Move/Rotate/Scale Layer (V)
1F) Files
Lastly, is Files, where basic functions like Save, Open, New, and page flipping are found. 1. Previous Image – (Not available for the Mac App Store Edition) Opens the previous sequentially named image listed in your directory 2. Open (Ctrl+O/Command+O) 3. Save (Ctrl+S/Command+S) 4. New (Ctrl+N/Command+N) 5. Next Image – (Not available for the Mac App Store Edition) Opens the next sequentially named image listed in your directory, if one is available
2) Customize To get started, select either Edit > Preferences (Windows) or SketchBook Pro > Preferences (Mac). In the Preference window, select the Lagoon tab. There are some critical points you need to get this job done, and once you know how, it's a matter of repetition until you’re happy with the configuration. The upper portion of this tab manipulates the lagoon itself, so you can change or rearrange the icons that appear on it. You can choose to rearrange the existing icons or select new ones from the Custom Icons – Hotkey Assignments list to the right of the lagoon. In the bottom half, is the marking menu content associated with the selected icon in the above section. Select an icon in the lagoon above to load its marking menu tools.
To the left, in the Default SketchBook Tools list, the current selected tool is selected in the list. To change the tool in this location of the marking menu, simply scroll through the list to find a new tool and click it. It’s pretty straight forward once you’re familiar with the workflow. You can always revert back to the default lagoon by hitting the Reset button in the bottom left.
3) Changing Lagoon Icons
You can manually swap out or rearrange the existing icons with any of the choices to the right. Simply click the icon you want to change. Once highlighted, select an icon from the list to the right. It will update the lagoon in this tab. * The actual lagoon WON'T update until you click OK and close the Preference window. * You cannot change the Interface Controls icon.
3A) Customizing the marking menus From here, it’s a simple repetitive workflow. Select the item you want changed and choose its replacement from the list. Remember, you aren't limited to colors here. You can use any tool, including custom brushes you've created. I’ve included the colors I chose, just as a reference.
3B) Importance of naming your custom brushes When creating custom brushes, there are a few reasons why it is important to name them. The first is lagoon customization. Without names, you will have a hard time identifying your custom brushes from a list of Do-It-Yourself-Brushes and Do-It-Yourself-Brush-copies. I learned this lesson the hard way, and had to backtrack to name all the brushes I needed for the Brushes marking menu, as seen below.
4) Marking menu hotkeys Before wrapping up, I should note that the marking menus associated with the hotkeys 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 will change - based on your customization of the lagoon. The new custom marking menus will always be pinned to those hotkeys. The defaults (below) will be wiped out. The only way to reset them is to tap Reset to set them.
