SketchBook Changelog

What's new in SketchBook 8.7

Jul 22, 2020

We removed the splash screen that appeared upon startup, so there is no longer a need or even an option for logging in.
NOTE: If you are not a SketchBook Pro (enterprise) user and created an Autodesk Account, you may want to delete it. See the article Delete Your Autodesk Account for instructions for how to do this.

New in SketchBook 8.6.0 (May 8, 2018)

New in SketchBook 8.5.0 (Sep 29, 2017)

New in SketchBook 8.4.0 (Mar 29, 2017)

New in SketchBook 8.3.1 (Jan 5, 2017)

New in SketchBook 8.2.3 (Sep 6, 2016)

New in SketchBook 8.2.1 (Aug 23, 2016)

New in SketchBook 8.2.0 (Jul 18, 2016)

New in SketchBook 8.1.1 (May 23, 2016)

New in SketchBook 8.0.1 (Mar 21, 2016)

New in SketchBook 8.0.0 (Jan 12, 2016)

New in SketchBook 7.3.1 (Sep 28, 2015)

New in SketchBook 7.2.1 (Jul 14, 2015)

New in SketchBook 7.1.1 (Jan 29, 2015)

New in SketchBook 7.1.0 (Nov 24, 2014)

New in SketchBook 7.0.6 (Oct 17, 2014)

New in SketchBook 7.0.5 (Sep 15, 2014)

New in SketchBook 7.0.1 (Aug 6, 2014)

PERSPECTIVE GUIDES:
The SketchBook team worked closely with Concept Designer, Scott Robertson to develop a powerful new tool to quickly and accurately sketch in perfect perspective. 1-point, 2-point, 3-point and Fisheye modes are available in a clean and intuitive interface that doesn’t impede the sketch or clutter up the SketchBook environment.
Perspective Contextual Toolbar:
A lot of the features added in this release can be found in the main toolbar. Some of these items, when selected, will open a contextual toolbar. The Perspective toolbar contains the items listed below.
1-Point Perspective:
Creates a vanishing point in the center of the canvas. The brush cursor, in perspective mode, will change to a 3-axis cross hair, rotating relative to the vanishing point. You can drag the center vanishing point to reposition the vanishing point and horizon.
2-Point Perspective:
Creates 2 vanishing points, on the horizon for quick and easy grid layouts. Vanishing points can be pulled far off of the canvas for less drastic view points. The horizon can be adjusted and positioned at any angle.
3-point Perspective:
Creates 3 vanishing points, a horizon line (blue) and triangle connecting the three points (light blue). 3-point perspective is a very useful and straight forward tool for an otherwise difficult perspective layout.
Fisheye Perspective:
Creates 5 vanishing points: left, right, top, bottom, and center. The grid is composited of a horizon line, vertical line, and circle. Curves intersect at the vanishing points. Moving the center point moves the entire grid. Moving an edge point changes the circle’s radius. A great asset for creating drastic wide-angle imagery.
FLIPBOOK ANIMATION:
This major release includes the first instance of flipbook style animation in the SketchBook product line. Users can now create simple Flipbook animations right inside the SketchBook environment.
Flipbook Timeline:
Opening a new Flipbook file will reveal the Flipbook Timeline window. This is where all the actions required to create and navigate frames take place. The features, including frame creation, frame ghosting (onion skinning) and playback controls, are listed below.
File Setup:
When opening a new Flipbook file, choose from standard preset or custom file sizes, playback frame rate, and the number of frames in the animation sequence.
Flipbook Layer Editor:
The Layer Editor in a Flipbook file has 4 static Layers. Background Color, Background, Midground, and Foreground.
GRADIENT FLOOD FILLS:
Dynamic gradient fills are a feature carried over from SketchBook Designer. Users can now create linear and radial gradients with an intuitive interface that allows for adding and removing colors, adjusting color swatches on the spot with the pop-up color wheel, or selection and creation of preset gradients.
Flood Fill Contextual Toolbar:
The Gradient toolbar now contains the standard solid flood fill tools, along with Linear and Radial options. Adjust fill tolerance, sample all layers or just the active layer, or flip gradient direction.
LAYER WORKFLOW IMPROVEMENTS:
A number of changes have been made to the usability of SketchBook, many of which occur within the Layer Editor. Users can now keep their projects organized with layer grouping, select multiple layers for intricate transform operations and reordering, flip to transparent background, or choose from an expanded list of layer blending Modes.
Layer Grouping:
Layers can now be grouped, and groups of layers can be grouped up to 9 levels. This workflow allows users to keep their work organized, transform, adjust opacity, toggle visibility of groups and maintain layer groups when working back and forth with other graphic packages, like Photoshop. The Layer window can now to resized to accommodate the width of the new g roup stacking.
Expanded Blending Modes:
The list of blending modes available in the new SketchBook Pro has been lengthened greatly, with some of the popular modes that users have come to expect, like Overlay, Color Burn, Linear Dodge and others. Glow and Soft Glow modes were created to really add some pop to your sketches.
Multi-Layer Selection:
The SketchBook team worked closely with Concept Designer, Scott Robertson to develop a powerful new tool to quickly and accurately sketch in perfect perspective. 1-point, 2-point, 3-point and Fisheye modes are avalailable in a clean and intuitive interface that doesn’t impede the sketch or clutter up the SketchBook environment.
Background Color:
You can now easily select a background color directly in the Layer Editor. Clicking the color preview will open the Color Wheel, complete with Color Picker and preset colors. Simply turn off the visibility of the background layer to switch to a transparent canvas for transparent PNG or GIF exports.
Multi-Layer Select:
You can now select multiple layers or groups of layers for more accurate transform operations, without the need to replicate the transform for each layer. Reposition a series of layers into one convenient location.
DISTORT TRANSFORM:
A new method for transform has been added to the SketchBook Pro interface, in addition to the standard transform mode our users have become accustomed to. Distort Transform is another feature carried over from SketchBook Designer. A very simple, yet potent, tool allow you to adjust layers and selections in ways not previously possible within SketchBook.
Distort Contextual Toolbar:
The Distort Toolbar has options for Standard Transform and Distort Transform using the newly implemented corner manipulator interface. Simply click and drag a corner, or bounding line to adjust scale, non-proportional scale, or sculpt your selection with the Distort workflow, and manipulate the image with the central ‘bias’ manipulator.
MOVE SYMMETRIC AXIS:
A minor change in the Symmetry tool makes a big difference. Users are no longer locked to a symmetric axis at the centre of the canvas. X and Y symmetry can now be positioned anywhere on the canvas. The Symmetry tool now has its own contextual toolbar with the features contained listed below.
INCREASED CANVAS SIZES:
This release sees an increase in the maximum canvas size that can be created. 32-bit versions of SketchBook Pro now support canvas sizes up to 36MP and 64-bit versions support up to 64MP.
SELECTION ENHANCEMENTS:
Selection within SketchBook Pro has been greatly improved with this release. With the addition of Polyline and Magic Wand Selection methods, users have a greater range of control when making selections. Persistent Selection now allows you to change layers and brushes while maintaining the selection. You can now paint within an active selection, in a workflow similar to masking.
IMPROVED COLOR WHEEL:
Many users loved the addition of the Color Wheel that launched with SketchBook Pro 6. The new Color Wheel features a collapsible Custom Palette and custom gradient Palette, when using the Gradient Flood Fill tools. We’ve also added a toggle to switch the brush color to transparent, turning any brush into an eraser in this convenient location.
IMPROVED CROP TOOL:
The new Crop tool allows you to resize images with to-the-pixel accuracy. The Crop contextual toolbar now offers input fields, for Width and Height values, Proportional Lock, Confirm ,and Cancel options.
BRUSH ENHANCEMENTS:
A lot of work was put in to maintain the brush feel of SketchBook, while enhancing brush performance. Maximum brush stamps have increased to a 512px radius. A new brush tip option, Sharp, has also been added to the Brush Properties window.
PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENTS: SketchBook now features an Auto Recovery system that will protect data in the event of a system crash, and will open the active file automatically upon relaunch.

New in SketchBook 6.2.6 (Jun 10, 2014)

New in SketchBook 6.2.5 (Mar 26, 2014)

New in SketchBook 6.2.4 (Dec 30, 2013)

New in SketchBook 6.2.3 (Sep 20, 2013)

New in SketchBook 6.2.1 (Jul 17, 2013)

New in SketchBook 6.2 (Jun 12, 2013)

New in SketchBook 6.0.1 (Oct 10, 2012)

New in SketchBook 6.0 (Aug 24, 2012)

New in SketchBook 5.5.6 (Aug 22, 2012)

New in SketchBook 5.5.5 (Jul 19, 2012)

New in SketchBook 5.5.1 (Mar 23, 2012)

New in SketchBook 5.5 (Mar 7, 2012)

New in SketchBook 2011 5.2.2 (Nov 2, 2011)

New in SketchBook 2011 5.2.1 (Aug 16, 2011)

New in SketchBook 2011 5.2 (Jul 20, 2011)

New in SketchBook 2011 5.1 (Jun 6, 2011)

New in SketchBook 2011 5.0 (Mar 23, 2011)

New in SketchBook 2010 4.0 (Apr 8, 2009)

New in SketchBook 2010 4.0 Preview (Mar 19, 2009)

Lagoon preferences:
Preferences for changing not only the lagoon, but also marking menus have been added. Create your own marking menus; populate the lagoon with the options you use most frequently. If you never use a tool, take it out and replace it with one you do. This tab gives you complete control over these domains.
In addition to all this, now when you’re working, you can right-click to access virtual floating lagoon. It uses the setting from the Lagoon Preferences.
These setting are saved to an .xml file, so you can save them to a portable hard drive, take them with you to use on any machine, and always have your custom setup.
Custom marking menus:
The next thing you can do is customize the marking menu with an icon in the lagoon, adding tools that you commonly use. Once done, you can use clutch keys or right-click to access these custom marking menus without visiting the lagoon.
In the Lagoon Preferences, at the bottom of the Default SketchBook Tools list, any Do-It-Yourself brushes created are listed. Now, you can add them to any custom marking menu.
Rulers:
Two rulers have been introduced, a straight edge (hotkey R) and an elliptical (hotkey E).
Only one of them can be used at a time. They can be accessed through hotkeys, which are used to show and hide the rulers. Before painting, the rulers will display guidelines; however, once you start painting, they disappear. Once you finish painting, they reappear. The last location of a ruler is saved, so that the next time you access a ruler it appears at the same place.
When a ruler is activated, at the top of the canvas, a hub appears. It provides the X and Y positional coordinates, along with the angle of rotation. The elliptical ruler contains additional A and B coordinates for the distance of each side from the center of the ellipse. As changes are made to the rulers, these values update.
NOTE For optimal results, use a stylus. With the mouse, the results may not be as accurate. If using a mouse, drawing slowly will reduce problems.
Pencil:
The maximum size of the pencil increased from 2B to 14B for ease of use with images that have a large dpi.
Blur:
The Blur brush softens the areas it’s used on, making it appear out of focus. Open the Brush Palette and select the Blur brush. Paint over an area to blur it.
Sharpen:
The Sharpen brush makes an image look crisper; sharpening the areas it’s used on. Open the Brush Palette and select the Sharpen brush. Paint over an area to sharpen it.
Brush Manager:
Use the Brush Manager to organize and manage your Do-It-Yourself brushes. Click-drag to move a brush and change its position in the palette.
Texture Brush:
Once a Do-It-Yourself brush is created, a texture can be added to it, creating a texture brush. You can set the shape and/or color and make a texture from a rotated stroke or capture something on your canvas to use as a texture. See Create a Do-It-Yourself brush.
Create a texture brush:
In the Brush Properties of a Do-It-Yourself brush, you can create a texture brush by sketching a design and capturing it. The captured texture can also be rotated. When capturing a texture, one of the following Custom Texture settings can be selected.
Shape + Colors – Uses the current paint color, as well as the selected shape, to create your texture. Whenever the texture brush is used, it uses the color set during creation.
Shape – Creates a texture brush with no assigned color. Each time the texture brush is used, a different color can be set.
Rotate to Stroke – Dynamically rotates the texture in the direction of the stoke.
NOTE When capturing the texture shape, SketchBook uses the current size of the Do-It-Yourself brush. If the complete shape is not captured, resize the Do-It-Yourself brush, then capture the shape again.
Do-It-Yourself Brush:
Now, you can export and import Do-It-Yourself brushes. They can be shared and taken with you to use on other machines. Email brushes to friends to try. You created a brush on a Mac and want to use it on Windows – no problem! Export the brush, save it on a jump drive, then on the other machine, import it.
Export a Do-It-Yourself brush - After a Do-It-Yourself brush has been made, you may want to save it to use again or share with colleagues. The Export button, in Brush Properties, allows people working on different platforms to share brushes. You can also bring these brushes to a client or use when working on another machine.
Create a Do-It-Yourself brush.
Either double-click the Do-It-Yourself brush in the Brush Palette or select Show Brush Properties.
At the bottom of Brush Properties, click Export. This opens Save As.
Name the file and click Save. By default, the file will be saved in the CustomBrushes folder in SketchBook Pro; however, you can change this.
Import a Do-It-Yourself brush - After a Do-It-Yourself brush has been exported, you can import one of your own it to use again or try one created by a colleague. It doesn’t matter what the platform was that the brush was created on.
Select any brush, other than a Do-It-Yourself brush.
Open the Brush Palette by clicking the brush in the Lagoon.
In the Brush Palette, click New Do-It-Yourself Brush. This opens the Create Do-It-Yourself Brush dialog.
Click Import. This opens Open. By default, it opens to CustomBrushes folder in SketchBook Pro.
If the brush is not in the SketchBook Pro CustomBrushes folder, you will not be able to import it. Move the file to this folder and try again.
Select a custom brush file and click Open. The brush will appear in the Brush Palette.
Symmetry:
The Symmetry tool enables you to turn symmetry on and off as you sketch, using hotkeys. The X hotkey displays a vertical axis of symmetry and Y a horizontal axis. Anything drawn on one side of the axis will be mirrored. The axis of symmetry will always appear at the center of the canvas. Rotating, scaling, and panning within the canvas alter where the axis is placed.
NOTE If you move the canvas or the contents of the canvas within the pane, the axis of symmetry remain in the center of the canvas.
Add Image: import into a new layer:
If you have an image you would like to add that needs to be imported to a new layer, in the general preferences, check Add Image: import into a new layer.
Add an image to a new layer
Select Edit > Preferences to open the Preferences window.
In the General tab, ensure there is a check next to Add Image: import into a new layer.
Click OK. Now, when you use File > Add Image..., the image that is imported appears on a new layer.
Non-proportional scale:
Layers and selected items can both be non-proportionally scaled. You can scale in one direction, instead of uniformly.
Rotate canvas:
When drawing, use this to reposition or rotate your sketch to create a more comfortable brush stroking angle. Think of this as rotating your paper when drawing. Use either of the following rotate canvas functions to change the orientation of the image.
Rotate your canvas:
Hold down the Spacebar, mouse over the rotate ring of the puck that appears, then right-click and drag to freely pivot the canvas.
Autodesk Area:
This new feature, found in the Help menu, takes you to Area (http://area.autodesk.com/sketchbook), a place where you can link to SketchBook Pro and other Autodesk communities.
Improvements:
Editable RGB fields have been added to the Color Palette. They allow you to edit the individual RGB values.
Nine shades of gray have been added as default colors. The 20% and 60% grays can be found in Colors on the Lagoon. To add others to Colors, go to the Lagoon Preferences. They will be listed in the Colors section of the Default SketchBook Tools list.

New in SketchBook 2009 R1 3.1 (Oct 22, 2008)