Learn SolidVents features quickly through short video tutorials
Use the mouse scroll wheel to quickly adjust numerical parameters in the panel. Hover over any numeric input field and scroll the wheel to change the value. Hold Shift while scrolling for larger steps (coarse, faster adjustment), or hold Ctrl for smaller steps (fine-tuning), so you can move fast and then dial in the exact value.
Click the "Canvas Zoom" button in the top toolbar to enable free viewport mode. Once enabled, use Alt + scroll wheel to zoom the canvas, and Space + drag to pan the view, making it easy to inspect design details.
When "Sync All Parameters" is enabled in the canvas panel, all parameters (spacing, radius, etc.) will scale proportionally when the canvas size changes, maintaining consistent visual proportions of patterns across different sizes.
The gradient controller supports three interactive controller types: "Point" creates a radial gradient effect from a single center point outward; "Line" produces a linear gradient along a straight line; "Curve" allows you to draw a free-form curve path with multiple nodes on the canvas, and the gradient follows the curve direction. Click directly on the canvas to add a controller, and drag to adjust its position.
Upload an image in the "Background Image" panel, then enable "Image as Controller" in the gradient controller panel to let the image's luminance drive pattern parameters: by default, dark areas apply the target value (such as hole size) while bright areas keep the base value, making it easy to create halftone-style imagery. Turn on "Invert" to have bright areas apply the target value instead, and adjust the mapping strength with "Contrast". The same mechanism also works for spacing, angle, and shape gradients.
Right-click on a controller node and select "Add Fillet," then move the mouse to adjust the fillet size and click to confirm. This feature smooths sharp corners at curve or line segment bends.
Click back on the point you started from to close a controller path. Right-click any segment of a closed controller and its outline can be swapped for exact geometry: "Regular Polygon" gives every side the same length, while "Proportional Polygon" keeps that regular form but stretches it to the box the freehand outline already occupies. A closed curve offers "Convert to Circle" and "Convert to Ellipse" instead. Draw roughly first, snap to exact geometry afterwards, without redrawing. The same menu also carries Add Point, Scale, Rotate, Center Shape and Sync, which mirrors this controller's geometry into the other gradient modes.
When "Unify Range" is enabled, all gradient controllers on the canvas share the same influence range. Adjusting the range of any controller will synchronize all others, making it easy to manage the gradient influence distance of multiple controllers uniformly.
When "Unified Value" is enabled, all gradient controllers share the same target value (such as the final value for size, density, or angle). Adjusting the target value of any controller will synchronize all others.
In the gradient controller's advanced options, the "Fill Closed" feature allows the interior of a closed controller (a closed area formed by curves) to use the target value directly, rather than producing a gradient effect. Note: Points and lines are non-closed shapes and cannot use this feature.
In the angle mode's advanced options, enabling "Symmetric" causes both sides of the controller to use opposite angle values, creating a mirror-symmetric angle gradient effect.
In the angle mode's advanced options, setting "Increment" divides the gradient into evenly spaced steps at fixed angles, replacing the default smooth transition (set to 0 to return to smooth mode). When holding Shift + scroll wheel to adjust the center rotation angle, this value is also used as the increment unit.
To address issues where a large number of holes causes CAD software to lag or fail during import, you can enable the "STP Split" feature to divide the surface into multiple smaller regions for separate export. You can set the number of rows and columns, and under "Split Packaging" choose whether the tiles come back as a "ZIP archive" (one .stp per tile) or as a "Single assembly" (a single .stp holding every tile as a sub-component). All files maintain absolute coordinates, so they automatically align precisely when imported into CAD without manual adjustment. This is a Pro-exclusive feature.
In the custom shape editor, the "Mirror" feature allows you to flip and duplicate your custom shape horizontally or vertically along a specified axis, quickly creating symmetrical designs.
In the "Point Style" custom editor, each layer chooses how it answers the gradient. "Default (None)" scales with the group, like every other layer. "Independent Unit" works out its own gradient value from where that layer sits, so a multi-layer shape can respond unevenly. "Fixed (Ignore Gradient)" opts the layer out completely — useful for a frame that has to stay the same size while everything inside it grows. Select a layer to set it.
In the Custom Editor of "Dot Style," you can assign a "Boolean Role" to each layer to define how it stacks with the layer below, supporting boolean operations such as Union and Subtract. Combining different roles lets you build richer shape variations and composite designs.
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