Documentation

Polycube is a voxel modeling application for creating 3D voxel art on a grid. Build using three different brush types, customize colors with a palette, and preview your creations with the built-in path-traced renderer.

Keyboard Shortcuts

A: Select Add edit mode
R: Select Remove edit mode
P: Select Paint edit mode
V: Select the Voxel brush
B: Select the Box brush
F: Select the Face brush
Cmd+Z: Undo the last action
Cmd+Y: Redo the last undone action

Interface

The interface consists of three panels, from left to right: the Palette, Toolbar, and Viewport.

Palette

The Palette panel contains a 255-color palette for coloring your voxels. The currently selected color is displayed in the color picker and is used when placing or painting voxels.

Color Picker

The color picker lets you modify the selected color in three color spaces:

RGB: Modify the red, green, and blue components of the color.
HSL: Modify the hue, saturation, and lightness of the color.
OKHSL: Similar to HSL, but with perceptually uniform brightness across hues.

The Toolbar contains tabs for the Editor and Photo views.

Saving and Loading

Save your work as a native Polycube file (.cubes) to preserve the full voxel grid and color palette. Load existing .cubes files or MagicaVoxel .vox files to continue editing.

Export

Export your models to the MagicaVoxel .vox format for use in other applications and games. To export, select File > Export from the menu bar.

Editing

To edit your voxels, select the Editor tab. Edit voxels in the viewport using the left mouse button.

Left-click: Place, remove, or paint voxels depending on the current edit mode
Click + drag: Continuously apply the current brush

Voxels are placed and painted using the currently selected palette color.

Edit Modes

Polycube provides three editing modes for modifying your voxel model.

Add Mode

Place new voxels onto the grid. Click on any surface to add a voxel adjacent to it in the direction of the surface normal. You can also click on the grid planes to place voxels directly on them.

Remove Mode

Remove existing voxels from your model. Click on any voxel to delete it.

Paint Mode

Change the color of existing voxels without modifying the geometry. Click on a voxel to apply the currently selected palette color.

Brushes

Choose from three different brush types, each offering a different way to place or manipulate voxels.

Voxel Brush

Place individual voxels for fine-grained control over your model.

Box Brush

Create rectangular regions of voxels. Click and drag to define a box from the starting point to the current cursor position. The box preview updates in real time as you drag.

Face Brush

Select and manipulate connected faces. Click on a voxel face to select all connected voxels sharing the same color and facing direction. Drag to extrude (in Add mode) or retract (in Remove mode) the entire selection along the face normal.

Rendering

Preview your model with the built-in path-traced renderer by selecting the Photo tab. The renderer builds an acceleration structure from your voxel data and progressively accumulates samples before applying a denoiser to produce the final image.

Sky Settings

Customize the lighting environment for your renders:

Sun elevation: Control the vertical angle of the sun
Sun azimuth: Control the horizontal direction of the sun
View altitude: Adjust the atmospheric perspective

Exposure

Adjust the exposure to control the overall brightness of the rendered image.

Viewport

The Viewport is where you interact with and view your model.

Camera

Navigate the 3D viewport using mouse or touch controls.

Mouse:

Right-click + drag: Rotate the camera around the model
Middle-click + drag: Pan the camera
Scroll wheel: Zoom in and out

Touch:

Two-finger drag: Pan the camera
Shift + two-finger drag: Rotate the camera
Pinch: Zoom in and out

Undo and Redo

Polycube tracks all voxel editing operations and color palette changes, allowing you to undo and redo changes. Brush strokes and color palette interactions are recorded as single undo steps, so you can quickly revert mistakes without losing progress.

At most 256 undo steps are kept in memory.