On 7 August 2025, Adobe released Substance 3D Sampler 5.1, a workflow-focused update for its scan-to-material tool. The new version adds automation for seamless textures, fabric clean-up, improved scanner integration, and small but practical interface refinements. All features are in a list in Adobe’s official release notes
Auto Tiling: instant seamless patterns
The Auto Tiling filter detects repeating patterns in a texture and generates seamless, tileable results without manual patching. The algorithm targets structured materials like fabrics and patterned surfaces, producing uniform results suitable for large-area mapping.
Fold Remover: fabric scan clean-up
The Fold Remover filter removes wrinkles and folds from fabric scans in a single operation. The filter analyses the height and normal maps to flatten physical deformations while preserving surface detail.
Existing filter upgrades
The Clone Stamp filter gains rotation, scaling, mirroring and a new blend mode for more flexible texture retouching. The Equalize filter now reduces colour bleed between non-grayscale channels, addressing issues in multi-map materials.
Flatten layers for faster rendering
A new flatten layers function merges a layer stack into a single rasterised layer. Adobe notes this improves performance but prevents later non-destructive editing. The feature is intended for finalised elements or when reducing scene computation is a priority.
HP Z Captis integration expanded
Version 5.1 deepens support for HP’s Z Captis material scanner, first introduced in 5.0. New capabilities include: Roughness map generation from scan data, Automatic physical size detection of captured materials and “Make square” option for preview textures. Captis integration remains limited to Windows in Teams, Enterprise and University plans.
UI, scripting and performance tweaks
The release introduces adaptive brush sizing in 2D view, better GPU memory handling, and faster 3D viewport rendering. Interface changes include updated layer icons, new contextual menu commands, and extra quick-access actions. The scripting API now supports layer flattening and channel toggling, enabling deeper automation.
Availability and system support
Substance 3D Sampler 5.1 is available through Adobe’s subscription plans. Supported platforms are Windows 10 or later, RHEL 8.6 / 9.4+ Linux, and macOS 12.0 or later. Pricing was not disclosed in the 5.1 release notes.
Testing reminder: Production teams should evaluate these features in a controlled test environment before committing to active projects.
