How to use A23D PBR Textures in Substance 3D Designer

This guide explains how to use A23D PBR texture maps inside Adobe Substance 3D Designer as bitmap inputs in a procedural material graph. This lets you use A23D maps as a photorealistic base layer, then layer Designer's procedural nodes on top to add variation, weathering, or full material customization.

1. Download the Texture Set

1. Sign in to your A23D account.
2. Browse to the texture you want to use.
3. In the Software dropdown on the asset page, select Substance 3D. A23D automatically delivers the PBR texture set in the format best suited to Substance 3D Designer (PNG maps) - no manual format selection required.
4. Click Download, save the .zip, and extract (unzip) the archive. You will find:

• A23DTEX_Albedo.png - Base color
• A23DTEX_Normal.png - Tangent-space normal map
• A23DTEX_Roughness.png - Surface roughness
• A23DTEX_Metalness.png - Metallic values
• A23DTEX_AmbientOcclusion.png - Ambient occlusion
• A23DTEX_Height.png - Height / displacement

2. Create or Open a Material Graph in Designer

1. Open Adobe Substance 3D Designer.
2. Create a new package (File > New) and add a Substance Graph with the PBR (Metallic/Roughness) SBSARs template, or open an existing graph.
3. The graph editor opens showing the standard PBR output nodes: Base Color, Roughness, Metallic, Normal, Height, Ambient Occlusion, and Opacity.

3. Add A23D Textures as Bitmap Nodes

For each A23D texture map you want to use:

1. In the Graph Editor, right-click on an empty area and choose Add Node > Input > Bitmap (or press Space and type Bitmap to search).
2. In the Bitmap node properties (right side panel), click the folder icon next to the Relative to Parent Package path field and navigate to the A23D PNG file.
3. Set the correct Color Space for each map:

4. Repeat for each map you need in the graph.

4. Connect Bitmap Nodes to PBR Outputs

Wire each Bitmap node's output to the corresponding PBR output node:

1. Drag a connection from the Bitmap (Albedo) output -> Base Color output node.
2. Drag Bitmap (Roughness) -> Roughness output node.
3. Drag Bitmap (Metalness) -> Metallic output node.
4. For the normal map, add a Normal Node (Normal Map converter) between the Bitmap (Normal) and the Normal output node to ensure correct tangent-space decoding.
5. Drag Bitmap (Height) -> Height output node.
6. Drag Bitmap (AO) -> Ambient Occlusion output node (or use a Blend node to multiply it into Base Color).

The 3D View panel in Designer automatically updates, showing the A23D material applied to the preview mesh.

5. Add Procedural Variation on Top

With A23D maps wired as the base, you can use Designer's nodes to enhance or modify the result:

• Insert a Levels or Curves node between the Albedo Bitmap and the Base Color output to adjust brightness or tint.
• Add a Blend node to mix the A23D roughness with a procedural Grunge or Noise map for surface variation.
• Use a Height Blend to composite additional micro-relief on top of the A23D Height map.
• Apply a Warp node to distort the A23D textures for organic, non-repeating variation.

6. Export the Material as an SBSAR

Once satisfied, publish the graph as a reusable Substance material:

1. Go to File > Export (or right-click the graph in the Explorer panel and choose Export).
2. Choose the output format: SBSAR for use in Stager, Painter, or any other Substance-compatible application, or PNG / EXR to export flat texture maps.
3. In Stager or Painter, load the .sbsar directly - all procedural parameters remain adjustable as sliders.

Additional Resources

Substance 3D Designer - Bitmap Node
Substance 3D Designer - Creating a Substance Graph