Painting on Tilemaps

The following details the steps and tools for painting Tiles on a Tilemap. However, if you are painting an Isometric Tilemap, refer to Creating a Tile Palette for an Isometric Tilemap for specific steps and information.

To begin painting Tiles, select the Tilemap to paint on from the Active Tilemap dropdown found in the Tilemap Palette window. Tilemaps created in the Scene hierarchy are automatically added to the dropdown menu. Only the selected Active Tilemap is affected by the Tile Palette painting tools.

Tilemap painting tools are found in a row at the top of the Tile Palette window. These tools are also used to edit the Tile Palette itself.

Painting Tool Shortcuts

Tool	Shortcut Key
Select Tool	S
Move Tool	M
Paintbrush Tool	B
Fill Box Tool	U
Picker Tool	I
Eraser Tool	D; or hold Shift while using the Brush Tool or Fill Box Tool.
Fill Tool	G

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Select Tool

Use the Select Tool to select a Tile on the Active Tilemap or hold and drag over multiple Tiles to select more at once. The property details of selected Tiles are shown in the Inspector Window. Use the Move Tool to move selected Tile(s) to a different position on the Tilemap.

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Move Tool

Use the Move Tool to hold and drag selected Tiles to another position on the Tilemap.

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Paintbrush Tool

Use the Paintbrush Tool to select a Tile in the Tilemap Palette, or hold and drag over multiple Tiles to select more at once. Then click on any location on the Tilemap in the Scene to begin painting with your selected Tiles. Hold Shift while using the Paintbrush Tool to toggle to the Eraser Tool

To select and paint with Tiles that are already on the Tilemap instead of the Tilemap Palette, hold Ctrl as you select Tiles on the Tilemap with the Paintbrush Tool. This briefly switches it to the Picker Tool to select the Tiles for painting.

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Fill Box Tool

Use the Fill Box Tool__ to select a Tile in the Tilemap Palette, or hold and drag over multiple Tiles to select more at once. Selections made with the other painting tools are also valid.

Hold and drag Rectangle Tool over the Tilemap to draw a rectangular shape, which is filled with the selected Tile(s).

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Picker Tool

Use the Picker Tool to pick a Tile from the Tilemap or Tilemap palette; hold and drag over multiple Tiles to select more at once. The active tool switches to the Paintbrush Tool once a selection is made, to allow you to paint immediately on the Tilemap with the selected Tile(s).

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Eraser Tool

Use the Eraser Tool to erase Tiles from the Tilemap by selecting them while the tool is enabled. To erase a larger area at once, hold and drag the Eraser Tool to the desired size in the Tilemap Palette, then

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Fill Tool

The Fill Tool is used to fill a contiguous area of the same Tile or empty cells with the selected Tile. Select the Tile to use as the Fill by selecting it from the Tilemap Palette. Multiple Tiles cannot be selected for this Tool.

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Tilemap Focus mode

Use the Tilemap Focus mode to focus on a specific Tilemap or Grid GameObject, and fade out other GameObjects in the Scene. This is useful when working with mutilple Tilemap layers to avoid confusion and clutter.

First select the target Tilemap from the Active Target dropdown in the Tilemap Palette window or from the Hierarchy window. The Tilmap Focus On dropdown menu is found at the bottom right of the Scene View.

Select the Focus On target from the options in the dropdown menu:

Target	Function
None	No target is selected.
Tilemap	The selected Tilemap GameObject is focused. All other GameObjects are faded. Select this option to focus solely on a single Tilemap layer.
Grid	The parent Grid GameObject and all its children is focused. All other GameObjects are faded. Select this option to focus on the entire Tilemap with all layers as a whole.

Brush preview and other shortcuts

When painting the Tilemap in the Scene view with the active Brush, a preview of the picked Tile(s) is shown at the cursor location. This is the Brush preview that helps you to visualize the placement of the Tiles before painting. Brush previews with multiple Tiles may look different when the cursor hovers over neighboring rows or columns.

The following shortcuts allow you to change the orientation or z-position of the picked Tile, which is visually reflected in the Brush preview.

Shortcut Key	Function
[	Rotate the active Brush clockwise.
]	Rotate the active Brush anti-clockwise.
Shift + [	Flip the active Brush along the x-axis.
Shift + ]	Flip the active Brush along the y-axis.

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• Tilemaps added in 2017.2 NewIn20172