Using Tools and Actions

From the Prompt Bar

The first way to open and use the Tools and Actions in Dash is to simply search for them or scroll until you find them in the prompt bar. The Actions are in general dependent on what you have selected in the scene before you use them, for example, selecting a rock and then using the Enable Nanite Action will turn on Nanite for that specific rock. But others like the Curve Action does not care what you have selected, it will just take you into the draw mode.

For the tools, it will in general open up a floating panel, where you have to assign things from your scene into one or several fields. For example, Scatter, what object you want to scatter, and Surface, on what surface you want to scatter upon.

From the Content Library

The other way of using tools and actions in Dash is to find one or several assets or materials in the Content Library, hold CTRL while dragging the assets/materials and dropping them in your scene. This will open up a menu that dynamically adjusts depending on what you dragged from the Content Library and what you had selected in your scene before choosing the assets/materials.

For example, if you select a spline in your scene and then CTRL + drag and drop one or several assets, one of the options in the dynamic menu will be Scatter on Selected, this will scatter the assets on the spline with the Path Scatter tool. There always exist a few different options, all to make sure your environment creation workflow in Unreal Engine 5 is as smooth as possible.

Re-opening and Adjusting Tools

If you have closed a tool panel, don't worry! As long as you haven't broken the tool connection you can always re-open it and continue changing the values again. The first way of doing this is by selecting a scatter, a procedural mesh from Dash or whatever you have created with Dash in the scene or in the UE outlier and then you will see an little icon appear in Dash that has 3 horizontal lines, clicking this will re-open whatever you have selected. The second way of doing this is by typing "Show Tools" in Dash, that will open up a panel that shows all your active Dash tools in this scene.

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