hi, drawing into a PGraphics object is not possible since an instance of PApplet is passed to each controller for being drawn. but what about using a controlWindow instead?

what i did once when i needed p3d and controlp5 on the same screen.
remove all the labels and just draw the text in a large image or PGraphic.

thank you, that's an excellent idea

I tried something different.  I used JAVA2D for the applet so the controlP5 would work and then drew the P3D offscreen.  Works well:

import controlP5.*;
ControlP5 controlP5;
int sliderValue = 100;
PGraphics img;
void setup() {
  size(200, 400, JAVA2D);
  img = createGraphics(200,200,P3D);
  controlP5 = new ControlP5(this);
  controlP5.addSlider("sliderValue",0,255,128,20,50,10,100);
}
void draw() {
  img.background(sliderValue);
  background(155);
  img.fill(sliderValue);
  img.beginDraw();
  img.fill(0,0,125);
  img.translate(100,100);
  img.sphere(25);
  img.endDraw();
  image(img,0,200);
}

good idea. seems to be easier to do it the other way around