Understanding Scene Nodes

Scene Nodes describe the 3D Scene and any item that can be placed within it. Nodes appear in the explorer under one of the high-level categories.

Types of Nodes

• The Scene Node Itself — The root scene node contains the properties for basic functionality and appearance of the empty space surrounding the scene objects, and for the behavior of the scene as a whole.
• Meshes — Meshes are the most common type of scene object. These are the shapes of objects your user can see.
• Materials — Materials are like paints. They give meshes the color, surface, and other appearance factors of real-world materials like glass, wood, and steel.
• Global Lights — Global Lights are scene objects that cast light onto Meshes, giving them realistic reflections and shadows.
• Viewpoints — Viewpoints are invisible positions in the 3D space of the scene which define a way of looking at the scene contents. Use viewpoints to show your scene from the best angle, or guide your user along a tour through the scene.
• Mates — Mates help your user drag-and-drop meshes. Like magnets, mates help meshes align perfectly according to the connectors on the meshes and your business logic.
• Annotations and Dimensions — Annotations display text next to a single point within the scene.

Note that along with Annotations and Dimensions which are within the scene, Hotspots display floating overlays above the 3D space, such as text, images, or even parts of the configurator.

Managing nodes with the explorer

Regardless of the type of node, you can always use the explorer to…

• Create a new node by clicking the context menu next to the type of node you want (such as Meshes, Materials, Viewpoints, etc), then Create.

• Clone selected node/s by

  • clicking the context menu next to the selection you want to duplicate, then Clone.

  • pressing CTRL-C on your keyboard to copy, then CTRL-V to paste.

• Delete selected node/s by

  • clicking the context menu next to the selection you want to remove, then Delete.

  • pressing CTRL-X on your keyboard.

• Control how the properties of a node are overwritten or kept as the node is moved through the tree by

  • clicking the gear at the bottom of the node tree to reveal options for managing nodes.

  • selecting how you want nodes to behave when dragged:

    • Turn on “Preserve Mesh Position When Reordering”, then drag any mesh from one group to another in the tree. The node’s properties are automatically edited so that it retains its position in space.

    • Turn off “Preserve Mesh Position When Reordering”, then drag any mesh from one group to another in the tree. The node’s position properties are not edited, so its position in space may change as it inherits the position/rotation/scale properties of the group it was dragged into.

Selecting nodes

Select one node for editing by…

• clicking its logical entry in the explorer tree, or

• clicking its visual representation in the 3D space of the viewer.

Select multiple nodes to edit them all at once by…

• Clicking one node in the explorer, then SHIFT-clicking another node in the explorer. All nodes between the first selection and the second selection will be selected.

• CTRL-clicking any name in the explorer: that one node will be added or removed to your selection.

Confirm the nodes in your selection by…

• seeing the node highlighted in the explorer.

• seeing the visual representation of that node in the scene highlighted in the 3D scene.

Editing nodes with the toolbar

Depending on the type of node selected, you can use the tools in the toolbar to…

• Rotate an node by clicking the rotate toolbar button, or editing the properties.

  

• Move an node by clicking the move toolbar button, or editing the properties.

  

Editing nodes with the properties sidebar

When one or more nodes are selected, the node properties sidebar will appear on the right.

• If just one node is selected,
  all the properties and attributes of that node appear on the right.

• If multiple nodes are selected,
  only the properties and attributes shared across all the selected nodes appear on the right. If you don’t see the detailed information you want, select fewer nodes, or select just one node.

Exporting and importing scene nodes with the toolbar

Use the expanders in the properties sidebar to…

Edit the selected node by changing its properties. Each type of node has different properties. Click one of the node types listed above for details.

Connect the node to other draggable nodes or annotations by applying connectors to it. Mesh connectors define a point in space within a mesh, and are the foundation for building a mate, annotation, or dimension.

Manipulate the node by applying features to it. Mesh features are stackable, repeatable transformations applied to a mesh both at design time and run-time.

Make the node dynamic by using Snap rules to change the properties and features.
Almost anything shown in the node configuration sidebar can be manipulated via Snap to make any node react to changes in your data. For example, size the window’s frame, add the cube’s hole, or count the gear’s teeth based on fields from a configurator. Learn more about scene rules.

All scene nodes can be imported or exported into a stand-alone data file. This is useful as a way to…

• store a snapshot of a scene’s structure before substantial edits are made.

• re-use parts of an existing scene to kickstart the creation of a new scene.

• move a scene from one org to another.

To export a scene to a file:

1. Click the export button in the scene toolbar.

2. Choose from one of the available export formats, and start the export process. By default, the “native” format is selected.

3. All scene nodes listed in the explorer are gathered up into an file, and downloaded to your workstation.

To import a file into a scene:

1. Click the import button in the scene explorer.

2. Select an importable file format from your web browser. Wait while the file is uploaded and processed. Depending on the complexity of your scene and materials, this may take some time.

3. After the file is processed, it will appear in the “Imports” tab on the bottom tab bar. This tab shows a list of all import files that have been uploaded into this scene, with the most recent upload at the top.

4. In that list, click the “import” button next to the upload you would like to import. A list appears of the scene nodes found in the import file. By default, all nodes are selected. Adjust the selection to import only the elements you would like, or accept all elements.

5. After processing, you return to the scene. Note that imported scene elements now appear in the explorer on the left, and in the scene viewer.

The import process writes changes not only to your scene, but also to your environment. 

• Any global material used by a mesh in the scene is automatically included in the export.
• Images in the media folder used by a material on a mesh are automatically included in the export/import. The image will be imported into the same folder location as the original, with the necessary folders created.
• Any existing item with the same filepath and name as an imported item is replaced by the imported item. For example:
  • The mesh “\car\door_assembly\handle_assembly\knob” will replace any existing mesh called “knob” in that same group path. However, other meshes named “knob” elsewhere in the scene are untouched.
  • The image “\branding\logo.png” stored in the media folder and used in a material will be written to the target scene and environment. It will overwrite any existing “\branding\logo.png”. However, a file called “\shared_images\logo.png” in the target environment will be untouched.
• If you don’t want an item to be imported, deselect it during the import process.
• Snap code found in the rules editor is not included in the scene editor. Therefore, it is not included in an export file.

The “native” export format is simply a .zip archive with a custom extension. It contains image and texture files in binary format, and scene nodes and data in json text format. While this file format allows text manipulations to the exported scene data before importing it, we cannot support any questions or problems with edited export files. We can only support un-modified export files.