The 3D Creator Interface

The 3D Creator is where you design both the logical and visual elements of your scene.

Understanding the 3D Creator

The Creator interface has 3 components which are always visible:

1. A Menubar of commands across the top

2. a Rules tab for the logic and decorations of your scene

3. a Scene tab for the visual elements in the 3D design space

1. The Menubar

The 3D Creator Top Menubaris always shown when editing a scene. It manages the overall properties of the scene.

Scene Properties

This toolbar helps with the following tasks:

2. The Rules Editor

Scene Rules, Actions, and Functions

• Rename the scene - click on the scene name to change it.

• Save the scene - use the SAVE button to save any changes made.

• Run a scene - use the RUN button to first save any changes, then preview the scene in a new browser window for testing. If the scene is associated with a configurator, then that configurator is launched so you can test the scene’s interactions with the configurator.

• Generate embed code - click the EMBED button, select appropriate options, and copy and paste the generated HTML code into any webpage to embed your scene, if it is stand-alone. (Usually, you would embed your configurator instead. The scene will be included by the configurator with no extra work.) Learn more about embedding configurators and scenes.

• Diagnose snap errors - the 3D scene’s logic is written in Snap, just like configurators and workflows. The error drop-down identifies code errors for you to fix in your 3D scene rules.

• Search your Snap code - as in other Snap workspaces, you can search for elements in your 3D scene rules tab by clicking the search icon. The number of matching results will be shown: click the results to see a drop-down list of details.

• Go back to the list of 3D scenes - use the BACK button to return to the admin interface’s list of 3D scenes.

• Control settings for the scene - click the GEAR configure icon to modify the settings for the scene.

  • Edit the name of the scene

  • Specify if the scene is to be used standalone, or in conjunction with a configurator

  • The name of the default configurator it would be used with.

Setting the name of the configurator here helps you write scene logic. By specifying this configurator, you'll automatically see field names and other info from that configurator in the Scene "getField" Snap blocks and other settings. This setting does not prevent one scene from being used by multiple configurators.

The Scene Rules Editor manages the non-3D elements of the scene, such as scene logic, behavior, actions, and hotspots. Scene Rules make your scene come alive: show configurator changes, allow you user to drag and drop components, and more.

The rules tab contains an explorer along the left, containing controls for:

Scene Rules, Actions, and Functions are Snap code blocks which control the appearance of the 3D Scene, and allow you to make the scene dynamic.

Hotspots

Hotspots are scene elements that float 2D information over the scene, such as images, text, or portions of a configurator.

Scene Properties control the overall appearance of your scene, such as background, camera behavior, and mouseover color.

3. The Scene Editor

The 3D Scene Editor contains everything related to the 3D visuals of your scene: the meshes, materials, lights, viewpoints, and more.

The scene editor consists of the following elements.

1. The left Explorer shows a hierarchical drill-down tree of nodes, like branches and leaves on a tree. The scene node itself is the top-most node in the explorer, and all the other scene nodes within it appear in the hierarchy below it. In the explorer you can create nodes, change their relationships to each other, and delete them. Clicking a scene node in the explorer highlights the corresponding object in the 3D space and lists information about the node in the properties pane on the right. Learn more about scene nodes.
   

2. The top Toolbar shows the commands currently available, given the selected node in the explorer. If a tool is active, it appears in a different color. Learn more about the scene toolbar.
   

3. A collapsible infobox shows runtime Performance Statistics information to help you understand and optimize scene performance.
   

4. The right Properties Pane gives detailed information about the selected node or nodes. Here you can see and change all the the specific properties of a node, add features to some nodes, and otherwise make adjustments.
   

5. Objects created in the scene, like this box, appear both in the 3D space of the scene and in the object list of the explorer. Objects include meshes, lights, and more. Learn more about scene objects.
   

6. The Origin is a special point in space: it’s the center of the scene where the X, Y, and Z axes meet at [0,0,0]. Use the origin as an absolute location to place objects within a scene, or align scenes to each other when you nest them.
   

7. Multicolored Gizmos appear within an object when a move, rotate, or scale tool is selected. They provide handles to click and drag to manipulate the object visually.
   

8. The bottom Tab Bar displays lists for your information:

   1. The Materials Tab offers a variety of materials you can “paint” onto to a mesh, to make that mesh look like metal, plastic, glass, or other real-world materials. Learn more about materials.

   2. The History Tab shows you a history of your work in the scene. Here you can undo or redo recent changes.

   3. The Imports Tab allows you to create new meshes by importing 3D geometry from a file on your computer, or from other existing scenes. Learn more about importing and exporting scenes.

   4. The Warnings Tab suggests design elements in the scene which you can review to improve scene performance. When these optional suggestions are satisfied, the warning disappears.