Visual Manager

Fig. 17 Visual Manager modes (EM, Epochs, Properties)

This panel (Fig. 17) consents to manage the appearence of the so-called Proxy models (or Proxies) in the 3D space of Blender.

Fig. 18 Visual Manager in action

Within the Display mode section, users can filter the visualization of the geometries by using EM, Epochs, and Properties.

Fig. 19 Visual Manager EM-mode and the labeling workflow

EM will visualize Proxies with a monochromatic material that will match their node (US, USV/s, USV/n, SF, USD, serSU, serUSD, etc..; Fig. 19).

Within the panel (Fig. 19) user can also control the alpha value of the Proxies’ material (0 = completely transparent; 1 = no alpha). Other display options allow user to visualize ONLY selected Proxies with different modes (bounding box, wireframe, solid, solid&wireframe).

The Label Tools section allows user to automatically create a label related to the selected proxies.

Firstly, to start the labelling process users must create the CAMS collection and move inside an already existing camera (or a new one), then by pressing the Refresh Camera List button the tool will automaticcally visualize the camera and display information.

Once the camera has been oriented (NB: in order to easily orient the camera on the desired proxy or Proxies, user has different solution: manual orientation, by using default command of Blender, or using the add-on Store View, which is already in Blender) and one or more Proxies has been selected, by pressing the Create Labels for Selected button a new label will appear.

Since labels will appear within the frame of the camera, NOT on top of the Proxies’ 3D surface, to visualise them user must enter on the Active camera view mode of Blender (Numpad 0 button).

User can also locate labels (as text objects) within the Outliner of Blender in the _generated_labels_Camera collection. Once automatically generated, labels can be easily modified by applying the Grab, Scale, and Rotate commands of Blender. Labels will appear both on the viewport of Blender and on the rendered images.

Fig. 20 Visual Manager Epochs-mode

Epochs change Proxies’ materials according to the chronological period to which proxy models belong (Fig. 20).

Fig. 21 Visual Manager Properties-mode

Properties apply a new material to every Proxy model (Fig. 21). This specific section of the panel reads all the properties of the EM. When a specific property is selected the filter visualizes all the related information.

The panel allows to:

• freely attribute a color material

• select Proxies with the same property

• save the color schema

• load a specific color schema

When Display mode is set to Properties a Color Ramp appears on the lower part of the Visual Manager panel. The menu allows to set the Scale Type, with three option (Sequential, Diverging, and Qualitative), and the Color Ramp type (Viridis, Blues, Heat).

Everytime a Color Ramp is selected the line Selected will be automatically updated. The Apply Color Ramp button consents to attribute and visualize the color ramp selected in the Property list. When a color ramp is defined, by pressing the Apply Colors to Proxies button EMtools will automatically transfer colors to Proxies.

Display Controls

Below the display mode section, a row of controls is available:

• Alpha slider: controls the transparency of the Proxies’ material (0 = fully transparent, 1 = fully opaque)

• Shading buttons: switch between Bounding Box, Wireframe, Solid, and Solid & Wireframe display modes for selected proxies

• Bulk visibility controls: show/hide all Proxies, all RM models, or all Special Finds at once

• Material override button: applies a default material to objects not matched by the EM graph

Color Scheme Save/Load

When using the Properties display mode, color schemes can be saved and loaded:

• Save Color Scheme button: exports the current property-color mapping to a .emc file

• Load Color Scheme button: imports a previously saved .emc file and applies the colors to the property values list

Proxy Inflate Manager (Experimental)

Warning

This section is only visible when Experimental Features are enabled in the EM Data Tree panel.

See the Proxy Inflate Manager (Experimental) page for full documentation.