4.Guides

• Manual Project Setup
• Preparing Project Space
• Setting up Rooms
• Asset creation
• Interior Designer

Manual Project Setup

Preparing Project Space

This tutorial will show you a step-by-step, basic project creation workflow. To learn more about every step and different features, see the following books: Getting Started for project creation related information and App overview for comprehensive descriptions of SIMON features.

To use SIM-ON you will need two things:

• A Matterport scan
• Optionally: (supported) Smarthome provider

For this tutorial you will be provided with a Matterport scan of an office, but we recommend you to use your own scan, together with a Smarthome provider if possible

Provided tutorial material:

• Matterport Scan 

At any time, in this tutorial, you can access the provided link from the Attachments section.
(located in the top left corner of the screen)

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New Space Creation

After Logging into SIM-ON, you will first see the browser view. Here you will find news and your available spaces.

• Press  button to begin the space creation process.

• Select Matterport set up method as we will be using the provided Matterport link in this tutorial.
• Press to proceed.

Room creator

Next, we will create starter rooms.

• Select Custom rooms option, as it allows to proceed without linking a smarthome provider.
• Press to proceed.

We need at least one room to proceed with project creation. Here we will only create a placeholder room to create the project. Proper room creation will be handled at a later stage, within the project. This way you will be creating rooms at the fly, while assigning them to the sweeps in the project.

If you are following this tutorial with your own Matterport Scan, and know the rooms beforehand - feel free to include them in this step. Otherwise keep following this tutorial

• Create a single, placeholder room (We will change its name later.)
• Press to proceed.

Linking Matterport scan

Now we to provide a Matterport link to be used as a 3D space for the project.

• Paste the Provided Matterport Link into the required field.
• Press to finalize the space creation.

You've successfully created a new SIM-ON space! Proceed to next page of the tutorial where you'll learn how to further set up the scene.

Setting up Rooms

After entering the space for the first time, by default you will appear in the 3D Walk view. You may notice that the environment is desaturated. This is an indication that the current position (sweep) we are on is unassigned. It is understandable, since the project has just been created and needs to be set up.

Room creation

First step before setting up sweeps is to prepare rooms to choose from later. You might have noticed that we skipped this step in the project scene creation. It's because we will use the Matterport Dollhouse feature to get the general view of the space that will help us decide what rooms to create.

• To enter the dollhouse view (or any other type of view): select it from the bottom left corner of the screen: 
  
  

With the Dollhouse view enabled a 3D scan model of the entire scanned place will appear:

This lets us navigate the environment unobstructed and explore the given space to decide the amount and names of the rooms.

• Explore the office and think about what rooms need to be created

Here is an example, using the floorplan view of how the provided space could be divided into rooms:

The screenshot was colored in an image editing software for easier visualization of the concept

With the general idea for the room layout, head to Space settings > Rooms accessed from the burger menu located in the top left corner of the screen. And create room(s) you will use to start assigning sweeps with.

• Go to the Rooms view in Space settings
• Create rooms for the space

Use neutral/general naming scheme for the first time (as seen in the screenshot above) to setup all the spaces without worrying too much about "proper" room names, especially since the rooms can be edited later on.

Sweep assignment

With (some starting) rooms created, now we need to assign them within the space to "sweeps".

To place devices within the 3D space of Virtual Tour, first we need to define the rooms within the 3D space by assigning them to "sweeps".   ‘Sweep’ as in a full Matterport camera rotation - A spot in the Matterport Space where a user can stand and look around (This includes 3D scan locations and 360º Views) ~Sweeps

To assign sweeps, we need to be in the 3D Walk view. Access it through the burgermenu located in the top left corner of the screen. 

In the top section of the viewport, you can notice a text: "Not assigned room" and a closed lock icon to the right of it. To assign a room to the sweep, click on the lock icon, it will reveal a window with the available rooms. 

• Enter 3D Walk view
• Toggle the lock  icon to reveal the rooms window

Select the proper room for the sweep you are standing on. The view will become saturated, indicating the sweep you are currently on is set and the room name will appear, replacing the "Not assigned room" prompt. Go to next sweep and repeat. 

You can assign all the sweeps in the project the same way. To finish you need to lock editing by toggling the lock  icon again.

• Assign a room to the sweep
• Navigate to a next sweep 
• Repeat until all the sweeps have assigned rooms

While assigning sweeps, If there is a room you are missing/haven't prepared before: don't worry, you can always go to the Rooms in Space Settings to add new room and return back to the 3D View. The last place you left the view from will be remembered and you will start where you left.

After going through the swpies, check if the option is still available. If so, that means some of the sweeps are still unassigned.

• Use "Find not assigned" to be automatically transported to one of the unassigned sweeps and assign it.
• Repeat until the option is no longer available, indicating that all of the sweeps are now assigned.

With the rooms set up, the project space is now ready for all of the SIM-ON features to be used. 

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This concludes the core setup of the SIM-ON project space setup tutorial. In the following, last page, you will learn how to create an asset and an event within the created space.

Asset creation

With the rooms assigned, assets can now be included within the space.

Defined as an "asset" is any object or an item you wish to keep track of in your SIM-ON space. The main difference between an "asset" and a "device" is the lack of smart connectivity of the former one.

To add an asset, navigate to Quick Access Menu located on the right side of the viewport, select Assets icon and hover over icon, to reveal "Add Asset" button and then press it.

The following window will appear on the right side of your screen>

To create an asset, you need to fill out the necessary fields, marked with " * ", then the button will become available to finalize the asset creation. 

As an example, we will create an asset for a Printer located in the Printing room in the project space. 

• Fill the necessary fields as seen here:

With basic Asset info, now we will set position for the asset. 

• Click the Set position button 

  
  

We will be putting the position marker on the left printer. Press the " + " button from the new window that appeared on the bottom of the view. 

• Place the Pin on the printer

• Exit Position placement by pressing " x " button

You can edit/delete Asset location at any time from the Asset Panel

With the basic Info and location set, asset can be created. 

There are more options that can be used to store information within an asset such as: Description, Photos, Videos and Documents. You can use these to further complete asset information. 

Here is an Event section filled as an example:

After creating an asset, it will appear on the right side of the viewport, under the Quick Access Menu, as well as in the assets list in the Dashboard.

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To learn more about other Aspects of the Software, check the rest of our SIM-ON Documentation.

Interior Designer

Here you will learn how to use the Interior Designer in your projects. To see a complete overview of the tool UI and features see Interior Editor page in App Overview.

During this tutorial a project space created during Manual Project Creation Tutorial will be used. To follow this tutorial you can either use the tutorial project or your own project (if available.)

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To start using the Interior Editor and place Virtual Models within your space you need to enter the Interior Editor View as well as create a Layout for the models (even though it is not technically required because of a default layout, it is a good habit to follow since creating layouts not only enables you to prepare multiple "visualizations", but group the models and manage their visibility.)

Layout manager

Enter the Interior Editor through the Burger Menu.  A Model Browser will open automatically, here you will find all the available models, grouped into categories.   Before Adding Virtual Models into the space, first we will create a new layout (to group and categorize the models.)   Press the Layout Button (located in the top right corner) to reveal the Layout manager side window. Open the Layout list and Add new Layout. Name the layout "Bistro Preview"

Model placement

With new Layout created, it is automatically selected. You can hide the Layout manager to free up space from the viewport. 

Now we will place a few models in the Bistro room in the tutorial project space. Let's start with the "Blue Toaster" in the "Consumer Electronics" section (which should be opened by default)

• Hover over the Thumbnail of the model and click it.

You will notice two things:

1. The model is now following your cursor and tries to align itself to the space.
2. A new "options window" appeared in the bottom section of the viewport.

First, let's place the model on some steady surface. Right to the fruit bowls, on the kitchen counter seems ideal. Left Click to place the model. With the model placed, colored Arrows and Squares will appear (as seen below.) What you see is a standard 3D Software "Transformation gizmo" (color coded transformation manipulator,) in our case the "Move" version.

The Transformation gizmo allows mouse controlled translation, rotation and scaling in the 3D View. There are separate gizmos for each operation. ~Blender documentation

It is one of the two transformations available to you in the Interior Designer, second one being Rotation. Now is the perfect time to use it. Select the Rotation transformation (middle button) through the "options window."

We would like to turn the toaster to face our camera view and be aligned with the counter edge. This requires us to turn it horizontally. Knowing this, we will use the Y axis handle which is color coded to green.

• Hover over the Y axis handle (green arch) so it turns yellow.
• Left Click and hold to turn the model.
• Move your cursor Left until the model is in the desired place.
• Release the Left Click.

Apply the changes (adding model to the space) by clicking the "Save" button in the bottom right corner of the screen.

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Let's add a second model to the scene.

• In the Model Browser, collapse the Consumer Electronics section and open Furniture.
• Scroll down the list until you find "Egg shaped chair"
• Place the model in the open space, on the floor, between two columns

Repeat the process as you see fit. You may also create another Layout and populate it with different models in different places. This way you could switch between them and compare the different visions.

With space populated with models, we can now return to the 3D View and toggle on the Interior Designer models visibility (Armchair icon located in the top left corner.) We can then choose different layouts to display inside our space.

~Space populated with Virtual Models

A great way to use Interior Designer is coupling it with Matterport Defurnish feature. Giving your space a twist by visualizing it with custom, virtual furniture. To learn more about this option, see the official Matterport Defurnish Documentation

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This concludes the Interior Designer tutorial. To learn more about it, see Interior Designer page.