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sections) => Frequently Asked Questions => Topic started
by: Morten on January 02, 2012, 02:51:24 pm
Title: LUMION 2: Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts
Post by: Morten on January 02, 2012, 02:51:24 pm
NAVIGATION
***** Weather / Landscape/ Import / Objects / Movie mode *****
(W) / (Up arrow): Move camera forward
(S) / (Down arrow): Move camera backward
(A) / (Left arrow): Move camera left
(D) / (Right arrow): Move camera right
(Q): Move camera up
(E): Move camera down
(Shift) + (W/S/A/D/Q/E): Camera moves twice as fast
Right mouse button + Move mouse: Look around
Middle mouse button + Move mouse: Pan
Mousewheel up/down: Move camera forward
(CTRL) + (H): Reset camera pitch to horizontal viewpoint
MISCELLANEOUS
***** All modes *****
(F1): Editor quality: 1 Star
(F2): Editor quality: 2 Star
(F3): Editor quality: 3 Star
(F4): Editor quality: 4 Star
(F5): Quick save (Saves a file called QuickSave)
(F7): See the Terrain without automatic culling at the maximum level of detail.
(F8): Press F8 to turn on real-time shadows for IES lights.
(F9): If you press F9, all trees and plants in the viewport will be rendered at their best
level of detail, so that it's easier to see where you need to add more trees and plants in
a scene.
Home -> (CTRL) + (F11): Fullscreen.
Home -> (F11): Maximize window with/without taskbar (press twice to toggle).
Sliders: You can double-click on all sliders in Lumion to manually type in values.
Press Shift while adjusting slider values to fine-tune them (more digits after the
decimal point will be displayed).
Background rendering mode: This mode requires that you wait for the first frame to
finish before you switch to other windows. Also, avoid clicking on the Show Desktop

button in the lower right corner of Windows. This will reset the exposure in Lumion
which means that the video has to be rendered from scratch again.
IMPORTING & UPDATING MODELS
***** Import mode *****
(http://lumion3d.com/forum/index.php?
action=dlattach;topic=2627.0;attach=4857;image)
Edit Materials -> (CTRL) + Reload Model button: If you import a model that uses
over 100mb of texture memory, Lumion will cap the maximum texture resolution at
2048x2048 pixels. However, you can bypass this limit by pressing CTRL while you
click on the Reload model button. If you apply a Standard or Lightmap material to
your imported model, any texture you load will be loaded at whatever resolution your
graphics card is capable of displaying (up to a maximum of 16384x16384 pixels).
Edit Materials -> (ALT) + Reload Model button: If the name or location of an
exported object file (DAE, FBX etc) has changed, this option allows you to manually
select the location/name of the file.
Import model -> Animation on/off button: This function lets you import
move/rotate/scale animations via FBX/DAE, for example from 3D Studio Max (FBX
is the recommended format for animated models).
Imported material scale: If you apply a Standard material to an object, a Scale slider
value of 0 means that the imported texture coordinates are used. If you set the Scale
slider to 1.0 in Lumion, and the surface is aligned with the world axes, each texture
"tile" will cover an area of 1x1m in Lumion. Rectangular textures will be re-scaled so
that they are square in Lumion.
SELECTING, COPYING, MOVING AND ALIGNING OBJECTS
***** Import / Objects mode *****
(CTRL) + Drag with Left mouse button: Rectangular selection tool for selecting
multiple objects.
(CTRL) + (SHIFT) + Drag with Left mouse button: Add new rectangular selection
to existing selection.
(ALT) + Move selected object(s): Copy-paste selected object(s) by pressing ALT
while dragging one of the selected objects.
Place object mode -> (CTRL) + Left-click: Randomly place 10 copies of the
currently active object library model.
Place object mode -> (Z) + Left-click: Place a new object with +/-0 to 50% random
scale.
(Escape): This "advanced" move mode lets you move objects by clicking directly on
them and dragging the mouse to move them. In addition, (H) lets you move objects up
and down while (R) allows you to rotate them.
(G): This function will make objects that you are moving or placing in your scene
snap to the Lumion terrain while ignoring all other object types.
(F): The orientation of all objects (apart from Trees/plants) can be made to adapt to

the surface angles of other objects. Move object button -> Press (F) for "Flatten" ->
Move the object(s) to make them adapt to the surface angles of other objects.
(SHIFT) + Move selected object(s): Press shift while dragging selected objects to
move them horizontally with snapping turned off.
(SHIFT) + Rotate/Rotate Pitch/Rotate Bank selected object(s): Press shift while
rotating objects to temporarily turn the 45 degree angle snapping off.
(CTRL) + "Same height" command: The selected objects will be placed at the
same height as the object you clicked on. (CTRL)-select objects -> Context menu ->
(Click on the icon of the object that has the height you want the other objects to
inherit -> Transformation -> Same height.
(CTRL) + "Space" command: The selected objects will be placed in a straight line
as defined by the objects that are furthest away from each other. (CTRL)-select
objects -> Context menu -> Click on the selection icon of one of the selected objects
-> Transformation -> Space)
"Align" command: This command lets you centre selected objects so that their pivot
points are at the same position (CTRL-select objects -> Context menu ->
Transformation -> Align). If you need to move or manipulate one of the overlapping
objects, place the mouse cursor over the small overlapping object selection icons and
use the mouse wheel (or the Arrow Up/Down keys) to toggle between the objects.
(L): Scale model.
(R): Rotate Heading.
(P): Rotate Pitch.
(B): Rotate Bank.
LIGHTS
- Press F8 to turn on real-time shadows for IES lights.
- Press shift while rotating lights to temporarily turn off the 45 degree angle snapping.
- Objects -> Edit properties -> Cone angle = 4 turns the light into a 360 degree
ambient light. This light type does not cast shadows.
REFLECTIONS
CTRL + U: Manually update the 360 degree reflection texture. Reflections in Lumion
rely on a single 360 degree panoramic reflection texture which is projected onto all
reflective materials. In Lumion 2, add the Lights -> Utilities -> Reflection control
object to your scene to specify the position where the 360 degree panoramic reflection
texture should be rendered at.
HOW TO PREVENT FLICKERING IN SMALL SCALE SCENES
If you are creating small scale interior renderings and you notice that overlapping
surfaces flicker, add a Standard material to the surface that you want to be on top.
Then adjust the Depth Offset slider in that material but avoid extreme Depth Offset
values - you should only adjust it a little bit, until the flickering stops (The best
method is of course to make sure that your surfaces are offset a bit in your 3D
modelling application, so that the flickering is less likely to occur in the first place).
HOW TO PREVENT FLICKERING IN LARGE SCALE SCENES

If you are creating large scale exterior renderings, and you want to prevent models
from flickering/disappearing when you move the camera far away, add Scene Effects
-> Camera Clip Planes effect to the clip, and adjust the Near plane slider until the
flickering is gone. You can also animate the Near plane if necessary by clicking on
the small circular button to the right of the slider to set a keyframe.
(http://lumion3d.com/forum/index.php?
action=dlattach;topic=2903.0;attach=5222;image)
SAVE & LOAD CAMERA VIEWPOINTS
***** Weather / Landscape/ Import / Objects / Photo / Movie modes *****
(http://lumion3d.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1739.0;attach=2657)
(CTRL) + (1) (2) (9) (0): Use this function to save up to 10 camera positions.
(1) (2) (9) (0): Load previously saved camera viewpoints. The saved slots are also
available as easily accessible thumbnails in Photo mode.
OBJECT COLOURS
- Objects -> Edit properties -> Object Color allows you to change the colours of
many of the vehicles as well as some of the models in the Model Pack. Note that you
can also copy-paste a colour from outside Lumion to any color selection window in
Lumion. Simply press CTRL + C to copy a highlighted hexadecimal colour in text
format, eg, "ff0000" (red), and press CTRL + V to paste this colour onto the solid bar
on the right side of the color selection window.
(http://lumion3d.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=2568.0;attach=4312;)
TERRAINS IN LUMION
The editable part of the terrain in Lumion occupies a 2048x2048m square. Beyond
this, you will not be able to change the height or paint the landscape. When you load a
heightmap texture it will stretch to the full extent of the 2048x2048m square.
If you load a standard JPG file, 100% black equates to a terrain height of 0m and
100% white is equal to a terrain height of 200m. In other words, each greyscale step
(from 0 to 255) is equal to 0.78125m.
As for the height scale of imported heightmap textures, the RGB values normally
range from 0 to 1.0, but if you create a 32-bit image in Photoshop (Image -> Mode ->
32-bits per channel), you can boost the whiteness (and the terrain height range) by up
to x20. In other words:
RGB 0 to 1.0 in Photoshop = 0m to 200m in Lumion
RGB 0 to 2.0 in Photoshop = 0m to 400m in Lumion
RGB 0 to 3.0 in Photoshop = 0m to 600m in Lumion
Once you've created your heightmap, you'll need to save it as a 32-bit DDS heightmap

in "32f" format using Nvidia's DDS plugin for Photoshop:

http://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-texture-tools-adobe-photoshop
(http://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-texture-tools-adobe-photoshop)
TIP: You can also import your own terrain as a DAE/FBX object and apply a
Landscape material to it. This allows you paint on it just like the "native" terrain in
Lumion.
MOVIE SECTION TIPS
Double-clicking on a clip thumbnail: This allows you to edit the clip without having
to click on the Edit clip button in the top-left corner.
Create Movie Effect keyframes: The small circular button to the right of effect
sliders allows you to set keyframes:
(http://lumion3d.com/forum/index.php?
action=dlattach;topic=2918.0;attach=5293;image)
USING LAYERS
About Layers: Layers are useful for organising large projects. The Layer buttons in
Build mode allow you to show or hide models. You can also animate the visibility of
Layers in your clips with the Show Layer and Hide Layer effects.
HOW TO IMPORT MOVE/ROTATE/SCALE ANIMATIONS FROM 3DS MAX
1) Time configuration -> Frame Rate -> PAL
2) Animate your object with move/rotate/scale keyframes.
3) File -> Export...
4) FBX format -> Preset -> AutoDesk Media & Entertainment
5) Import the FBX file in Lumion -> "Animation On"
6) Place the object anywhere in your scene to see the animation.
WHERE ARE MY LUMION PROJECTS AND IMPORTED MODELS
SAVED?
As with any other data on your harddrive, we recommend regular backups of the
following folders:

Documents/Lumion 2/Scenes: All scenes saved in Lumion 2 Basic/Ultimate

(2 files per scene)
Documents/Lumion 2/Library: Models imported in Lumion 2
Basic/Ultimate (up to 4 files per model)

Lumion is not backwards compatible, so if you save a scene or an imported model in

Lumion 2 Basic/Ultimate you may not be able to open them in Lumion 1.
HOW DO I MAKE MY OWN THUMBNAILS FOR MY MODELS?

CTRL-select the object and make sure that its thumbnail is displayed in the lower left
corner. Then move the camera until you're happy with the way the model appears on
the screen, and press CTRL and left-click on the thumbnail to update it.
RED QUESTIONMARKS
If you notice a red questionmark in one of your scenes, it means that the files for that
model are missing in the Documents/Lumion 2/Library folder. It is currently not
possible to display the file name of missing models.
Here's how to delete questionmarks from your scene:
1) Outdoor model category -> Context menu -> Selection -> Select all similar
2) Trash object -> Click on one of the questionmarks to delete them
(http://lumion3d.com/forum/index.php?
action=dlattach;topic=2958.0;attach=5408;image)
SMF 2.0.7 | SMF 2014, Simple Machines