BIMx Desktop Viewer Legacy Menu Commands

•Double-click the BIMx model to open it in the viewer, or use the File > Open command from the BIMx menu.

•To access the BIMx menu, press the ESC key.

•To return to the navigation window, press ESC again.

•To switch full-screen mode on and off on Windows, use F11.

Choosing among Menu Options

1.Click and hold on the option you want to change.

2.The available choices will then pop up.

3.Move your cursor over the options.

4.When the cursor is on the desired option, let go of the cursor to enable that option.

Editing Numerical Settings

If the setting you are editing is a numerical value (such as navigation speed), you can change the value only by dragging the mouse left (to decrease the value) or right (to increase it.) You cannot enter the values directly.

FILE Menu

Click Open to browse for a BIMx model (*.bimx).

Project displays the path and name of the opened model.

After you open a BIMx model, click Browse Hyper-model to choose from multiple 3D views and camera positions, if the model contains them.

Choose one, then click Open 3D Model to open it in BIMx Desktop Viewer.

SETTINGS Menu

The Settings dialog stores all the parameters that are related to the BIMx model display and navigation control.

Render Mode

Choose a Render Mode to display the BIMx model.

•Headlight: View the scene as if there were a lamp on your head

•Global Illumination: Available for models that were calculated using Global Illumination.

•Black and White: Available for models that were calculated using Global Illumination, but only GI lightmaps will be visible, for a grayscale image.

•Simple Shading: Basic lighting with materials and contours.

•Unlit: Shows materials with ambient lighting only. You can add detail by turning on SSAO.

•Gouraud: Shows materials with simple lighting

•Metal: Similar to Headlight, but omits materials

•Hidden Line: No shading. Displays the contours of scene geometry.

Some of these methods may not be available, depending on the graphics card you are using.

Tips for Choosing a Render Mode

•The Global Illumination method gives you the most realistic view of the model. To access it, Global Illumination must have been calculated for the model.

Note: The Black and White (Global Illumination) render option is also available for models calculated with Global Illumination.

•Headlight mode is a simpler rendering method compared to Global Illumination , but it is available on all devices (with the possible exception of extremely old computers).

•On very old-model computers (provided they meet the minimum system requirements), the Gouraud, Unlit and Global Illumination (provided that it was calculated) render modes are guaranteed to be available.

Background

BIMx offers the following background options for the screen:

•SKYBOX (default BIMx Sky image)

•WHITE

•GREY

•BLACK

•GRADIENT

To use custom skybox images, you have to replace the six .tga files included in the BIMx Desktop Viewer/Data/Textures/Skybox folder.

Stereo View

BIMx can display the model in stereo view modes. The following methods are available:

•Left/Right

•RED/ CYAN

Note: You need special stereo view glasses to enjoy this BIMx feature.

•Quad Buffer: available only with NVIDIA drivers.

•OFF

Note: Stereo View options are not available if you are in Parallel view. (Click F8 to toggle Parallel view.)

SSAO

Turn on the SSAO effect (Screen Space Ambient Occlusion) on to give greater depth to the scene. Effective when used in conjunction with the Unlit Render mode. While not as sophisticated as Global Illumination, the effect is similar, without needing the precalculation process.

Notes:

•SSAO is only available if your graphics card supports the OpenGL 2.0 standard. Typically, older-model laptops cannot benefit from this feature.

•SSAO is not yet available on mobile devices due to hardware limitations.

View Cone

Value range: 10-120

Speed

Value range: 10-1000

This parameter defines the default speed of navigation. Higher numbers result in faster movement.

Note that you can temporary increase the navigation speed by holding down the SHIFT key.

Mouse Sensitivity

Value range: 10-50

Mouse Invert

This option inverts the mouse navigation directions.

Units

The measured distances can be displayed in Metric or Imperial units.

By default, the model is displayed according to the default unit settings of your computer.

Additional Settings commands

The following parameters are available if you have turned on Shadows (click F3). The parameter value limits are shown in parentheses.

Sun Altitude (10-80)

Sun Azimuth (0-360)

Sun Brightness (-100 - +100)

Sun Filtering: Turn on to improve quality of sun shadows.

Camera Height (600-2000)

Camera Radius (150-400)

Help Popups

If this option is activated, a help popup window will appear over some of the Settings menu’s commands. Also, an introductory help popup is shown on screen when you open a BIMx model.

LAYERS Menu

The BIMx project preserves the layers of the original ARCHICAD model. Use the BIMx Layers menu to control the visibility of the model layers, by checking the desired layer name boxes.

GALLERY Menu

The Gallery menu includes the commands with which you can view pre-recorded walk-through clips.

•PLAY ON IDLE will make playback start or continue “screensaver-style” - that is, after a certain amount of idle time.

•Clips will playback in sequence if SEQUENCER is enabled (click “Sequencer” to enable it), otherwise only the current clip will be played.

Gallery Shortcuts

•Click the image to jump into that position or to play that clip.

•Press P to playback the current clip.

•Press Shift+P to playback the sequence of clips from the top.

CONTROLS Menu

The CONTROLS menu displays the list of the basic navigation commands and their shortcuts for the international keyboard. Most of these functions are self-explanatory and commonly used in first-person shooter computer games (FPS).

For additional navigation shortcuts, see BIMx Navigation Tools and Shortcuts.

INFO Menu

The Info Menu shows basic information about the active project and your BIMx license:

•Version: The version and build number of your BIMx application.

•License Type: Type of your BIMx license (full, educational). It also displays whether you are using the global illumination version of BIMx.

•Source Model: The name of the ARCHICAD file saved to BIMx.

•Number of Triangles: The models in BIMx are made of 3D triangles. The speed of the 3D navigation and the memory usage by the BIMx application are strongly affected by the number of triangles in the 3D model. Please note that this value is approximately two or three times that of the polygon count displayed in PolyCount add-on in ARCHICAD, due to the different geometry calculation algorithms used.

•RAM Usage: Displays the size of the RAM, in bytes, used by the project

•Video RAM Usage: Displays the size of the Video RAM, in bytes, used by the project

•Check for Updates: Click this command to see whether an updated version of GRAPHISOFT BIMx Desktop Viewer is available.

•BIMx Online Help: Takes you to a Help file.

Components of Video RAM Usage on Mobile Devices

This data refers to the Video RAM memory required to view the model on the supported iOS mobile devices.

•Geometry: Based on the triangle count.

•Textures: The BIMx application for mobile devices automatically optimizes your textures to a certain degree, but if your BIMx model is too large to be run on your mobile device, you can try to reduce their size and complexity.

If the BIMx model was saved using Global Illumination, additional video RAM memory is required to handle the following two texture components:

•Global Illumination of Flat Surfaces: the illumination texture applied to flat surfaces; and

•Global Illumination of Curved Surfaces: the illumination texture applied to curved surfaces

You will notice that curved surfaces are less memory-intensive than the flat surfaces.