Placing 3D models accurately
In almost every project, we have some autonomy to place the 3D models and organize the 3D world. Nevertheless, there are times when we really need more accuracy than one can get with the mouse. Let's see how Lumion's coordinate system can assist us with this task.
Getting ready
Locate the 3D model you want to place in your project and make sure it is not locked.
How to do it…
To place a 3D model accurately, perform the following steps:
- From the Import or Objects menu, select the 3D model.
- After placing the 3D model, click on the Edit properties menu.
- Select the 3D model and a window appears where you can see the X:, Y:, and Z: coordinates, as shown in the following screenshot:
- Adjust the coordinates to accurately move the 3D model to the correct place.
How it works…
Lumion uses the XYZ coordinate system to place the 3D models, and the center of your world is at 0, 0, 0 respectively. That is why when you import a 3D model, occasionally you can't see it because when you model the house, you did it far away from the 0, 0, 0 point.
There's more…
This distinctive feature is handy in reality when we have a heavy 3D scene. Let's pick up an example of a housing estate; however, we now have 10 different houses, and we are having difficulties importing them in Lumion. A workaround for this is instead of exporting the entire scene, we can export the 10 houses individually and assemble them in Lumion. But how do you know where to put everything back? The coordinate system can be really useful in a situation like this.
First, make a habit of modeling the building or whatever you want at the 0, 0, 0 coordinates in your 3D modeling package. Second, create a group for every single 3D model you want to export, and after that, check the coordinates for those groups on the 3D modeling package. Third, move all the groups to the center point, or in other words, to the 0, 0, 0 coordinates and export them. Fourth, while importing the 3D models into Lumion, you already know where these are supposed to be and, using the coordinate system, you can move each house to the correct place.