cTOLO User Guide - Centive Solutions GmbH

cTOLO
Allowing professionals to step
inside their
3D models
user
guide
Thank you for using cTOLO. This guide will give you an introduction to the main features of
cTOLO and how to use them. This guide may be updated from time to time. You can find the
most recent version at our website: www.centivevr.com
This version was published on September 30, 2014.
© Centive Solutions GmbH
Contents
System requirements ................................................................................................................................................ 2
Installation and activation ........................................................................................................................................ 2
Accessing and hiding menus .................................................................................................................................. 3
Getting your 3D model inside cTOLO ................................................................................................................. 4
Importing a 3D model into cTOLO .................................................................................................................. 4
Working with cTOLO plugins ............................................................................................................................. 5
Saving and loading .ces files (cTOLO files)..................................................................................................... 6
Navigating inside cTOLO ......................................................................................................................................... 6
Changing views........................................................................................................................................................... 9
Changing rendering mode...................................................................................................................................... 9
Enter VR mode (Showroom mode) ..................................................................................................................... 11
Exiting and re-entering VR mode ................................................................................................................... 12
Setting origin in VR (moving the user in VR mode)................................................................................... 13
Navigating in VR mode and customizing controls .................................................................................... 13
Define and render points of interest (POI) ................................................................................................... 14
Set the height of the user ................................................................................................................................. 15
Toggle “ghost” mode (fly through objects) ................................................................................................. 15
Showing avatars ................................................................................................................................................... 15
Connecting VR glasses ........................................................................................................................................... 16
Connecting Oculus Rift DK2 for the first time ............................................................................................. 16
Connecting Oculus Rift DK2 to cTOLO ......................................................................................................... 17
Editing the environment around the model ..................................................................................................... 18
Adding a sky ......................................................................................................................................................... 18
Adding, moving and managing light sources ............................................................................................. 19
Enabling and disabling shadows .....................................................................................................................20
Change materials and material parameters................................................................................................. 21
Connecting to or creating an online session....................................................................................................22
Analysis and documentation tools ......................................................................................................................28
Using clipping planes .........................................................................................................................................29
Taking measurements ........................................................................................................................................29
Perform a clash analysis ....................................................................................................................................30
Making and managing annotations ...............................................................................................................33
Creating a meeting report ................................................................................................................................ 35
Taking screenshots in cTOLO ..........................................................................................................................36
General tips for increasing cTOLO performance ............................................................................................ 37
Simplify and reduce size of your 3D model ................................................................................................. 37
Reduce graphical settings in cTOLO ..............................................................................................................40
Checking for cTOLO updates ...............................................................................................................................40
If you are having issues with cTOLO ..................................................................................................................40
System requirements
Before you install cTOLO, make sure that your pc fulfills the system requirements. Otherwise it
may not be possible to install cTOLO or the software may not function properly. The updated
system requirements can be found on our website: www.centivevr.com/systemrequirements.php
Installation and activation
To install cTOLO, open the installer (with the file extension .msi) and follow the on-screen
instructions. Before installing the software, read the License Agreement carefully.
The first time you run cTOLO you will be asked to activate the software and enter your license key.
The activation step requires an internet connection. Click on “Enter License Number”:
Then enter your license key and your email address and click “Activate”. The email address is used
to inform you in case of changes to the software or the License Agreement.
2
Accessing and hiding menus
You can access certain features in more than one way. There are three general menus that can be
used to access features:
1. Ribbon on the top or on the side of the screen
You can hide the ribbon menus by clicking on the marked arrows in the below picture:
2. Right-click menu
You can access features that are often needed by right-clicking anywhere in the cTOLO window:
3
3. Left-click radial menu
Some features may also be accessed through the radial wheel which you open by left-clicking in
the cTOLO window and then clicking again on the menu icon to make the radial menu appear:
Getting your 3D model inside cTOLO
There are two ways of opening your 3D file to be used in cTOLO. The first alternative is to import
the 3D model and the second alternative is to use a plugin for any of the supported 3D design
software. You can also save a cTOLO project and then reopen the cTOLO file directly with all your
saved environments, materials and light settings. Below, the methods are described in greater
detail.
Importing a 3D model into cTOLO
If you have a model in any of the supported formats, then start cTOLO and click on the menu
option “Data Sources” and then on “Import” (you can also import models through the right-click
menu). Then, find the location of your file and click “Open”. The following formats are supported:






DWF (.dwf)
DWFx (.dwfx)
Collada (.dae)
Autodesk® FBX (.fbx)
SketchUp (.skp)
Wavefront Object (.obj)
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Note: there may be some discrepancies between how a model is displayed in the software used to
create the model and cTOLO depending on the exporter used within your modeling software. If you
experience such problems, a first step may be to export your 3D model into another supported 3D
model format to see whether the problems persist.
Working with cTOLO plugins
cTOLO has a number of optional plugins that can be used to connect your modeling software
directly to cTOLO. This way you can experience your 3D models by simply clicking on the cTOLO
plugin button inside your modeling software. You find the cTOLO in the plugin menu in
Autodesk® Revit, Autodesk® Inventor and SketchUpTM. The cTOLO plugins are installed when
installing cTOLO if you choose the “Complete” option during installation.
In Autodesk® Revit, the plugin is found in the “Add-Ins”-menu. Click on “(Re)Connect” to open
cTOLO and load your Revit project in cTOLO.
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In Autodesk® Inventor, the cTOLO plugin can be found in a ribbon named “cTOLO”. Click on
“Connect” to open your Inventor project in cTOLO.
In SketchUpTM you find the cTOLO plugin in “Plugins”. Note that you need to have cTOLO
running before you use the cTOLO SketchUpTM plugin.
Saving and loading .ces files (cTOLO files)
Once you have loaded a model into cTOLO and worked with it, you can save your project as a
.ces file so that you can continue working with in cTOLO later. In order to save a project in cTOLO,
go to the “Home”-tab in the ribbon menu and press “Save”:
If you later want to load an existing cTOLO project (with file extension .ces), go to the same menu
and click on “Load” and then localize your .ces project on your computer:
Navigating inside cTOLO
To move around your loaded 3D model, a mouse with a scroll-wheel is recommended. Note that
there is a “Showroom mode” for stepping inside the 3D model, the navigation in the “Showroom
mode” is different and will be explained later on.
To move the camera
In order to move the camera, click and hold the scroll-wheel on your mouse and move the mouse
up, down or to the sides to change the position of the camera from which the 3D model is viewed
on the screen.
You can also move around freely in cTOLO by holding either the scroll-wheel and using the arrow
keys on the computer’s keyboard or pressing and holding the right mouse button and using the
arrow keys.
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To make the camera move faster, press and hold the shift-key on the keyboard while moving. If
you want to move slowly, press and hold the ctrl-key while moving.
To rotate the camera
In order to rotate the camera view in cTOLO, press and hold the right mouse button and move
the mouse up, down or to the sides to rotate the camera accordingly.
To zoom in and out
Scroll the mouse wheel up and down in order to zoom in and out respectively.
Selecting objects
To select an object, press and hold the ctrl-key on your keyboard and click on the object that you
want to select with your mouse. The object is highlighted:
Once an object is highlighted, you can left-click or right-click on the selected object to access the
menus to modify it.
Undo/redo action
When an action is performed, its effects can be reversed or reapplied by using the “Undo” and
“Redo” buttons. They are located at the top right corner of the program window:
Moving objects (if applicable)
Some items or tools can be moved and rotated in cTOLO, such as lights, clipping planes,
annotations, the origin of the entire model etc. To translate an object, click on the coordinate axis
in which you want to move the object, and then drag it to its new position:
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In order to rotate an object, click inside the origin of the displayed coordinate system to change
into rotation mode:
When inside rotation mode, you click on the rings and drag the
Note: specific objects that form a part of the 3D model itself cannot be moved in cTOLO. If you wish
to move an object which is part of the 3D model, please do so in you modeling software used to
create the model, and then reload the modified model inside cTOLO either through one of the
plugins or by importing the model again.
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Changing views
cTOLO offers up to 4 multiple views on the same screen, that you can configure according to your
preferences. To change the number of views, go to the “View”-tab and then select the number of
views that you want. Each view can be independently modified.
Changing rendering mode
cTOLO comes with different alternatives for rendering scenes. You can choose between
conventional rendering and ray-tracing. You switch between rendering modes by selecting a
mode in the drop down menu in the top left corner of the view:
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Normal rendering is called “Classic”:
Ray-traced mode is called “Realistic” in the menu:
Note: Ray-tracing requires a compatible Nvidia® graphics card (please refer to system
requirements for more info: www.centivevr.com/systemrequirements.php). Ray-tracing mode is for
rendering still images and is not aimed to be used for real-time navigation. The quality of the raytraced image becomes better, the longer you leave your computer to render the image without
moving.
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Enter VR mode (Showroom mode)
In order to experience the 3D model, the user can step inside it in a VR mode. VR mode can be
used either directly on the computer screen or through optional VR glasses. For instruction how to
connect VR glasses, see the section “Connecting VR glasses”. To enter the VR mode, click on the
point where you want to enter, and press the Centive VR logo button in the radial menu:
Alternatively, you can also click the “To Showroom” button in the “Home”-tab on the ribbon
menu:
With the latter approach, the user is spawned at the origin of the 3D model by default. In order to
change the position of the user in VR mode, the VR origin needs to be set (see below).
When inside VR mode, the user explores the model through a first-person perspective without
distracting menus:
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Exiting and re-entering VR mode
In order to exit VR mode to make some changes, you press the “esc”-key on your keyboard. In
order to change to a different window, hold the “alt” key on your keyboard and press the “Tab”
key on your keyboard until your reach the “Centive Showroom” window:
Once you want to return to VR mode again, press on “Focus Showroom” to return to the same
location as before:
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If you want to close VR mode completely, press the “Close Showroom” button
Setting origin in VR (moving the user in VR mode)
If you are in VR mode and want to change the position of the user in VR mode, make sure that
you exit VR mode according to the above instructions. Then browse the model in the normal
cTOLO window and right-click on the location where you want to set the VR origin and select “Set
VR origin” in the menu that appears:
Then re-enter VR mode according to the instructions above with an updated position.
Navigating in VR mode and customizing controls
The navigation in VR mode is similar to that in first-person video games. The keys and mouse
directions (inverted or non-inverted mouse axes) can be defined by the user. To access the setting
to change the controls, go to the “Settings”-tab in the ribbon menu and click on the cog wheel
icon (note that VR mode must be closed in order for the cog wheel icon to be clickable, if it isn’t,
then click on “Close Showroom” in the “Home”-tab):
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This brings up the configuration screen where controls can be set:
Changing walking speed in VR mode
When you are moving in VR mode, you can adjust the speed with which you move directly by
using the W and S buttons (per default). The button configuration can be changed, see the above
section describing how to customize controls.
Define and render points of interest (POI)
Parts of the model that are of interest can be saved as points of interest (POI). POI can then be
accessed easily later. To create a POI, simply right-click where you want the POI to be located and
select “Point of Interest” and then “Create”:
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To access a point of interest, go to the “Point of Interest”-tab, select a POI from the list and
choose the action to take:
You can:



Move the POI the same way that lights are moved
Pre-render a ray-traced sphere around the POI. This takes some time (the higher the
quality, the longer the computations will take).
If the rendering of a POI has been done, you can select “View” in order to see the raytraced sphere around the POI. Note that you cannot move while viewing the ray-traced
sphere.
Set the height of the user
In VR mode, the height of the user can be adjusted to suit users of different height. To change the
height, open the “Settings”-tab and select modify the height parameter:
Toggle “ghost” mode (fly through objects)
You can choose whether you want to be able to move through objects and walls when inside VR
mode. When ghost mode is active, you can move through walls and objects. To make the
experience in VR mode more realistic, gravity and collisions can be applied so that the navigation
becomes more game-like (not possible to move through walls and objects). To enable/disable
ghost mode, go to the “Home”-tab and click on the “Ghost Mode” button (if the feature is
highlighted in the menu, it is enabled).
Showing avatars
To show where a user is located when in VR mode, the user can be drawn as a simple avatar to
indicate the position and in what direction the user in VR mode is looking. To enable avatars, go
to the “Home”-tab and click on “Show Avatars”.
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Connecting VR glasses
cTOLO has support for Oculus Rift developer kit 2 (DK2). If you want to try cTOLO with this
hardware, please read the documentation provided by Oculus VR Inc. including the safety
information before use. You need to install the necessary drivers and runtime as provided by
Oculus VR. Please follow the instructions in the Quick Start Guide that came with the Oculus Rift
DK2.
Connecting Oculus Rift DK2 for the first time
When connecting the Oculus Rift for the first time, there are a few settings that need to be verified
and possibly changed.
Check Oculus firmware version
If you are using the Oculus Rift DK2, make sure that the hardware has the updated hardware. You
can check your hardware version by opening the Oculus Configuration Utility and connect the
Oculus hardware to see what firmware version your Oculus Rift DK2 has.
If you have a version less than 2.11, you will need to upgrade the firmware. To do so, please
download the latest version from the Developer Section of the Oculus VR website:
https://developer.oculusvr.com/ and follow the instructions.
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Put Oculus Rift DK2 in Extended mode
Make sure that the Oculus Rift DK2 is in “Extended” display mode. In order to put the Oculus in
extended display mode, open the Oculus configuration utility and select “Tools” and then “Rift
Display Mode” from the drop down menu. Make sure that the option “Extend Desktop to the
HMD” is selected and then press “Apply”.
Connecting Oculus Rift DK2 to cTOLO
1.
2.
3.
4.
Make sure that the Oculus Rift DK2 is correctly plugged into your PC.
Start cTOLO
Open the 3D model that you want to use
Then, click on the spot where you want to enter the model and click on the Centive VR
logo.
5. Put on the Oculus Rift DK2.
To exit the VR mode with Oculus Rift DK2 connected, press “Esc” on your keyboard and then press
“Close Showroom” as detailed previously.
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Editing the environment around the model
Adding a sky
There are two options for adding a sky to the open project. Either the sky can be simulated along
with a sun, or a sky map can be imported from a file. To add a sky, right-click in the cTOLO
window and select “Environment”:
For a simulated sky, click on “Create Simulated” to bring up the sky simulation menu on the right:
Here, you can choose the location, date and time to simulate the position of the sun. By
modifying the parameter “Sunlight intensity” the brightness of the sun can be modified. Clouds
can also be added by increasing the bar titled “Cloudiness”.
Note: Some parameter changes may require the sky to be “refreshed” before the changes become
visible. To refresh the sky, simply right-click in the window with the sky and move the mouse slightly.
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To import a sky map from a file, simply choose “Create Image Map” from the right-click menu.
Select the type of sky map that you want to use (hemisphere map, sphere map or cube map) and
then localize the image file(s) to use:
Adding, moving and managing light sources
In many situations, the sun light may not be sufficient to get enough light or the right type of light.
You can therefore add light sources of different kinds to the model to change its appearance. To
add a light source, right-click on the position where you want to add the light source and then
select “Light” and then the type of light you want to use from the list:
By selecting a light type, you bring up the light menu on the right side of the screen. Here, you
can change the color and intensity of the light:
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Editing and moving a light
In order to move or edit a light, select the light in question by clicking on the symbol of the light (if
you don’t see any icons, they may be disabled in the “Environment” tab in the ribbon menu)
All lights can also be localized from the ribbon menu:
Once the light has been selected, the position of the light can be changed by clicking on one of
the coordinate axes and then dragged with the mouse (see the section on moving objects for
more info).
Enabling and disabling shadows
To enable and change the quality of shadows, go to the “Settings”-tab to see and change the
settings for shadows. Note that shadows affect the performance, and if you are experiencing
performance issues, try lowering the quality of shadows and/or disabling them.
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Change materials and material parameters
In order to change textures or material parameters, select the object of interest, and then rightclick on the object and select “Material” and then “Edit”:
When selecting “Edit”, a material ribbon is opened on the right side of the screen. Here you can
add a texture from a file or modify material parameters such as color, transparency, and
reflectivity etc.:
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Connecting to or creating an online session
With cTOLO, you can create or connect to an online session for experiencing a 3D model
together with colleagues or clients from different geographic locations.
Note: In order to create an online session you need a full version of cTOLO. In order invite users
with the cTOLO Free Viewer to join the online session, you need to have one Viewer Slot for each
cTOLO Free Viewer that connects to the session.
Create an online session
1. First make sure that you have saved the project you want to share during the
collaboration session as a .ces file (see section “Saving and loading .ces files (cTOLO files)”
for more info).
2. Send the project to those who will join the online session (all session participants need to
have the same .ces project on their computers).
3. To create the session, click on the “Collaboration”-tab in the ribbon menu:
4. Fill in your name in the input field marked “Name” and then click on Create:
5. Locate the project file to be used for the session (the same that you have sent to the other
participants in advance) and click “Open”:
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6. Your session is now created and you can invite others to join by giving them the session
ID:
7. You, the creator of the online session, will now be the meeting leader, or guide. For more
information on what you can do during an online session, see the section “Working in an
online session” below.
Connect to an online session
Make sure that you have the .ces project in the same version as the person creating the session.
You will also need the Session ID that the person creating the session will communicate to you.
Once you have these, you are ready to connect to the session.
1.
Go to the “Collaboration”-tab in the ribbon menu:
2. Enter your name and the Session ID that you want to connect to:
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3. Then click Connect:
Disconnecting from an online session
Go to the “Collaboration”-tab in the ribbon menu and click on “Disconnect”.
Working in an online session
Chat feature
cTOLO contains a text-chat feature where connected meeting participants can communicate by
typing. The chat is located in the “Collaboration” tab in the ribbon menu:
Being the meeting guide
During the meeting, the user who created the session will be the guide controlling the meeting.
The guide can follow what the connected users are doing, what they are looking at and where
they are inside the model. The meeting guide can also move around the meeting participants
inside the model to show them areas of interest in the model to discuss. If avatars are used, the
location of the different meeting participants are seen inside the 3D model.
As the meeting guide, it is recommended to use “Multiple views” in order to better track what is
going on for the different users. In each view, the guide can select which users to follow and from
what angle.
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Force follow
If the guide wants to show something particular or for instance conduct a clash analysis, the guide
can choose to impose his view on all other meeting participants. To enable the forced view (if you
are the guide), go to the “Collaboration” tab in the ribbon menu and click on “Force cTOLO View”:
The other meeting participants will see a text saying “Guide View” and no longer be able to move
around freely:
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Highlight objects
The guide can highlight specific objects that the followers should pay attention to. To highlight an
object, the guide selects the object to highlight by pressing and holding “Ctrl” and then clicking on
the object in question. Once the object is selected, right click on it and select “Set Object To
Show”:
The object then shows up in a highlighted color for all users:
If a user is in VR mode without having the object in view, an arrow will appear pointing towards
the highlighted object:
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Set origin for all connected users
As an alternative to forcing users to follow the guide’s view, the guide can simply move all
connected users to a chosen location inside the model, but leave the meeting participants free to
move and explore the area themselves. To set the VR origin for all connected users, the guide
right clicks on the spot to which all users should be teleported and then selects “Gather VR users”:
Moving users independently
In some situations it may be useful for the guide to move connected users around in the model
independently. This is possible by clicking on the user to be moved and then dragging him/her to
the new location.
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Giving another cTOLO user the guide powers
Only one meeting participant can be the guide at any given time. However, the guide can at any
time give the guide powers to another connected user. To do this, go to the participants list
If the transaction of guide powers was successful, you should see that the other person got
“(Guide)” written after his/her name:
Note: Only a cTOLO user can be guide (users of cTOLO Viewer cannot be the guide)
Analysis and documentation tools
cTOLO contains a number of tools that can help analyze different aspects of the model and
document work in the model.
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Using clipping planes
Clipping planes can be used to focus visualization on interesting parts of models and cutting away
less important parts of the 3D model from view. To access clipping planes, go to the “Home”-tab
in the ribbon menu and click on “Set Clipping Plane”.
Then select “Enabled” and click on the “+” button to add one or several clipping planes. When
applying a clipping plane, the visual feedback is instantaneous, making it easy to position it
correctly. The intersection between the clipping plane and the 3D model are drawn in orange.
Multiple clipping planes can be used to cut away information in several directions.
Note: The default position of the clipping plane is at the origin of the model. If you do see the
coordinate axes of the clipping plane (which are used to move the plane), you can try to zoom out
of the model to localize it.
To remove a clipping plane, simply press the “-“-button or select “Disabled” to return to a normal
view without clipping planes.
Taking measurements
cTOLO contains tools to make distance measurements in 3D models. To access the measurement
tool, go to the “Home”-tab and click on “Measurement Tool”:
You can then choose to use the

Free measurement tool where you define two points in the model by clicking and then get
the distance between the two selected points.
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

The Perpendicular measurement tool where you click on a surface and then choose in
which direction you wish to take the measurement. The tool than computes to first
collision in that direction and gives the measurement value for that point. This feature is
the most useful when it comes to measuring the distance from floor to ceiling or the
distance between walls for instance.
Thickness tool, where the thickness of an object is measured.
Perform a clash analysis
cTOLO can find clashes between objects defined in a 3D model to help identify potential
problems in the model. To access the clash analysis tool, go to the “Home”-tab and select
“Collision Analysis”:
This opens up the collision analysis menu on the right side of the screen. For a comfortable
working experience in clash analysis mode, it is recommended to resize the windows and place
them side by side. Press the “+”-button under the “Tests” section to create a new test. You can
rename the test if you want to. You can also enter the names of participants (optional) if you later
want to assign specific clashes to the responsible people. Mark the test that you want to launch by
clicking on it to highlight it, and then click “Go”:
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Then, define the objects or materials between which you want to perform the clash analysis by
checking the appropriate boxes. To switch between an object hierarchy and defined materials for
selecting objects to analyze press the two icons above the “Compute”-button. The names of
objects and materials rely on how they are named in the 3D model. If the names are not intuitively
chosen you can highlight the selected objects by clicking in the marking pen button in the below
figure.
Highlight the selected
object from the object
list(s).
Change between object
and material hierarchy in
the collision list
Once you have selected collision groups, press the “Compute”-button to launch the search for
collisions between chosen collision groups. The visualization options can be chosen in the
“Highlight” section:
Highlight selected objects
Show wireframe view
in the collision list
Highlight clashing object
Highlight all objects in the
from collision group 1
collision list
Highlight clashing object
from collision group 2
Highlight points of contact
between colliding objects
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If there are one or more collisions these will be listed in the “Collisions” list. Click on the collisions
to see them visualized (according to the selected visualization settings). It is often useful to review
collisions in 4-view mode as you can then get a good overview of where the clashes are located
inside the model:
List of detected collisions
You can save all relevant crashes in a report for use later by checking the checkbox “Report”. You
can add a screenshot associated with a clash by clicking the camera symbol in the bottom of the
clash window, once the screenshot has been taken a camera symbol appears at the
corresponding clash in the clash list. You can also name the clash by clicking the name column in
the clash list. You can add a comment to the clash in question by typing in your remarks in the
text field above the “+ Report” button. Once all relevant clashes have been reviewed and you
have decided to add them to the report, press the button marked “+ Report”.
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Check collision to later
include it in report
Add comment to the
selected clash
Add screenshot of selected clash
Add selected clash(es) to
report
To exit the collision analysis mode, simply close the collision window above.
Making and managing annotations
You can add text at locations of your choice in cTOLO to mark areas that need attention for
instance. The simplest way to add an annotation is to navigate to the location where you want to
place the annotation. Then right-click and select “Annotation”:
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Then a ribbon on the right will open where you can type in the text you want to display. It is also
possible to change color and size of the text so that it becomes clearly visible:
Annotations can also be moved and rotated in the same way as light sources (see that section for
more information).
To manage existing annotations, go to the “Annotations”-tab. Here you can see all your saved
annotations listed. Select the annotation of interest and click:



“Edit” to bring up the side-ribbon where you can edit size, text, color, position and
rotation of the annotation in question
“Go To” to move to the location of the selected annotation
“Delete” to delete the selected annotation
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Creating a meeting report
cTOLO offers the possibility to create a report containing information about clashes and stored
Views with comments. If you are in an online session, the chat can also be included in the report.
For more information on how to add clashes to the report, please see the Clash Analysis section.
To store a view in the report, click on the “Report View” button in the “Home” tab in the ribbon
menu. In the window that opens you can add a name to the view as well as a remark. Once you
are done, click on the “Add” button:
To manage the content to go into the report, you can review all stored information in the “Report
Manager”. You access it through the “Home” tab in the ribbon menu by clicking on “Report
Manager”:
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Here you can choose to
include whole groups of
report items such as
clashes, saved views with
comments, chats (if in
online session).
Here you can review each
individual item in the
selected group above and
choose whether or not to
include it in the report
This opens up a new window in which you can review content and define the content to be
included in the report. All items with checked checkboxes in the “Include” column will be included
in the report. Once you have reviewed and decided on what to include, press “OK”:
To generate the report, press the “Generate Report” button in the “Home” tab of the ribbon
menu:
Choose a name and where to save the report. Once finished the generated report will be opened
so that you can review it directly in case some changes are needed.
Taking screenshots in cTOLO
Screenshots can be either saved the clipboard or saved as files on the computer if you don’t want
to generate a meeting report. To take a screenshot, position the camera so that the see what you
want to capture on your screen. Then go to the “Home”-tab and click on either “Save” to save the
snapshot on your hardware or on “Clipboard” to copy the snapshot to the clipboard so that you
can paste it in another program.
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It is also possible to take screenshots when inside VR mode. The default key for taking a snapshot
in VR is “Spacebar” (the button configuration can be changed in the settings menu). When you
take a snapshot in VR mode, you will see a message confirming that the snapshot has been
stored:
You can set the location where to store snapshots by going to “Settings” in the ribbon menu (the
default is to store snapshots in a folder on your desktop named “Snapshots cTOLO” :
General tips for increasing cTOLO performance
3D models are often complex and they can therefore be very demanding in terms of hardware to
get good rendering performance and a comfortable frame rate. If you experience that navigation
inside your 3D model is slow, there are a few tricks you can try to make the 3D model in question
less demanding to render.
Simplify and reduce size of your 3D model
You can try to reduce the level of detail inside your 3D model before you export it for use with
cTOLO. How to do this depends on the software you use to edit your 3D model.
If you are working in Autodesk® Revit, you can disable objects in the “Visibility/Graphics
Overrides” in the 3D view in Revit to make your model lighter. To access “Visibility/Graphics
Overrides”, go into the 3D View in the “View” ribbon in Revit. Then locate the option
“Visibility/Graphics Overrides” in the menu on the left side of the Revit window:
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Click on “Edit” which brings up a menu where you can disable objects that you don’t need for the
visualization inside cTOLO:
If you are interested to review only a part of your model in VR, then temporarily disable the parts
of the model that are not interesting for the moment by defining a “Section Box” inside Revit,
before opening the model in cTOLO. This option greatly reduces the complexity of the model and
will help increase performance in cTOLO. To do so, make sure that the box “Section Box” is
checked. You should then see a box surrounding your 3D model:
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Move the edges of the “Section Box” to cut away parts of the model that you are not interested in
visualizing in cTOLO at the moment. Once you are done, you will have a smaller 3D model, which
will be less demanding to render:
You can now send the part of the model which is inside the “Section Box” with cTOLO through the
cTOLO plugin.
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Reduce graphical settings in cTOLO
You can also try to decrease the graphics setting in cTOLO to increase performance. You can
lower shadow quality or disable shadows altogether in the “Settings” tab in the ribbon menu. In
the same menu you can also change the VR quality to increase performance.
You can also disable “Avatars” in cTOLO to increase performance if needed. This is done in the
“Home” tab of the ribbon menu:
Checking for cTOLO updates
Updates and fixes for cTOLO are released on a regular basis. To check if your cTOLO software is
up to date, click on the Centive VR logo located in the top right corner of the cTOLO window and
select “Check for updates”.
If updates are available, you will be asked to download and install the new version of the software.
If you are having issues with cTOLO
Please always send crash reports when requested to so. This helps us locate the issue and address
it faster. If you have feedback or suggestions, don’t hesitate to contact us through the software’s
feedback function or by contacting your reseller or us directly through our website:
www.centivevr.com
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