Accel VR 2021.1 X5

The Bookmarks allow you to run and combine different configuration options.

The Timelines allow you to animate your model with different data prepared in advance in Patchwork 3D.

Icon	Navigation mode	Description
	Go to start	Starts the animation in reverse mode.
	Play	Plays the animation.
	Pause	Pauses the animation.
	Stop	Stops the animation.
	Loop	Repeats the animation in a loop.

It is also possible to control the animation with the cursor.

In this section you can position, resize, and configure the instance of your product in the 3D View with the X, Y, Z axes.

The Transformation accordion menu

This section allows you to display camera bookmarks and, add new ones by clicking on this icon . You can also edit each camera bookmark you have created in Accel VR by renaming them and changing their position.

The Cameras accordion menu with a camera bookmark created by the user.

The clipping planes plugin allows you to section the object of the scene in a pre-designated plane to see its interior. Active clipping planes are visible in all open View and will clip through all products.

With the accordion menu  you can directly:

Click on this icon if you need to refine the settings of the clipping planes: grid steps, color, thickness, etc...

Clipping planes window

For more information, please refer to the Clipping planes (Editor) chapter in the Patchwork 3D documentation. Accel VR excludes by default the label with the title NoClip.

You can set the horizontal spacing (Grid horizontal step) and the vertical of the grid (Grid vertical step) by entering values or using the up and down arrows on the keyboard.

Accel VR Pilot allows you to manage and display three clipping planes simultaneously.

Check Remain active when leaving interaction if you plan to combine the use of clipping planes with other interactions.

However, you can exclude certain surfaces from the clipping planes by entering in the Excluded surfaces tags field the surface tag you want to exclude. If you have several surfaces to exclude use semicolons between each tag.

You can choose the color of the slicing-edge and modify the Slice thickness of the line by entering a numerical value, or by using the up and down arrows of the keyboard.

 Selects a point of the surface in which the clipping plane passes through the surface that you want to section.

Clipping planes example with 1 section

Clipping planes example with 2 sections

The interest point plugin allows you to point an area that you need to focus on like a pointer during a slide presentation.

You can directly choose the color of the pointer by collapsing the accordion menu or by clicking on this icon .

The Measuring Tools shows the distance between two points that you have chosen. This distance between these two points may thus be represented visually in the active view.

With the accordion menu  you can directly:

Measure a length

Calculate angles

The option Compute angle allows you to display the value of an angle between two segments. To measure an angle, do the following:

In case you realize that you need to change the position of a point, instead of redoing the whole measurement procedure you can change its position individually. To do this click on this icon and select the point you want to change with the eyedropper. You can repeat the measurement as many times as you want. The lengths and angle ABC will automatically update.

The  Measure tool management window gives you the following information:

The spotlight allows you to illuminate your model.

With the accordion menu  you can directly:

Please find below the spotlight settings available from this icon .

You can enable or disable the Spotlight, adjust its intensity with the slider, and choose the color of the lighting. You can also adjust the intensity of the light reflection (Specular intensity). The more the cursor moves to the right, the more the setting is magnified.

The snapshot plugin allows you to snapshot a scene in VR according to the operator's point of view.

You can directly capture the viewport by clicking on the Snapshot button in the accordion menu .

Click this icon to select the folder in which the snapshots will be saved or to set the dimensions of the snapshots while the Snapshot FOV sets the point of view angle.

The mannequin allows you to simulate and see the movements of your body in a 3D environment.

You can directly access its configuration by clicking on this icon or on the Advanced system settings from the accordion menu .

In the Advanced system settings, you can

Vive Trackers configuration:

How to use the mannequin in Accel VR:

The installation of the mannequin in Accel VR is carried out in 2 steps.

Size calibration (mannequin size)

Vive tracker calibration

You can now use the Mannequin tool.

Turntables simulate the rotation of one or more products on a turntable. For example, they make it possible to visually compare several configurations of the same product from different angles.

In the accordion menu  you can directly control turntables by selecting the rotation direction (clockwise and counterclockwise) or pausing the animation.  It is also possible to change the rotation speed with the dedicated slider Speed (rpm).

You can also adjust the Product Spacing from this icon .

In the Turntables window, adjust the quantities + and - of the products you want to add to the scene, then select the Product Spacing and to finish click on the Start button to begin the turntable(s).

The Links plugin allows you to link a tracker to one or more products. With this feature, you can imagine moving a product naturally according to the movements of your members for example.

You can select and configure the trackers listed in the Trackers box by expanding the accordion menu or by clicking on this icon .

Follow these steps to link a tracker to one or more products.

At any time you can break the link from the tracker to the product by clicking on this icon . Use the translation gizmos and rotation if you need to change the reference position of your link.

The Product Mesh Collider is used to display the intersections between products when they collide.

When the Include avatars in the A group box is ticked, the avatars (head, controllers, hands) are included in group A for the calculation of collisions.

When the Product Mesh Collider is activated (Activate) you can set the collision behavior. The algorithm used requires dividing the products of the scene into two groups A and B. For each product, the collisions with all the products of the other group will be calculated. Collisions between two products of the same group are not calculated.

Here the Product Mesh Collider is set up with a red intersection using the intersection algorithm Volumes.

Here's the result.

This section allows you to configure features you desire to render in your immersive system.

Icon	Action	Description
	Hide rendering window units	Hides the window of each rendering unit (gray icon) to configure their graphics card for example. Note The window for each rendering unit is displayed by default.
	Unit windows always on top	Keeps the windows of the rendering unit in the foreground among all the windows of the Microsoft Windows® operating system. Note Disabled by default.
	Eye	If the display of the eyes is reversed by a projector (frequent with certain stereoscopic configurations), click on to switch between the left and right displays. Note Disabled by default.

Please find below the window of the Advanced system settings available from this icon .

Depending on your needs you can select or deselect the settings below to improve the rendering performance of render units:

Accel VR can automatically display the available windows of the shuttle over the network.

Click on this icon to choose each window you want to use. The icon of the selected window turns orange to inform the user that the window has been added to the list. The question mark then disappears. You can now close the window of the Advanced system settings.

Back in the accordion menu titled Windows, you will then see a brief description of the window (its IP and name) that you just added.

This section displays the status of the added peers.

Please find below the window of the Advanced system settings available from this icon .

Accel VR can automatically display available peers over the network.

You can also manually add a peer that is on a remote network by clicking and by entering its IP address and the port.

We recommend that you choose a different color for the identification of each peer.

Click on this icon to choose each pair you want to use. The icon of the selected window turns orange to inform the user that the window has been added to the list. The question mark then disappears. You can now close the window of the Advanced system settings.

Back in the accordion menu titled Peers, you will then see a brief description of the peer (his IP and name) that you just added.

From the accordion menu you can activate the zSpace or Invert eyes to swap the display from left eye to right in the event that your views rendered by your glasses are reversed for each eye. This setting is very useful with some stereoscopic setups that invert the display.

To improve rendering performance in the Accel VR viewport, you can select/deselect the following renderings: Backgrounds, Mirrors, and Overlays. The configuration is accessible from this icon .

From the accordion menu you can optimize the rendering by checking or unchecking the parameters below:

From this icon you will find the above rendering parameters as well as the operating status, model, and manufacturer of the device, plus the following parameters.

The Rendering Mode allows you to select the appearance of your product:

The Eye separation is initialized with the default value of the headset, however, this value can be modified in the dedicated field.

The HMD render scaling slider is useful for zooming out the world so that your model fits the dimensions of the screen of the VR headset.

From the accordion menu you can optimize the rendering by checking or unchecking the parameters below:

From this icon you will find the above rendering parameters as well as the operating status, model, and manufacturer of the device, plus the following parameters.

The VRPN device management allows you to add, configure, and delete a VRPN device.

Accel VR supports ART, VICON, and NaturalPoint tracking systems.

Accel VR Pilot establishes the link between the render units and the trackers, gamepads, etc ... The connection is made via a local server.

Install ART or VICON equipment according to the manufacturer's recommendations. Accel VR Pilot 2020.1 must be linked with the machine on which the VRPN server of ART or VICON is installed.

The important parameters to remember from a VRPN server are: its IP address, the main tracker name (in the case of tracked glasses), and its index.

The VRPN server must receive information from the tracker(s) (please refer to the manufacturer's user documentation).

3D glasses

To use peripherals allowing navigation in the 3D scene (Logitech® controllers, Xbox 360® controller for Windows®, etc.), simply connect them to the machine on which Accel VR Pilot 2020.1 is running and install the peripherals drivers. A space mouse may also be used too.

SpaceMouse® Pro

This icon has the same action as the button Open advanced config from the accordion menu . It opens the VRPN device management plugin.

VRPN Manager

VRPN Manager consists of two parts:

Please refer to the manufacturer documentation of the selected device to know the IP address of the Tracker Server. The following drop-down menu provides to Accel VR Pilot 2020.1 by VRPN protocol the current position of the tracked devices. The digit represents the sensor ID of ART tracking systems. It is normally worth 0 with Vicon systems.

Select the tracker orientation with the following arguments (Y_UP, Z_UP_X_LEFT, Z_UP_X_RIGHT, Z_UP_Y_LEFT, Z_UP_Y_RIGHT) depending on the manufacturer specifications. If the Y_UP convention is not used by default by the tracking system, data provided will be converted by the tracking framework.

If your VRPN device has an analog stick or buttons, the Analog-stick and Buttons boxes will allow you to configure them. Select the Use tracker server radio button if your device is communicating on the same tracking server configured earlier in the VRPN manager. If, on the contrary, the VRPN device does not have an analog stick and buttons such as tracked glasses, select None in both boxes.

In case your device does not communicate on the same tracking server, you then need to associate an analog stick or buttons on a separate server. To do this select the button Use a separate server. Then enter the server address in the field Dedicated server.

The box Information / configuration allows you to adjust the horizontal orientation of the device and make adjustments regarding its positioning in space thanks to the fields X, Y, Z coordinates.

Expand the accordion menu   and then click the Correct trapezoid button to calibrate the projection areas of the CAVE.

See details in the Operating principles chapter to understand how Accel VR works with a CAVE.

In the toolbar click on this icon to display the rendering in your immersive system.

Then click Start warping button.

A test pattern is projected by all render units in the system.

Sample test pattern projected during the calibration procedure for the projection areas.

On each unit, proceed as below (assuming you will use a gamepad for the calibration process):

Press A button of the gamepad to configure the bottom edge. Using the joystick or the paddle (for the pixel precision) of the gamepad, reposition this edge so that its projection overlaps the bottom of the corresponding screen. Then press the B button on the gamepad to select the lower right corner and repeat the setting to place the corner so that its projection overlaps the bottom right of the corresponding screen.

Do this for all corners and edges that require adjustment in the order of the buttons shown in the table below.

Positioning the upper right corner with the joystick of the gamepad.

When an image is rendered, Accel VR will distort it to compensate for the keystone projection resulting from the position of the projector. The model’s normal proportions will be restored in the projection areas.

Areas outside of the test pattern will always be displayed in black to restrict the projection to the intended screen.

In an immersive system using walls, the observer is often unaware of the edges of the observation area and of the placement of the screens. To prevent the observer from running into the screens, a proximity warning is available.

With the accordion menu you can directly activate or deactivate the proximity warning option.

It is possible to modify the default settings of the proximity alert such as its Minimum distance, its Maximum distance or its Color by clicking on this icon .

The proximity warning colors the display and shows a grid with the color of your choice whenever an obstacle (the screen) is detected within a defined zone around the observer's head (Minimum distance and Maximum distance). This zone is defined in terms of the distance from the center of the observer's head.

You can also force its display (Force to maximum) in case the grid does not appear.

The CAD Tools plugin allows you to import a 3D model from third-party CAD software and interact in VR directly with it by distorting it, rotating it, moving it, or adding the curves. The changes can then be imported back into third-party CAD software.

Environment management

Choose here the folder where materials are located in order to display them in the interactive menu.

Common parts management

This tab allows you to choose the folder where common parts are located in order to display them in the interactive menu. See details in the Common parts import section.

Materials management

Choose here the folder where the materials are located in order to display them in the interactive menu.

You can also choose to change the Selection frame color in the interactive menu or to modify the Selection frame width of images.

Refer to the Material assignment paragraph for more information.

Image management

This tab allows you to choose the folder where pictures are located to display them in the interactive menu.

You can also choose to change the Border color and the Border thickness of images.

Data management

The operating mode is similar to the Timelines section. You can indeed snapshot several previews of your model by clicking on the button to export them to your 3D software. The minus button deletes a snapshot.

Options tab

Choose in this tab the units you want to use to move a part. For example, the Move part interactive menu has units for translating a surface. The Options tab allows you to precisely set the translation units and rotation factors to move a part.