look and share

This page covers what a finished model looks like and where it goes: its materials and light, content painted on it live, the files it exports, a view on your phone, and Gaussian splat scenes as a backdrop.

materials

Every part of a model is a component with a material. Select one and open Properties: Material lists the metals and gems (see jewellery), and Colour shows a swatch. A material sets how the part looks, and for metals and stones what it weighs.

For interiors and products there are look presets: plaster, painted wood, oak, linen, velvet, clear glass and brass. Ask the modeler for one by name, or for a custom finish: colour, metalness, roughness, opacity, glass-like transmission, clearcoat and sheen.

colour from a parameter

A colour can be a text parameter instead of a fixed value. The leather belt has one named leather holding #17130f; type #5a3420 into its field on the card, or in Parameters, and the strap turns tan. A text parameter with a list of options becomes a dropdown instead. Wire a text node into the field and another node can recolour the model.

clear and see-through parts

A model you reference (a GLB, or another model) keeps its see-through materials: a clear resin case still shows the board inside. They are drawn as their own group so the solid parts around them stay solid, and exports carry them.

lighting

Models are lit by a Studio rig by default: a soft room and one key light, so metals don't go black. A model that has its own lights (sun, point, spot, area) or a sky or environment image gets a toggle in the editor's view controls: Scene lighting shows the model with its own lights and Studio lighting returns to the default. Stills, thumbnails and the card use Studio unless a render asks for the scene's lights. GLB exports carry the model's lights and saved views.

live textures

A surface can show a node that keeps changing. A sandbox, an animation node or an image composer on the same canvas can paint a part's material or fill an image panel; the model redraws it about once a second. Animations paint at up to 30 frames a second, at most 1024 px on the long side; a composer paints at most 2048 px.

Ask the modeler: "use the animation node as the texture of the screen". The surface needs UV coordinates, which mesh.quad and imported GLBs have; a plain mesh.primitive has none.

render shader

A still or video render from Animate mode (see assembly and motion) can be stylised: a limited palette of 2 to 16 colours, an art pixel size, dot or Bayer dithering, and ink outlines. It applies when a render is made, so the editor shows the plain scene; judge it from a PNG still. Ask the modeler to set it on the render.

exports

The header's Export menu lists every declared file, with Export all when there are several. They are also output ports on the card.

format	for	notes
STEP	CAD and machining	exact solids only
STL · OBJ	printing, other tools	one mesh
3MF	colour printing	one part per colour, so a slicer can assign filaments
GLB	web, other nodes, AR	compressed; materials, lights and saved views included
PNG	a still	the viewport's look

A GLB uses mm and Z up. For a web app that expects glTF's own frame (metres, Y up), ask for that frame on the export.

view it on a phone

On an iPhone or Android phone the node shows a snapshot and a View in AR button instead of the editor. It uses the model's first GLB export, so export a GLB from a desktop first; until then the card says "export a GLB on desktop to view in AR".

• iPhone: the GLB is converted in the browser and opens in AR Quick Look. Colours are baked into materials.
• Android: a converted copy opens in Scene Viewer.
• iPads and desktops get the full editor.

The model appears at its real size, on a surface you find with the camera.

gaussian splats

A Gaussian splat is a scan of a place or object, drawn as points of light. Add a splat file (.sog, .spz, .splat, .ksplat, or a splat .ply) to the canvas, or paste a SuperSplat link, and reference it from a model. It sits in the scene and in renders as a backdrop.

• Uploads over 95 MB are refused; large .ply captures are compressed in your browser first.
• A splat is a capture at an arbitrary scale. Set Scale (mm per file unit) on the reference in Properties to match your model.
• It can't be picked or measured, isn't in exports, and doesn't cast light on the parts. Path-traced renders draw it at the high raster quality.

limits & good to know

• AR needs a GLB export first, and a phone never evaluates the model.
• Live textures need the source node on the same canvas.
• Render shaders are applied only to renders, never to the editor.

related

3d models · cad · assembly and motion