Interface & Navigation

Modus 2.0: Basic Controls Guide

This guide covers the fundamental controls and interface elements within Modus 2.0, helping you navigate your virtual spaces and manipulate objects effectively.

Launcher and Initial Setup

Upon downloading and logging into the Modus 2.0 beta with your credentials, the launcher will open. You may need to download some DLCs first, indicated by a status bar.

• Settings Section: Before diving into a session, it's recommended to visit the settings section within the launcher.

  • Project Defaults: Here, you can set your default units (e.g., feet/inches) and how they are displayed (fractions or decimals).

  • Line Drawings & 360 Images: You can upload your company logo for line drawings and 360 images. For line drawings, you can also change the PDF paper size and input company information. For 360s, you can add a logo URL, show the workspace title, and display the logo on every 360 image taken.

• Launching a Session: To start your first session, click the default session button or use the red quick launch button. You can also configure and change the name of the session.

In-Session UI and Navigation

Once Modus 2.0 boots up into a session, you'll see a space with four walls, a floor, and a ceiling.

• UI Scale & Quality:

  • UI Scale: Adjust the UI scale in settings to make it comfortable for your workflow.

  • Quality Slider: Use the quality slider to adjust the frames per second (FPS) and overall visual quality. This can be brought up or down. For high-level lighting, you may need to add lights to illuminate the space and increase the quality during rendering.

• Navigation Modes:

  • Look-around Mode: Hold the right-click button to enter look-around mode, which hides the UI. You can also toggle Look-around Mode by pressing M

  • Movement: While in look-around mode, use WASD to move around the space. You can fly outside the walls and easily fly back in.

Space and Architectural Elements

You can customize the dimensions and appearance of your room.

• Project Dimensions: Go to Project to change the dimensions of your space. Move your cursor out into the menu area when changing dimensions.

• Wall, Ceiling & Floor Customization:

  • Select Wall: Left-click on an element to select it.

  • Multi-Select: Press and hold Ctrl and left-click to select multiple elements.

  • Properties Panel: change the material color or type, you can also toggle trim on or off

Object Manipulation

Modus 2.0 provides various tools and hotkeys for moving, resizing, and rotating objects.

• Dragging Objects: Drag and drop objects from the object library into your space.

• Hotkeys for Tools:

  • W: Axis Movement tool.

  • E: Resize tool.

  • R: Rotate tool.

  • You can also click on the tools directly in the UI.

• Rotation: Use your scroll wheel to rotate an object after placing it.

• Properties Panel: Adjust specific object properties like size (e.g., 70-inch TV screen), height (e.g., lens height of a video bar), or material (e.g., dark oak wood, black powder coat frame for tables) in the properties panel.

• Duplication:

  • Alt + Left-Click Drag: Press and hold Alt and left-click to drag out a copy of an object.

  • Alt + Axis-Locked Movement: if you press and hold Alt and drag on your axis-locked movement arrow, it will create a copy locked onto that specific axis, simplifying spacing for items like lights.

• Snapping and Alignment:

  • Snapping: Objects can snap between the middle and the edge of a wall.

  • Disable Snapping: You can disable snapping altogether from the menu or turn on individual axes via toggles.

• Undo/Redo: Use Ctrl + Z to undo an action.

Specialized Objects and Visualizations

• Media Content: Control content displayed on screens using the media tab (e.g., Teams gallery). You can also set dual screen setups (e.g., left and right displays for Microsoft Teams).

• Lighting:

  • Adding Lights: Search for "lighting" or use filters to find light fixtures like "drop ceiling LED".

  • Resizing Lights: In resize mode, you can stretch light tiles.

  • Illumination: Increase the all lights slider or control individual lights to adjust illumination for renders. You can also adjust attenuation and ambient light.

• Audio/Video Visualizations:

  • Field of View (FoV): Turn on the field of view indicator for video bars or cameras to visualize the capture range

  • Microphone Pickup Pattern: For microphones, turn on auto coverage mode or show mic pattern to visualize the pickup range.

  • Design Assistants: Turn on features like "putting a head in a seat" or to visualize participant sight lines.

Floor Plan Editor and Reference Images

For building spaces based on existing documentation, use the floor plan editor and reference image object.

• Creating a Space from Floor Plan:

  • Go to File and select Create a space.

  • Choose Complex to start with an empty space.

• Importing Reference Images:

  • In the floor plan editor, go to Reference and select an image.

  • Modus will create a copy of the image and place it in the project folder.

  • Supported Formats: Import PNGs, JPGs, and JPEGs. PDFs are not supported; you'll need to take a screenshot and save it as a photo format.

  • Transparency: Adjust the transparency of the reference image.

  • Recalibrate Mode: Draw a line on the image and input a known measurement (e.g., 8000 mm) to calibrate the scale. You can recalibrate if needed.

• Drawing Walls:

  • Snapping Options: Adjust the snapping increments for wall drawing (e.g., 1 inch for more accuracy).

  • Drawing Walls: Press and hold the left mouse button to draw a wall.

  • Attached Walls: Press and hold Ctrl, then click and drag off an end node of an existing wall to create an attached wall.

  • Aligning Walls: Move walls to line them up with your imported floor plan. The blue inside edge indicates inside measurements.

  • Non-Rectangular Rooms: You can trace any shape; it doesn't have to be a rectangle.

  • Saving and Opening in Modus: After tracing the outside walls, hit Save and then Open in Modus to bring your created space into the software.

• Using Reference Images in Modus:

  • Add Reference Image Object: Pull in the reference image object.

  • Select Drawing: In properties, select your floor plan image.

  • Fade/Invert: Fade out the image or invert its color for readability.

  • Scaling: Use a scale line to match the image to your room's dimensions or match the exterior walls with the image

  • Elevation Drawings: For elevation drawings, place a reference image on a wall. Use an object with a known dimension (like a floating shelf) to scale the elevation accurately. Line up the object to match a dimension on the drawing (e.g., 48 inches). Then align the image's floor level to your room's floor level.