INSTRUCTIONS FOR USING VIRTUAL GALLERIE / VG CURATOR



INSTRUCTIONS FOR USING

VIRTUAL GALLERIE / VG CURATOR

NOTE: We only got the program in December. I’ve been trying to get this tutorial finished for February 3. I’ve got most of the basics down, but some of the more advanced features I don’t have quite figured out yet. Those are highlighted in yellow. If you want to play around with the program and let me know what you discover, that would be great!

PART ONE: GETTING STARTED

1) Open Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. (There should be an Apple version ready by February.)

2) Go to this site:



(Probably a good idea to bookmark it.)

3) You will get a log-in screen.

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Students: your Username is your MSU ID (your e-mail address to the left of the “@” sign). Your Password is your PID number (A letter followed by eight numbers, such as “Z12345678”.)

We may end up creating an additional Team account for each exhibit team, so all members can view and use the same gallery.

Staff: your Username is your MSU ID (your e-mail address to the left of the “@” sign). Your Password is “December7” (capital D, no space before the number).

You cannot change your username or password yourself. Only an Administrator can do that.

4) From there, you reach the Launch page.

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You can download the users’ manual, a handy reference.

Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click “Launch Virtual Gallerie Curator.”

NOTE: The first time you log on, or any time you log on from a computer lab, you may be requested to download Pulse Player. This program, which comes from the Virtual Gallerie server, enables the computer to display the gallery.

5) You should now be on the main Work Screen.

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If this is your first visit, it will prompt you to start a new gallery. If you’ve used the program before, it will prompt you with a list of your saved galleries (if any).

Click “New Gallerie from scratch.” If that button is not visible on your screen, click the “File” button and select “New Gallerie from Scratch” from the drop-down menu.

ADDENDUM 2/12/09: To get a template with the MSU temporary gallery already laid out, click the “New” button, type in a file name, then click “Save.” Alternately, you can click File > New Gallerie.

6) The program will prompt you for a name for your gallery. Enter a name and press “Save.”

NOTE: It is not possible at this time to delete old galleries. ADDENDUM 2/12/09: You can overwrite an old gallery by saving a new gallery with the same name.

PART TWO: CREATING A SPACE

7) The program will prompt you for the dimensions of your gallery.

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Enter the appropriate dimensions. NOTE: There is no way to change this once the gallery has been created, nor to add an adjoining room. Set your dimension to cover the largest dimensions of your real space, whether that’s a single room or an entire museum. Best to make it bigger than necessary, especially if you are dealing with an oddly-shaped room. You can add, delete and move walls later.

Be sure the box labeled “Draw Boundary Walls” is CHECKED.

Click “Create.”

8) You will now see a screen that looks something like this:

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The upper-left is your Gallery Window.

Below that is your Icon Tray.

The upper-right is your Info Pane.

In the lower-right is your Navigation.

HELPFUL HINT: Save your work often. All files are saved remotely on the Virtual Gallerie server. You never know when you might lose power, or your web connection, or some other gremlin will strike. There is no automatic back-up – it’s up to you to save your work.

“Save your work often” is just good, common sense, anyway.

THE ICON TRAY: VIEWS

The first three icons control your view into the gallery. The far-left button, the Main View, is the default. It gives a visitor’s-eye view of the gallery. (See image above.)

The second button is the bird’s-eye, or Top-Down view. It shows the entire gallery from overhead.

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(The red arrow indicates your position and the direction you are facing.)

The third button is the Doll House view, looking at the gallery from above, but at an angle.

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(The light “pole” in the middle of the room is your position. It is also the axis which the room turns around as you navigate.)

To move through the galleries, use your arrow keys.

Main View (visitors-eye view)

Up arrow: you walk forward

Down arrow: you step backwards

Right arrow: turn to the right

Left arrow: turn to the left

Shift + Up arrow: your head tilts up

Shift + Down arrow: your head tilts down

Shift + Right arrow: move to the right (sideways)

Shift + Left arrow: move to the left (sideways)

Top-Down View (bird’s eye view)

Up arrow: you (arrow) walk forward

Down arrow: you (arrow) step backwards

Right arrow: gallery rotates clockwise on your axis

Left arrow: gallery rotates counter-clockwise on your axis

Shift + Up arrow: zoom in

Shift + Down arrow: zoom out

Shift + Right arrow: you (arrow) move to the right (sideways)

Shift + Left arrow: you (arrow) move to the left (sideways)

Doll’s House View (3-D view)

Up arrow: you (pole) move forward

Down arrow: you (pole) step backwards

Right arrow: gallery rotates clockwise on your axis

Left arrow: gallery rotates counter-clockwise on your axis

Shift + Up arrow: zoom in

Shift + Down arrow: zoom out

Shift + Right arrow: you (pole) move to the right (sideways)

Shift + Left arrow: you (pole) move to the left (sideways)

Ctrl + Up arrow: gallery tilts forward (closer to bird’s eye view)

Ctrl + Down arrow: gallery tilts backwards (closer to visitor’s eye view)

Also, there’s a drop-down menu. My guess is that when you create walkthroughs, you indicate positions, and you can jump to specific positions. Haven’t played around with it enough to know, though.

PART THREE: MODIFYING YOUR SPACE

THE ICON TRAY: PARTITIONS

Walls which you place inside the empty gallery are called “partitions.” The exterior walls defining the gallery space, which we do not change, are called “walls.”

To add a partition:

Click on the first partition icon (“Standard 4-Surface Wall”), hold down your mouse button and drag the partition into the gallery. A partition will appear in your window. Move it to the desired location and release your mouse button. The partition is now placed.

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To move a partition:

You can fine-tune the location of a partition in three ways:

Click the partition. In the info pane (upper right), enter the exact location in the W-E box and N-S box and press Enter. Use the abbreviations “f” and “i” for feet and inches. You may enter fractions or decimals if necessary. If you enter measurements in metrics, use the appropriate abbreviation. The program will convert to feet and inches.

(You can measure location from the center of the partition, or from either edge. Change which spot you wish to measure from by clicking that spot on the partition.)

Or: Use the purple “Move” button below the lower-right corner of the window.

▪ Click the Move button.

▪ Then, click the partition you wish to move.

▪ Four colored arrows will appear below the partition:

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• Click and drag one of those arrows, and you can move the partition along that axis.

• Click and drag on the partition itself, and you can move it along both axes at once.

Or: Nudge it into place:

• Click the Move button

• Click on the partition

• Make sure NumLock is ON on your keyboard

• Use the 4, 8, 6 and 2 buttons to move the partition one inch at a time in one of the four cardinal directions.

To rotate a partition:

Similarly, you can rotate the partition so that it is not at right angles to the gallery’s outer walls. Again, there are three ways to do this.

Click the partition. (Click in the center if you wish to rotate about the center. Click to the left or the right if you wish to “swing” the partition as if on a hinge.)

In the info pane, enter the number of degrees in the “Rot” box and press Enter.

Or:

• Click the purple box labeled “Rot.”

• Click on the partition. A rotation circle will appear on the floor.

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• Again, can click the left or right ends of the partition to make it swing as if on a hinge.

• Click anywhere on the circle and drag the partition to the desired angle. (You can also click and drag on the partition itself, but be careful you don’t change your axis.)

Or:

• Click the purple box for Rotate.

• Click the partition

• Make sure NumLock is On

• Use the 4 and 6 keys on your keypad to nudge the rotation, one degree at a time.

To raise a partition:

You can also suspend partitions in the air. Again, three ways:

Click the partition, and enter the height you wish it to hang off the floor in the “Up” box. Press Enter.

Or: Click the purple “Up” button.

Click the partition. Again, arrows will appear.

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Click and drag said arrows to move partition up off the floor.

Or: Click the purple “up” button.

Click the partition.

Make sure NumLock on your keyboard is ON

Use the 8 and 2 keys to raise and lower the partition one inch at a time

NOTE: When you add a partition, it is by default the same height as your ceiling. You cannot lift a full-sized partition up – it would crash through your roof! You must first adjust the height of the partition so it is less than the height of your gallery ceilings. Then you can lift it up off the floor.

To change the dimensions of a partition:

Finally, you can change the dimensions (height, width and depth) of a partition, again in the same three ways:

Click on the partition. In the info pane, enter the desired dimensions and press Enter.

Or: Click on the desired button (H, W or D).

Click on the partition. Arrows will appear.

Width:

Click and drag to increase or decrease the size of the partition in that direction. (If you want to change the size in the other direction – for example, make the wall longer to the right rather than to the left – click the other end of the partition, and the arrows will move.)

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Height

To change height, click the H button. Arrows will appear at the top, allowing you to increase the height of the partition.

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If you click the bottom of the partition, arrows will appear at the bottom. This allows you to raise the partition off the floor while leaving the top of the partition at the same height. Good for hanging signage and such:

Depth

Adjusting depth using the purple buttons is a little bit different. If the partition is resting on the ground, then no arrows appear. Click on the partition and hold. Drag your mouse down, and the partition gets thicker. Drag it up, and the partition gets thinner.

If the partition is not resting on the floor, then arrows do appear:

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With arrows, it’s the same deal as above – click and drag to make the partition thicker or thinner. Note: you cannot make a Standard 4-Sided partition thinner than one inch.

Nudging

Same deal as before:

Click on the appropriate purple button.

Click on the partition.

Make sure NumLock is on

Use the keypad to change the selected dimension, one inch at a time.

Delete

To delete a partition (or anything), just click on the object, then press the Delete key on your keyboard. This removes it from the gallery, but not from the museum – the object remains available for you to reinstall.

If you click on an exterior wall, it will disappear, opening up the gallery to the great outdoors. A beautiful view, but perhaps not the best thing for conservation.

If you delete something by mistake, click on the Edit button, then select Undo.

Doorway: insert

To insert a doorway, click on the “Part” button in the upper right, then click on “Insert New Doorway.” The program will prompt you to click on a partition. Then drag your mouse to open up a doorway:

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To adjust the height of the doorway, the same rules apply. Click on the partition above the doorway. Then, either enter dimensions in the info pane; or click on the desired purple button, get the arrows, and then click-and-drag them; or use your keypad to nudge them. ADDENDUM 2/13: When entering numbers into the info pane, “H” defines the height of the transom, and “Up” defines how high off the floor the bottom of the transom rests.

You can cut doors into the exterior walls as well.

Doorway: delete

Deleting a doorway is a little bit trickier. Basically, when you create a doorway, you are splitting the partition into three separate but joined partitions. To delete a doorway, you have to recombine them into one partition. On the Part menu, click Remove Part and Combine, then click on the partition above the door opening. This will leave the wall or partition in place, but close up the hole.

Window: insert

This is a little cumbersome, but it can be done:

Create a door as above.

Create another partition, making it shorter than the doorway is tall.

In the Part menu, select Joint Two Partitions Together.

Click on one edge of the new partition, and then one edge of the door jamb, and the partitions will join.

Repeat for the other edge. (You may have to move around a bit to get a good angle for clicking.)

Window: sizing

Once the window exists, you can change its size the same as a door or partition. Click on the part of the partition you wish to adjust, and enter the dimensions in the Info Pane. Or, click on the appropriate purple button, click on the part of the partition you wish to change, and drag the arrows. Or, click on the purple button, click on the partition, and use your keypad to nudge it.

Window: delete

To delete a window, first delete the lower portion: click below the window, then press the Delete key on your keyboard.

You now have a doorway. Follow the instructions above for deleting a doorway, and you are back to a single solid partition.

OTHER PARTITION INFO:

There are a whole bunch of other options under the “Part” menu. For the purposes of this intro class, I don’t think we’ll be needing them. If I have time to play around and find something useful, I’ll add it in.

The second partition icon is “Standard 2-Surface Wall.” Everything operates the same, except you cannot change the thickness.

ADDENDUM 2/4/09: CURVED PARTITIONS

The good folks at Virtual Gallerie have given us two additional partition options. These are the two blue icons immediately to the right of the People icons.

The first is called Arc. It gives you a curved wall of a fixed depth. You can move it, rotate it and change the height just as you can any normal partition. However, you cannot change the depth / thickness. And you can only change the size by typing in the info pane.

Start Angle and End Angle tell you how much of a circle this describes. For example, “0” to “90” gives you one quarter of a circle. Radius tells you how big the circle is. Type in “12f,” and you’ll get a curved wall covering one quarter of a circle 24f in diameter.

The second new icon is called Arc With Inner Radius. This gives you a curved wall with a greater depth. Again, you can move, rotate and change height normally. You cannot change width and depth using the arrows, only the info pane.

To change the thickness, type different numbers into the Radius and Inner Radius boxes.

You can also have the inner wall and outer wall cover different parts of the circle. This will give you a wall with a combination of straight and curved lines.

THE ICON TRAY: BENCH

Works same way as partition:

Click on bench icon and hold mouse button.

Drag into window.

Release mouse button to place.

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To change location or dimension, use same procedures as with partitions. First, click on bench. Then, either enter figures directly into info pane; or click the appropriate purple button and drag arrows until you receive desired effect; or click on the purple button and then use the keypad to nudge it..

THE ICON TRAY: PEOPLE

Same as above. I notice men are 4 inches taller than women, but both are the same width and thickness. I guess all museum goers are just naturally svelte. And, yes, you can make truly monstrous people if you want. Even have them floating in the air. Very funny. Just don’t leave them in the gallery when it comes time to turn in your assignments.

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THE ICON TRAY: CASEWORK

In the vocabulary of the program:

A pedestal is the solid base of an exhibit case

A riser is a smaller base which the object rests on (optional)

A vitrine is the glass of the case (optional)

Next to the people icons, you’ll find five icons that allow you to install exhibit casework. The icons, from left to right, are:

Standard basic (a pedestal with a glass vitrine on top)

Standard round (NEW 2/4/09. Same as above, only round.)

Cabinet basic (a pedestal, then glass, then more cabinetry above)

Standard angled to wall (a shelf with an angled bottom)

Shelf

Wall cabinet basic (like a cabinet, only up against the wall)

Adding them to the gallery is the same as adding anything else from the icon tray: click on the icon then click in the gallery; or click-and-drag from the icon tray to the gallery.

The five types are illustrated below. (I painted the wall to make the cabinets stand out – more on that in a minute.)

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When you place things against the wall, horizontal lines appear that help you line everything up.

You can move cases and change their dimensions using the same procedures described for partitions.

There are a few things, however, that it seems you can only do from the info panel:

Auto Fit Pedestal – When you add a case, it will come in a default size. You may need to change the size of the case to suit the object(s). You can do that yourself, using one of the methods described before (enter values; click-and-drag; or nudge). Or Auto Fit Pedestal and the program will alter the case for you..

Auto Height Ped – Same as Auto Fit, except it adjusts the height.

Auto Up Dn Pedestal – TBD

Vitrine – click this button to make the glass appear or disappear

Vitrine Ht – changes the height of the vitrine. (When you use the purple buttons, the up/down arrows will change the height of the base, but not the height of the glass vitrine.)

Auto Fit Vitrine – Same as Auto Fit Pedestal, except it alters the size the the glass vitrine. Seems to be mostly useful if you’ve been messing around with the size, and want to quickly revert to the default.

Riser – inside each case there is a small pedestal. You can show or remove this. You can also set the dimensions.

Auto Ht Riser – Same as Auto Height Ped, except this is for the riser. Again, mostly useful for returning to the default setting.

When you’re working with a cabinet, you can change the height of the base and the height of the top independently. This in effect will make the vitrine taller or shorter, but you can also enter the dimension in the info panel.

With a cabinet, you can also make one or more sides of the vitrine solid, or remove them altogether. You’ll find it under Vit Sides. This option does not exist for the Standard Basic, Standard Angled to Wall, or Shelf. (Though you can just make a cabinet with a very thin top – minimum allowable Cab Top Ht is 1 inch – and achieve the same effect.)

You can also install a shelf inside a cabinet.

THE ICON TRAY: EXIT

Same deal. Click, drag, place, adjust dimensions.

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The exit sign only sticks out of the wall at a 90-degree angle. If you want an exit sign that lies flat against the wall, you’ll have to either import it as clip art, or create it as a label. See directions below.

THE ICON TRAY: PAINT PLANE

We’ll talk about this when we get to Signage.

THE ICON TRAY: COLORS AND TEXTURES

Immediately below the view icons, there’s a series of color icons. Use these to change the color or texture of walls, pedestals and risers.

It’s pretty simple – click on the color you want, then click on the plane (wall, partition, pedestal or riser) you wish to color.

You can also click on a color and drag it to the item you wish to color. However, the change does not become permanent until you release your mouse button. This allows you to quickly see what a new color will look like without actually having to do the change, then undo it if you don’t like it.

It would appear that all four sides of a pedestal must be the same color. With a partition, you can make each side a different color.

You can rapidly paint an entire gallery the same color by going to the Part menu, then choosing Part Paint Tools.

Adding / editing paint colors and textures

There are only 11 colors and textures in your icon tray. However, we are not limited. To add another color or texture, go to the Edit menu, then choose Edit Paint.

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In the Info Pane, you see two rows of swatches. The top row is textures. We’re probably not going to deal too much with textures in class—other than we use them to create signage—so I’m going to skip that for now. (If I have time, I’ll add it to the back of the tutorial.)

The second row are your colors. You can add a color, or edit an existing color.

To add a color:

Click Add From Color Picker. A new window will open:

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The default screen shows the red palette. To get to other color palettes, click on the rainbow bar.

When you see a color you like, click on it with your mouse. (Apparently, designers who know precisely the color they want can enter the values, but I don’t know enough about that to even pretend to guess.)

Go to the bottom of the screen and click “OK.” (On my browser, the OK button barely even appears. You may have to scroll down to find it, or shimmy your window up a bit to see it.)

You are now back at the Info Pane. Give the color a name. Click Apply, and the swatch now appears.

You can edit an existing paint color by going to the Edit menu, then Edit Paint, then clicking on the color swatch you wish to change. This will open the Color Picker Window. Follow the same steps as above. NOTE: when you click Apply, then everything in the gallery that was painted the original color will automatically change to the new color.

Ceiling / floor

To change the ceiling or floor, go to the Edit Menu, then select Edit Ceiling and Floor. Click on the swatches to see how the room would look. When you click DONE, your choices will be applied.

Murals

The program will only paint a solid color, with or without texture. If you want a mural, or some sort of floor treatment,

Make or find an image as a jpeg file.

Upload it as a 2D object (more on that below).

Load it into your gallery.

“Hang” it on a wall.

Change the dimensions in the info pane to suit your needs. (You cannot change the dimensions of objects by click-and-drag.)

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Note: for most dimensions, you must indicate a minimum of 1 inch. So if you are creating a floor treatment – a walk-on map, for instance – it will be at least 1 inch thick.

You can hang objects on your mural, but it appears you can’t cut a door into it.

A second way to do a mural is as a texture.

Create a JPEG file with your mural. NOTE: each dimension, measured in pixels, must be a power of 2 (i.e.: 2, 5, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 or 512. That’s the max, 512 pixels.)

In the File menu, select Upload Images

Select as your destination Textures: User

Browse to find your image. Upload.

Close the upload window.

Go to the Edit menu and elect Edit Paint

Select Add Texture File.

Select Browse Files From Web for Texture

You’ll get a list of images. Select the one you want.

Give the texture a name. Click Apply.

This texture will now appear in your icon tray. Click and drag it to a wall, and the entire wall will be covered with this image.

If you only want part of the wall to be covered, create a Paint Plane.

Click the last icon in your tray and drag it to your wall. You will see a black box.

Resize the box as you wish.

Click and drag the image from your icon tray. It will cover only the paint plane.

You can also put the mural on a partition (2-sided or 4-sided) and place it anywhere you want in the gallery.

PART FOUR: OBJECTS

OK, now the part you’ve all been waiting for – how to put objects in your exhibit. We’ll cover the following topics.

1) UPLOADING OBJECTS

2) COMMON WORKS

3) MAKING OBJECTS AVAILABLE (LOADING THEM INTO YOUR GALLERY)

4) PREPPING YOUR OBJECTS

5) PLACING OBJECTS IN GALLERY

6) MOVING OBJECTS AROUND

7) ADDING SIGNAGE

1) UPLOADING OBJECTS

Before you can play around with objects, you have to enter them into the program. We do this via Uploading.

Find a picture of the object – on the web, take a photo with a digital camera, scan it out of a book, draw it freehand and scan it, it doesn’t matter.

Save the image to your hard drive or other storage medium as a jpeg file.

Images should be no more than 512 pixels on a side.

Images files should be no more than 500 kb in size.

Record the object’s dimensions! You’re going to need this later.

In you gallery, click on the File menu, then Upload Images. You will get a new window.

Choose your destination. Objects are “Works.” Not sure what Textures and Frames are; will have to play around a bit to find out.

Click Browse and find your image file. (You can upload multiple images at once.)

Once you’ve found all your images, click Upload.

2) COMMON WORKS

The objects you upload are only available for you. The Administrators can upload objects for everyone to use.

3) MAKING OBJECTS AVAILABLE

OK, just because an object is in the program’s memory, doesn’t mean you can use it just yet. You now have to load it from the program into your museum.

Enter the File menu.

Choose Load Images.

There’s an option to Select Group that I don’t yet understand.

It will ask you to Select 2D Works or Select 3D Works. It doesn’t really matter – you can always change them later. But you’ll have less cleaning up to do if you load them in the right category first. (Paintings are generally considered 2D.)

Select your directory. You will see a button labeled Toggle Dir, with the legend “User / Common” next to it. The User directory are the images you just uploaded. The Common directory are the ones the Administrator uploaded. Choose the directory you want.

Select the items you want to load into your museum. You can choose Select All to get them all. Click Load Selected.

If you wish, you can go to the other Directory and load images from there as well.

When you’re finished, click Done.

All the objects you selected will now appear at the bottom of your screen. Think of this as your museum’s collections storage – the objects are available to go into the exhibit, but they are not there yet.

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You can only enter an object in your gallery once. You can’t have a whole army of Davids marching down the gallery unless you upload multiple copies, under different file names.

4) PREPPING YOUR OBJECTS

Before you can put objects in the gallery, you have to “prep” them first.

Click on the thumbnail of an object. It will appear in the Info Pane.

Enter the dimensions in inches. This is very important—otherwise, the program will create default dimensions. After typing every dimension, press Enter on your keyboard—otherwise, the program will not remember the dimensions.

NOTE: Dimensions must be entered every time you load objects into a gallery. This is annoying, and the company has been informed.

If you want to change an object from 2D to 3D (or vice versa), or do additional prep, click Edit Plus.

The first two buttons will allow you to toggle to a Wall Sculpture, a Floor Sculpture, or a Painting.

Then you can add a bunch of info on the object, most of which we probably won’t use in class, though Info Text might be a place to put label copy.

5) PLACING OBJECTS IN GALLERY

It’s pretty simple – just click-and-drag an object into the gallery. 2D objects can only go on walls or partitions. 3D objects will either go on the floor (if it’s marked as a Floor Sculpture) or on a wall / partition (if it’s marked as a Wall Sculpture).

Again, when you click on the object, the Info Pane opens. You can fine-tune the location by entering exact numbers in the boxes or by nudging.

Putting objects on pedestals

When you put a floor sculpture in your gallery, you can, if you wish, put it on a pedestal. Click on the object in the gallery. At the bottom of the Info Pane, you’ll see a pedestal icon. Click on that, and the program puts a pedestal underneath your object.

Click on the pedestal and you can move the pedestal and the object together. Click on the object, and you can move it around in the pedestal. You can even move it off the pedestal so it is hanging in air – very handy for exhibits on magic and teleportation.

To put two objects on one pedestal:

Create a pedestal of an appropriate size.

Click on the object

In the info pane, click on the button “Move to Ped / Wall”

Click on the pedestal – the object will appear.

Once an object is on a pedestal, you can tilt it for better viewing. Click on the object, and enter the number of degrees in the Tilt box in the info pane. (Place the object on the pedestal before tilting. If you try to place a pedestal underneath a tilted object, the pedestal will be tilted as well.)

Placing objects on walls

Also pretty simple. Click on the icon. Click on the wall. Done. Click and drag to position the object (or enter the exact location in the info pane. Or nudge.)

You can also click-and-drag icons onto walls.

For 3D objects, you can click the icon, and then in the Info Pane click Move to Ped / Wall. Click on the wall to place the object.

Placing objects on shelves

First, install a shelf.

Then, click on the object you want.

Click on the shelf, and it should appear.

If for some reason it doesn’t, click on the icon, and in the info pane click on “Move to Ped / Wall,” and then click on the shelf.

Placing objects in cabinets

First, make a case:

Click on the Cabinet Basic icon.

Drag it into your gallery.

Adjust the dimensions and locations.

In the info pane you’ll see Vit Sides and four pull-down menus. These allow you to set the sides of the vitrine to solid, glass or hide. Set at least one to solid and the rest to hide.

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To place an object in the case, on the floor:

Click the object.

In the info pane, click on Move to Ped/Wall.

Click on the cabinet

The object will appear in the middle of the vitrine:

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You can now move it around within the case. You can even put it on a pedestal within the case:

Click on the object within the case.

In the info pane, click on Put on Ped.

Click on the icon under Ped Type.

The art work will now appear on a pedestal, which you can resize and move.

The program does not allow you to hang an object on a vitrine side. However, you can install a wall inside your vitrine, and hang stuff off that:

Click on the Standard 2-Surface Wall icon.

DO NOT DRAG!

Instead, click on the case. The program will install a wall in the middle of your vitrine.

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Move this new wall to the very back of the case. Nudging probably works best. Be careful—push it too far back and it will go through the back of the case! Do it just right, and the new wall will be visible both inside the vitrine, and in the back of the case.

Resize the wall (it’s probably sticking out the top of your case, isn’t it?)

(You can use the same steps to install a shelf inside a cabinet.)

You can now hang objects on this wall, the same as you would hang them on any other wall or partition:

Click the object

Click the wall.

Move the object around

[pic]

(When you’re done, click on the case, then go to Vit Sides to reinstall your glass. Removing the glass makes it easier to manipulate things inside.)

You can also put such walls on the left or right sides of your vitrine, if you wish. You can even have a wall running down the middle of a case, and hang things on both sides (for all-around viewing.)

You can paint the wall a different color than the rest of the cabinet, if you wish.

6) MOVING OBJECTS AROUND

You’ve probably figured this out already. Once an object is in your gallery, all you have to do is click and drag it into a new position. You can also nudge, or enter exact locations in the info pane.

You can move 2-D objects to new places on the wall, or even to a new wall.

You can move 3-D objects around the floor, or move them around on their pedestal.

3-D objects on the floor or on a pedestal can be rotated, just like a partition. (3-D items hanging on walls can only be rotated by using the info pane. 2-D objects cannot be rotated.)

As noted above, 3-D objects can be tilted by using the info pane.

3-D objects can also be made to hang in the air. Use the same procedure as for partitions (arrows, nudge, or info pane.)

Be careful moving things around in top-down mode – it’s easy to grab the object and move it, leaving the pedestal behind.

7) SIGNAGE

To make your gallery look as real as possible, you may want to add exhibit signage—titles, panels, labels, IDs, etc.

NOTE: In most cases, you’re not going to install real label copy. You’re just going to hang dummy copy to indicate where labels would go, and what the gallery will look like with them.

If graphic design were a bigger part of this class, we’d have you design dummy labels. And if anyone wants to do that, the instructions for loading your dummy labels is appended at the end of this tutorial. However, for the purposes of this class, I created some plain black-and-white labels which you can stick wherever you need to.

Go to the File menu and select Edit Paint

Click the Add Texture File box

Click the Browse Web Files for Texture box

[pic]

Any labels you uploaded will be in the USER directory. Labels the admin uploaded (and textures that come with the program) are in the COMMON directory. Select the label you want by double-clicking.

Give your label a name in the Label box

Click Apply

OK, now you’re label is in the program as a texture. You can apply it to any wall, partition, ceiling, floor, etc. But what you want to do is apply it to a small area. To do that:

Click on the Paint Plane icon (last icon in top row)

Click in gallery where you want label to go. A large black square will appear in the gallery.

[pic]

Resize the plane if desired. (I find it easier to enter dimensions in the info pane, but you can also use the arrows or nudge.)

Move the plane if desired

Click and drag the label texture onto the Paint Plane

OUTPUT

1) IMAGES

2) FILE SHARING

3) WALKTHROUGH

1) IMAGES

We are supposed to have the ability to output “snapshots” of the gallery. The tech dude tells me this isn’t possible in the web-based version. I need to talk to the man in charge. Until then, you can just do a Crtrl-Print Screen and copy the image into Paint, Photoshop, or some other image manipulation program to get rid of the icon tray, info pane, etc. The images are kind of low-res, but as long as you don’t blow them up too much you should be OK.

2) FILE SHARING

This is another feature we were told we were going to have by Feb. 1. We’ll keep you posted.

3) WALKTHROUGH

You can create an animated tour of the gallery by using Walkthrough mode. Before starting, you’ll want to practice navigating the hall. You will want to plan your moves. And you’ll want to go slowly enough so that someone else watching it can follow what you are doing.

1) Position your “self” at the beginning of the gallery.

2) Click on File, then Record Walkthrough.

3) Click the Start Recording button.

4) Move through the gallery. You can do all the stuff you’d normally do: pivot, turn, zoom, etc. change from normal view to doll house view and back, you can zoom in and out.

5) If you want, you can pause recording and restart.

6) When finished, click Stop Recording. The program will prompt you to save your animation.

Playback is likewise simple and straight-forward. Go to File, then select Load Walkthrough. The animation will play automatically. You can change views while you watch. To stop, press any arrow key. Note: you cannot restart the walkthrough from where you left off.

Open in Walkthrough Mode – not sure what this one does

Reopen in Walkthrough Mode – from what I can tell, all this does is allow you to view the gallery without changing anything.

Load Walkthrough—loads and autoplays a previously recorded walkthrough

Replay Walkthrough—replays your most recently recorded walkthrough

OTHER STUFF TO KNOW

Undo

Redo

Pretty self-explanatory. You’ll find them under the Edit Menu.

Exit

When you’re done, don’t just turn off – go to the File Menu and click Exit. (Otherwise the system will keep your gallery open.) You will be prompted to Save your work.

MISCELLANEOUS

OK, those are the basics. And I know what you’re saying—39 pages of basics is a lot of basics! But this program can do a lot of stuff. Some of it is kind of esoteric. Some of it is meant more for the professional designer than for the student. And a lot of it, I confess, I haven’t played around with enough to figure it out!

The VG Manual has brief descriptions of most of these. If you want to play around with these on your own, that’s great! You can report any cool findings back to the class. I will continue to poke around a bit and see if I can’t fill in some of the blanks before our lab session on 2/24.

Pages 1 – 38 cover everything you should need to do your class work. If I find anything else that seems particularly useful, I’ll let everyone know via ANGEL e-mail.

What follows are a few notes, and a few pointers to things I need to follow up on…

FILE MENU

Load Works Update – dunno

Edit Player Size – allows you to change the size of the window into your gallery. Two problems: 1) it seems to be fixed on a certain width and won’t go any wider; and 2) as you increase the height, it covers up your icon tray. It appears the new dimensions are not saved, so no need to worry about messing up your view permanently.

Get Costimates – In the advanced version of Virtual Gallerie, the program will automatically calculate the cost of partitions, casework, painting, etc. You can even set the values (if you’re using a really expensive paint, say). Our version is not supposed to have this feature. I don’t know why the numbers are there. From what I understand, setting the values (at least in a web version) requires you to send them to VG and they must enter them for you. I think we can safely ignore this one.

EDIT MENU

Works Info Panel – This appears to be a database for quickly finding and sorting objects. May come in handy when you’ve got hundreds of objects in the gallery.

Apply Values Tool – appears to be a way of rapidly making numerous partitions the same size.

Ruler – This gives you the precise distance between objects in the gallery. You can even set which point on the object to measure from. Of great use to professional designers; probably of minimal use to our class. ADDENDUM 12/12: you can also access the Ruler tool by pressing “e” on your keyboard.

Align or Distribute – Automatically aligns specified paintings so they are at the same height. And / or automatically distributes them so they are equally spaced.

Goto – allows you to jump to any location within the gallery.

Delete Next Clicked Group

Delete Group Tool – “Groups” are one of those things that I didn’t have time to figure out.

Toggle Grid Display – Lays a grid on the floor so you can place items precisely. Again, good for professional designers. (You can also get this just by typing “g” on your keyboard.)

Edit Grid – Allows you to alter the grid properties (spacing, etc.) A lot of these properties I don’t understand.

Toggle Temporary Walls Display – makes walls, cabinets and pedestals translucent, to give you a clearer view of the gallery when it’s full of stuff.

Toggle Glass Display – This removes all the glass from all the cases in the gallery, the better to see the objects.

Wall Hider Tool – allows you to select specific walls to hide. Not sure how / why this is useful.

Toggle Hidden Walls Display – not sure how this is different from Toggle Temporary Walls Display.

Edit Modes – I haven’t even looked at these. I imagine they must be a way to reset your default settings.

Edit Nudge Settings

Edit Camera Settings

Edit Paint – and all the texture nonsense that goes with it

Edit Frames

Edit Ceiling and Floor

Set Base State

Toggle Top-Down Painting View – Normally, when you’re in bird’s-eye-view mode, you can’t see the paintings, because they are flat against the wall. This has them stick out at 90 degree angels, just for viewing.

Preferences – sets the color of text and backgrounds on your screen. Didn’t seem to be working when I tried it.

PARTITION MENU

There’s a lot of stuff here that, I confess, I really don’t understand. It seems to be more for the professional designer who is building a lot of walls. There are brief descriptions in the VG Manual. If you want to play around with them, knock yourself out!

GROUPS

Apparently, there are ways to put objects into different groups, partitions into different groups, etc., allowing you to change them all at once, or delete them, or do other stuff. Again, I haven’t even peeked at this.

MODIFYING TILING

This comes straight from the tech guy. I haven’t tried it yet:

To edit an existing texture paint

1) Click on a texture swatch (top row)

if you want to modify the texture file that is used:

2) Click "Browse Web Files for Texture"

3) Double-click a texture image to select it

to modify the tiling:

4) If you want the texture to tile, enter a Depth and Width for it, and it

will repeat every interval (ie, if you enter 2f, it will repeat every 2

feet). If you leave a dimension blank or enter 0, then it will stretch to

fill your object.

5) Modify the Label if you wish.

6) Click "Apply" to actually modify the paint.

7) Anything in the gallery with that paint will change to have the new color.

To create a new texture paint:

1) Click the "Add Texture File" button and follow the same steps as above.

LABELS

As I mentioned earlier, we’re not using real label copy in the student projects. Dummy copy using black text on a white background is provided.

Real museum designers will create mock layouts, using colors, FPO images and dummy text. If you want to go that route, here’s how you would then put your creations in your gallery:

First, you’ll need a JPEG image. There are several ways to create such an image:

Create a sign in Quark, Photoshop or some other such graphic program, and save it as a JPEG

Print out a label and scan it, saving it as a JPEG

Create a label in Paint, the very basic graphic program that comes with Windows, and save it as a JPEG

NOTE: The size in pixels of each dimension of your JPEG must be a power of 2. They recommend 512 pixels as a max. The powers of 2, for those of us who forgot and had to look it up, are: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512.

Then, according to their tech guy:

You actually use the Edit Paint feature to create textures that can be put on any object, specifically the "Paint Plane" object. This allows you to put multiple copies of the same thing (i.e. multiple copies of your dummy label), at arbitrary sizes, in various places.

Then you upload your JPEGs with File > Upload Images into the Textures directory, and follow the directions for signage.

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