Activity Buttons: The three buttons across the top of the screen used for choosing the Materials, Room, and Presentation activities. Making one of these buttons active sets the context for what the user is doing and sets the features available from the side panels in the application.
Annotation: A feature that allows notes to be placed on an item in Visual Impression and have them carry back to the visual worksheet to communicate any required product changes. Annotations can be passed back and forth between Visual Impression and the host applications until the product change is completed. Items containing annotations are marked as such within both applications. In addition, Visual Impression allows users to Hide Unannotated Items from the dashboard, leaving all annotated items visible for selection.
Assets: All of the scene specific images generated in Visual Impression that are collected in the Presentation Activity. Scene assets such as furniture images, furniture materials, room materials, and snapshots can be extracted from or dragged from the Presentation activity into other software applications such as Word or PowerPoint.
Basic Items: Products for which the manufacturer has NOT provided manufacturer-specific materials. Basic items can still have materials applied to them, but the user must manually make material selections from Visual Materials and apply them to specific layers in the 3D symbol. Visual Impression simplifies this process by colorizing the 3D symbol so it is easy to know where the materials will apply. Some details about the basic item material selection will carry back to the host application. This way, users know what they have chosen, but specification of that item is not automatically completed.
Dashboard: Located in the bottom center of the Visual Impression screen, the dashboard contains several commonly used commands. The center of the dashboard allows the user to navigate through the screen as an alternative to using the mouse.
Enriched Items: Products for which the manufacturer has provided manufacturer-specific materials. Enriched products can have materials easily applied to them through the materials activity. Selection of enriched materials in Visual Impression appear in a structure similar to the way they appear in Options in other software. The materials know where they belong on the product and apply with one click of the mouse. All enriched materials assigned in Visual Impression can be applied back to the host applications for complete specification.
Hide: Product changes, additions, and deletions should be made in the drawing before viewing in Visual Impression; however, different options can, for example, control the visibility of an item in the scene. Items can be hidden by selecting them and clearing their visibility setting in the item information panel in the bottom-right corner. Multiple items can be selected in Visual Impression by pressing and holding the CTRL key as you select the items. The number of items selected will appear in the item information panel and the entire selection can be hidden at once. Items that are hidden disappear from the scene. They can be reselected by putting them in ghost mode by clicking the Ghost Hidden Items button on the dashboard in the bottom-center of the screen. All hidden items can be made visible again by selecting Show All using the arrow above the Ghost Hidden Items button from the dashboard.
Host Application: The software (Giza or Worksheet) that Visual Impression is launched from and all Visual Impression edits are saved back to during an apply. If Visual Impression is launched from the taskbar, its default host application is Worksheet.
Items List: Appears on a panel on the right side of the screen when the Materials or Room activity is selected. The items list displays all of the items that are contained within the scene and their visibility state. This list can be used to control visibility of the item and, by right-clicking on the Description header, the user can choose to display the part number and other tagging information about the items. The items list can be filtered and used to control navigation by using the Next/Back actions, which will zoom to and isolate the next item appearing in the filtered list.
Panels: Areas that slide in from the left or right side of the screen. Panels contain commands for use with the selected Material or Room activity.
Presentation Finishes: Default finishes that the manufacturer can choose to apply to their products rather than have them appear in the color gray when no finishes have been selected. While this is good for showing manufacturers’ products, it can be misleading for users at times because it may seem that materials have been already selected for the item. Presentation finishes can be turned off by changing the settings for presentation finishes through the Visual Impression button.
Scene: An area of interest that the user decides to view in Visual Impression. A scene is defined in the drawing by selecting the items the user wants to include, surrounding them with a polygon, and providing a name. The named scenes are then available for selection within Visual Impression. Scenes can be any size and may overlap so that one item can appear in several scenes. If a scene is not defined in a drawing, the default scene is the entire drawing.
Snapshot: A screen shot taken within Visual Impression to be used as output in a presentation. Snapshots are taken by pressing the camera button on the dashboard when a desired view is found in Visual Impression. Snapshots also maintain the camera position used when taking the snapshot; that camera position can be returned to by selecting the snapshot in the filmstrip.
Update Against Visual Worksheet: A command in Cap, Cap Complete, and Giza to support bringing material selections and Visual Impression data back into the drawing. Update Against Visual Worksheet prompts for a *.visual.sp4 file and checks to make sure it is a worksheet that came from the drawing being updated. If so, Update Against Visual Worksheet:
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Updates option and finish information in the drawing from what is in the selected worksheet
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Brings over any Visual Impression scene information and furniture movement
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Ignores any product changes such as adding, deleting, or changing the part number of a product
Visual Impression Button: Located in the top-left corner of the Visual Impression screen. Pressing this button allows the user to use file functions such as applying or saving to a host application or saving as another name to a worksheet file. The Visual Impression button also gives access to changing scenes and to the program settings which, in turn, allow the user to set their preferences for Displaying Presentation Finishes, Visibility of Ceiling Lights, Setting Room Defaults, and showing the camera’s focus point.
Visual Materials: A feature within Visual Impression that allows the user to pick generic, manufacturer-provided, or supplier-provided materials and manually apply them to a furniture item or room element. Within Visual Materials, users can also import and save their own materials.
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