Edit/scale

Using edit, you can stretch/scale shapes and props created with Arkio. This affects all objects hosted on the shape’s surfaces to follow the new size. Orthogonal edits make it easy to edit all shape features without skewing/distorting them.

The edit mode can be toggled on the wristband from the default orthogonal to freeform distortion, allowing more complex freeform edits.

You can reach into planes, lines, and points with the interaction sphere in front of your controller to ‘sculpt’ designs to the required shape. As volume parent-child relations can be complex, edits can have unusual results. Reducing the size and number of child geometries before editing the parent's geometry can prevent shape edits resulting in inverse/broken geometry.

Editing parts of a shape

The following geometry features can be edited using the laser edit tool or by touching them by hand with your controller interaction point.

Face edits - 1 direction orthogonal stretching and automatically glued to other faces in the scene when snapped together. This snapping is also possible for non-orthogonal intersections (useful for connecting non-orthogonal building parts). Moving or deleting the objects will break this glued-face relationship.

Edge edits - 2 directional orthogonal stretching (using orthogonal mode), useful to quickly adjust the length x width of a volume without changing its height. In non-orthogonal mode, editing edges is useful for creating roof slopes or distorting the building plan.

Point edits - 3 directional orthogonal stretchings (orthogonal mode), useful to quickly resize volumes in all directions, similar to the create tool. In free-form mode, it can be used to distort the object into spiky or slanted components.

Special edit/scaling operations

When editing a shape, special sub-operations can also be triggered by starting the edit operation from the corner points or the center of a line.

Proportional scale edits - when editing a corner (or line) of a shape a diagonal guide will appear which will help with the proportional scaling of objects in Arkio. This scale line will snap to increments of x0.1 and x1, so you can adjust the size of your geometry or scale imported models that are too large or too small.

Offset edits - 2-directional orthogonal stretchings (orthogonal mode), useful to quickly resize volumes in two directions. When used in free-form mode, it can distort the object into pyramid shapes.

Aligning and precision

When editing geometry, Arkio will automatically show guides to align your creation to nearby faces and grid steps depending on your distance to the object. More on this can be read in the guides and grids chapter. Depending on your scale, units will dynamically snap to larger or smaller steps. To edit with greater precision, you can move closer to the object or fill the object's exact dimensions by clicking the temporary dimensions.

Manual dimension inputs

After you select a part of a shape (briefly touching the trigger while in edit mode) or after finalizing an edit or move operation, you can hover the temporary dimensions shown in the scene to input a custom size in metric or feet (depending on your unit settings)

Edit individual or shared faces

Faces that are aligned and physically touching at the edge will be joined into a single face, which will be edited at the same time. You can always unjoin geometry and its faces by moving the geometry apart before you make edits. If you don’t want faces to join when touching, you can also turn off snapping by holding your thumbstick down on your dominant hand before finalizing your edit/move operation.

You can edit individual faces by rotating your wrist up or down while editing. The highlights indicate which faces are selected for editing.

When features of other shapes are highlighted during editing, this will automatically join the selected face to the highlighted faces of the other geometry. The resulting child object will then move and stretch with the parent when that object is adjusted. To break the joined faces apart, you can pick up (move) the child geometry you no longer want to be attached to break its hosting constraints and shared face constraints

Editing shared face widget

When faces are joined together, you can edit them all at once by pointing at them with your hand in a normal rotation. There is a small indicator on your controller that shows which face selection mode is currently selected. Twisting your controller will update this indicator and provide haptic feedback.

If you only want to edit the top part of all joined faces, you can rotate your wrist up and hover the lowest feature you like to edit. If you only want to move one of the faces, you can rotate your wrist down and hover the feature you like to move without affecting other faces.

Editing all, top, or individual features will also work for editing geometry by hand, as will editing other features like lines and points. Stacked shapes and arrays will automatically join together, making them easy to edit into any shape using these wrist rotations.