Start & join a meeting

One of Arkio's main features is the ability to design in real time with up to 24 users from anywhere in the world. You can start a meeting from the meeting panel accessible via the main menu. Once you are in a meeting, all your created Arkio geometry and imported geometry are shared with meeting participants, allowing everyone to view the same scene and make suggestions in real-time. 

When joining a meeting, the following details need to be filled in:

Your Name - your name that will be displayed for other users in the meeting

Room Name - A meeting name to share with other people (needs to be at least 3 letters)

Room Password  - (optional) A password to access this meeting for more login security

All users must enter the same Name and Password to join the same meeting. (non-case sensitive)

The first user to join a meeting becomes the meeting host, who manages the meeting and switches between scenes. All active users in a meeting will be visible in the multi-user panel and in the scene, with each user's color and name tag. 

Starter, Plus, Pro and Enterprise meetings

When you join a meeting as a free Starter user, you can share and collaborate on a scene for 20 minutes. This allows you to test design collaboration and share models between devices, as well as explore Arkio with friends and family.

When a Plus user joins, the time limit for your meeting is removed. If you join a meeting with a Pro user, up to six people can be active simultaneously. If an Enterprise user hosts the meeting, the meeting capacity is increased to 24 users. Pro and Enterprise users will become the meeting host when entering a room with free users. Users with editing rights can request to be the host using the star icon.

Meeting settings

You can mute yourself in a meeting by selecting the microphone icon behind your name. If you don't see your mic icon light up while talking, your microphone is likely not set up correctly. This can be changed in the meeting settings, located in the top left corner. You can also gather users and jump directly to other users. 

The host of the meeting can use their wristband in VR to access the main meeting tools. There is a button to open the meeting panel, and it also indicates whether your mic is inactive. You can then gather all users or lock the scene in colocated mixed reality.

Editing rights

Pro and Enterprise users always have editing rights and can host up to 6 and 24 free or paid users. When a free user joins a professional meeting, they will be converted to a viewer who can only talk, move, and add temporary sketches and dimensions. 

Modeling operations in meetings is simultaneous, so operations performed by one user can be undone by other editors in the meeting. To organize large meetings more effectively and prevent participants from making edits, you can pin your geometry, assign a device without a Pro or Enterprise license, or you can activate presentation mode to keep the conversation focused on a single user.

If you are a Starter or Plus user in a professional meeting, you will be a viewer and must wait for an Enterprise user to grant you edit rights. If you want to edit or host larger collaborative meetings yourself, you will need a Pro or Enterprise license. You can start a 14-day free trial from inside the app.

Presentation mode

Using Arkio's presentation mode, the host can convert everyone in the meeting into viewers, regardless of their license. This mode can be activated from meeting settings and is compatible with both VR and non-VR devices.

When presentation mode is active, all other users in the meeting are converted to viewers, muted, and automatically gathered to the host's meeting location. If users are colocated, they will be automatically aligned each time the meeting host teleports or moves to a new location.

Presentation mode can be deactivated from meeting settings to restore users' original editing permissions. Presentation mode is particularly useful for organizing guided tours for participants new to Arkio and VR, as it follows the presenter and prevents participants from editing any content.

Additional meeting settings

In the Meeting Settings tab, you can find additional settings, including your microphone and the name/password for your meeting. You can also set the default way you want to gather users around you to streamline guided tours. This allows you to gather everyone in the meeting (VR and non-VR) to face you from the back, to form a circle in front of you, or to gather centered on your current position.

When looking at models at a god scale (far away from the table), users will always be gathered around the model. Users who are colocated will be positioned in the exact same location as the host, allowing them to view the model from the same position in both god-scale and human-scale views. 

Data Security 

Arkio has a unique security model. Your scenes, imported resources, and project data are all stored on your local device(s), similar to traditional CAD modeling tools. Arkio project data can be shared between Arkio devices using live Arkio meetings or Arkio Cloud groups.

Arkio does not require user accounts or logins. In Arkio meetings, model operations are sent as end-to-end-encrypted edit operations and imported resource files, which are then decrypted on the receiving Arkio devices during the same meeting. You can compare this to peer-to-peer file sharing. After the meeting ends, a copy of the scene only remains locally on the devices, making it nearly impossible for unwanted guests to access your data without access to your device. For live meeting security, you can use complex room names and passwords. For confidential meetings, we recommend using meeting names and passwords that are at least 10-12 characters long. 

As an app that runs and stores data locally when importing models and not using Arkio's meeting and Arkio Cloud sharing features. Arkio should be able to comply with the highest security requirements.

If you have further questions about the security of Arkio's online services that you would like to verify with your organization's data security team, we're happy to provide you with more technical details. You can contact us here to learn more.

Troubleshooting

If you are not seeing other users when using the same Meeting Name and Password, you may have a different spelling of the room name or password (try using a simple name without a password to confirm).

It's also possible that one of the participants is using an older version of Arkio and needs to update the app. If this is the case, older-version users will be inactive and shown a notification to update. If you are experiencing internet connection issues, you can best troubleshoot by joining another (wireless) network or using a 4G/5G hotspot or tethered phone. You can find more network troubleshooting steps here: Network Issue for meetings and online features