We intentionally made the instructions cover the whole screen at start-up to encourage you to take a minute to read through them This will help you gain the maximum benefit from the exercise. Notice there are several tabs. This first one give you general instructions on how to navigate the model and what the function of the buttons are in the lower left corner. The second provides guidance about the icons you will run into as you navigate through the model, which generally are hot spots that open other views or interactive elements.The third provides some background information about what is going on in the facility on the day of your virtual exercise. The events and climate conditions likely impact the systems you will be observing.
This exercise is intended to allow you to generally explore the Hijend Hotel central chilled water plant and then focus on scoping the condenser water system and cooling towers. The model uses three different types of images to create the tour.
• Plan and elevation views
• Panoramas
• 360° spherical views
The plans, elevations and panorama views will be the most realistic. But, the plans and elevations will have very limited panning and zooming and are used to focus on a particular learning experience.
In contrast, the panoramas will allow you to pan left and right and zoom a bit but will not allow you to pan up and down. It is as if you were standing someplace and turned your head left or right to look around. They are used to allow you to explore the model with the most realistic perspective and will contain hot spots that you can select so that you can investigate something in greater detail and perhaps score a point or two.
The 360° spherical views generally provide full flexibility to look in all directions and zoom quite a bit. But because of the technique used to create them, they will have some distortion associated with them. However, they are useful if you are trying to trace out a pipe, duct, or conduit because they will allow you to follow it, just like you would in the field. Thus they provide a different way to explore the model and will also contain hot spots that will allow you to investigate items of interest an perhaps score points.
There are a number of ways to navigate through the model. One is to use the floor plan viewer in the upper left corner. A drop down menu allows you to pick different areas in the model. The floor plans contain a number of red dots and squares. When you click on a red dot or square, you will be placed at that location, as if you were standing there. Red squares will allow you to select either a 360° spherical view or a panorama view. The red dots are locations with only a panorama type view. The yellow "radars" around the dot or square when you have clicked on it show your field of view.
There is a button in the lower left corner that lets you turn the floor plans on and off and generally you will probably want to turn them off once you have selected a location to maximize your viewing area. If, after following a series of hot spots, you find yourself "stuck" with no way back to where you came from, you can always use the floor plan viewer to return to one of the locations it contains and move on from there.
As you pan around in the different views and mouse over them, you will discover "hot spots" that will show up as a highlighted area. If you click on one of them, you will find things like information, questions you can answer to score points, or be taken to a different view based on the hot spot location. For instance, a hot spot over a door will probably take you through the door. A hot spot over an item like a piece of equipment will probably take you to a question or information about the item.
The buttons in the lower left corner of the screen will allow you to toggle a number of things on and off so you can refer to them as needed but otherwise free up the view.
• The one at the far left that looks like a floor plan toggles the floor plan on and off.
• The "View Information" button toggles the general information on the lower right corner on and off.
• The "Instructions" button toggles this instruction card on and off
• The speaker button toggles the sound on and off.
• The score button toggles your score on and off. The score window shows your total score along with the maximum number of points you can score.
• The camera button will take a screen shot and allow you to save it. It is analogous to being out in the field and taking a picture with your camera when you are scoping out a project or doing field work.