This page will help you to get up to speed with InstaLOD Studio XL 2019 in minutes.
InstaLOD Studio XL is a holistic platform for 3D data processing. Its graphical user interface makes it trivial to perform a wide range of tasks from geometry optimization to texture baking and building complex rule-based processing scenarios for enterprise workflows. InstaLOD Studio XL’s viewport is powered by a physically based shading model that enables accurate design reviews. The core functionality can be extended through a native C++ interface. Easily add support for additional file formats, extend the rules engine, modify the viewport rendering or implement new algorithms — anything is possible.
InstaLOD Studio XL runs on Windows and MacOS and is shipped with an installer for both platforms.
InstaLOD Studio XL for Windows requires Windows 7 and later.
Run the installer executable and complete all steps.
InstaLOD Studio XL for MacOS requires MacOS Sierra 10.12 or later.
Open the disc image and drag and drop the InstaLOD Studio XL app into your programs folder to install the application.
Before installing the latest version of InstaLOD Studio XL, uninstall the current version via your Apps and Features Settings (Windows) or Launchpad (MacOS). Install the latest version of InstaLOD Studio XL as described in the previous chapter.
Your workstation needs to be authorized before InstaLOD Studio XL can be used.
If you haven’t used InstaLOD on your computer before, the Manage License window will appear when you first start the application. Enter your license information and press Authorize to request a license for your workstation.
Once a license has been acquired, InstaLOD Studio XL is fully operational. Your workstation is now authorized for use with InstaLOD. Make sure to deauthorize your workstation before uninstalling InstaLOD, or you will not be able to authorize another workstation.
You can access the Manage License window from the Help menu to deauthorize your workstation.
Deauthorization takes 24 hours to complete. Until the deauthorization cycle is fully complete, the seat/node will remain locked and cannot be used to activate another machine.
Enterprise licensees can make use of offline authorization in situations where a machine that needs to be activated has no access to the internet. In these cases, a machine that has an active internet connection can be used to create a license file on behalf of another machine. The activating machine needs to have the latest version of InstaLOD Pipeline installed.
First, it is necessary to acquire the machine key of the target machine. Click Help in Studio XL’s main menu and select Manage License. The machine key will be displayed in the Offline Authorization panel.
Copy and paste the key to the machine that will fulfill the authorization request. Execute InstaLOD Pipeline and specify the machine key together with the authorizeKey argument:
InstaLODCmd -authorizeKey <key> <filename> <username> <password>
InstaLOD Pipeline will now request a license file for the specified <key> and write it to the specified <filename>.
Copy the generated license file to the target machine and ingest it into the InstaLOD licensing system by clicking on Ingest License in the Manage License window of Studio XL. Your workstation will now be fully activated and the Manage License window can be closed.
In order to do any processing in InstaLOD Studio XL, a Profile needs to be created. Profiles are similiar to the concept of projects in other applications. They are the native file format of Studio XL and creating a profile is necessary to be able to process meshes.
To create a profile, navigate to File in the main menu and select New Profile.... Studio XL provides a specialized UI (workspace) for each profile type.
To load an existing profile, simply drag and drop it onto the application, or go to File and select Open Profile... in the main menu.
Profiles are human-readable JSON files. You can load profiles that are shipped with InstaLOD Pipeline into Studio XL, and vice versa, InstaLOD Pipeline can directly process profiles created in Studio XL.
Once a mesh operation profile is loaded into InstaLOD Studio XL, mesh operations can be created and executed in the Mesh Operations window. Selecting an entry in the list allows to edit it in the Mesh Operation Settings where you can change the operation type by switching between tabs. After setting up a mesh operation, press Start to run it on the current scene.
Multiple entries can also be added to the Mesh Operations list and executed at the same time which allows creating all LODs for your scene quickly.
While mesh operations are in progress, several parts of the application are greyed out and cannot be used. When finished, the result will be automatically loaded into the viewport.
To run your first mesh operation, create a new mesh operation profile as described in the chapter Profiles. Open a mesh by navigating to File and select Open Scene or by a simple drag and drop operation.
The default mesh operation optimizes a mesh to 50% of its original polygon count, as is visible in the Mesh Operation Settings. Change the Percent Triangles to 25%.
In the Mesh Operations window, press Start to run the optimization. Once it’s finished, the optimized mesh will be displayed in the viewport.
You can make changes to the profile and apply them to the original, unmodified mesh. There are two ways to achieve that. The direct way is to press Start again, in which case a pop-up window will ask if you would like to process the Processed mesh or the Original Unmodified mesh. Alternatively, you can undo one or more processing steps using the Timeline located at the top right of the viewport.
To execute a mesh operation after navigating through the timeline, the timeline must first be truncated or deleted by right-clicking the arrow on the last timeline entry.
To master InstaLOD Studio XL as fast as possible, it is recommended to read through our wide range of documentation. Our Knowledge Base contains a broad variety of articles about best-practices, extended workflows and advanced settings. Additionally, our Questions and Answers site allows community members to ask and answer questions between one another.
Feel free to visit our YouTube channel where we upload new videos on a regular basis.
Please visit http://www.InstaLOD.com to stay up to date!
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