View Settings (Viewport, Display & Render Modes)

Prerequisites

• A Nira account on any plan (Individual, Professional, or Enterprise)

• At least one uploaded asset in Ready status

• Edit Mode access is required to change most view settings (you must be an Editor, Team Member, or Admin)

⚠️ Warning: Most display and render settings are only accessible in Edit Mode. View-only users (including recipients of public links and inspection links) see whichever settings the Editor last saved. If a viewer asks why they can't find display options, this is why — they need Editor-level access.

Accessing View Settings

1. Open your asset in the Nira viewer

2. Click the Edit Mode button to enter editing mode

3. Open the View Options panel — located in the right-side toolbar (gear icon)

[SCREENSHOT: View Options panel location in the right toolbar, with Edit Mode active]

The View Options panel contains several sections depending on your data type. This article covers each section in detail.

Display Modes

Display modes control how the geometry of your model is rendered on screen. The available modes depend on your data type.

Mesh Display Modes

💡 Tip: Switch to Wireframe mode to quickly check whether your photogrammetry model has excessive triangle density in flat areas. If a building facade has millions of tiny triangles where a few thousand would suffice, you may want to re-export with mesh decimation from your processing software.

Point Cloud Display Modes

⚠️ Warning: Point cloud display modes are only available in Edit Mode. This is by design — display mode changes are considered editing actions that affect how the asset appears for all viewers once saved. View-only users will see whichever display mode the Editor last saved to the active View Variant or base settings.

ℹ️ Note: Not all point clouds contain every data type. If your LAS/LAZ file doesn't include intensity values, the Intensity display mode will appear blank or uniform. Similarly, Classification mode requires that your point cloud has classification codes embedded (typically from automated ground classification in your processing software).

Point Cloud Point Size

You can adjust the size of individual points in the point cloud display:

1. In the View Options panel, find the Point Size slider

2. Drag to increase or decrease point rendering size

3. Click Save to preserve the setting

💡 Tip: Increase point size for sparser point clouds or when viewing from a distance — this fills gaps between points and creates a more solid appearance. Decrease point size for dense clouds when you need to distinguish individual points or inspect fine detail.

3DGS (Gaussian Splat) Settings

For 3D Gaussian Splat assets, the View Options panel includes:

ℹ️ Note: 3DGS assets uploaded as PLY files may look different from how they appeared in your training/capture tool (e.g., Postshot, Lichtfeld, Polycam). This is expected — different viewers implement Gaussian rendering with slightly different parameters. Adjusting Splat Size and Spherical Harmonic Degree in Nira can help you match the look you expect.

Render Modes

Render modes affect how lighting and materials interact with your model's surface.

Lighting

Toggle lighting on or off via View Options → Environment → Lighting.

⚠️ Warning: If your photogrammetry model looks washed out or has strange shadows after upload, check whether Lighting is enabled. This is one of the most common "my model looks wrong in Nira" issues — simply toggle Lighting off and save.

Normals

The Use Normals setting controls whether vertex normals affect the model's surface shading:

• Enable normals for CAD models, architectural models, and any geometry with smooth curved surfaces and low triangle counts

• Disable normals for photogrammetry models, sculpts, and high-poly meshes where the geometry itself provides sufficient surface detail

ℹ️ Note: Normals add a rendering cost. High-polygon photogrammetry models already have enough geometric detail to look smooth — adding normals increases data size and rendering load without visual benefit. This is why normals are disabled by default for Photogrammetry asset types.

Backface Culling

Backface culling controls whether the reverse side of triangles is rendered:

• Enabled: Triangles facing away from the camera are invisible. This is standard for solid, closed meshes.

• Disabled: Both sides of every triangle are rendered. Enable this for thin surfaces, single-sided walls, or models with flipped normals.

💡 Tip: If parts of your model appear invisible from certain camera angles, try disabling backface culling. This often fixes issues with photogrammetry models where some triangles have inconsistent normal directions.

Viewport Options

Grid

Toggle a reference grid on or off. Useful for understanding the scale and orientation of your model in 3D space.

Compass

For georeferenced assets, an interactive compass displays in the viewport showing cardinal directions. The compass orientation corresponds to the real-world geographic alignment of your data.

ℹ️ Note: The compass only appears for assets uploaded with georeferenced coordinate data. If you don't see a compass, your model was likely exported with local coordinates. See Does Nira Support Georeferenced Files? for details.

Click Coordinates

When enabled, clicking on the model surface displays coordinates at the clicked location. Coordinates display in:

• WGS84 (EPSG 4326) latitude/longitude for georeferenced models

• Local coordinates for non-georeferenced models

• You can switch between latitude/longitude and Cartesian display formats

To toggle: Share → Show Click Coordinates (checkbox).

💡 Tip: You can copy coordinate values to your clipboard by clicking the copy button next to the displayed coordinates. This is useful for comparing specific locations against your source survey data.

Measurement Settings

Measurement display options are configured in Edit Mode:

• Unit type: Meters, feet, inches, centimeters, etc.

• Precision: Number of decimal places displayed

• Calibration: Scale adjustment if your model's units don't match real-world dimensions

Access via: Edit Mode → View Options → Measurements.

Saving View Settings

View settings changes are not saved automatically. After making changes:

1. Click the Save button (or use the Save | Revert dialog)

2. Choose to save to the Base Settings or as a new View Variant

Base Settings apply to all viewers by default. View Variants create named presets that viewers can switch between. See View Variants for details on creating and managing variants.

⚠️ Warning: If you change settings without saving, your changes are lost when you navigate away or reload the page. The Save | Revert dialog lets you review pending changes before committing — use Show Details to see exactly what will be saved.

Why Some Settings Require Edit Mode

Nira restricts display and render settings to Edit Mode because these changes affect what all viewers see. When an Editor saves a display mode change, it becomes the default for everyone viewing that asset (or that View Variant). This prevents:

• Conflicting settings from multiple viewers

• Accidental changes by view-only users

• Inconsistent presentation when sharing assets with clients

This is particularly important for point cloud display modes, where switching from RGB to Classification fundamentally changes the information being presented.

💡 Tip: If you need different audiences to see different display configurations of the same asset, use View Variants. For example, create an "RGB" variant for general viewing and a "Classification" variant for your survey team.

What's Not Supported

• Per-user display preferences: There's no way for individual viewers to save their own display settings. Settings are asset-wide (or per View Variant).

• Real-time display mode switching for view-only users: Viewers cannot toggle between display modes themselves — they see what was last saved.

• HDR environment maps: Custom HDRI lighting environments are not currently supported. The built-in environment lighting is configurable but not replaceable.

• Custom color ramps for point clouds: Elevation and classification color gradients use Nira's default color mapping. Custom color ramps are not yet available.

Troubleshooting

"My photogrammetry model looks washed out or has unnatural shadows."

Cause: Virtual lighting is enabled on a model that has baked lighting in its textures.

Fix:

1. Enter Edit Mode

2. Open View Options → Environment

3. Uncheck Lighting

4. Save your changes

"I can't find the display mode options."

Cause: You're in View Mode, not Edit Mode. Display mode controls are only visible to Editors.

Fix:

1. Click the Edit Mode button to switch modes

2. Open the View Options panel

3. Display mode options should now be visible

If you don't see an Edit Mode button, your user role doesn't have edit access to this asset. Contact the asset owner or your organization's Admin.

"Point cloud colors look different from my processing software."

Cause: Nira renders point clouds using its own color pipeline, which may differ slightly from tools like CloudCompare or ReCap. Common differences include gamma correction and intensity scaling.

Fix:

1. Ensure you're viewing in RGB display mode (not Intensity or Classification)

2. Check that your source export preserved RGB color data (some export formats strip color)

3. Adjust the environment lighting settings — even subtle lighting can shift apparent colors on point data

4. If the difference is significant, try re-exporting with explicit RGB color preservation from your processing software

"3DGS asset looks blobby or too sharp."

Cause: The Splat Size setting doesn't match your 3DGS scene's training parameters.

Fix:

1. Enter Edit Mode → View Options

2. Adjust the Splat Size slider — increase for a softer fill, decrease for sharper detail

3. Adjust the Max Spherical Harmonic Degree — higher values give better view-dependent color but may affect performance

4. Save when you find the right balance

Technical Notes

• View settings are stored per-asset and persist across sessions

• Settings saved to the Base Settings are applied first; View Variant settings override them

• The asset thumbnail (shown in the asset list and preview page) reflects the current Starting View and display settings at the time it was set

• For orthomosaic assets, view settings apply to the 3D viewer only. The 2D orthomosaic viewer has its own display controls (visibility and opacity in the layer list)

• Changing display mode does not affect measurement or callout data — it only changes the visual presentation