View Variants

Prerequisites

• A Professional, Enterprise, or Trial plan (View Variants are not available on Individual plans)

• At least one uploaded asset in Ready status

• Edit Mode access (Editor, Team Member, or Admin role)

ℹ️ Note: On legacy Business plans, View Variants are available for Premium assets only.

What Are View Variants?

A View Variant is a saved snapshot of view settings that can be applied to an asset with one click. When you create a variant, Nira saves the changes you've made (the "delta") relative to the Base Settings. Viewers can then select your variant from a dropdown to instantly apply those changes.

View Variants can capture any combination of:

• Object visibility — hide or show specific objects in the scene

• Material settings — change colors, textures, or PBR properties

• View options — environment, lighting, culling, measurement units, display modes

• Object transforms — reposition or rotate objects into different orientations

Real-World Examples

• Construction site model: Create a "Structure Only" variant that hides terrain and vegetation, and a "Full Site" variant that shows everything

• Bridge inspection: Create variants for each inspection zone — "Deck Surface," "Substructure," "Abutments" — each hiding irrelevant geometry and zooming to the relevant area

• Multi-discipline delivery: Create "Survey Team" variant with elevation coloring and "Client Presentation" variant with standard RGB display

• Before/After: Create variants showing different material states or object configurations to illustrate design options

Creating a View Variant

1. Open your asset and enter Edit Mode

2. Make the view changes you want to capture — hide objects, change materials, adjust settings, reposition elements

3. Click the Save | Revert button

4. In the Save | Revert dialog, click Show Details to review your changes

5. Select Save as new variant

6. Enter a descriptive name for the variant (this appears in the viewer dropdown)

7. Click Save

[SCREENSHOT: The Save | Revert dialog with "Save as new variant" option highlighted and a name being entered]

Your variant now appears in the Variants dropdown in the upper-left corner of the viewer. Anyone viewing the asset can select it.

💡 Tip: Choose descriptive, audience-friendly names for your variants. Your client shouldn't need to guess what "Variant 3" means. Use names like "Roof Inspection Zone," "Phase 2 Progress," or "Foundation Only."

💡 Tip: You can create as many View Variants for an asset as you need. There's no hard limit — but keep the list manageable for your viewers. A dropdown with 20+ variants becomes difficult to navigate.

Managing View Variants

To manage existing variants:

1. Enter Edit Mode

2. Open the Variants dropdown in the upper-left corner of the viewer

3. Select Manage View Variants... (the last option in the dropdown)

[SCREENSHOT: The Manage View Variants dialog showing rename, reorder, default, visibility, and delete controls]

The Manage View Variants dialog provides these actions:

⚠️ Warning: Deleting a View Variant is permanent and cannot be undone. If you've shared a specific variant configuration with a client, make sure it's no longer needed before deleting.

How Base Settings and Variants Interact

Understanding the relationship between Base Settings and View Variants is key to using them effectively.

Base Settings are the foundation — the default state of the asset when no variant is selected. When a viewer selects a View Variant, Nira:

1. Applies the Base Settings first

2. Then applies the variant's delta (changes) on top

This means:

• Changes saved to Base Settings affect all variants. If you change the background color in Base Settings, every variant inherits that change (unless a variant explicitly overrides the background color).

• Variants only store what's different. A variant that only hides three objects doesn't re-save every other setting — it just records "hide these three objects."

💡 Tip: For changes that should apply universally (background color, measurement units, environment lighting), save them to Base Settings. For changes specific to a particular audience or use case (object visibility, display modes), save them as View Variants. This approach keeps your variants clean and avoids having to update each variant individually when you change a universal setting.

Practical Example

Imagine a construction site model:

1. Base Settings: Black background, lighting off, RGB display, all objects visible

2. "Earthworks" variant: Hides building, shows terrain only, switches to Elevation display

3. "Structure" variant: Hides terrain, shows building only, enables Wireframe overlay

4. You later change Base Settings to a white background: Both variants automatically inherit the white background, because neither variant overrides the background color

What Viewers See

Any viewer of the asset — including public link visitors, inspection link users, and logged-in team members — can access View Variants through the dropdown menu in the upper-left corner.

Viewers do not need Edit Mode to switch between variants. They simply:

1. Click the Variants dropdown

2. Select a variant name

3. The view updates immediately

ℹ️ Note: Viewers cannot create or modify variants. They can only switch between variants that an Editor has created and saved. If a viewer needs a custom view configuration, they should request it from an Editor.

Default Variant

If you set a default variant (using the star icon in Manage View Variants), that variant is automatically applied when anyone opens the asset. The base settings are still accessible — viewers can select the unnamed base entry at the top of the dropdown to return to it.

💡 Tip: Set a default variant when you want to control the first impression. For a client delivery, set the "Presentation" variant as the default so the client sees your curated view immediately, without needing to navigate the dropdown.

Writing Variants for Presentation Use Cases

View Variants are particularly powerful for delivering 3D data to non-technical audiences. Some strategies:

Progressive disclosure: Create variants that reveal increasing detail — "Overview" → "Zone A Detail" → "Zone A Defects" — guiding the viewer through a narrative.

Role-based views: Create variants tailored to different stakeholders — "Project Manager" (high-level overview), "Inspector" (defect locations highlighted), "Engineer" (measurements and wireframe overlay).

Temporal comparison: If you've uploaded multiple versions of an asset, create variants that showcase changes between phases. Combine with the A/B Wipe tool for side-by-side comparison.

What's Not Supported

• Per-user variant creation: Only Editors can create variants. Viewers cannot save personal view preferences.

• Variant-specific sharing links: You cannot generate a URL that opens a specific variant. The default variant loads for everyone; viewers must manually select others from the dropdown.

• Variant-specific callouts: Callouts and measurements are not variant-specific — they exist on the asset level and are visible across all variants.

• Animated transitions: Switching between variants is instant — there's no animated transition or interpolation between states.

• Variant locking: You cannot prevent Editors from modifying or deleting variants. All Editors on the asset have full variant management access.

Troubleshooting

"My variant isn't showing the changes I saved."

Cause: The changes may have been saved to Base Settings instead of as a new variant, or a conflicting variant is overriding them.

Fix:

1. Open Manage View Variants and verify the variant exists

2. Select the variant and check if the expected changes apply

3. If not, re-enter Edit Mode, make the changes, and explicitly choose Save as new variant in the Save dialog

"Changes I made to Base Settings aren't reflected in my variants."

Cause: The variant explicitly overrides the setting you changed. Variant deltas take priority over Base Settings for any setting the variant touches.

Fix: If you need the variant to inherit a Base Settings change, you'll need to update the variant:

1. Select the variant

2. Revert the overriding setting so it matches Base Settings

3. Re-save the variant

"Viewers can't find the Variants dropdown."

Cause: The dropdown only appears if at least one variant exists. If no variants have been created, there's no dropdown.

Fix: Create at least one variant. Once saved, the dropdown appears for all viewers.

"I deleted a variant by mistake."

Cause: Variant deletion is permanent with no undo.

Fix: You'll need to recreate the variant manually. If you remember the settings, re-enter Edit Mode, apply them, and save as a new variant with the same name.

Technical Notes

• View Variants are stored per-asset and are accessible to all viewers of that asset

• There is no version history for variants — saving overwrites the previous state

• Variant data is lightweight (it stores deltas, not full snapshots), so having many variants has negligible impact on asset loading

• When embedding an asset via iframe, the default variant (if set) loads automatically. Viewers can still access the dropdown within the embedded view

• View Variants interact with Starting View — the Starting View is stored in Base Settings and applies unless a variant overrides the camera position