Billboards
Right-click commands for Billboards in the Data Tree.
A billboard is a camera-facing panel in the 3D scene carrying one or more images — a photograph, a map, an information panel, a mini-presentation you page through. A billboard can also carry video, which plays in the scene with its sound.
Media a billboard can hold
| Kind | Formats |
|---|---|
| Images | .jpg, .bmp, .png, .tif, .tiff |
| Video | .mp4, .avi, .mov — with its audio track |
A billboard's list can mix stills and clips; whether an entry is a video is decided by its file name. One clip plays at a time across the board: paging onto a video binds the player to it, and paging away releases it again.
The board itself is a fixed mat sized to its widest item, so paging between a portrait photograph and a landscape clip does not make the panel grow and shrink — each item is drawn at full board height, centred.
Controls in the 3D view
The controls sit along the board's top edge, on a header strip:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| ◀ / ▶ | Page to the previous / next item. Shown when the board holds more than one. |
| Play / Pause | Start or pause the clip. One button — it toggles. |
| Rewind | Back to the start, keeping the current play state: a running clip restarts from the top rather than halting. |
| Repeat | Loop the clip when it reaches the end. |
| Header strip | Anywhere on the strip that is not a control is the grab handle — drag it to move the board. |
| Scrub bar | The progress bar below the header. Click or drag along it to seek. |
| Resize handle | Bottom-right corner; drag to resize the board. |
On a narrow or portrait board the transport buttons shrink rather than sliding under the page arrows, so a control is never ambiguous to click.
Playback runs in the OpenGL and Vulkan views alike, and is captured correctly in a recorded flight path movie: during a recording the clip is driven by the movie's own frame clock rather than the wall clock, so it plays at natural speed in the finished video rather than racing.
Item Context Menu
Right-click an individual billboard in the Data Tree.
Actions
- Look At — Point the 3D camera at this billboard. (
ID_POPUP_ITEM_GOTO_BBOARD) - Add image — Add one or more images or video clips to this billboard. (
ID_BILLBOARD_ADDIMAGE) - reset Position At Viewpoint — Move the billboard to the current camera position. (
ID_PHOTOMENU_UPDATEPOSITION)
The remaining entries are the standard item commands (rename, delete, visibility).
Image rows
Right-click one of the image or video rows beneath a billboard.
- Remove Image — Remove that item from the billboard. (
ID_BILLBOARD_REMOVEIMAGE)
Group Context Menu
Right-click the Billboards group, or a billboard folder.
The standard group commands, plus Delete Billboard Group on a folder.
Properties
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Name of the billboard. |
| Scale Factor | Size of the board in the scene. |
| Transparency | Transparency of the image. |
| Lock Face On | Keep the board facing the camera at all times. |
| Facing Direction | The board's orientation when it is not locked face-on. |
| Show Frame / Frame Colour | Draw a frame around the image, in a colour of your choice. |
| Visibility Range | The distance beyond which the board is not drawn. |
| Show StraboSpots / StraboSpot Size | Draw a sphere on the photo for each pinned StraboSpot, sized as a fraction of the board height. |
See also
- Adding billboards — the quick-tip video.
- Flight Paths — presentation slides on a flight path, which use the same board.