December 04, 2013, 02:39:46 am
Re question 1:
Inability to access the transform tools to move and rotate etc could be due to one or combination of:
1. PC specs. What are the PC specs being used, and also which version of Lumion?
2. scene is too heavy/complex for the PC and so Lumion is running slow and user actions are not being identified properly. What is the 3D Point count (stats top right corner) of the scene, and also what is the FPS reading?
3. a number of commands use the Ctrl key. If this gets stuck or the Ctrl key release is not recognised then it will cause other things to seem to be disabled.
Try pressing the Ctrl key to get a release, or use the mouse and click on the X little button to also clear all selections.
Also, just as a reminder, objects can only be moved if the user is in the context of the object. For imported objects that means having the import menu active, for Lumion Library objects that means having the Library Category selected for Objects the menu.
re 2 reflections:
Reflections will be default world scene reflections from the viewpoint of the reflection sphere. In Build Mode it just provides for a fast default scene reflection. When you render, it will render with all objects as seen by this control.
The default one is set at world center and 50m up (v3). This control generates a 360 degrees cubemap that is used to create the reflections. It's resolution, as it is taking a picture of the whole world is not high and will not show more local detail, only sky and terrain.
You have the choice of adding in to the scene a specific reflection sphere - the Reflection Control (Library --> Lights and Special Objects --> Utilities --> Reflection Control) in which you can move and position it for local scene content, either for external or internal views. when you add or change position with this object it will update and you should see your other content reflected.
You can also press the U key to update the screen in Build Mode.
Alternatively you can add Reflection Planes in Photo or Video Modes (Effects --> World --> Reflection) to windows to create true planar reflections, which give higher quality and localised reflections. There is however a rendering cost from using these.