Names, lighting, the opening view, and per-type overrides.
Presentation is everything about how a model looks that is not the model itself: what it is called, how it is lit, and the frame a visitor sees first.
Revit names are for Revit. ST-TWR-STR-1200-ANTH is a perfectly good type name inside a family and a poor label on a product page.
If the model has a configurator, the option labels usually matter more than the type names — a visitor picks “1200 mm” and “Anthracite” rather than reading a type name at all. See types and the configurator.
The environment decides how the model is lit and what sits behind it. Four are available:
| Environment | Suits |
|---|---|
| Studio | Neutral packshot lighting on a dark backdrop. The safe default for a product page, and the right answer more often than not. |
| Office | Interior daylight with a ceiling grid. Furniture, partitions, fit-out. |
| Outdoor | Open sky and direct sun. Cladding, roofing, street furniture, plant. |
| Contemporary | A glass pavilion with pale stone. Soft wrapping light for a premium look. |
These are generated rather than photographic, which is why there is nothing to download and no lighting file to manage. Changing one is instant.
Presentation decides how a type looks; Parts decides what it is made of, and hiding a part is a per-type setting like the ones below. See parts, Inspect and visitor options.
The cascade is:
type override → model setting → platform default
Inherit is not the same as the default value. A type set explicitly to Studio stays Studio when you move the model to Outdoor; a type that is inheriting moves with it. That distinction is the whole point of the cascade, and it is why clearing an override is a different action from setting it back to Studio.
The lighting environments above light the model. They cannot make the model light anything — for a pendant, a downlight or a lit sign you want a material that emits and a light source placed inside the fitting. Both live on the model page, and both are covered in Lighting and light fittings.
The start view is the camera position a visitor sees before they touch anything — the still frame on your product page and the first impression of the product.
Spin, pan and zoom until it looks right, then save it. VUE stores the camera rather than a picture, so the saved view still works when you change the environment or the materials.
Worth doing on anything you publish. Two reasons:
Set the start view per type if the product changes shape dramatically between types. Otherwise one view on the model is enough.
Dragging a model back to the same angle twice is harder than it sounds, and it shows: two products in the same range, framed by hand on different days, open at visibly different angles.
The cube in the top right corner of the model turns with it and can be clicked. A face squares the camera to that side — Top, Front, Right and the rest, matching the directions your family was built to in Revit. An edge or a corner gives the angles between them, so a three-quarter view from the front left is one click rather than a careful drag.
Clicking the cube only turns the model. It keeps your zoom and your pan, so you can move in on a spout, look at the other side of it, and still be looking at the spout. Press Use this view afterwards to save what you are looking at, exactly as you would after dragging.
The cube will not take the camera below the model, because nothing else in VUE does either — a view set under the ground plane would slide back up on your product page, and a starting view your embed cannot reproduce is worse than one you cannot set. Click a lower corner and you get the same direction at ground level.