Proof images and video

Not everyone who needs to see a design will open a 3D file. 3D › Export › Export Proof Images… and 3D › Export › Export Proof Video… turn a 3D page into pictures and video anyone can look at: in an email, a presentation, a web page or a printed proof. Both are on the 3D page's right-click menu too, beside Export 3D Model….

The pictures are drawn as the 3D page draws the design: its material, its artwork (outside and inside), the lights and shadows, and a 3D model shown with it. The 3D page itself isn't changed: its view and how far it is folded stay as they are.

Proof images

3D › Export › Export Proof Images… asks:

• Pictures: which views to make. Each is framed to fill the picture, with a little room round it.

  View	What it shows
  Front, Back, Left, Right	The folded design seen level from that side. The front is the side the 3D page first looks from.
  Top	From straight above, the front at the bottom.
  Three-quarter	From the front right and a little above: the usual product shot.
  Flat dieline	The flat blank, from its printed (outside) side, with the dieline over the artwork: cuts as solid lines, creases dashed in red.
  Current view	The 3D page as you have it now: its view, and folded as far as it is.

• Save as: A picture of each view, in a folder (named after the drawing, its version and the quality: carton-v3-photo-front.png, carton-v3-photo-three-quarter.png …; see File names), or One contact sheet with every picture chosen on one page, each named under it, as an image or as a PDF page.

• Format: PNG, which keeps a transparent background, or JPEG, smaller (on a transparent background its see-through parts are white). A PDF page holds its picture as it is.

• Size in pixels: HD (1920 × 1080), 4K, square, A4 landscape at 300 dpi, or one of your own. For a contact sheet it is the size of the whole sheet.

• Resolution in dots per inch, saved in the file so it prints at the size meant (the width in pixels divided by the dpi is the width in inches). A contact sheet's PDF page is that size.

• Background: white, light grey, black, Transparent, or a colour typed as #RRGGBB.

• Show the ground and shadows: the floor the design stands on, with its shadow on it.

• Caption strip: a strip under each picture (along the bottom of a contact sheet) with the view, the drawing's name, the flat blank's size and the folded size (in the drawing's units), and its classification: category, style and product. The picture is made shorter to leave room for it, so the file is still the size chosen.

• Quality: Fast, as the 3D page draws it, or Photo (see Photo quality).

The dialog says what the pictures will be drawn with (see Graphics). Then choose the folder, or the file for a contact sheet. The pictures are made in the background, with a window showing how far it has got; Cancel stops between pictures, keeping those already saved. The settings are kept for next time.

Dimensions and notes on the model (Dimensions in 3D) are drawn over every picture and video frame (except the flat view), as the 3D page shows them.

Proof video

3D › Export › Export Proof Video… asks:

• Shows:

  • A turntable: one full turn: the folded design turning once round. It loops without a jump, so it can play over and over.
  • The fold: flat to folded: the blank folding up as the 3D page folds it (in its fold order), easing in and out, then held folded.
  • The fold, then one full turn: folding up, held, then turned once round.

• Length in seconds (1 to 120), all of it. Hold when folded: how long the folded design is held still before the end (or before it turns). Folding then turning spends 40% of the rest folding and 60% turning.

• Frame rate: 24 or 30 frames a second.

• Size: 720p (1280 × 720), 1080p (1920 × 1080) or square (1080 × 1080).

• Format, from those this computer can write (the dialog lists them):

  Format	Notes
  MP4 (H.264)	Plays everywhere. Written on Windows by its own encoder (Media Foundation; Windows "N" editions need the Media Feature Pack), and on Linux and macOS by ffmpeg, where it is installed (from the package manager, or Homebrew on a Mac). It can't be transparent: a transparent background is made white.
  Animated WebP	Small and sharp, keeps a transparent background, and plays in every current web browser. Written on every computer.
  Animated GIF	Plays anywhere, but shows 256 colours a frame and makes large files: best kept short and small. Written on every computer.
  PNG frames	A PNG for each frame, in a folder named after the file (carton-v3-fast/carton-v3-fast-0001.png …), for video editing software. Written on every computer.

• Background, Show the ground and shadows and Quality, as for pictures. A photo-quality video takes much longer: try a short one first.

The video is the three-quarter view, far enough away that the design stays in the picture all through its folding and turning. It is made in the background with its progress shown; Cancel stops it, and what was written of it is deleted.

To email pictures or a video instead of saving them, use File › Send by Email › Export Proof Images… or Export Proof Video… (many pictures, or PNG frames, go as one ZIP): see Emailing exports.

File names

The file name offered for pictures, a contact sheet, a video or an HTML proof says which design it is, which version and how it was drawn, so proofs of several versions can sit side by side: carton-v3-photo.png.

• The design: the drawing's file name (proof for a drawing not saved yet).
• The version: the drawing's Revision note (File › Drawing Properties, the note a sheet's title block shows as its revision). A number is written v and the number (3, v3 and Version 3 all give v3); anything else rev and it (B gives revB, Rev C gives revC). A drawing without the note has no version in the name.
• The quality: fast or photo (see Photo quality). An HTML proof, drawn by the browser, has none: carton-v3.html.

The quality is always written in English, whatever the app's language, so the names stay plain on every computer. Change the name in the save dialog as you like.

Photo quality

Quality: Photo draws the pictures (or the video's frames) as a product photographer would light them:

• Studio lighting: the 3D page's key light (with its shadows) and soft boxes, and a fill light from the other side, a rim light from behind that picks out the edges, and a big soft box behind the camera, so foil shines gold or silver and spot UV and gloss varnish catch the light on the faces turned towards you.
• Soft shadows: the key light is a soft box, not a point, so shadows are sharp where things touch and blur the further they fall.
• The ground: darkened under and beside what stands on it (a contact shadow), and, when Show the ground and shadows is on, a gloss floor softly reflecting the design: more at a glancing view, fading and blurring away from where it touches.
• Smoother edges: at least nine samples a pixel.

The print finishes (varnish, spot UV, matt, foil, emboss: see Print finishes) and the cut edge's structure (corrugated flutes, honeycomb, plies) show at either quality. Photo quality is always drawn by the processor, the same picture every time, and takes several times longer than Fast.

Graphics

At Fast quality on Windows the pictures are drawn with the graphics card (Direct3D 11), off the screen, exactly as the 3D page draws them. Where that isn't available — other systems, or a computer whose graphics card can't be used — they are drawn by the processor instead. That draws the same views with the material's colours, patterns, artwork, photos, print finishes (varnish, spot UV, matt, foil, emboss), the board's cut edge (flutes, honeycomb, plies), lights and shadows; it is slower, so a long video at 1080p can take some minutes. The dialogs say which is used. Photo quality is always drawn by the processor.