Onboarding Guide
Onboarding Guide
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Scene Orientation & Units

Overview

Before working with 3D assets and building products in the Graph Editor, it is important to understand how TwikBot handles coordinate systems, scene orientation, and units. Misaligned conventions between your 3D authoring tool and TwikBot are one of the most common causes of assets appearing incorrectly scaled, rotated, or positioned when imported into the platform.

Coordinate System

TwikBot uses a right-handed coordinate system, consistent with WebGL and Three.js conventions:

Axis

Direction

X

Left → Right

Y

Bottom → Top (up)

Z

Back → Front (towards the viewer)

This differs from some common 3D authoring tools:

Tool

Up Axis

Blender

Z-up (requires export adjustment)

Rhino

Z-up by default

Maya

Y-up (matches TwikBot)

3ds Max

Z-up (requires export adjustment)

When exporting assets from Z-up tools, apply the appropriate axis correction during export or within the Graph Editor to ensure assets are correctly oriented in the TwikBot scene.

Units & Scale

TwikBot does not enforce a specific unit system — the platform works with the units used in the imported asset. However, consistency across all assets in a product is critical. Mixing units between assets (e.g. some in millimetres, some in metres) will result in scale mismatches in the scene.

  • Agree on a single unit convention at the start of each project (typically metres or millimetres depending on the industry)

  • Apply the convention consistently across all assets before importing into TwikBot

  • If assets from multiple sources are being combined in a single product, normalise units before import

Scale in the Graph Editor

If an imported asset appears too large or too small in the scene, scale can be adjusted within the Graph Editor using the appropriate geometry node. Avoid relying on visual approximation — always verify scale against a known reference dimension from the product specification.

For Unreal Engine deployments, note that the TwikBot Unreal Plugin uses its own scale property rather than Unreal's built-in actor scaling. Always use the Twikit-specific scale parameter to adjust model size in UE scenes.

Camera & Scene Setup

The 3D scene in TwikBot — including camera position, field of view, lighting, and environment settings — is configured within the Graph Editor. These settings define how the product is presented to end users and are an important part of the overall configurator experience.

Camera

  • Set up camera positions that best showcase the configurable aspects of the product

  • Consider defining multiple camera angles for complex products, allowing end users to view different areas of the configuration

  • Test camera positions across the full range of configuration states — a camera angle that works well for one configuration may be poorly framed for another

Lighting & Environment

  • Use lighting that accurately represents the intended presentation context (e.g. studio lighting for product shots, outdoor lighting for architectural products)

  • PBR materials are lighting-dependent — the appearance of materials will change significantly with different lighting setups, so finalise lighting before signing off on material quality

Practical Checklist

Before importing assets into the Graph Editor, verify the following:

  • All assets use the same unit convention

  • Assets are exported with the correct up-axis for TwikBot (Y-up)

  • Geometry is positioned at or near the world origin

  • Scale has been applied in the authoring tool before export (no residual transforms)

  • PBR material maps are prepared and consistently sized