Designing in VR Basics

Meta Quest Software:

Gravity Sketch:

• This is the software/ app for the quest that will let you use Augmented Reality (Passthrough) to give you a rough idea of the design ideas/ colors/ staging for a remodel. It’s usually used for product design but can be used for this as well. The basic controls are relatively intuitive and there are more specific lessons within the app. (LEARN icon within the app menu)

• Create a NEW SKETCH

You’ll see an empty room.

Passthrough Mode

• To get into passthrough mode hold both controllers up to your face.

• When you see a rectangular outline hold both controllers trigger buttons, the ones in the back that you press with your middle fingers, and then pull the virtual headset/ rectangle away from your face and then release them once you can see your surroundings. As if you are throwing the headset to the ground.

• By default you have the INK TOOL enabled. This lets you draw tapered lines.

• To UNDO press the B BUTTON on your right controller.

• To play around with and place basic shapes press the MENU (Y) button on your left controller.

• Then Select the SHAPES MENU. From here you can select rectangles and place them in the real world.

Move them around, Change their color, Duplicate them etc. You’ll probably be able to figure these more basic controls out by messing around or you can go skip through the LEARN section within the app. These have fairly accurate measurements which can be extremely helpful for remodeling, like placing “furniture” and seeing what will fit, the different configurations, counter height etc.

Making a plane or rectangle and placing it as a wall and then changing it’s color can give you an idea for what different paint ideas may look like.

Importing:

For more advanced stuff you’ll notice there is an “IMPORT” section within the MENU. (Three Lines on LEFT controller) This requires quite a few other steps but basically you can create a model of your home and objects you want to stage or experiment with as if they were real objects. To do a full scan of your home is even better cause you can work on it without having passthrough on and see an almost photorealistic rendering of it depending on the quality of the scan.

Scanning:

POLYCAM is the app that I use for this but there are other versions. If you have an Iphone 13 - 15 PRO (Worth upgrading to if you have an old phone, but 16’s come out soon) or Ipad with a LIDAR scanner, it makes the process faster since it uses the lidar scanner to generate the scan. If you don’t then you can use the app to make a model via Photogrammetry which essentially creates the model by taking dozens-thousands of pictures of something and then uses that to make the model. Takes longer but can be a higher quality.

Once you have the model you can export it to the right format, .obj .ply .glhf and then import it into a Gravity Sketch scene. I will do this will a model of the entire cabin and then make it large enough that I’m within the model virtually and then can place lines/ shapes/and other models to get a very accurate representation of what you want and multiple versions. Placing furniture in different places, colors, moving walls - whatever you want basically. The passthrough and basic shapes are very helpful when doing measurements and figuring out how many pieces of wood and lengths etc.

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Here’s a basic cheat sheet for using Gravity Sketch on the Meta Quest 3, covering essential controls to help you get started:

Gravity Sketch Basic Controls Cheat Sheet for Quest 3

Hand Controllers Overview

• Left Controller: Movement, tool options, undo/redo

• Right Controller: Drawing, selecting, modifying

Movement & Navigation

• Joystick (Left Controller):

  • Move joystick forward/backward to move forward/backward.

  • Move joystick left/right to strafe left/right.

• Trigger (Left Controller):

  • Press and hold to teleport (aim with the controller).

• Grip Button (Both Controllers):

  • Grab space to move the entire environment.

Drawing & Sketching

• Trigger (Right Controller):

  • Press and hold to draw lines or shapes.

  • Release to stop drawing.

• Joystick (Right Controller):

  • Push left/right to adjust the thickness of the line.

Selection & Modification

• Trigger (Right Controller):

  • Point and press to select an object.

• B Button (Right Controller):

  • Opens the radial menu for options (duplicate, delete, etc.).

• A Button (Right Controller):

  • Quick select or confirm actions.

• Grip Button (Right Controller):

  • Grab to reposition objects.

Undo/Redo

• X Button (Left Controller):

  • Press to undo the last action.

• Y Button (Left Controller):

  • Press to redo the undone action.

Tool Options

• Trigger (Left Controller):

  • Press and hold to open the tool menu (Brushes, Shapes, etc.).

• Joystick (Left Controller):

  • Navigate through tool options by moving the joystick.

Scaling & Rotation

• Both Grip Buttons (Both Controllers):

  • Hold and move controllers apart or together to scale up/down.

  • Twist controllers to rotate the selected object or environment.

Layer Management

• Menu Button (Left Controller):

  • Access the layers menu.

• Joystick (Left Controller):

  • Navigate through layers, lock, hide, or adjust transparency.

Saving & Exporting

• Menu Button (Left Controller):

  • Access main menu for saving, exporting, or importing files.