Link scenes together to build a walkthrough

The short answer

To let visitors move from one scene to another, open the Hotspots tab, choose the scene they start in, click Add Link Hotspot, click the picture where the door or the path is, and choose the scene it leads to under Target Panorama. Then do the same in the other scene to make a way back: Panoramr does not add a return link for you.

Who can do it: the tour's owner, and collaborators whose role includes the Hotspots and the Panoramrs tabs (Editors and Admins by default): a change to a hotspot is saved as a change to the panorama. What each tab does lists the roles.

Link two scenes

1. Open the tour and click the Hotspots tab. The list on the left, headed Panoramas, shows the scenes of the tour. Use Search panoramas... to find one in a long tour, and click the scene visitors will leave from.
2. Drag the picture to turn it until you can see where the link should go.
3. Click Add Link Hotspot at the bottom of the picture. A message reads Click the panorama to place the link hotspot.
4. Click the picture where the link should sit. A press that moves the picture more than a few pixels is treated as turning the view, not as a click. Press Enter to put the link in the middle of the view, or Esc (or the button again) to cancel.
5. Hotspot Properties opens on the right with the heading Link Hotspot. Under Target Panorama choose the scene the link leads to. The list reads -- Select Target -- until you do. The link takes the name of that scene.
6. Select the other scene in the list on the left and add a link back, in the same way.

There is no Save button on this tab: a change is saved about half a second after your last one. Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on a Mac) undoes a change, and so does the undo button at the top left of the picture.

To choose which way visitors face when they arrive, use Target Camera View and Set View Override. Click-anywhere or node-based navigation explains it.

Adjust or remove a link

• Move it: drag the link on the picture.
• Turn the arrow: select the link. Small round buttons appear around it. The one at the top left turns the arrow by 45 degrees each time you press it.
• Test it: the round button with the tooltip Test Navigation Link, or the eye icon at the top of Hotspot Properties (tooltip Preview Hotspot Action), opens the target scene in the editor.
• Hide it in this tour: the crossed-out eye (tooltip Toggle Visibility in this Tour) hides the link from this tour only.
• Delete it: the trash icon opens Remove Hotspot. Hide in this Tour keeps the link and hides it here. Delete Hotspot (Globally) removes it from the panorama's own list of hotspots. A tour that added the panorama from your Asset Library keeps its own copy of that list and goes on showing the link until a save from that tour's editor replaces the copy (share hotspots between tours).

Build a walkthrough

A walkthrough is scenes joined by links, so plan it as a map of doors.

1. Put the scenes in the order you want on the Tour tab by dragging the rows. The tour opens on the first scene in the list. The order does not decide where a link goes: the links do.
2. Link each scene to the next one, and each one back to the one before it. Link side rooms in both directions as well.
3. Open the Preview tab and click through the route as a visitor would.

Visitors see each link as a badge with an arrow. On a computer, pointing at it shows the name of the scene it leads to. On a phone there is no pointer, so visitors tap. The link follows the look you choose in the Hotspots Setup panel of the Design tab (in the Advanced view).

Troubleshooting

Clicking the picture does not place the link. The picture has to be showing: while a scene reads Syncing to Cloud..., wait for it to finish. A click on an existing hotspot or a control keeps its own meaning, so click on an empty part of the picture.

The link is in the editor but visitors do not see it. Check, in this order:

• A target is chosen. A link with no target is not published.
• The target scene is still in the tour. A scene that you removed from the tour, or moved to the Trash, takes the links to it away from the published tour.
• The link is not hidden in this tour (the crossed-out eye).
• The link was made in another tour and is not shared with this one.
• The change has reached visitors: see My changes do not show for visitors. Reordering scenes does not refresh a page that is already published.

A link is missing for visitors. A link to a scene that is not in the tour is left out when the page is built, so nothing is drawn: refresh the stored copy (my changes do not show for visitors). A link whose label reads Link (Missing Target) and does nothing when clicked points at a scene that the tour has but does not publish. A tour in a Vault publishes only as many scenes as the Vault holds, first in the tour's order, and a Vault cannot be made smaller than its tour, so this is rare: see Why can't I publish my tour?.

A message says A panorama can have at most 500 hotspots. That is the limit for one panorama, counting every kind of hotspot. Delete some you no longer need.

A box says Someone else changed this panorama's hotspots while you were editing. Your changes are not saved. Load their changes drops yours and takes theirs; Keep mine replaces theirs with yours.

Red text reads Could not save: and a reason. The server refused the change. Reload the page and make the change again.