Replace or swap a panorama's picture

The short version

To change the photo of a scene, open the Panoramrs tab, select the scene and click Replace Original File. The tab Upload New puts a new file into the same panorama, so its hotspots and links stay. The tab Asset Library points the scene at a different panorama that you already have, which brings its own hotspots.

Who can do it: the tour's owner, and collaborators whose role includes the Panoramrs tab (Editors and Admins by default). A swap also needs the other panorama to be one you can use.

Which one to use

Replace Original File: upload a new file

1. Open the tour, click the Panoramrs tab and select the scene in Panorama List.
2. Under the scene's details, click Replace Original File (in the Advanced view it sits next to Geometry Core). A window titled Replace Scene Asset opens.
3. Stay on Upload New. If you want a new thumbnail made from the new photo, tick Regenerate Thumbnail?. It is unchecked each time the window opens, and the window says Leave unchecked to keep custom thumbnail.
4. Drop the new file on the panel, or click Choose a photo. The panel says JPEG or TIFF, up to 23,000 px wide; the file must meet the rules in Photo requirements. It takes one file; if you drop several, only the first one is used.
5. Wait. The photo starts at once: its row goes from Processing through Uploading to Ready (a phone or tablet sends it to our servers, and the row says On our servers). You do not click anything else; the window closes by itself.
6. The scene shows the new picture.

What a replacement keeps and what it changes

• Kept: the panorama's identity, so every tour that uses it and every link to it keeps working; its name and description; its hotspots; each tour's own settings for the scene (initial view, group, image adjustments); and the map location you set.
• Changed: the tiles, and the file name shown on the panorama's own page in your library. If the new file carries camera data, the camera facts and the private photo position are taken from it (a file with camera data and no position clears the old position); a file with none leaves them as they were. The date shown for the scene on the Tour tab (the Date column, in the Advanced view) becomes the day you replaced it.
• The thumbnail: with Regenerate Thumbnail? unchecked, the scene keeps the thumbnail it has, including the one made when you first uploaded it. Only when it has no thumbnail file of its own is a new one made anyway. Tick the box, or click Upload Thumbnail afterwards (in the Advanced view), to get a thumbnail of the new picture.
• Deleted: the old tiles, the old original and the other old copies, once the new files are stored. If the new file fails before that, the old picture stays.

The new file may have a different pixel size from the old one. The tile settings (levels and face size) are rewritten for every tour that uses the panorama, those in the Trash too.

A replacement also drops the stored page of every published tour that uses the panorama, so the next visit gets a page with the new picture. A tour with Draft Workflows on is the exception: its published page stays as it is and still names the old picture's files, which are deleted. Click Publish Changes on such a tour straight after a replacement.

Swap: use another panorama from your library

1. Open the Replace Scene Asset window as above and click the Asset Library tab.
2. The tab lists your panoramas, 24 at a time. Use Search panoramas... to find one by name, and Load More for the next page. The panorama the scene uses now is marked CURRENT.
3. Click the panorama you want, which reads Click to swap asset. The swap happens at once, with no question asked.
4. The window closes, and the Panoramrs tab shows the other panorama in the same place.

A swap keeps the scene's position in the tour, its name and description in this tour, and this tour's own settings for it (initial view, group, image adjustments). The scene takes the other panorama's tile settings (levels and face size), so the other panorama may have a different pixel size. Neither panorama's picture or hotspots change. Nothing is added to the tour, so no plan limit is checked.

A swap drops the tour's stored page, so the next visit gets the other panorama. With Draft Workflows on, the published page stays as it is until somebody clicks Publish Changes.

Two refusals: This panorama is already selected. (you clicked the one the scene uses) and The destination panorama is already present in this tour. (it is a scene of this tour already).

The window says Your hotspots will be preserved., and a swap ends with Panorama swapped successfully while preserving hotspots. For a replacement that is how it works. A swap does not carry hotspots over: hotspots are saved with the panorama, one list for every tour that uses it. After a swap the scene shows the other panorama's hotspots (none, if it has none), and the ones you made on the old panorama stay with it. A tour made from the free trial's example panoramas is the exception: it keeps its own hotspots for those scenes.

A link from another scene to the swapped scene is saved with the scene it starts from and still names the old panorama. It is not re-pointed. A tour leaves out a link whose target is not one of its scenes, so visitors no longer get that link. Open the scenes that linked to the swapped one on the Hotspots tab, select each of those links and choose the scene under Target Panorama.

Troubleshooting

The new file is marked Can’t use or Failed. Its row gives the reason, and a failed one has Try again. The old picture is unchanged. Fix upload problems lists the messages.

The thumbnail still shows the old picture. See the thumbnail paragraph above: tick Regenerate Thumbnail?, or click Upload Thumbnail in the Advanced view.

I dropped several files and only one scene changed. The window replaces one scene with one file, and uses the first. Replace the scenes one at a time.

The hotspots are different or missing after a swap. The scene now shows the other panorama's hotspots. Yours are still on the old panorama: swap back to get them. Hotspots that you add to the scene on the Hotspots tab are saved with the other panorama, for every tour that uses it.

A link to the swapped scene is gone from the tour. Links are not re-pointed by a swap. Open the scene the link starts from on the Hotspots tab, select the link and choose the scene under Target Panorama.

A published tour still shows the old photo. Both a replacement and a swap drop the tour's stored page, so the next visit builds a new one. If the tour uses Draft Workflows, its published page stays until somebody clicks Publish Changes. My changes do not show for visitors covers the other cases.

I want to undo a replacement. There is no undo. Replace the scene again with your copy of the old file.