GraphxServerIO Map Editor Tutorial
This SOP/Tutorial is directed to individuals looking to understand the basic functions of the ProductDatabase (PDB), such as searching for a SKU, moving a location, increasing its size, etc. It should also be noted that this will be done at a generic level, no product or client information will be revealed.
Table of contents
Table of contents
SKU
Once we have logged in with our credentials, this window will be displayed, where we have many options to enter:
But the one we are interested in is this one where it says Models, which is under the Products section. Where we will see the tab in this way:
Once in the Models tab, we will need to use filters to find the product we want, we use the filters from here:
And to search for products by their SKU, we will have to click on the filter called "External Id", where we will see that the following three options are displayed, and we will choose the one that says "is".
And this is where we will place the SKU we want to search for, in this way:
Now, to view the product information, we will need to select this arrow as indicated below:
Which will open up all the product information, such as the colors, type of product, product category, etc.
But what interests us are the mappings, those can be found in the same product information window, but a little further down.
Now that we have found the mappings, we will have to enter them, how do we do it? We click the button that says Map Editor:
Map Editor
Speaking a bit more about our "Map Editor", it is a window where we have our mapping, our locations, our product image, and various functions such as adding a top layer, adding a displacement map and its texture, importing locations, adding size guides, etc.
But, let's take it step by step. First, we need to know our controls to modify the locations.
Controls
In our control section, we will encounter the options they provide for the different effects we can perform on the PDB, as well as the measurements of the locations in both inches and pixels and their relationship, since they are linked.
X-axis and Y-axis
This section within our controls are the "coordinates" where our location is positioned within our mapping.
Likewise, when we move the location of our site, it will change accordingly, for example:
Measurements in inches and pixels
This section of the controls is about the measurements of real-life locations and their proportion in pixels, for example:
This Sleeve's actual measurements are inches in Width and 4 inches in Height, its conversion to pixels would have to be 60 px in Width and 40px in Height, but that would be too small a size to represent a Sleeve, as we see below:
So what we do is scale the location (meaning we make it bigger, of course it has to be uniform with all locations so that they all have the same proportions) to make the sleeve look more realistic.
And we do that with each and every one of the locations.
Squish The Object
The squish the object is used to apply compression to the locations on both axes, this is useful when the image needs the location to be seen from the side, this helps the logo to deform, for example:
Warp Effect
The warp effect is commonly used in design and image editing software to distort or reshape visual elements. This effect is quite vital when we have to map a product such as a glass, a jar, or even a cup, as we can follow the cylindrical shape of the product, like this:
We control this from these controls:
Skew, Opacity and Rotation
In this section, we have three different controls which are Skew, Opacity, and Rotation; all three are quite important in our mappings, but let's break down each one of them.
Opacity
Opacity is used to "fade" the location so that it can be better positioned in places like the Sleeves, this is merely to locate the locations, if the art test is done with the opacity turned on, the logo will not appear faded.
Rotation
Now with the rotation, this serves to give meaning to the orientation of the location, we see this reflected quite well in the sleeves, since they need rotation because it would not look good if it were not applied.
For rotation, we can manipulate it in two ways, from the location box or in the controls section.
Skew
The Skew effect is a transformation tool used to distort or tilt an object along its horizontal or vertical axis. Just like the squish, this is used mostly in the three-quarter views of products, this helps to give more sense to the mappings.
Now let's do a comparison of how the art looks with and without skew:
As we can see, this helps us make more sense of the location.
Align Locations
In the map editor, we have the function to align locations, just as it can be done in Photoshop or Illustrator, so to activate these options we will need to select more than one location, as it only works when we have selected 2 or more locations:
Once we have them selected, we will need to choose our key location, that is, the location where all others will be centered. How do we do that? Well, we just have to hover over the location that will be the key, and while holding down the CTRL key, we will click on the location, and we will see how the location we selected will have a red outline, like this:
And so now we know that the other locations will be centered using that location as a reference, here is a video:
Copy and Paste Location Settings
Having seen all the types of controls that we have available in the Map Editor, we have one more that is quite important for us, which is the Copy and Paste of the settings of the locations, which we find right next to the name of the location in our control section:
As the name suggests, it copies ALL the values from the location, copies the coordinates, size in inches and pixels, copies the squish, skew, rotation, in short, it copies all the values, and by default when pasting it into a different location, it will have the same shape and values as the source location.
Assets
Now with the Assets, the Assets function as an image gallery that we have in our PDB, they have various functions, we can add new art, we can mark it as a favorite so it appears at the top, etc.
How do we load the assets?
Well, we go to the button below that says Assets, and it will display this image gallery, here we can choose one that is already loaded or upload one, in this case we are going to upload one.
These coming out here are the Assets that someone recently uploaded, to add a new one we will go to the button in the upper left corner and it will display the following window:
Here we can click where it says "Drop Files Here or browse", or just drag the image we want to upload:
After loading it, we will click the save button and it will be loaded into our Assets.
And just like that, when we want to test a logo on our mapping, we just have to choose the location and select the art we want to use, like this:
Is Default, Scaling and Is Approved
For the scaling and approval buttons, the cases are a bit different, as scaling is only used when the company requires it (if the company requests to use it) and approval is always marked on the mappings once the mapping has passed the QC filter.
Now in the case of the Is Default button, it is always marked as long as the product view is the Front view, no side views, no rear views, nor any other view different from the Front.
Top Layer
The top layer is a quite important part for our mappings, it makes the mapping take on a sense of more realism, since for example we have this hoodie, as we can see the locations are on top of the product's laces:
So when it comes to doing the art test, if we load a logo on the front part, it will appear above the laces and it won't look very good, for example:
So what we will need to do is take the image to Photoshop, crop the cords, and upload them to the Map Editor, so the cords will appear above the locations, here is a step-by-step on how to do it:
And once we have done the trimming of the laces, we upload it to the section that says "Add Top Layer", although here we can upload it in two ways, either we can drag it or click the button to load it from folders, here is the example:
And we will see it like this, we have already loaded the Top Layer and as we said before, it gives a more realistic sense to our mapping.
Art Test
Now one of the most important parts of our map editor is the Art Test, this is where we will test the logos or art that we use, but within this it has several functions. After having loaded an art from the Assets, we will go to the top button that says Art Test:
So this is going to load the test, and within the test we have a couple of functions:
Background Color
This function is to change the background color, this can be useful when we want to see the cutout of images, since when cutting the background we might not have trimmed it in the best way and this helps to see it better, how do we use it? Well, we just go to the little color box we have where it says "Background", and this little window will pop up:
And this is where we can choose the color we want for our background, for example:
And the reset button that appears there is to return the background to transparent, in other words, it removes the background color:
Download Image
As the name suggests, this is used to download images, but there are certain things you should know beforehand, such as that you can choose the download format, they can be downloaded as PNG or as JPG:
By default, it will always be marked as PNG, but you have to be careful because if you have a background color enabled and download it as PNG, the background color will always be visible, for example:
Once the background is removed and we download it as a PNG, it will come without the colored background:
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