Quickstart

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Quickstart

Install Solarxy, open a model, place your first review marker - in five minutes.

This is the shortest path through the viewer for someone who just installed Solarxy. Each step links to the deeper reference. For the full GUI tour, see Interface and Inspection; for the Review System in depth, see Review System.

• Before you start
• 1. Install
• 2. Grab a sample model
• 3. Open the model
• 4. Look around
• 5. Place a review marker
• 6. Save the sidecar
• Where to go next

Before you start

You need:

• Solarxy installed (the next step covers it).
• A 3D model in .obj, .stl, .ply, .gltf, or .glb. If you don't have one handy, step 2 walks through grabbing a Khronos sample asset.

1. Install

Pick the channel for your OS. The full matrix lives at Installation.

OS	Channel	Command
macOS	Homebrew Cask	brew install --cask marko-koljancic/solarxy/solarxy
Linux	Flathub	flatpak install flathub dev.koljam.solarxy
Windows	winget	winget install Koljam.Solarxy

Direct downloads (DMG / MSI / AppImage) live on the GitHub releases page.

Verify the install:

solarxy-cli --about

You should see the version, repo URL, and license print. If you get command not found, see Installation → First launch on macOS for PATH and Gatekeeper troubleshooting.

2. Grab a sample model

The Khronos glTF Sample Assets repository ships a curated set of CC0 / BY-compatible models that exercise the full v0.6.0 feature set. Pick any one; this guide uses Damaged Helmet because its materials, normals, and emissives give every inspection mode something to show:

curl -LO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/KhronosGroup/glTF-Sample-Assets/main/Models/DamagedHelmet/glTF-Binary/DamagedHelmet.glb

The file is about 4 MB. Other good models in the same repo: FlightHelmet (multi-mesh, external textures - good for the Outliner), BoomBox (clean PBR showcase), Sponza (a stress test for scale).

3. Open the model

solarxy -m DamagedHelmet.glb

The viewer launches, frames the model automatically, and lights it with the default 3-light rig. The bottom status bar shows the filename, format, validation counts, ms/fps, and the GPU backend Solarxy chose (Vulkan / Metal / DirectX 12).

4. Look around

The camera is mouse-driven, mode-driven from the keyboard:

Action	Input
Orbit	Left-drag
Pan	Middle-drag, or Shift+left-drag
Zoom	Scroll wheel
Frame the model	H
Top / Front / Left / Right preset view	T / F / L / R

Cycle through a few inspection modes to see what's there. Press the number keys:

• 1 Shaded (default PBR)
• 2 Material ID - a flat per-material colour
• 3 UV Map - the pane flips to 2D UV space
• 4 Texel Density - a heat map of texture pixel density across the surface

Press 1 to return to Shaded. The full set of bindings lives on Keyboard Shortcuts; the full inspection-mode reference is on Inspection.

5. Place a review marker

Press Shift+R to enter review mode. The Review menu label gains an amber dot (● Review); the Review Panel opens automatically if it wasn't already visible.

Click anywhere on the model surface. A small popup opens at the cursor:

1. Leave the category as Question (review conversations are usually questions first; it's the default).
2. Type a short note, for example "Are the rivets meant to be this rough?"
3. Press Cmd/⌘+Enter to save the marker.

The marker stays anchored to that exact triangle as you orbit the camera.

To exit review mode, press Shift+R again or hit Esc.

6. Save the sidecar

Press Cmd/⌘+S while review mode is still active. Solarxy writes a .solarxy-review.json file next to the model:

DamagedHelmet.glb                   <- the model
DamagedHelmet.solarxy-review.json   <- the sidecar with your marker

The sidecar is plain JSON and is meant to be checked into Git alongside the asset. See Review System → Sidecar file format for the full schema, and Review System → Anchor stability for the contract that lets markers survive a re-export.

Where to go next

If you want to...	Read
The full GUI tour	Interface
The shading / inspection / lighting reference	Inspection
The Review System in depth (anchors, threading, sidecar)	Review System
Run a structured first review session	Tutorial: First review session
QA a glTF before delivery	Tutorial: Inspect a glTF for delivery
Wire validation into a CI pipeline	Tutorial: Validate in CI
Author a project-specific validation policy	Tutorial: Build a custom validation policy

See also: Installation · Interface · Inspection · Review System · Keyboard Shortcuts