Main Workflow for GoThru: Tour Creation and Moderation

Last updated on Mar 26, 2023

Overview

GoThru is a tool that allows you to create your own virtual tour using your own 360-degree photos. GoThru features the moderator tool that gives the ability to create a constellation out of the panoramic images and publish the tour directly on Google Street View. Publish your first virtual tour completely easy, and highly customizable with GoThru, and you can also modify the panoramas and patch the nadir to display the logo of your company or the clients. Try it now and publish unlimited tours.

Before you start

You should create an account on GoThru. Go to GoThru web page (https://gothru.co/) and sign up with your Google account for free.
You can make a tour with any camera that creates a 360° photo in a .jpg format.
Make sure your panoramas are minimum 5300px width x 2650px height and maximum 14000px width x 7000px height
Please make sure you have enough space available on your Google Drive otherwise your tours won't publish.
When shooting your panoramas, make sure you keep the same direction (try to avoid shooting from different angles). This will ensure an easier moderation process.

2. Go to your account settings and choose My Profile.

3. Click on the Google Drive button to allow GoThru to import panoramas from your drive account.

4. Press the Google Publish button to allow GoThru to publish to your account.

5. Click on the Constellation tab on the top bar.

6. Click +Create New Tour.

7. Select the tour type, Google business, Blue Line, or Hosted tour and click start.

8. Enter a location or the CID and click search to find it.

9. Once you find the location or CID, click Create New Tour then follow the next steps.

Step 2: Upload panoramas

1. Click Upload panorama

2. Use the Drop Zone to upload your Pre-Stitched Panoramas or use the Import from Google Drive button to import panoramas from your Google Drive account.

3. In this second case, using the Import from Google Drive button, Search for your panoramas on Google Drive by typing the business name. Once found, press the Start Import button.

4. Wait until the upload is completed. Once the upload or importing completed, go to Constellations > Tools you will be able to see the panoramas count and panoramas dot representation on the map for the current tour.

Step 3: The Moderation Process

At this point, you are able to initiate the moderation process. Press Create Navigation to open the GoThru Moderator tool.

The Moderator tool has the following structure:

Unlinked panoramas - On the lower right corner you can find the list of unlinked panoramas. Once connected, they will move to the list from the lower left corner.
Preview Window - On the top right corner there is the Preview window.
Map - On the upper left corner there’s a map containing the numbered panoramas displayed as red dots.
Preview of the cover - The center of the Moderator is occupied by a preview of the cover for the selected panorama.
Active Panoramas - On the lower side there are the thumbnails for the active panoramas in the Moderator.
Connected Panoramas - On the lower bottom left you can see the panoramas that have been connected.

The moderation process implies the following steps:

1. Double click on the first panorama.

2. Position the centerline (in red) where the next panorama is. Under the Preview image, there are the thumbnails for the active panoramas in the Moderator.

3. Double click on the next panorama. Center the preview image to be aligned like in the image below, with the red line through the middle of the image.

4. At this point, if you look on the map, you will notice that GoThru has already created the link between the first and the second panorama. On the cover image, you can see that GoThru automatically created the nadir patching for your panoramas.

Notes:

Pressing the Up and Down arrows on the image will alternate back and forth views of the image. This feature helps you make sure you have a good connection between the panoramas.
Using the mouse scroll will zoom in/out the panorama. This will also impact the map, changing the distance between panoramas.

5. Now you should solidify the newly created link by pressing the blue arrow like in the image below. On the cover image, press the F key (F=flip) to visually verify if your link is correct.

6. Now click the new link on the map to close the connection. The moderation process continues with finding the next panorama in the unlinked panoramas list.

7. If necessary, you can reposition the constellation on the map. You can select it and drag it around or rotate it according to your needs.

8. If you like, you can create a preview for the constellation (the speed and the image quality are not high, as this is not a tour yet). Inspecting the preview can be a useful tool, as it helps you verify if the constellation is correct (it is easier to correct a constellation than change a tour).

9. Repeat the steps described above for all the panoramas you want to link. Once you have finished linking all the panoramas, press Save at the top left corner. The moderation process is now complete.

Tips:

You can adjust the transparency level of the upper-level panorama by pressing the keys from 1 to 9 from your keyboard while positioned on the image.
GoThru offers a very useful feature called the Q-Key. In case the panorama is not pointing in the right direction, instead of rotating the panorama on the map to obtain a proper angle, set the red line where the link should point and press Q. This will automatically correct the angle and correctly align the panoramas.

Step 4: Publish Your Tour

1. Go to Constellations >Tools to see your newly created constellation.

2. Press the Google button to create your tour

3. The final step: press Publish your tour on Google Street View > Start Publishing. Your tour is now on Google Street View (the links between panoramas will become active in about 24 hours).

Note: In case an error occurs with the tour, GoThru will let you know: you will see a red message displayed in the Google Street View Publish section.