# AerariumChain Hub - How the AerariumChain Hub serves the collection: digitization, study and long-term preservation, explained for curators, conservators and art historians. One markdown file with the whole guide - give it to ChatGPT, Claude or any assistant and ask how to use the AerariumChain Hub. Source: https://docs.aerariumchain.com/en/ (generated from the official AerariumChain documentation). --- # What the AerariumChain Hub is Every work in a collection has a digital life: its inventory record, its shape in three dimensions, its surface photographed down to the brushstroke, what infrared and ultraviolet reveal beneath the varnish, and the preservation copies that must outlive us all. The **AerariumChain Hub** (hub.aerariumchain.com) is where that digital life is kept together, in order, and at hand. The Hub is made for the people who care for collections: curators, conservators, registrars, collection managers and art historians. Digitization campaigns feed it from the galleries and storerooms; the Hub turns what was captured into material you can study, share and preserve. ## What the Hub does for the collection - **It keeps the register.** The [Catalog](/en/catalog/) holds the record of every work: inventory and catalog numbers, materials and techniques, dimensions, custody and rights. Whole campaign lists arrive by Excel import, with templates you can shape to your institution's own format. - **It receives the digitization.** Whatever the [AerariumChain Scan kit](/en/scan-kit/) captures on site (3D scans, gigapixel photography, multispectral imaging) flows into the Hub, already tied to the right work. - **It prepares the material for study, on its own.** Each 3D upload is [processed automatically](/en/upload-and-processing/): converted, textured and optimized with no technical staff required on your side. - **It opens the work to examination.** The [3D viewer](/en/3d-viewer/) and the [Gigapixel viewer](/en/gigapixel/) run in an ordinary browser, on any device: the study room desktop, a tablet in the storeroom, a phone in the gallery. - **It preserves.** With **DPAC** by Ecomic, from the [Store](/en/store/), digitized works are packaged, deposited and notarized for the MiC Digital Library. - **It grows with you.** The [Store](/en/store/) adds applications to the Hub as your projects require them. ## How access is organised You enter the Hub with your AerariumChain account, inside your institution's own space (a personal space also exists). Access is governed by **roles**: an administrator invites colleagues from the Team page and decides which sections each role sees, so a conservator, a registrar and an external scholar can each work with exactly what concerns them. ## Finding your way: the left sidebar | Section | What you find there | |---------|---------------------| | **Artwork Catalog** | The register of works (Artwork Library) and the Excel import (Import Data) | | **Site Manager** | Data arriving from digitization sites, acquisition setups, and the Site Manager app download | | **Acquisitions** | The campaign dashboards, 3D scans, Gigapixel Studio, and the Scan app download | | **Gigapixel Gallery** | The published gigapixel plates | | **3D Assets** | Every processed 3D model, with its versions and history | | **DPAC** | The Package Manager of the DPAC preservation app | | **Store** | The applications that extend your Hub | Administrators also have a **Worker Monitor**, the technical room of the Hub, showing the [processing network](/en/node-workers/) at work. --- # Quick start Six steps take you from a paper campaign list to a work you can turn, magnify and annotate on screen. ## 1. Sign in Go to **hub.aerariumchain.com** and sign in with your AerariumChain account. If your institution invited you, accept the invitation first: your role decides which sections of the Hub you will see. ## 2. Choose your institution The selector in the header lists the institutions you belong to. Choose the one you are working for, or remain in your personal space. ## 3. Bring in the campaign list Open **Artwork Catalog > Import Data** and upload the campaign spreadsheet. The Hub recognises the columns of the DPAC template on its own; adjust any mapping if your list differs, save the mapping as a template for the next campaign, and confirm. The works now stand in the **Artwork Library**. The [Catalog](/en/catalog/) page explains every column. ## 4. Digitize Capture happens in the galleries and storerooms with the [AerariumChain Scan kit](/en/scan-kit/): - The **Scan app** (downloaded from **Acquisitions > Download App**) drives the 3D scanner, the gigapixel camera and the multispectral sequence. - A structured campaign is run with [Site Manager](/en/site-manager/), which keeps the checklist of what each work still needs. ## 5. Let the Hub do the technical work Scans are uploaded from the Scan app; a single model can also be uploaded from **3D Assets**. From there the Hub [processes everything automatically](/en/upload-and-processing/): conversion, textures, levels of detail. You can watch the progress from the work's detail view, but nothing requires your intervention. ## 6. Study and share When processing ends, open the model in the [3D viewer](/en/3d-viewer/) from any device, or the photographic plate in the [Gigapixel viewer](/en/gigapixel/). Everything remains linked to the work's record in the Catalog. ## Where to go next - Deposit and notarize the digitized works with **DPAC** by Ecomic, from the [Store](/en/store/). - Read how the [worker network](/en/node-workers/) does the heavy computation, and how your institution can take part in it. --- # The AerariumChain Scan kit The Scan kit is what AerariumChain brings into your galleries and storerooms to digitize a collection. Every technique in the kit is **non-contact and cold-light**: the work is never touched and never exposed to harmful radiation beyond a conservator's ordinary examination lamps. Three complementary captures build the digital record of each piece, all conducted with the **AerariumChain Scan** application, which you download from the Hub. ## Three ways of seeing the work ### The form: 3D scanning Professional structured-light scanners (Artec Eva for larger volumes, Artec Spider for fine carving and ornament, or both together) record the exact three-dimensional form of sculpture, decorative arts and objects, with their surface color. The result is a faithful digital body of the work, ready for the Hub's automatic processing and for study in the [3D viewer](/en/3d-viewer/). ### The surface: gigapixel photography A medium-format camera (the reference body is a **Fujifilm GFX100S II**, 102 megapixels, with a 120 mm macro lens; Sony and Canon bodies are also supported) photographs the surface in overlapping cells, later merged into a single plate of billions of pixels. The operator states the intended resolution on the work, in pixels per inch, and the app plans and guides the whole sequence. Multi-shot **Pixel Shift** capture is available where the utmost fidelity is required. On the finished plate you read the craquelure, the weave of the canvas, the individual touch of the brush. ### Beneath the surface: multispectral imaging With an infrared-converted medium-format camera and a guided sequence of filters, the kit records the work band by band: visible, infrared reflectography at 720 and 850 nm, and ultraviolet. Underdrawings, pentimenti, old retouching and later interventions, invisible in ordinary light, appear in the spectral layers, which remain attached to the work in the Hub. ## Light and color you can trust - **Calibrated lighting.** JINBEI studio LED lights, controlled from the app, in the standard two-light arrangement at 45 degrees: even, repeatable, gentle illumination. - **Color governed by ColorChecker.** Every session includes a ColorChecker Classic target. The app measures color accuracy patch by patch as **Delta E 2000**, verifies white balance and exposure, and files the color report with the capture. What you see in the viewer is what stood on the easel. - **Coverage verified.** Live view, focus and framing analysis, and automatic checking that neighbouring gigapixel cells truly overlap. ## From the easel to the Hub 1. 3D sessions are packaged and uploaded securely; the Hub's [automatic processing](/en/upload-and-processing/) turns them into models ready for study. 2. Gigapixel captures are assembled and published to the [Gigapixel viewer](/en/gigapixel/). 3. Every capture is tied to the work's record in the [Catalog](/en/catalog/), so form, surface and spectral layers never drift apart. The kit is operated with the [AerariumChain Scan app](/en/scan-app/); campaigns are kept in order with [Site Manager](/en/site-manager/). --- # AerariumChain Scan app AerariumChain Scan is the desktop application that conducts the work of the [Scan kit](/en/scan-kit/): it drives the scanner, the cameras and the lights, keeps each session in order, and delivers everything to the Hub. It runs on Windows and macOS and is downloaded directly from the Hub, so the version in use on site is always the current one. ## Download and install 1. In the Hub, open **Acquisitions > Download App**. 2. Choose your platform: Windows, macOS Apple Silicon or macOS Intel. 3. Install, start, and sign in with the same account you use in the Hub. ## The working screens - **Dashboard**: what is being packaged and uploaded right now, and what has finished. - **3D Scan**: opens a session for a given work, launches the Artec scanning software, and watches the session folder; when scan files appear, the session is marked and its technical metadata gathered automatically. - **Gigapixel**: plans the photographic sequence. The operator chooses the mode (quick, guided, guided rotation, manual or freeform); the app computes the grid of shots from camera, lens and the resolution intended on the work, then follows progress cell by cell. - **Capture Studio**: the tethered-camera room. Live view and remote control for Fujifilm, Sony and Canon bodies, Pixel Shift multi-shot, the guided multispectral filter sequence, wireless control of the studio lights, and the ColorChecker color report. - **Upload**: packages finished 3D sessions into protected archives and delivers them; the Hub registers each delivery and starts [automatic processing](/en/upload-and-processing/). - **Gigapixel Upload / Drive Upload**: delivers gigapixel captures, including a workflow for large sites where several capture stations hand their sessions to one external drive, and only what the Hub does not yet hold is uploaded. - **History**: every session and delivery, with its state. - **Setup**: local preferences and paths (scanning software location, session folders). ## How it connects The app signs in with your AerariumChain account and speaks to the Hub. The collections you can deliver to are those your account may access. Deliveries are verified (checksummed), protected, and sent directly to secure cloud storage; the Hub then ties each one to the right work in the [Catalog](/en/catalog/). ## Several stations, one campaign On large digitization sites more than one station captures at once. The drive-based delivery collects the sessions of every machine, compares them with what the Hub already holds, and sends only what is missing: nothing is delivered twice, nothing is left behind. --- # Site Manager A digitization campaign is, before anything else, a list of works and a discipline: which pieces require 3D, which require gigapixel, what has already been done, what the survey form says about each object. **AerariumChain Site Manager** is the desktop application that keeps that discipline on site. It runs on Windows and macOS, is downloaded from the Hub, and works **entirely offline** in the galleries and storerooms, with automatic local safeguard copies; only signing in and the final delivery to the Hub require a connection. ## Download and install 1. In the Hub, open **Site Manager > Download App**. 2. Choose Windows, macOS Apple Silicon or macOS Intel. 3. Install, start, and sign in with your AerariumChain account. ## What it keeps in order ### The list of works The campaign list arrives from Excel through a guided column-mapping step. Each work carries its digitization checklist: 3D required, gigapixel required, and what is already done (3D, gigapixel, photography, survey form). Filters, search, per-location views and live progress figures keep even a campaign of thousands of pieces legible. ### The survey form (scheda di rilievo) A complete survey form for each work, with configurable defaults and automatic composition of the object identifier, exported faithfully to the official Excel template used by conservation institutions. ### Acquisition setups Named descriptions of how works are captured (which scanner, which arrangement). Presets for the Artec scanners fill the survey form's equipment fields correctly every time. ### Packages For each work, Site Manager exports a package with the metadata file, the survey form spreadsheet and the photographs, together with a master status workbook for the whole site and a report of changes. Packages follow the DPAC data format, so they are already shaped for preservation. ### Communications Progress letters, generated: everything that changed since the last communication, ready to review and send. ## The delivery to the Hub When the site (or a portion of it) is ready, Site Manager delivers it to the Hub: the master workbook, all survey forms, setups, photographs and the full history of comments. Before sending, it shows exactly how the delivery differs from what the Hub already holds, and warns of any setup name conflict, so you always know whether you are creating or updating. In the Hub, the site appears under **Site Manager**, and its works take their place in the [Catalog](/en/catalog/). --- # Catalog The **Artwork Catalog** is the register of the collection inside the Hub: one record per work, and around each record everything the campaigns have produced. It has two pages in the sidebar: **Artwork Library**, where you consult and manage the records, and **Import Data**, where whole campaign lists arrive from Excel. Every 3D model, every gigapixel plate and every site delivery can be tied to a record, so the catalog remains what it should be: the thread that holds the work and its documentation together. ## Artwork Library A clear table of all the works of the selected institution, with pagination, ordering, search, and a filter for records that already have digitized material attached. Columns can be shown, hidden and resized; the arrangement you choose is remembered, so registrars and curators can each keep their own view. ### The columns, with the DPAC template as the example The columns follow the template chosen for the collection. A good example of what the Catalog can hold is the template used by **DPAC**, Ecomic's preservation application for the MiC Digital Library (available in the [Store](/en/store/)): with it, the table reads like the official Excel DPAC sheet, from identification to capture data. All manageable columns, grouped as in that template: | Group | Columns | |-------|---------| | Identification | ODA_Id, Inventario (catalog id), Numero di Catalogo, ESC, TSK, Fondo/Collezione, Descrizione, Nome Opera | | Site and lot | Codice Cantiere, Codice Lotto, PK, Label | | Physical properties | Material, Techniques, Width, Height, Length, Depth, Diameter, Weight | | Conservation and location | Conservation, Location / Luogo | | Custody and rights | Custodian, Creating Organization, IP Owner, OBJID / DocumentID, logicalId, conservativeId, conservativeIdAuthority, recordContentSource, RightsHolderName, RightsHolderContactEmail, FolderLabel | | Acquisition equipment | Acquisition Method, Acquisition Manufacturer, Equipment model, Processing software, Processing software version | | Capture data | scanCount, frameCount, resolution, resolution unit, lighting, imageCount | | Optics and exposure | focalLength, focalLength unit, aperture, exposureTime, exposureTime unit, iso | | Site outputs | Photos S3 Paths, Scanner, 3D Done, Gigapixel Done, Scheda Done | | Generic fields | Author, Art ID, Date, Purpose, Medium, Frame, Sign, Sign date, Note, Complexity index, Lot name | ## Import Data The import page brings a whole campaign spreadsheet into the register: 1. **Upload** the Excel file (.xls / .xlsx). 2. **Match the columns.** Each spreadsheet column is paired with a catalog field. The Hub recognises the DPAC template's headings by itself, in Italian and in English; any pairing can be corrected from a list of all catalog fields. 3. **Review before committing.** The extracted rows are shown first. In append mode, new records are added; in replace mode, the Hub states plainly which records would be new, which updated, which removed. Rows can be corrected, added or struck out on the spot. 4. **Save**, and the records take their place in the register. The page also keeps the last imported file and the spreadsheets delivered by [Site Manager](/en/site-manager/), both available for download: the paper trail of the campaign. ## Templates shaped to your institution Column mappings can be saved as **templates**, so a recurring format is imported in one gesture: - **Create** the mapping once, then save it with a name and description. A template records the column pairings, the header row and the sheet name, and may be set as the default. - **Apply** it at the next import: the whole mapping fills itself in. - **Manage** templates freely; they can be reviewed and removed at any time. The DPAC template is recognised out of the box. Custom templates extend the same courtesy to whatever spreadsheet tradition your institution has: the Hub adapts to your registry, not the other way round. --- # 3D upload and automatic processing Between the scanner and a model you can study lies a chain of technical work: format conversions, texture handling, optimization for the screen. In the Hub that chain runs by itself. Your part ends when the capture is delivered. ## How a model reaches the Hub - **From the Scan app.** Finished scan sessions are delivered directly by the [AerariumChain Scan app](/en/scan-app/); the Hub registers each delivery and begins work. - **From the browser.** In **3D Assets**, the upload dialog accepts files by drag and drop: useful for models produced elsewhere or received on loan of data. Accepted model formats: **OBJ, PLY, STL, GLB, OFF**, with **MTL** materials and **JPG, PNG, BMP** textures. Transfers go to protected cloud storage; large models travel in parallel parts, so even heavy scans arrive briskly. ## What the Hub does on its own As soon as a delivery is registered, the [worker network](/en/node-workers/) takes over: - **Conversion** of any accepted format into the form the viewer streams best, and back into working formats when needed. - **Textures** preserved, compressed, and re-prepared where necessary, so the color captured on the easel survives intact. - **Levels of detail.** Several graded versions of each model are prepared, with textures scaled to match, so the [viewer](/en/3d-viewer/) can serve a phone in the gallery and a workstation in the study room with equal grace. - **Plates and previews.** Turntable views, in full color and in neutral relief, illustrate each model in the listing. - **Scan processing.** Raw scanner sessions are resolved into finished meshes on workers equipped with the Artec software. ## Following the work Each item in **3D Assets** shows its versions and the steps behind them, each marked completed, failed or cancelled. When the last step closes, **View 3D** opens the [viewer](/en/3d-viewer/). Preservation derivatives produced by **DPAC** (Ecomic) appear here as well. While a DPAC package that cites a derivative is being deposited, or once it has been notarized, that derivative is locked against deletion: the preservation record stays whole. ## Bound to the Catalog Every delivery is tied to the record of the work it digitizes. From the [Catalog](/en/catalog/) you reach the models of a work; from a model you always know which work it belongs to, and under whose custody it stands. --- # The 3D viewer The viewer is where the digitized work submits to examination. It opens in an ordinary browser, and because the rendering happens in the cloud and only the image is streamed to your screen, **even the heaviest full-resolution model opens at once on any device**: the study room workstation, an iPad in the storeroom, a phone in front of the original. Nothing is downloaded to the device, which also means the model itself never leaves the Hub's custody: a point that matters when rights and reproduction are at stake. Open it with **View 3D** from any model in **3D Assets**, or from the work's record in the [Catalog](/en/catalog/). ## Turning the work in your hands - **Rotate** and **pan**, with touch and pinch on tablets and phones. - **Zoom** in to the tool marks, out to the whole figure; **reset** returns to the canonical view. - **Choose the centre** of rotation and save it as the work's default presentation. - **Pivot tools** for precise placement, with the possibility of saving a new version of the model from the adjusted state. ## Annotating conditions and observations - **Comments anchored to the surface**: a single point, or a drawn area (flat, or following the relief), each in its own color. A condition note, an attribution question, an instruction to the restorer: each remains exactly where it belongs, and the discussion stays with it. - **Review**: collections that examine incoming scans formally can approve or reject each one from within the viewer. ## Sections and details In editor mode the viewer serves the conservator's harder questions: - Selection by **lasso**, **rectangle**, **base plane** or **whole object**. - Cuts through the front face only, or through the full body of the object; selections can be inverted. - Full **undo and redo**, with recovery of unsaved sessions. - **Export** of the cut as a working file (OBJ with materials and texture), or adoption of the cut as the model's default state. ## Layers and spectral views - **Overlay of several models** in one scene: states before and after treatment, fragments recomposed, casts against originals. - **Multispectral view**: where spectral captures exist, the same work can be switched to its infrared and ultraviolet layers, and the underdrawing read in place. ## The record at hand A side panel keeps the model's details and processing history in view, and the work's full record (inventory, materials, dimensions, rights) is one step away in the [Catalog](/en/catalog/). The viewer shows the object; the register answers for it. --- # Gigapixel Studio and viewer Gigapixel photography records the surface of a work in overlapping high-resolution cells and merges them into a single plate of billions of pixels: the whole painting in one image, and in the same image the craquelure, the weave, the single hair of the brush. In the Hub, **Gigapixel Studio** governs the passage from captured cells to finished plate, and the **Gigapixel viewer** opens that plate to anyone you choose, on any device. ## Gigapixel Studio **Acquisitions > Gigapixel Studio** lists every gigapixel capture of the institution, from freshly delivered (raw cells) to finalized (plate ready). Each capture is tied to its work in the [Catalog](/en/catalog/). Opening a capture enters the workbench, which proceeds as a conservator would want it to: deliberately, and with color first. 1. **Collect.** Review the delivered cells, the overview shot and the ColorChecker reference of the session. 2. **Calibrate.** The color profile is built from the ColorChecker capture, so the entire plate answers to a measured standard, not to taste. 3. **Align.** Neighbouring cells are aligned automatically; a control-point editor allows fine correction where the surface demands it, with a preview of the adjustment. 4. **Refine.** Capture sharpening is weighed cell by cell; candidates are compared and the best retained. 5. **Preview.** The assembled plate is inspected before anything is committed. 6. **Stitch.** The final merge runs on the [worker network](/en/node-workers/) and produces a **16-bit master TIFF**, the archival plate, together with the tiled version the viewer streams. Publication is automatic. Where a finished plate was produced elsewhere, it can be deposited directly as a TIFF. ## The Gigapixel viewer The viewer streams only the tiles for the region and magnification you are looking at, which is why a plate of a hundred gigapixels moves fluidly **on any device**, phones included. You travel continuously from the whole composition to the craquelure, as if walking toward the painting without ever being asked to stop. Freshly stitched plates open in a streamed mode even before their tiles are fully prepared. The **Gigapixel Gallery** in the sidebar gathers the published plates of the institution, each leading back to its work in the [Catalog](/en/catalog/), beside the 3D form and the spectral layers of the same piece. --- # The worker network Behind every model that opens instantly and every plate stitched overnight stands the **AerariumChain worker network**: a distributed body of computing nodes, coordinated by the Hub, that carries all the heavy technical work so that no museum has to maintain it alone. ## What it carries - Format conversion, textures and levels of detail for every 3D delivery. - The resolution of raw scanner sessions into finished meshes. - Color profiling, alignment and the final stitching of gigapixel plates. - The preservation derivatives packaged by **DPAC** (Ecomic). - The cloud rendering behind the [3D viewer](/en/3d-viewer/): each viewing session is served live from a node of the network. Every delivery or request becomes a job; nodes declare what they are equipped for (graphics processors, installed software), receive the jobs that match, and the Hub balances the queue, retries what fails, and keeps the ledger. Sensitive material never leaves the AerariumChain pipeline. Administrators watch all of this in the **Worker Monitor**: nodes online, their load and temperature, the queue, the history of jobs. Each node can be tuned, admitted to certain families of work and excluded from others. ## A shared infrastructure for cultural heritage The network is conceived to grow as a **common infrastructure**, in the way great conservation undertakings have always been shared. Museums, public institutions, research bodies and partner companies can join it by operating a node: - **Who may join**: institutions, research organisations, museums and AerariumChain partner companies. - **What a node gives**: computing time for processing and rendering, coordinated automatically by the Hub. - **What a member receives**: processing capacity for its own collections, and a standing in a network whose purpose is the preservation of heritage. An institution interested in operating a node can approach AerariumChain through [aerariumchain.com](https://aerariumchain.com). --- # Store The **Store** is where the Hub acquires new abilities. Open it from the left sidebar: each application is presented as a card; selecting a card opens its notice, with a description, what it offers, and the **Install** action. ## Installing an application 1. Open **Store** in the left sidebar. 2. Select the application's card to read its notice. 3. Choose **Install**. Installed applications take their place in the sidebar, ready for use. Applications marked **Coming soon** announce what is on its way and cannot yet be installed. Whether the Store appears to you at all depends on your role: administrators decide which roles in the institution have access to it. ## DPAC, by Ecomic **DPAC (Digital Preservation and Access Console)**, by **Ecomic**, is the first installable application of the Store, built for the **MiC Digital Library** of the Italian Ministry of Culture. It is the bridge between the digitized collection and its long-term preservation: - It defines the **DPAC catalog template**, the spreadsheet format the Hub's [Catalog](/en/catalog/) and Import Data recognise natively, so the register reads like the official sheet. - Its **Package Manager** assembles preservation packages from the digitized works, deposits them in the Digital Library and **notarizes** them: a certified, tamper-evident record that the deposit took place. - The Hub follows each package (in deposit, deposited, notarized) and protects the packaged derivatives from deletion for as long as a package cites them: the preservation record cannot be quietly unmade. - The heavy work of packaging is done by the Hub's own [worker network](/en/node-workers/); nothing is asked of your machines. Once installed, DPAC stands in the sidebar with its Package Manager. ## Coming soon The shelf grows. Applications already announced: | Application | What it will offer | |-------------|--------------------| | **museAR** | Augmented reality built from your digitized works: models, annotations and narratives laid over the physical collection. By AerariumChain. | | **3DPrint App** | A faithful physical print of a work, commissioned from certified AerariumChain providers directly from its 3D model. | | **MyTotem Manager** | Interactive touch totems for the galleries, composed from your Catalog and deployed to the venue remotely. | | **VideoRender Maker** | Presentation films of the 3D models: turntables, camera paths and lighting, rendered in the cloud. | | **Image Render Maker** | Publication-quality plates of the scanned works, for catalogs, prints and the press office. | | **SweetReach** | Short films from the collection, published to your channels, with their campaigns planned and followed. | Further applications join the Store as partners come aboard.