---
title: "Aim Vicon cameras"
canonical: "https://help.vicon.com/space/Nexus212/11245419/Aim%20Vicon%20cameras"
format: markdown
---
> ℹ️ **Note**   
> ℹ️ Aiming cameras is useful for providing an initial, approximate calibration, before you fully calibrate the cameras as described in [Calibrate Vicon cameras](https://vicon-help.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/Nexus212/pages/11248865).

Before you aim your Vicon cameras, ensure that they are displayed in the **3D Perspective** view.

Vicon camera positioning changes in real time. When you physically move a camera in the capture volume, you should be able to see that its representation moves correspondingly in the **3D Perspective** view. If you can't see the cameras in the **3D Perspective** view, or if you want to change the way the cameras are displayed, press F7 to open the **Options** dialog box, and on the left, ensure **Camera Positions** is selected. If required, change the **Properties** on the right.  

When you have roughly positioned the cameras in the volume, you can use the **Aim Cameras** section of the **System Preparation** **Tools** pane to optimize their positions, before running a full camera calibration. 

![image](media://9ed22c95-63b6-4801-b8fe-c5e99ac28881)

> ⚠️ **Important**   
> ⚠️ To aim Vicon cameras, you must use the calibration device supplied with your Vicon system. To aim digital video cameras, you must use an Active Wand.

> Macro (scroll-pagebreak)

** **

**To optimize the position of Vicon cameras:**

1. In the **Resources** pane, ensure Nexus is in Live mode.
2. In the **Options** dialog box (press F7), under the **General View Options** section, select the **Target Volume** option.
3. On the right side of the dialog box, update the properties of the target volume to reflect the dimensions of your capture volume.
4. View the Vicon camera feedback by doing the following:
  1. In the view pane, select the **Camera** view.
  2. In the **Camera** view toolbar, on the **View** drop-down list, select **3D Overlay**.
  3. In the **System Resources** tree, click the cameras that you want to aim to select them.
    A virtual representation of your target volume is overlaid on the 2D data from the camera image.
5. In the **System Preparation Tools** pane, expand the **Set Volume Origin** section and from the **L-Frame** drop-down list select the **Active Wand** or **5Marker Wand & L-Frame** calibration object.<span style="color: #ff0000"> </span>
6. In the capture volume, place the calibration object flat on the floor in the center of the capture volume at the desired origin position.  
In the **Aim Cameras** section, click **Start** to begin the camera-aiming process.  
Nexus starts attempting to identify the calibration object in each camera view, and the **Start** button switches to its **Stop** setting.
7. In the **System Resources** tree, select the camera you want to position and ensure that you can see the calibration object in the **Camera** view.
8. Physically move a Vicon camera in the capture volume and check its coverage against the target volume.
9. Repeat steps 7–8 for each Vicon camera, until they are all correctly aimed at the calibration object.