Import a Pre-Made Mask

Every import starts the same way: click the green + Add Mask (Wizard) button at the top-left. The wizard lists every kind of mask you can create - the two that import a finished mask are the ones we want.

Way 1 - from an image file

In the wizard, choose Import premade image mask (PNG / JPG / BMP) and click Create:

A file dialog opens - choose your image (we used Testmask.png). PassthroughForge turns it into a new mask right away and drops you into the editor: the mask fills the canvas, and the [P/R] Pose panel sits on the right.

Way 2 - from the community gallery

The gallery lives in the editor toolbar, which only appears once a mask is open. So first create an empty mask: open the wizard, pick Empty (paint your own), then Create.

Now the editor is open, and its toolbar shows a Get Community Masks button under Files:

The gallery opens: filter by aircraft, check the rating and download count, then hit Import on the one you want.

Alignment happens in the headset - but you flip the switch at the desktop first. At your PC, press the TRACE VR button in the top bar (or a key you bound):

Now put the headset on. In Trace VR the editor canvas turns transparent - you see your real cockpit straight through it - and the mask is drawn in bright yellow, so it stands out clearly for placement. A small dock floats in front of you with the tools, and on the right the Face Me and Trace VR buttons:

Then it's two moves:

1. Turn to face your real cockpit - look straight at where your panel actually is through the passthrough.
2. Press Face Me - the yellow mask swings round and drops squarely in front of you, over the cockpit. Coarse alignment, one click.

Here's Face Me in action - the imported mask starts adrift, then snaps to face you over the panel. Press Play, and drag to orbit the view:

Face Me got the mask roughly there. Now trim it exactly onto the panel with the keyboard - still in the headset, watching it through passthrough. Everything lives in the [P/R] Pose panel: three numbers for position, three for rotation.

Three pairs of keys slide the selected mask along the three world axes - hold to glide by 1 cm per frame, tap for a single step:

Here's what that looks like - three axis moves walk the mask onto the panel. Press Play, and drag to orbit the view:

Position gets the mask in front of the right spot; rotation makes it lie flat on your panel. Real dashboards are tilted back and often sit at a slight angle - so you'll almost always need a little pitch (tilt) and roll. These live on the numpad:

Watch the mask tilt back to match the dashboard's slope, then roll level. Press Play:

A few more shortcuts round out the alignment - and one button makes it permanent:

• Resize the mask if it's a touch too big or small for your panel: Ctrl+Num + / Ctrl+Num − (uniform scale, aspect kept).
• Fine / Coarse step toggles: Q for fine, E for coarse.
• Overshot everything? Ctrl+Del recenters all masks - or just press Face Me again to re-square and start over.
• Save it. When the mask sits right, hit Save Profile so the position is stored and comes back next launch.

Every one of these keys is listed - and fully re-bindable, including onto HOTAS buttons - under Settings → Mask Shortcuts:

The full default set for placing a mask (all re-bindable under Settings → Mask Shortcuts):

One last thing worth knowing: an imported mask isn't locked - it's a normal mask like any other. You can keep drawing on it with the editor's tools: extend it with the Rectangle or Polygon tool, paint with the Brush, cut bits away with Subtract, or clean up edges with the Eraser. The workflow is always the same: pick a tool, make sure Add (or Subtract) is selected in the Canvas box, draw on the canvas, then hit Finish shape.

Here we took the imported mask from earlier and added a strip along the bottom with the Rectangle tool - one drag, Finish shape, done:

Clicked + Add Mask (Wizard) but the Add new mask popup never appears? The usual culprit is PassthroughForge's Always on Top setting. With it enabled, the picker - and the Windows file dialog it opens when you import an image - can open behind the main window and stay hidden there, so it looks like nothing happened.

Fix it in one click: open Settings and make sure Always on Top is unchecked, then click Add Mask again.