External Animation/render software 3

[daz18983]

I am having all sorts of problems with Solidworks animator and was wondering if there are any software packages out there which can create animations and renders outside of the solidworks package.

I hear of software such as Renderman and Mentalray? But dont know any info about them and would they improve the animation side of things?

thanks

 

[SBaugh]

There is Camtasia

http://www.techsmith.com/

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

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[daz18983]

i thought camtasia was just a sort of screen capture software?

 

[daz18983]

i was actually thinking of something along the lines of a package or software which opens soldiworks parts or assemblies to animate outside of the whole solidworks interface. Or am i just dreaming here and such a package doesnt exist?

Has anyone used simulator for solidworks?

 

[rockguy]

Check out

http://www.okino.com.

They offer translation, rendering and animation software for many different CAD systems. They are a SolidWorks solution partner.

 

[rockguy]

You could also try IPA from Immersive design and NavisWorks. They offering animation and basic rendering of SW files. I believe they are solution partners as well.

 

[SBaugh]

I guess it is, but if you setup your assembly and move it inside SW it will record it. I use this software to record AVI files to my customers. This is easier to explain to them on how to do things, then me explaining it over the phone.

If you want a program that will open up your SW files, then why not just use SW Animator and contact your VAR. If they really want to help you, they would ask for the files and try to make a file for you, or similiar to what yoru after.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

If you are in the SW Forum Check out the FAQ section

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[CorBlimeyLimey]

daz18983

Rather than spend a whole bunch of money & introduce a whole new set of problems by buying new software, why not solve the problems you are having.
I do not use Animator, but perhaps other forum members may be able to help you if you specify what problems are you having.

Suggest you start a new thread though, if you do.

from (the City of) Barrie, Ontario.

What happens if you get scared half to death twice?

 

[G1DESIGN]

i think maya or 3d max are what your are looking for as an external animation software, either of the two are very good though some folks do use it for technical vizualization its mostly used for movie special effects

however the learning curve is very steep a lot more than animator or photoworks plus to start with you will have to learn how to repurpose cad data to a format either programwill work with more easily ,normally polygons
you can import dxf into max or iges into maya but you need a big processor to cope with the cad heavy data you are bringing in

okino polytrans as mentioned above is what we use to get sw files into maya it keeps model trees intact as in the case of assemblies but also strips out unused entities and converts to polys and so aids significantly in the ipmort of large models

however you get dumb data in with no constraints, mates
or materials so then you have to rebuild a lot of assembly constraints and really work on materials and textures

however this is where the strength of the external animation software shines the results of using animator cant really compete with what you can achieve in something like maya or max also rendering is head and shoulders above what you can produce in photoworks

where it falls over is that if you make a design change to the model you have to go through the entire process again importing assembling reanimating re texturing it is as i said before dumb data and this isnt the case with animator or photoworks inside solidworks

you will see this adds considerable time to the project



mental ray is high end renderer as is renderman

both maya and max have mental ray 3.1 built in as a renderer, photoworks 2 is a very limited cut down version of mental ray from the parent company mental images

it is adequate for engineers wanting to produce nice images with fake global illumination(the bit that make your images look that bit more realistic)

renderman is the daddy think shrek and toy story and thats what renderman is for ,it supports a high end shading language and thats all it does render, to be able to get a good result is quite intense when you compare it to something which is simple like photoworks also its around 15,000 us dollars

I would examine what you want to achieve there is nothing simpler than photoworks and animator for producing animations with a polish on them

some companies need near broadcast quality for corporate presentation or super realistic images that look real ie not computer generated for product launches

If you arent into that then whilst maya and maxarent that much more expensive than buying the photoworks and animator add ins i would say its not worth the effort
and would learn the animator product and photoworks quite good results can be achieved with it

 

[daz18983]

Thanks everyone for your help. From what everyone says i think its gonna be best to stick with photoworks and animator. I'm currently using solidworks 2003 SP0, but were getting a seat of Solidworks 2005 next week. So i'm assuming that the interface and the whole package of photoworks and animator has improved.

thanks

 

[MadMango]

Why don't you try to get current on your service packs for SW and PW and Animator? That might be a contributor to your problems.

"But what... is it good for?"
Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
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[ShaggyPE]

Check out

http://www.bxhdesigns.com

for some excellent examples of what photoworks and animator are capable of.