Photoworks Question

[k20attack]

So I have an assembly in Solidworks 2007, and it includes a large tent structure with things in it. My problem is that I am trying to make the tent transparent enough to see the stuff inside, but when I render the thing in photoworks I can not get light to go through the tent material, no matter what I do. I've tried changing the transparency of the tent at the part level and assembly level, I've tried tried changing the transparency of the material in photoworks, increasing the lighting. Nothing seems to work except if I hide or delete the tent all together. If anyone has any suggestions I would appreciate it, thanks.

 

[pdybeck]

You will probably have to adjust the index of refraction of the material and more importantly increase the number of times light is permitted to bounce (ray tracing relection and refraction settings under photoworks document properties). I think the latter will do it for you...

 

[Theophilus]

Sounds like you're controlling your transparency at the SolidWorks level and not the PhotoWorks level. You can select either to render (in PhotoWorks options), but if you're otherwise using PhotoWorks materials, make sure you use a PhotoWorks material that has transparency--simply changing the transparency of the part level (or assembly level) won't affect the PhotoWorks transparency for that part.

So--you can set your PhotoWorks material transparency in the materials tab--but don't do it in any other ways or you won't get the transparency to render. You may also want to use indirect lighting to get the most light bounced around beyond a semi-transparent material such as tent fabric.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

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