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Rendering Solidworks Models 3

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titaniumapple

titaniumapple

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Jan 17, 2007
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Hi, I've got a load of consumer product models that I want to render, but Photoworks just doesn't do them justice.

My end goal is to animate the models so that they are spinning on a central vertical axis, whilst also being fully rendered (I may have to do it frame-by-frame if it's too much to do on-the-fly).

Any suggestions on what I can use?

Thanks!
 
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Animator within SolidWorks will do it for you. Several guys here have links to tuorials on how to do it. PhotoWorks will do them justice when used properly.

Chris
SolidWorks 07 3.0/PDMWorks 07
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 04-21-07)
 
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Ok thanks, but can anyone recommend anything besides Photoworks that is just designed to create pretty pictures with minimum setup? Photoworks isn't powerful enough, but 3D Studio Max just confuses me...
 
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Thanks Theophilus, but although that looks good, it's just not realistic enough.

Because I only want to spin a model, I can capture rendered images frame-by-frame so I want to be able to generate the most real-looking images possible.

This is for making it look pretty (for my website), it doesn't have any other purpose!

Thanks
 
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Maxwell Render offers the most realism you're going to find in a rendering package. It has a stand alone studio package and a SolidWorks plug-in. It's not the easiest application to use but once you figure it out it does an excellent job. Be prepared for lots of time however. Unless you have a super computer you can expect 10-50 hours of computer processing time to save a render.

Rob Rodriguez CSWP
Eastern Region SWUGN Representative SW 2007 SP 2.0
 
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Awesome thanks!

My PC isn't too bad, 2.66ghz core 2 duo, 1gb ram and 7950gt gfx, gotta upgrade the RAM but otherwise can't get much better except for a specialised workstation...
 
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Last time I tried, the Maxwell plug-in for SolidWorks was causing crashes (2007--I think it's OK for 2006)--but you don't need to use the plug-in to use Maxwell.

I disagree with the quality able to be obtained with PhotoWorks. I've consistently generated realistic images using it, but this depends on what you want your set-up and rendering time to be to pay for itself. (For the animations I create, realism is normally not the object, but some sort of demonstrative function [often more symbolic than real].) The PhotoWorks interface has been terrible for a long time (although enhanced for 2007) and their default settings simply don't work at all--but the engine behind PhotoWorks is intensely powerful if you can figure out how to access it (Mental Ray engine, I think).

What sort of thing are you trying to render photorealistically? Because of the limited (lame) interface, lots of pointers are available to obtain excellence in particular areas.



Jeff Mowry
Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.
 
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Your PC isn't bad but your still lacking if you want to achieve normal rendering times with Maxwell. I would suggest 4, 8, 16, 32 cores. Maxwell is very CPU intensive and the more processing power you have the better. If you are able ot set up a render farm you'd also achieve much better processing times. I'd also suggest a minimum of 2 gigs or RAM but 3 or 4 would be better. Maxwell will work on your machine, you're just going to find it slow.

Rob Rodriguez CSWP
Eastern Region SWUGN Representative SW 2007 SP 2.0
 
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Ok thanks guys

I think because I haven't seen any examples of renderings done with Photoworks that look really realistic I just don't think it can be done (unless someone can show me a rendering to prove otherwise). I've had numerous attempts at it but the results I get are more functional than realistic.

I've seen great results with Rhinoceros and Cinema 4D though, what do you think of those?
 
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its like any thing take time to learn what you have

ive seen great results with

photoworks
maya
cinema 4d
rhino
3d max
houdini
renderman
brazil
final render

if you can work the software then you can get a result
the photoworks renderer is a good implementation of mental ray into a cad package

learn it before dismissing it
 
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Well all the options listed above are good. However I think that you might want to look into 3DS Max/Maya and V-Ray or Brazil as they seem to be fast mainstream solutions for aimations.
Maxwell would suit you pretty well for stills.

I do have a seat of Maxwell, but have been able to get what I need from Photoworks. These are some of the renders that I get with Photoworks,
Side%20View%20_raw%20render.0.jpg

Shades_Background+copy.jpg

and some of the techniques used are discussed
here ( )
 
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Yeh that's not too shabby at all. I noticed you're an Industrial Designer, is Solidworks the industry standard for Industrial Designers or are there other programs? I'm a Product Designer and I use Solidworks but would like to learn something a bit more freeform...
 
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I would not consider myself a Photoworks advocate. As such if something better comes along I will jump on it. Photoworks has 2 things going for it.
1)Mental Ray Render Engine is fast and realistic
2)It is full integrated into Solidworks and saves time.

Solidworks seems to have "detuned" it somewhat. Softimage XSI and Maya have much more access to the inner workings of Mental Ray than Photoworks. For some reason Solidworks does not provide access like CGI programs do (probably like Matt Lombard said they are trying to dumb down the software so that everyone can play)

I totally get your frustration with Photoworks.
 
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whoah fast reply! Just look at the job postings on coroflot.com

The more CAD based solutions are proE and Solidworks and Rhino
The more freeform based solutions are Rhinoceros 4 and Autodesk StudioTools

Recently I have seen more designers using sub-div programs like Modo or Cinema 4D in conjunction with t-splines for concept modeling.
 
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Another Solution I have found to work pretty well is Autodesk ImageStudio. It renders very well & quickly and features direct connect to your Solidworks files. It was created by Alias the makers of Maya before Audoesk bought them.
 
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Yeh it seems from looking at Coroflot most Industrial Design positions require Alias/AutoDesk (Studiotools I guess, they're not specific) experience
 
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Brian Hill did some stuff with "PhotoWorks 2" a long time ago when it came out (v2004?):

Excellent results at his place, considering that was before the interface enhancements. I learned quite a lot from him about great renderings possible from PhotoWorks.

Alias is probably the ideal for ID stuff. I couldn't afford it, and also made the market niche for myself of bringing my designs into production. SolidWorks does a great job on the latter, and I've learned to be quick enough for rough forms with sketches or modeling clay that the free-form stuff in the computer (such as with Alias) simply isn't as necessary for me (old-school).



Jeff Mowry
Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.
 
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