You may remember a previous post here detailing the creation of an image for an external hard drive designed by ioSafe. I created the image for SolidWorks who was developing a case study of one of their customers, ioSafe. ioSafe uses SolidWorks to design, in their words, “disaster proof hardware”. More specifically, ioSafe designs, manufactures and sells a variety of data storage devices that have some level of water and fire protection. I was contacted by ioSafe and asked if I’d like to give one of their products a try and write a review for this blog. I of course jumped at the chance and what you’re reading are the results.
ioSafe sent me their 1 TB solo USB external hard drive. Opening the box I found a very well packaged unit secured in place using foam cages. Pulling the unit out of the box I was surprised by its weight and size. I have a couple of other 500 gig external drives here and they are much lighter and smaller. It’s not an unreasonable size at 5″W x 7″H x 11″L with a weight of 15 lbs. I was just expecting something a bit smaller. As you would expect the drive comes with a power supply, USB cable and instruction booklet. I made all the necessary connections and the unit fit nicely on the desk next to my monitor.
I powered up my system and the drive was recognized without issue. Just for reference I’m running Windows Vista 64 as my OS. The Solo is also Mac compatible but you’ll have to reformat the drive before use with your Mac. I copied about 100 gigs of data (drag and drop in Windows Explorer) onto the drive. While the data was copying the blue power lights, visible on the front panel danced around letting me know things were working. The unit was extremely quiet, if the power lights hadn’t been on I wouldn’t have even known it was working. I moved some files off the drive and opened a few SolidWorks files from the drive just to be sure everything was OK. It all worked as expected. Set up and use were easy and to this point the Solo wasn’t any different than other external drives I’ve used. What I really wanted to know however was if it could live up to the claims of being disaster proof. We are about to find out.
The ioSafe Solo housing is built from alloy steel. It has patented air flow (FloSafe) and water barrier (HydroSafe) technology along with a proprietary fireproof insulation material (DataCast). According to the specs it can withstand fire with temperatures up to 1550 degrees for 30 minutes and can be submerged in up to 10 feet of water (fresh or salt) for a period of 72 hours. All of this sounds impressive and reads well on paper but does it really work? Can this drive be thrown in a fire for 30 minutes, burned until cherry red and then dropped into a bucket of muddy water for an hour and still keep my data safe and accessible? Only one way to find out!
Overall I’m very impressed with the ioSafe Solo drive. It stood up to open flame, intense heat, water, mud, dirt, and was even dropped a couple of times. The housing took a beating but the hard drive inside didn’t even show a scratch. Most importantly the data remained safe and usable. I work with customer files everyday and of course back them up routinely. I’m a small business and because of this off site backups aren’t really possible, my backups are onsite and this makes a product like the Solo very attractive to me. It offers another layer of data protection for events that I have very little control over. If you’re in a similar situation or you’d just like more peace of mind in protecting your data then I’d highly recommend this product.
If you’re a SolidWorks user group member ioSafe is offering you a 20% discount on the product reviewed here. To take advantage of this offer contact your local SolidWorks user group leader.
If you feel the tests I put the Solo through weren’t severe enough, have a look at these videos.
The SolidWorks 2011 Beta contest is underway! This year the beta contest has a number of smaller contest running inside the larger overall contest. One that I like is the specific PhotoView 360 2011 contest. The PV360 contest gives you a chance to win some great cash prizes while creating renderings.
Did SolidWorks give PhotoView 360 2011 a comparable feature set to PhotoWorks?
Does PhotoView 360 2011 support animation?
Is PhotoView 360 2011 integrated into SolidWorks or stand alone?
SolidWorks has released a new Step By Step Guide, “Creating Animations with SolidWorks“. This guide is the replacement for the Motion Manager Step By Step Guide and has seen a lot of enhancements. At 18 chapters and 516 pages it’s almost double the size of the old guide. before we talk about the new guide let’s take a moment to discuss the included DVD. The DVD housed in the back cover contains all the files needed to follow along with the guide examples. The files are in both a finished and unfinished state which means double the required information is burned onto the DVD. Becasue of this the DVD executable file needs to run in two stages requiring a fair amount of time to install all the data. DO NOT REMOVE THE DVD until the entire installation process has completed. Total install time on my M-6300 took about 60 minutes.
Chapter 1: As you would expect chapter 1 is an introduction to the motion manager UI. It also talks about the different kinds of motion studies, types of motion available in the software, motion drivers and gives a general overview on the process of building an animation.
Chapter 2 & 3: In chapter 2 the guide covers using the animation wizard to build rotation, explode and collapse motion and it also covers the different interpolation modes available in the software. You’ll save your first avi file in chapter 2 and you’ll also learn some good information about video file types, codecs and the different save options available. Chapter 3 shows the finer points of editing the various time line elements to better control the output. You also learn what the various color codes are for the keys and timeline as well as how to group edit and scale the entire animation.
Chapter 4:This is where you are exposed to view orientation for the first time. You won’t cover camera views here (that has its own chapter) but you will cover the other SolidWorks viewing controls as well as the perspective setting which can be very important depending on the type of animation you’re creating.
Chapter 5: Chapters 1-4 show you the basics of creating simple animations. For some users this will be the extent of their animation needs and many could stop here with the information they have picked up. Chapter 5 is where the real fun begins however and it’s the start of creating more intermediate level animations for users that need that capability. In chapter 5 you’ll learn all about animating appearances, lights and creating photo realistic output. If basic animations are good then animations that look pretty are better and chapter 5 helps you look pretty.
Chapter 6 & 7: These chapters continue on the intermediate level path and cover the various ways to drive motion in your animation. Free movement (with the triad and without), motors (all the various types) and mates. I’m covering it quickly here but these chapters go into a great amount of depth and do a great job of covering a lot of information.
Chapter 8:This chapter is entirely new information and could previously only be found by searching the web or SolidWorks forums. Chapter 8 covers how to animate parts changing size and shape including how to animate a spring compressing and extending. It also shows the use of equations in animations and has a great example of a wheel and suspension components.
Chapter 9: In chapter 9 you’ll use physical simulation techniques to help drive and control motion in your animation. If you’d like to show your motion being governed by contact forces, motors, gravity, springs etc. you’ll want to have a look at chapter 9.
Chapter 10: I really like this chapter because it covers a difficult to answer commonly asked question, ”What is the correct way to create this type of animation”? This question is difficult to answer because just like in SolidWorks there are many ways to achieve the same end result in your animation. There really is no “right” or “wrong” method but different methods offer different pros and cons and chapter 10 illustrates this.
Chapters 11 & 12: This is where the guide covers using cameras in animations and boy does it ever cover the topic. There is so much information in these two chapter and some of it is borrowed from the PhotoWorks Step By Step Guide. Creating cameras, setting the properties, depth of field, saving cameras, animating them, animating multiple cameras, using camera sleds. Everything you wanted to know about SolidWorks cameras is in this chapter.
Chapter 13: You’ll expand on your camera knowledge in chapter 13. Here you’ll cover walk-through and walk-around animations. Fixing a camera target point, following a path, making edits, everything you need to know about moving around or through your geometry.
Chapter 14: until this point the guide has covered creating animations using core SolidWorks functionality. Chapter 14 covers ways to use your motion analysis study from SolidWorks Motion to create an animation. It also discusses when and when not to use a motion study for creating an animation.
Chapter 15: What I think might be the best chapter in the guide. Chapter 15 covers post processing which is a very important part of creating your final animation even though it happens outside of SolidWorks. Often the video or image output from SolidWorks is just a small part of the final animation you’ll create. These elements will be compiled with many others in video editing or compiling software to create the final product. This again is information that in the past would have been difficult to find but is now included in the guide.
Chapter 16: Titled, “Advanced Topics” chapter 16 also covers information a user would have had to search out on their own in the past. Animating configuration changes is in there as is one of my favorites, animating dynamic section cuts. This happens to be a very powerful technique for creating many different effects such as pouring liquid. Chapter 16 also covers some of the common troubleshooting topics users have.
Chapter 17: This chapter covers the animation of large assemblies. The example used is the miter saw which you might remember from the PhotoWorks Step by Step Guide. You’ll learn the techniques and settings available to make animating large assemblies more manageable.
Chapter 18: The final chapter in the guide gives some general tips and tricks for creating better animations.
The animations playing in this post are from the DVD found in the back cover of the guide.
This newest Step By Step Guide covering animation from SolidWorks is a huge leap over the earlier editions. Each chapter includes example files and case studies that allow you to follow along and create all the steps shown in the guide. The guide is in full color and most pages have at least one screen shot making it easy to follow along with the software. Most of the examples use interesting models and some “real life” animation situations. A lot of new information has been added to cover topics that users would need to search out on their own in the past making this guide a true one stop learning place. SolidWorks is capable of creating some really nice animations if you understand how to use the tools provided. This guide makes understanding those tools easier. If you’d like to learn more about creating animation in SolidWorks I highly recommend this guide.
My hat is off to the people at SolidWorks responsible for the production of this guide. The information, example files and final videos represent a huge amount of work and hours to create, edit and fine tune into a final product. They’ve done a great job with this guide!
If you’d like to explore the guide more or purchase a copy you can do so by contacting your VAR or clicking here.
As a full disclosure statement, I do sell this guide as well as the PhotoWorks Step By Step Guide on this blog. I do receive a small profit from each guide sold on my site.
Dassault had the CAD world talking when it showed a cloud based version of SolidWorks at SolidWorks World 2010. I sat in the audience during the conference and listen to Bernard Charles talk about the Dassault family of products and their mantra of “3d for all”. That’s why I was surprised when I learned the newest software release from Dassault isn’t cloud based and has nothing to do with 3D. Surprisingly, it’s all about 2D and it’s named DraftSight.
DraftSight is not a replacement for the SolidWorks 2D Editor (formerly known as SolidWorks DWG Editor). The two applications have similarities but are based on different technology. Like the SolidWorks 2D Editor, Draftsight reads and writes DWG and DXF files. It functions basically the same as the SolidWorks 2D Editor and other 2D CAD software you’ve previously used. DraftSight is aimed at the 3D CAD customer who needs to keep a seat or two of 2D CAD current to work with legacy data, do some 2D drafting, create schematics and offer other company departments (sales for example) some simple drafting tools. It’s not limited to this type of work however. You could easily use DraftSight to create 2D layout and detail drawings from scratch for any design in a variety of industries. Unlike the Solidworks 2D Editor that was free to all SolidWorks subscription customers, Draftsight is free for everyone. It will also be offered in Mac and Linux flavors later this year.
DraftSight is more than just software. Its also about community. When you activate your free copy of DraftSight you’re also signing up to be part of the DraftSight community. The idea being, in order for the software to grow, mature and be widely adopted it needs to have a supportive user community behind it. The idea is based on the open source software model. With open source software, the source code is freely distributed, upgraded and altered by users to add features and functions. The DraftSight source code will not be distributed but it will be updated and enhanced based on user feedback. This feedback will be collected and voted on by the user community in much the same was as SolidWorks Brainstorm works. This allows you, the user input on the software’s future without actually having to know how to write code.
After using DraftSight for a few hours, trying to dig in and find out what’s under the hood I’ve learned that its really not that much different than other 2D packages. The software downloaded and installed in about 5 minutes (it’s only a 47 meg package). All the features and functions are there, the UI is very familiar, its very stable and it’s performance is good. I’ve had no issues opening dwg files created in AutoCAD 2004 and they write fine as well. It’s really a very functional, feature rich 2D product and best of all it’s free. Overall in my short usage time I like DraftSight. It’s UI is much better than the SolidWorks 2D Editor mainly because the tool icons are much more readable and understandable. It also feels like a more modern interface than the 2D Editor and it has a good amount of customizability. If you prefer to enter commands on the command line you can do that and you’ll find the commands you know from your previous 2D software work in DraftSight. Layers, line styles, hatching, blocks, references, grips, object snaps, patterns, tables, model space, paper space, full help files, etc. It’s all there.
Most of my 2D CAD experience has been with AutoCAD LT. I’ve also used the full version of AutoCAD but honestly LT meets my 2D needs just fine. I don’t run LISP routines or scripting and if I need any 3D capability I go to SolidWorks so, for me LT is all I need. DraftSight will have no issues replacing my seat of AutoCAD LT and in my opinion AutoCAD LT is about the level of product the current release of DraftSight is. I don’t use my seat of AutoCAD LT all that often but the need does arise on occasion and it’s becoming harder and harder to do this as I upgrade my computer and operating systems. My older seat of software isn’t compatible with the newest operating systems but I don’t use the software enough to justify the upgrade costs. This makes DraftSight a very attractive product for me since it can meet all my 2D needs and it costs me nothing.
Later this year the public beta of DraftSight will end and the release version will be available for free to everyone. At that time DraftSight will also offer some add-ins to the product which will be on a purchase basis. The current list of add-ins is small but that will chnage over time as the community grows and requests more capability.
Currently the add-in products available for purchase will be:
API extensions for those users that would like to customize, automate and integrate the product.
Tech support for those users who need help and or training.
Network licensing for those users that would like to be able to manage multiple installs. The network license add-in also includes the API extensions and tech support.
If you have some spare time in the near future and are looking for a very capable 2D drafting application at a very attractive price (free) download DraftSight and give it a try.
The Next NVTSWUG meeting will be held on Thursday June 10th at NRG Systems from 4-8pm.
We have a great meeting lined up for June. Everything has fallen into place to make this meeting a one of a kind event. This meeting will start a bit earlier than our typical meetings so please make arrangements to leave work early if you can.
The meeting location:
The meeting location will be at NRG Systems in Hinesburg. Driving directions can be found here. Since 1982, NRG Systems has manufactured products to help our customers measure and understand the wind. We serve the wind energy industry exclusively, from wind farm developers and turbine manufacturers to electric utilities and research institutes, in more than 135 countries. NRG is also a SolidWorks customer and a member of NVTSWUG. We greatly appreciate the use of their facility for this meeting. NRG has been kind enough to offer tours of their “green” facility for all NVTSWUG members before the meeting from 4-5pm. If you’d like a tour please arrive to the meeting at this time.
The presentations:
We’ll have two presentations for this meeting. We will be lucky enough to be hosting SolidWorks CEO Jeff Ray for the first presentation. I expect Jeff to speak for about 45-60 minutes about the future direction of SolidWorks. I’m sure he’ll also be open for questions as he’s typically very receptive to them at these types of events.
The second presentation will cover the SolidWorks sustainability software. The full version of Sustainability is an add on product to SolidWorks but every seat of SolidWorks does include Sustainability Xpress so the presentation will be useful to all users. In a nut shell SolidWorks Sustainability helps engineers to design more environmentally friendly products by providing information on how design aspects (materials, manufacturing process, location, etc) impact the world around us.
Here’s the agenda: 4:00-5:00pm ……..Tours of the NRG facility
5:00-5:30pm …….Official meeting start, food, the latest NVTSWUG and SolidWorks news
5:30-6:30pm…….. Jeff Ray speaks
6:30-6:45pm………Break
6:45-7:45pm …….Sustainability presentation
The official meeting start time is 5pm which is 1 hour earlier than our usual meeting start time. The agenda is a bit loose and there should be time in there for some chatting and networking.
As always we’ll have food and beverages.
If you’re in the Hinnesburg, Vermont area feel free to stop in.
Often times when creating rendered images for marketing or promotion purposes you’ll need to use a variety of tools to reach an end result.It would be great if you were able to simply set up something in PhotoView 360 or PhotoWorks, process the image and it would be complete but that is rarely the case.Most times I’m contracted to create the rendered image results of a SolidWorks model only.That image is then turned over to the marketing graphic designers where they use various tools to create a composite image for their specific needs.Most of the time marketing will dictate the specific view(s), colors, size, etc they will require and my work has to fit their specifications.On a recent project however I was provided a SolidWorks model and given complete freedom to create any image I wished.Fun!
I was contracted to create an image for the ioSafe Solo product.Not only did the final image need to showcase the product but it had to be visually interesting as well. ioSafe markets their product as being waterproof and fireproof, what better way to create visual interest and promote product features than to incorporate some of this into the image.I had a visual in my head of what I wanted to create and I knew the tools available to me in SolidWorks would not be enough to achieve the idea.I knew I had to use software more suited to the task of advanced rendering and for this task I chose modo.The image at the top of this post is the final image I created.It’s the output which came directly from modo, no image retouching or post processing what so ever.Let’s a take a closer look at how I combined SolidWorks and modo to achieve the final results.
First I started in SolidWorks with the ioSafe Solo model.I’d like to point out the assembly file was saved as a surface part file so what I had to work with was a collection of surface bodies.This makes my job a little tougher because surface bodies do have some quirkiness when being used to create rendered images.I would have preferred the native SolidWorks file or an assembly file saved as a part file using solid bodies.I applied appearances and decals (painted the model) in SolidWorks since it’s easier to do this work there and then transfer that information to modo on file import.
I then imported the file into modo using the importer found in the soon to be released SolidWorks kit.The importer is essentially the same one used in PhotoView 360 and it does a decent job of converting the appearance and decal information.It’s not always 100% correct on the appearance and decal conversion but it’s fairly easy to clean up mistakes made during file import. I should point out I’m working with a beta version of the importer, the released version should have any kinks worked out of it.The surface geometry imported without issue.
Next step was to add the water geometry to the modo scene and make the model on screen closer to the image in my head.This was really where the difficult part began and the reason why I chose to create this image using modo.Water, splashes, water drops are created using a more organic type of modeling than that found in SolidWorks.That’s not to say you couldn’t model those things in SolidWorks but I think it’s fair to say you couldn’t model them easily.Modo being a sub D modeler is great at modeling organic type geometry.I’m a novice modo user.I’ve played with the rendering and animation areas of modo and gone through many of the training tutorials to get a better grasp and comfort level.I’ve never modeled anything in modo outside of a collection of basic spheres, cubes and odd shapes so; creating “water” in modo was going to be a challenge for me even though modo made this type of geometry creation easier than SolidWorks.
This is where the “Splash Kit” came in.Luxology has created some kits which speed up certain processes for the user.Currently there is a PAD kit, Splash Kit, HDRE Kit, Slik Kit and soon you’ll be seeing a SolidWorks Kit.The splash kit comes with a variety of pre defined meshes, materials, and environments that makes creating or adding liquid geometry around your model (in our case SolidWorks model) easy.I say liquid because it doesn’t have to be water.It could be milk, blood, chocolate, cola, anything really.I found some predefined splash meshes I liked, drag and dropped them into the modo scene and then resized them to better fit with the imported SolidWorks geometry.Once I had the basic geometry layout I then used some sculpting tools to fine tune the water mesh around the drive model. This was a great learning experience since modeling in modo is such a different mindset than modeling in SolidWorks.My first attempts at adjusting the mesh I wanted to move everything very precisely, having perfect intersections where geometry met and having the water mesh match perfectly with the drive mesh.In modo this “I need to move it exactly ½” mindset isn’t really necessary.It’s more of a feeling of an artist working in clay than an engineer machining something exact on the CNC.The entire process took some time as I was learning on the fly but the Splash kit includes training videos that show you how to work with the various aspects of the kit.It made the process much easier.
Once the geometry layout was complete all I really had to do was complete the rendering work.This was fairly straight forward as modo can work in a very similar fashion as Photoview 360 if you choose to do that.I used some of the predefined materials and environments included with the splash kit which is as easy as drag and drop, much like PhotoView 360.With my materials and lighting ready to go I then set up my camera view(s) which took some time.It’s not terribly difficult to do this but I found it challenging at first to move the camera into the position I was looking for.This is mainly due to the mouse controls in modo.The mouse in modo works nothing like the mouse in SolidWorks or PhotoView 360 for navigating a viewport.You need to learn the combination keyboard shortcuts and mouse buttons to effectively navigate and this was difficult for me since I’m NOT a keyboard person.The upcoming SolidWorks Kit will have a SolidWorks mouse setting which will make this easier for SolidWorks users.After using modo for a while however I did pick up the navigation controls and now it’s almost second nature when using the application.
Now that I had the camera views set I just had to do some test renders and adjust some of the render settings.Test renders are as easy as selecting the render option from the drop down menu and the render window is the same as the one found in PhotoView 360 although it does have a few added controls.Adjusting the render settings isn’t difficult but it does take some time to learn what the settings do and what values work best.Having a multicore CPU greatly helps in this area as more cores means faster render performance.
In the end I was able to utilize three tools, SolidWorks, modo and the Splash kit to achieve the idea in my head.The final image probably would have looked very different with the use of only one or two of these tools.Modo gives the SolidWorks user the ability to create more advanced renderings and animations than can be done utilizing the SolidWorks tools (Motion, PhotoView 360, PhotoWorks).Modo does have a learning curve and you do have to put forth an effort to become comfortable with the product.If higher end rendering an animation is your goal then the time spent learning modo will not be wasted.Once the future SolidWorks kit is released the tranisition from SolidWorks to modo will be easier but not automatic.
It’s been in the works for a while an now it’s finally here. The SolidWorks User Group Network has a new website! The new site sheds the “homegrown” feel of the old for a fresh modern look. All the information you’d expect to find about SolidWorks user groups is there. It’s been dressed up a bit and repackaged for easier navigation which can oly be a good thing.
What kind of information will you find at the new SWUGN.org? How to become a user group leader
Search local groups in your area
Meeting calendar for future meetings
Contact info for SWUGN representatives
Benefits of being a user group member and leader
User group support
Upcoming SWUGN Summits
I’ve really just scratched the surface here. If it’s been a while since you visited SWUGN.org you should check out the new look. While you’re there find a group in your area, check when their next meeting is and attend. You’ll be glad you did.
Last fall SolidWorks issued this announcement about the retirement of PhotoWorks and the future of PhotoView 360.
Beginning with the release of SolidWorks 2011, PhotoView 360 will now be the standard photorealistic rendering solution for all SolidWorks software versions moving forward.
PhotoWorks will no longer be available. With the launch of SolidWorks 2011, SolidWorks software and PhotoView 360 will provide the equivalent rendering capabilities that are now available in PhotoWorks, including, but not limited to:
- The creation and reuse of custom appearances, scenes, and decals
- The ability to directly render different configurations, display states, and model changes
- The production of rendered animations from a SolidWorks Motion study
- The ability to use physical lights in renderings
- The scheduling of renderings to be completed later
This announcement was meant to set PhotoWorks users minds at ease since many of them felt PhotoView 360 wasn’t in a position to replace PhotoWorks. PhotoView 360 simply didn’t have a deep enough feature set and a lot of catch up would have to be played in order for it to be ready to replace PhotoWorks in one release cycle. Even though SolidWorks made the announcement with the best of intentions its vague nature left unanswered questions and skepticism.
With skepticism also came speculation.
What exactly would the 2011 version of PV360 look like?
Would we see full integration into the SolidWorks window?
Would there be stand alone and integrated versions?
Would we have more features than PhotoWorks offered?
Would there be a mac version?
Would PhotoView 360 be a native 64 bit application?
Would animation support be the same as PhotoWorks or enhanced with modo type tools?
Would we be able to create custom appearances from scratch (using a texture for example)?
Would decal functionality be part of PhotoView 360 rather than SolidWorks?
Would we have greater control over appearance mapping type, location and scale?
Would we be able to transfer cameras from SolidWorks to PhotoView 360?
During the Wednesday general session at SolidWorks World 2010 we were able to see some of PhotoView 360 2011 in action. The screen shots and descriptions were short but I was able to see enough to have a good idea of what PhotoView 360 2011 will be like. I was also able to talk with Ron Bates, senior manager of graphical applications, at SolidWorks. Ron couldn’t specifically comment about future releases but he could comment on things shown during the general session and was also able to give some generalized answers to certain questions. So, lets start going down our speculation question list and see what we know.
What exactly would the 2011 version of PV360 look like?
Would we see full integration into the SolidWorks window? These two questions can be answered together. From the SolidWorks World general session demo it looks as though PV360 2011 will see full integration into the SolidWorks window. In a similar fashion to what PhotoWorks users have now, the appearance pane was on the right of the screen, the render manager was on the left of the screen, the work was being done in the SolidWorks graphics window and the PV360 preview was opened in it’s own window. It actually appeared that RealView now has the ability for the users to modify, create and save custom appearances and this RealView information is carried into PhotoView 360. This actually gives the standard SolidWorks user greater control over RealView appearances which is a good thing I think. The user has the choice of the standard SolidWorks viewing mode or RealView. If the user wants to see the rendered version of the graphics area they enable the PV360 preview window. Some people we’re worried about the full Integration of PV360 into SolidWorks because they liked the current PV360 ability to be able to process a render and work in SolidWorks at the same time. Ron has confirmed, even with the new full integration users will still be able to work in SolidWorks while a render is processing. To go one step further, users will be able to continue to work on the same model in SolidWorks they are rendering with PV360. This isn’t possible in the current standalone version.
Would there be stand alone and integrated versions? There was no mention of a stand alone version of PhotoView 360 during the general session demo. If it’s true then the PhotoView 360 we’re using in 2010 will cease to exist and the UI, which many people seem to like will disappear with it. Ron would neither confirm or deny a standalone version but did say technically it’s possible to have both.
Would we have more features than PhotoWorks offered? It was impossible to answer this question from what was shown at the general session. I think SolidWorks may have found just matching the current PhotoWorks features was challenging enough in the short window of time they are working in. Ron didn’t comment on PV360 features beyond 2011 but did reiterate the information given in the fall announcement and made it clear the user would be able to achieve all the same things they could in PhotoWorks with PV360 2011. Contour rendering, scheduled renders, reflective and shadow floors, custom appearances, configuration support, direct lights, rendered animations……..it’s all there.
Would there be a mac version? There was no mention of a mac version of PV360 but since there is now full integration with SolidWorks and SolidWorks on the cloud seems to be in the not to distance future then it would be true that PhotoView 360 would be operating system independent along with SolidWorks. The main reason behind the standalone and mac version question I believe stems from the desire that marketing or graphics people would like to be able ot create renderings from engineering data on their own without needing a seat of SolidWorks or relying on someone from engineering to complete this task. Looks like this ability will not be available for 2011.
Would PhotoView 360 be a native 64 bit application? Whether installed on a 32 or 64 bit operating system PhotoView 360 is a 32 bit application. This is important because that means it’s bound by the memory limitations of a 32 bit application. Currently, it’s quite possible your able to open and work on a large data set in 64 bit SolidWorks but unable to render that data in photoView 360 because of it’s 32 bit memory limits. I was hoping there would be a 64 bit version of PV360 for 2011. No mention was made of this during the general session but since PhotoView 360 has been fully integrated into SolidWorks this would mean the 64 bit version of SolidWorks would install a 64 bit version of PhotoView 360 by default. I posed this logic to Ron during our talk and he did confirm that’s what will happen. So, there will be a 64 bit version of PhotoView 360 for 2011. Nice!
If you’re a modo user then you already know 64 bit modo does not support the import of SolidWorks files. The user needs to import the SolidWorks file in the 32 bit version of modo, save in the modo format and then open the file in the 64 bit version. This is because Luxology licenses the SolidWorks file importer from SolidWorks. It’s the same importer PhotoView 360 uses. If a native 64 bit version of PhotoView 360 is on the horizon then I’m speculating the ability for 64 bit modo to import SolidWorks files is coming soon as well. Oh, I hope so. Just to stretch that thought a bit more, is it possible we might see a 64 bit version of PhotoView 360 in a 2010 service pack? I asked Ron this question and all I received was a smile and these words, "anything is possible".
Would animation support be the same as PhotoWorks or enhanced with modo type tools? The general session demo showed a short rendered animation of a blender rotating on a table. PhotoView 360 was the rendering tool used along with SolidWorks Motion. There were no specific details on how the animation was created but I suspected the current motion tools were used and PhotoView 360 was selected as the render buffer at the time of save. Exactly the same way you’d use PhotoWorks with Motion now. Ron did confirm this was the case. No new tools in terms of rendered animations but we may see some in the future.
Would we be able to create custom appearances from scratch (using a texture for example)?
Would decal functionality be part of PhotoView 360 rather than SolidWorks?
Would we have greater control over appearance mapping type, location and scale?
Would we be able to transfer cameras from SolidWorks to PhotoView 360?
We can really answer all these questions with one word, integration. Now that PhotoView 360 has been integrated into the SolidWorks window all the tools already found inside SolidWorks for things like cameras, lighting, decals, appearance controls, etc. can be used with PhotoView 360. I have to think it’s much more time and cost effective for SolidWorks to integrate PhotoView 360 technology into the SolidWorks window rather than re-write these tools for a standalone version of PhotoView 360. I’m sure full integration was part of the plan all along but SolidWorks didn’t have time to make this happen in one release. Rather than give the user a fraction of the functionality they had with PhotoWorks, SolidWorks chose to provide both rendering solutions until the integration of PhotoView 360 was complete. We’ve come full circle now with the 2011 release and I think the PhotoWorks user will feel very comfortable with the changes. We now really have what PhotoWorks users have been asking for all along. New underlying technology that makes rendered image creation much easier and a streamlined more intuative user interface.
Special thanks to Ron Bates and Marlon Banta from SolidWorks. Both of these gentlemen have listened to me ramble on and ask questions for years about rendering. I may have even complained a time or two.
It will be a while before SolidWorks makes the presentations from SolidWorks World 2010 available for download. Luckily for you I’m able to make four of those presenations available now.
Two of the presentation were created by me.
PhotoView 360: instant images
Find out how easy photorealistic rendering can be with PhotoView 360. In this session, attendees learn how to apply materials, set up the scene, explore the new features of PhotoView 360 2010 and watch the image come to life. Find out how easy photorealistic rendering can be with PhotoView 360. In this session, attendees learn how to apply materials, set up the scene, explore the new features of PhotoView 360 2010 and watch the image come to life.
PhotoView 360: Maximum Realism. Attendees will learn techniques to better utilize the tools in SolidWorks and PhotoView 360 to create images of the highest levels of realism. We’ll also learn to use photo editing software with PhotoView 360 to fine tune final images.
Two of the presentations were created by Ron Bates
Visualization 101 – The Basics of Appearances, Materials and Rendering Understand the basics of appearances and rendering. Understand how colors, textures and PhotoWorks/PhotoView materials are consolidated to give users a single workflow of changing the model to get desired look and feel.
Visualization 201 – Creating great Images Easily with RealView and PhotoView 360 Attendees will be able to grasp how easy it is to create realistic images of their models for basic use in presentations or otherwise.
I've been a member of the SolidWorks user community for many
years. This blog is an extension of that community involvement and allows
me to share what I hope is useful information with a wider audience of users.
In compliance with the new FTC blogger guidelines and in an effort to have full
transparency with my readers I need to post some full disclosure statements.
*I am a member of the DS SolidWorks user group program as both a group leader and
regional representative. I am not compensated for my user group
involvement.
*DS SolidWorks Corporation has paid for my travel,
accommodations, and some meals for various user group events including
SolidWorks World.
*I am in occasional contact with employees at DS SolidWorks Corporation and am
sometimes asked to provide feedback on new products or programs. I am not
compensated for these efforts.
*I provide occasional consulting services to DS SolidWorks Corporation, for which
I receive compensation.
*DS SolidWorks Corporation provides me with a license of SolidWorks Office
Premium.
You may remember a previous post here detailing the creation of an image for an external hard drive designed by ioSafe. I created the image for SolidWorks who was developing a case study of one of their customers, ioSafe. ioSafe uses SolidWorks to design, in their words, “disaster proof hardware”. More specifically, ioSafe designs, manufactures and sells a variety of data storage devices that have some level of water and fire protection. I was contacted by ioSafe and asked if I’d like to give one of their products a try and write a review for this blog. I of course jumped at the chance and what you’re reading are the results.
Last fall SolidWorks issued this announcement about the retirement of PhotoWorks and the future of PhotoView 360. 
