Well surprise, surprise. You don’t have to wait till SolidWorks 2009 Pre-release 2 comes out to try PhotoView 360, the new rendering software announced by SolidWorks and Luxology is now available for anyone with SolidWorks 2009 to poke around in.
You’ll want to see the First Look Ricky Jordan has along with Gabi Jack rendering some models for her first time ever.
I’ll have some rendering up moments from now to show you some of the capabilities PhotoView 360 has. Until then try it for yourself. Download PhotoView 360
UPDATE:
Ok, I’ve had my chance to get into PV360 and run some rendering for you to see some of the different capabilities. Here’s some rendering just created:
Platinum-plated Door Handle
Yes, a door handle that is platinum-plated. It’s for a custom VIP aircraft. This is the first model I opened. Here’s the rendering I created and the video of the process, open to final rendering, for the first time with no idea how to use it.
Video of Door handle process
PhotoView 360: Quick Rendering for SolidWorks Models from Solidsmack on Vimeo.
Polycarbonate Crystal Storage Holder
Clear object take up a lot of resources on the computer. I set these appearances in SolidWorks and PhotoView 360 did a great job of bringing in the appearances along with the model. The clear materials really bogged down my processors and it took a bit to repaint and move the model around. Here’s the crystal storage in SolidWorks prior to bringing into PhotoView 360 and the rendering after bringing it in.
Crystal Storage in SolidWorks
Crystal Storage rendered in PhotoView 360
Crystal Storage Detail rendered in PhotoView 360
Plumbing System
Not as exciting, but a test at applying a lot of materials to different parts. You don’t have to apply material to every part. It recognizes the same parts and applies the material to all of them. This works great for nuts and bolts or fitting. Here’s the before, during and after shots of the plumbing system.
Plumbing System in SolidWorks
Plumbing System in opened in PhotoView 360
Plumbing System in PhotoView 360 with materials applied
Plumbing System in PhotoView 360 final rendering
Overview of PhotoView360
This program is a lot of fun to work in. It’s as easy as applying the appearances in SolidWorks 2009. It’s fun because it’s simple, but it’s also basic on features. This is simply for applying materials and scenes quickly to get some great looking and very appealing images of your design. It’s ‘pre-rendering’ the model as you work in it, moving around and applying materials. This can slow it down, especially with transparent materials, but on opaque materials it’s very quick, as is adjusting colors.
It sucked the resources out of my Dual-Core computer pretty fast, the models with transparent materials in particular, so if I’m going to be using this more often I may look into a workstation with more cores. One thing I wish was easier to handle is rotating the model. It takes a little getting use to. Its more like manipulating the scene rather than the model. Speaking of the scene, it would also be nice to set the ‘floor’ or bottom of the model in order to get the model to look as if it’s sitting on a surface.
I love this. If you haven’t tried it out. go, immediately and download it. Tell me what you think in the comments.
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You are right about this thing sucking power!
You can change the floor or bottom
Sorry meant to add. One of the areas where PhotoView scores over Hypershot is its ability to render out files of any size (Hypershot is sold on a resolution output basis), and, the fact that PhotoView has materials for LEDs, Area lights and so forth built in.
Thanks. I've been able to change the floor plane height. (rotation works great at 50m for me) but haven't been able to change the 'reflection plane' – I've discussed this with some people and it seems to be the top plane in solidworks that sets it.
Kevin, thanks man. sounds like you had a good experience with it. I'd definitely like to see decals, depth of field (DOF) would be nice, along with configs, appearance and scene options, highlighting for selected components and ability to create more materials and scenes.<br><br>sad that it isn't coming with standard. I would think you could get wider adoption by making it more accessible to users. some things you just don't want to make the user pay for, but I guess it could weed out those that are using features in the Pro version. oh well. I'm a standard user too, so I'll be outta luck or looking at Hypershot after SP00 hits.<br><br>Thanks again for the clearing up some question I and others had.
So – how does this fit in with PhotoWorks: will it eventually replace it?
bah. I was all excited over this until I read no decal or custom material support! Without this its little more than a toy with no use in a production environment.
Initially it will definitely NOT replace it… for some. There's still alot it's missing compared to PhotoWorks, but if you're wanting quick renderings, this can get the job done. Rob Rodriguez is another good source for rendering info with PhotoWorks and PhotoView360.
Hey Jon. Saw your comments on Ricky's blog about this. Yeah, there's some things it's missing but work for the simple, quick and pretty stuff. I hope there will be decal support soon as well. It's a hassle trying to do a decal up in SolidWorks.
ITS RIGTH WORK WITH RENDERING SOLIDWORKS 2009
A GOOD IDEA FOR THE COMPANY
Download 360 Potoworks
Where is download progarm photoview 360
You will have to download it via the SolidWorks customer portal and have SolidWorks 2009 installed as well.
thank you Josh M
Looks cool!
Smart move by solidworks! Modo render is still the fastest as compared to bunkspeed or maxwell IMO.
Hope there will be more of MODO integrated options such as UV mapping, texture paining, that can be found within solidworks in the near future.
I think adding all those feature would be a great move and one that's to be expected. Even better I'd love to see the real-time rendering inside of SolidWorks. Realview enhancements in 09 are one step closer. Thanks for the comment!
A nice neat trick to have custom materials and custom scenes in PhotoView 360 can be found at:
http://3dvision.com/wordpress/index.php/2008/11...
PhotoView360++
Thanks Stephen, I was going o do a post linking back to Scott's article! Thanks for mentioning it!
Josh-
Excellent post!
Have you had any luck recently with changing the “reflection plane”? I can't seem to find a way to re-orient the model with respect to the reflection plane either and am beginning to think it is fixed with respect to a plane in Solidworks.
Thanks!
-Dustin
This product is officially crap
I tried a lot of these products and some are a great balance between performance and user-friendliness.
THIS IS NOT. It's so bad, both in performance and bugs, I don't know where to start, so I won't bother….
(professional consumer product designer)
are you talking about the 650 specifically or 3D printers in general? I'd agree some 3d printers produce junk.
are you talking about the 650 specifically or 3D printers in general? I'd agree some 3d printers produce junk.
PhotoView is awesome in SolidWorks. Especially compared to the cumbersoms PhotoWerks & under-powered RealView.
But, it can't do straight on, normal to surface views.
I haven't had a chance to play with it too much, but there quite a few new features in the 2010 version of PV360. get on the beta program if you haven't to check it out!
Any one know how to make a glitter effect for plastic, I have plastic with a metal fleck in it that i want to render.
Any Ideas would be great.
how to you get photoview 360?
how do you get this photoview 360?
I AM GOING CRAZY HOW DO YOU GET THIS PHOTOVIEW360?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!?????
could you send me a link at bladeboy2634@gmail.com
Hey Bob, it's a part of SolidWorks professional. unfortunately you can't buy it separately. (you can buy modo401 though, and with that you can also do animation.)
Hi I am doing a project and I am using the 2009 version Photoview 360 and I cannot get the decals to appear. I know that they are not supposed to appear. However some of my collegues are also using the same software and picture format are able to get decals to appear for some reason. Why would this be?
Your help would be much appreciated. Thanks.
I LOVE THIS FEATURE….BUT I CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO CHANGE THE COLORS OF THE MATERIALS CAN ANYONE HELP ME?….I WENT TO APPEARANCES CHOSE A PLASTIC MATERIAL AND CLICKED ON ADVANCE BUT COULD NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT TO DO
I LOVE THIS FEATURE….BUT I CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO CHANGE THE COLORS OF THE MATERIALS CAN ANYONE HELP ME?….I WENT TO APPEARANCES CHOSE A PLASTIC MATERIAL AND CLICKED ON ADVANCE BUT COULD NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT TO DO
Parts don't show as selected in Photoview 360, so when you go to add a material to a part, just drag and drop it onto that part. To change the color, pick on the parts and go to the advanced tab of the material and pick the color in the color options. does this help?
Parts don't show as selected in Photoview 360, so when you go to add a material to a part, just drag and drop it onto that part. To change the color, pick on the parts and go to the advanced tab of the material and pick the color in the color options. does this help?
Your links “Download PhotoView 360″ is for download SolidWorks Viewer … not PhotoView 360 !
yeah, you have to go to the SolidWorks tab on that screen and login to download it. It's also part of the regular SolidWorks Installation now. Wondering anything else about Photoview 360? It's developed using Luxology rendering technology. They create a very cool modeling, sculpting, animation and rendering package called modo, if you didn't know about that and are looking for a great rendering program.
Does anyone know where I can get a 'suncell' look appearance? Or how to make one?
Thanks!
do you have an example? Is it for a texture or environment?
I too am having extreme problems transferring decals from Solidworks to Photoview 360. i really need some help. My uni computer does it in a flash, but i cant seem to find what settings my personal computer may have preventing decals from appearing in PV360. PLEEASE HELP!!
what set-up do you have for your personal computer?
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