You can customize lots of things in SolidWorks from backgrounds to toolbars. But did you know you can spice up your background with your own custom image? It’s not that hard either. Here’s how you can do it.
Using an image for a background
It’s actually really easy to use or change the viewport background image. Just go to Options, Colors. Halfway down there’s an option for Background appearance. You can pick one from the SolidWorks directory or use an image you have.
Making your own image
If you want to make your own background, there’s a few more steps. It will help to have a photo editor, like Adobe Photoshop. Using Photoshop, we’ll make a simple gradient with a lighting effect.
- Start a New file… (Ctrl-N) and make it 2048 x 1536
- Pick two amazing colors for your foreground and background. Lighter color for the background.
- Select the Gradient tool (G) and drag on the screen from top to bottom
- Go to Filter, Render, Lighting Effects… and select 2 o’clock spotlight. Adjust to suit.
- Select File, Save As… and save it as a .png
- Open SolidWorks – go to Options, Colors and browse to the location you saved the file
- Hit OK and smile.
Here’s the finished piece… Click to download
If you would like to learn more, here’s a great Illustrator tutorial for creating an abstract background.
The applications
Using your own background can be used for more than just a pretty scene. You could use them to:
- Show products against different colors
- Customize background for product demos
- Show comparisons to other products
If you don’t have a photo editor or don’t want to mess with it, you can find a website that has some large format images or wallpapers. Here’s some that are a good starting point.
WallPaperBase.com
GUIStyles.com
Have you made your own custom backgrounds?
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Just a note for you demo jocks, I use to create a background image that had the companies logo on it or would put the logo on the product.
With what you can do with graphics now days, you can create some really enticing demos.
Just a note for you demo jocks, I use to create a background image that had the companies logo on it or would put the logo on the product.
With what you can do with graphics now days, you can create some really enticing demos.
Hi Josh:
Any performance impact with a high-resolution image as background of graphic window?
Hi Josh:
Any performance impact with a high-resolution image as background of graphic window?
Lin, hi. You’ll get some more resources being used, but I haven’t had it interfere with my work. If you get some lagging or notice performance issue, you may want to try a different file format. I’d stick to .jpg or .png. tif and .bmp are usually a lot bigger in size. I’m not sure how SolidWorks is using these behind the scenes, but you will notice a RAM spike when you try different backgrounds out. If you have 2GB or up of RAM you should be ok.
mee
I read similar article also named Make your Own Custom Background for SolidWorks | SolidSmack – SolidWorks 3D CAD Technology Design Blog, and it was completely different. Personally, I agree with you more, because this article makes a little bit more sense for me
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Sara, Hi, one site i like that is really inspiring is SmashingMagazine.com – they have some free backgrounds and they also have resources to help design your own. another good site for manipulating photos and images is http://aviary.com/home – have fun!
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