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Posts Tagged ‘Rendering’

PhotoView 360 2010 Tutorial Video: Save Camera Views

PhotoView 360 2010 introduces a lot of new functionality that makes it a more capable product and moves it closer to replacing PhotoWorks in the 2011 release. I’ve created eight tutorial videos in cooperation with SolidWorks to explain and expose users to this new functionality. The videos will be appearing at the SolidWorks Gallery website along with the other PhotoView 360 tutorial videos and gallery images in the very near future. Until then I’m going to give you a sneak peak at all of them right here at my blog! I’ll be posting one video a day for the next six days, be sure and check back each day to view them all.

PhotoView 360 2010 gives the user the ability to save their camers views. This is one of my favorite enhancements. How many times have you found the perfect rendering view and had to change it to gain access to an appearance? How many times have you wanted to create multiple renders of the same product and it would have been really helpful to be able to save the view orientation? Now it’s possible to do both! Watch the video to learn how.

Click Image To Play Video

September 30, 2009 Tags: PhotoView 360, Rendering, SolidWorks 2010
Category: PhotoView 360, Solidworks Learning Resources No Comments

PhotoView 360 2010 Tutorial Video: Bloom

PhotoView 360 2010 introduces a lot of new functionality that makes it a more capable product and moves it closer to replacing PhotoWorks in the 2011 release. I’ve created eight tutorial videos in cooperation with SolidWorks to explain and expose users to this new functionality. The videos will be appearing at the SolidWorks Gallery website along with the other PhotoView 360 tutorial videos and gallery images in the very near future. Until then I’m going to give you a sneak peak at all of them right here at my blog! I’ll be posting one video a day for the next seven days, be sure and check back each day to view them all.

PhotoView 360 2010 adds bloom. Bloom is an effect that can give areas of your image a glow. As you would expect this can be helpful when your using light appearances such as LED, neon and area lights. What you wouldn’t expect is can also be usefful to add glow to areas of your image that are just bright or have bright highlights. Watch the video to learn more.

Click Image To Play Video

September 29, 2009 Tags: PhotoView 360, Rendering, SolidWorks 2010
Category: PhotoView 360, Solidworks Learning Resources No Comments

PhotoView 360 2010 Tutorial Video: Background Images

PhotoView 360 2010 introduces a lot of new functionality that makes it a more capable product and moves it closer to replacing PhotoWorks in the 2011 release. I’ve created eight tutorial videos in cooperation with SolidWorks to explain and expose users to this new functionality. The videos will be appearing at the SolidWorks Gallery website in the very near future. Until then I’m going to give you a sneak peak at all of them right here at my blog! I’ll be posting one video a day for the next eight days, be sure and check back each day to view them all.

PhotoView 360 2010 adds the ability to use background images in your rendering. Load the image, adjust your model and render. Background images are a quick and easy way to place your model in a real world scene and achieve another level of realism in your rendering. Watch the video to learn how.

Click Image To Play Video

September 28, 2009 Tags: PhotoView 360, Rendering, SolidWorks 2010
Category: PhotoView 360 No Comments

PhotoView 360 2010

As you may have noticed from the other SolidWorks blogs the Solidworks 2010 information embargo expired today (August 24th) and we are now free to discuss any and everything we like about the 2010 release. As I expected most of the other bloggers are providing great coverage of core SolidWorks functionality. What is of most interest to me however is the enhancements to PhotoView 360.

PhotoView 360 first appeared in 2009 as a standalone rendering application for SolidWorks geometry. It was easy to use, had a minimalistic interface, produced very nice looking images quickly and could make almost anyone a rendering pro. PhotoView worked great as long as you worked within it’s capabilities. Unfortunately even the novice user quickly reached PhotoView’s capabilities and the serious PhotoWorks user might have spent some time playing with photoView but for “real” worked relied on PhotoWorks to get the job done. During the 2009 release cycle PhotoView 360 gained some small enhancements (like focal length adjustment) and in SP4.0 added the ability to transfer decals from SolidWorks/PhotoWorks. The decal functionality made PhotoView 360 a much more capable product but clearly we still had a long way to go.

For the 2010 release SolidWorks has focused on adding functionality to expand the capability of PhotoView 360 and they are certainly heading in the right direction. Here are some of the enhancements for 2010.

Scene Control (this end up):
If you’ve ever brought a model into PhotoView 360 and found the “floor” to be in the wrong orientation then you’ll love this enhancement. In PhotoView 360 2010 you now have the ability to control the floor orientation relative to the XYZ coordinates of the model. No longer do you need to go back to SolidWorks to solve this issue. Implementation of this feature is simple, you choose which axis is up and which side is the top (or bottom) and PV360 takes care of the rest.
pv360-2010-view-orientation

Floor Visibility:
Speaking of the floor, you now have some new visibility options to control how the floor behaves. Users can choose to make the floor reflective, shadow casting or simply decide to turn if off and not have it visible at all.

pv360-2010-view-floor

Background Images:
You can now add background images to your renderings right inside of PhotoView 360. Load your background image, adjust the position of your model over the background and render. Background images give you an instant scene to place your model in.

pv360-2010-background

Custom Environments:
PhotoView 360 ships with a variety of environments and the 2010 release also allows you to use any environment you choose. A variety of images types are supported but of course the preferred format is HDR. Maybe you’ve downloaded from the web or created your own environment to create just the lighting you’re looking for? You’re now free to use at will. This is an enhancement PhotoWorks users will really like.

pv360-2010-environment

Camera Views:
Here’s a big one. You can now save your camera views so they can be recalled at a later time. This is one of those enhancements that goes a long way in making PV360 much more usable for “real” work.

pv360-2010-camer-viewst

Camera Projection Type:
Users can now choose what type of projection the camera is using. There is a perspective, orthographic and spherical option. If you’ve PV360 in the past and simply wanted to show a basic front, top, right view as you would in SolidWorks you know it was an impossible task. Not anymore.

pv360-2010-camera-projection

Depth of Field:
A cool affect that allows a user to add an illusion of depth to an image is “depth of field”. Depth of field allows you to define focused and unfocused areas in your image. You can see it being used in the watch image at the beginning of this post.

pv360-2010-dof

Bloom:
Bloom is an effect that gives bright objects or appearances in your image a glowing effect. It’s something I’ve never used before until now and I like the results. The watch image above uses a subtle bloom effect on the bright metal areas of the dial. Can you see the glow?

pv360-2010-bloom

PhotoView 360 has seen a lot of attention for the 2010 release. I’ve covered the major enhancements here and there is also a handful of small features (both from the 2010 release or introduced during the 2009 release cycle) that round out usability. I find myself using PhotoView 360 more and more but I’m still not able to make it my primary renderer. As we all know PhotoWorks is slated for retirement in the 2011 release of SolidWorks and it’s replacement will be the potentially capable but “not quite there yet” PhotoView 360. With this transition on the horizon SolidWorks needs too and has been adding much needed features to PhotoView 360. The 2010 version is a huge step in the right direction but there is still a lot of work that needs to happen before PhotoView 360 can move into the captains seat. Hats off to the team at SolidWorks for introducing new rendering technology into the product line. Keep up the good work guys.

If you’d like to see images created with PhotoView 360 2010 visit the gallery.

August 24, 2009 Tags: PhotoView 360, Rendering, SolidWorks 2010
Category: PhotoView 360, SolidWorks 2010 No Comments

The Retirement of PhotoWorks.

In a recent blog post Matt Lombard breaks the news about the retirement of PhotoWorks after the SolidWorks 2010 release. This news probably doesn’t come as a surprise to most SolidWorks users since I think most expected PhotoView 360 to take over the SolidWorks rendering duties at some point. The announcement really just gives us a definite date of transition from one platform to another. I think the announcement is a bit premature since it will be at least twelve months before the change comes into effect. The announcement brings about the perception PhotoWorks is dead and everyone should jump to PhotoView 360 as soon as possible. The problem being, PhotoView 360 still doesn’t have a deep enough feature set to replace PhotoWorks and until it does a lot of users aren’t going to be able to make the switch. SolidWorks is aware of this and that’s why we still have both options in SolidWorks 2010.

For me and I’m sure a lot of you this announcement actually raises more questions than it answers. I had hoped SolidWorks would come forward and release some specific details of it’s plans for PhotoView 360 2011 but as of yet that hasn’t happened. There has been some vague answers to user questions on the subject at the SolidWorks Forums but for the most part SolidWorks has remained quiet about the whole subject. Makes a person wonder if the information Matt recieved was an honest mistake or a marketing tactic to get people thinking about the product? Either way situations like this lead people to speculate on what’s going to happen and that’s exactly what I’m going to do here. I’m going to list some of the questions I have about the future and then I’m going to speculate as to what I think the answer will be.

Question: Will PhotoView 360 2011 have full integration inside of SolidWorks or will it continue to be a standalone application?

Speculation: I think full integration will happen and I have a couple of reasons. To have more control over appearances SolidWorks has always required you to apply them in SolidWorks and then transfer the appearances into PhotoView 360. You can apply appearances directly in PhotoView 360 but you have limited controls especially with respect to mapping. PhotoView 360 actually has complex mapping ability (from Modo) but it’s hidden to the PhotoView 360 user. I think SolidWorks has dome this purposely knowing at some point in the future PV360 would be fully integrated in the SolidWorks window and there was no need to invest time duplicating functionality. The only way to have Pv360 instantly adapt to changes in the Solidworks model without reloading geometry and appearance information is to have it run within the SolidWorks window.

Question: When will we see an appearance system added to PhotoView 360 that allows for the creation and saving of custom appearances?

Speculation: I think we’ll see this at the same time full integration into the SolidWorks window happens. Again only for the reason of duplication of features. PhotoView 360 has the ability to create very complex appearances (from Modo) but exposing these to the user now would be a duplication of work if /when full SW integration takes place.

Question: If PhotoView 360 does become an integrated product will we still be able to process a render and work in SolidWorks st the same time?

Speculation: I have to think this is one of the most loved features of PhotoView 360 being a stand alone application and I have to believe there has been many a user that has expressed their love for this ability. If it’s technically possible (which I think it probably is) I believe SolidWorks will find a way to make this work.

Question: Will PhotoView 360 be able to create rendered animations like PhotoWorks?

Speculation: I’d have to say, “yes” to this one. There is no way SolidWorks would allow this functionality to disappear with the retirement of PhotoWorks. I don’t know but I have to think this is actually just a matter of pointing Motion Manager to the new rendering platform to render out the frames.

Question: Will we really have to wait until the 2011 release or will some or all of the currently missing functionality show up in 2010 service packs?

Speculation: This is a tough one and I think it could go either way or we may see a little of both. If the announcement was really meant to go public then I think most of the missing features will show up in the 2011 release with a few things appearing in 2010 service packs much like they have in 2009. If the announcement was in fact an accident then I think you’ll see SolidWorks invest more resources and pack the 2010 service packs with PV360 functionality.

Question: Will PhotoView 360 bring more advanced Modo like functionality to the world of SolidWorks rendering and animation?

Speculation: I don’t think so. Maybe on a small scale you see a bit of advanced features (like displacement mapping for example) but overall I think PhotoView 360 is meant to be a capable, easy to use rendering product that gives the beginner and intermediate rendering user the tools they need. For more advanced work the logical step would be Modo and really if you need tools that advanced you’d probably want to move to an application outside of SolidWorks that works with a variety of file types and formats.

So there you have it. These are the thoughts that have been running through my mind since Matt’s post about PhotoWorks retirement. If there’s anything you’d like to add feel free to leave a comment.

Rob

August 11, 2009 Tags: Modo 401, PhotoView 360, PhotoWorks, Rendering, Solidworks
Category: PhotoView 360, PhotoWorks 5 Comments

PhotoView 360 SP 4.0 Adds Decal Support!

Please use Internet Explorer to view the video. If using Internet Explorer and the video seems to hang after the “loading screen cast” icon is shown (”done” will be displayed in the lower left corner) use the browser refresh button and the video will reload and play.

June 10, 2009 Tags: PhotoView 360, PhotoWorks, Rendering
Category: PhotoView 360 3 Comments

New Step By Step Guides Now Available.

pwmmoverlay SolidWorks has just released the new PhotoWorks and MotionManager Step By Step Guides! The Step By Step Guides are learn at your own pace manuals designed to be used by various skill levels. As a beginner you can work your way through the chapters, each chapter covering a new topic and building on skills learned in previous chapters. As an intermediate level user user you can pick and choose which chapters cover the information your lacking. As an advanced user you can brush up on functionality you may only use occasionally or gain a deeper understanding of a specific area. Each guide is fully illustrated with screen shots and images and includes a DVD with completed and uncompleted examples (in 2009 format) for you to follow along.

What’s new for the 2009 PhotoWorks Step By Step Guide?

All the exercises and examples have been updated to be 2009 version files.
All the new PhotoWorks functionality found in SolidWorks 2009 can be found inside. This includes information explaining the consolidation of colors, textures and materials into appearances and how legacy data with this information will be converted in SolidWorks 2009.
Examples and information covering the use of the Render Scheduler.
A new example has been added covering global illumination, caustics and indirect illumination
Some of the previous examples and graphic illustrations have been improved to better explain various concepts.
Four Appendix’s have been added covering, Color, Illumination Settings, Surface Finish and Hardware/Performance.
The gallery has also been completely updated with images from users all around the world.

At 601 pages the 2009 PhotoWorks Step By Step Guide is the most comprehensive version to date.

What’s new for the 2009 MotionManager Step By Step Guide?

All the exercises and examples have been updated to be 2009 version files.

All the new MotionManager functionality found in SolidWorks 2009 can be found inside.

New chapter added covering techniques to animate large assemblies

Both the 2009 PhotoWorks and 2009 Motion Manager Guides are available for immediate purchase and shipment. If you pre-ordered a 2009 guide you will be receiving it soon. If you’ve been waiting for the 2009 guides to become available before you purchased now is the time. The 2008 PhotoWorks and 2008 MotionManager Step By Step Guides will continue to be available for a limited time.

**The SolidWorks Step By Step guides are written and published by SolidWorks Corporation.**

May 14, 2009 Tags: Animation, MotionManager, PhotoWorks, Rendering, Step By Step Guides, Training Manuals
Category: PhotoWorks, Solidworks Learning Resources, Uncategorized 1 Comment

New PhotoView 360 Video Tutorials

Clicking the “Gallery” icon in PhotoView 360 takes you to the SolidWorks gallery.com website. Up until now this website has been just what it’s named, a gallery of images. That changed today when a collection of PhotoView 360 video tutorials were made available. There are 7 tutorials in all. The 5 tutorials in the “general” area cover the basics and the “tips and tricks” tutorials branch out into intermediate topics. If you’re a new PhotoView 360 user this is a great place to quickly come up to speed with the software. If you’re not a person who renders their models but does use RealView to color or texture your model for a more realistic effect I recommend watching the “Appearance Hierarchy 2.0” tutorial in the tips and tricks area. there’s some helpful information in there for all SolidWorks users.