Using other Rendering packages with SoliWorks

Discussion in 'SolidWorks' started by mbiasotti, Aug 7, 2006.

  1. mbiasotti

    mbiasotti Guest

    For those of you that do PhotoWorks renderings but sometimes or often
    incorporate other rendering/animation packages like Maya, 3D Studio
    Max, Maxwell, Alias Image Studio, SoftImage or LightWave3D into your
    process -

    What are some of the reasons that you use these other systems? In other
    words, what features and/or capabilities do these other
    rendering/animation packages have that PhotoWorks/Animator does not
    have that are necessary for you to get your job done? Here are some
    possibly suggestions to name a few:

     More advanced keyframe animation
     More advanced camera tracking
     Motion blur
     More advanced materials
     Particle affects
     More realistic lighting affects
     More Predictable
     Faster rendering
     Easier to use

    Any comments would be most appreciated.

    Mark Biasotti
    Product Manager
     
    mbiasotti, Aug 7, 2006
    #1
  2. mbiasotti

    neil Guest

    I really don't know why you need to ask.
    People have been talking about PW failings for a long time.
    Finally with 07 you get start moving ahead...

    ok you didn't ask about Blender and I don't know why I bother to answer
    questions seeing as you guys mostly ignore people on your own forum or post
    dumb questionnaires but

    able to do -
    complex animations incl blur, fades, colour changes,use multiple textures,
    DOF
    make architectural walkthroughs using the game engine
    particles- smoke,hair etc
    fluid sims with obstacles,wake effects
    cloth -officially soon
    soft bodies- rubber
    utilise scripts for effects and export to other renderers like Indigo or
    video perspective matching.
    various AA filters
    node compositing incl alpha and chroma key
    post processing
    network render or render farm
    character animation for incorporating humans as reference.
    micropolys - soon I hope
    and much more all for free and, it develops faster and ,has fewer bugs.

    In short it is capable of delivering a much more finished artistic/graphic
    presentation and from just the one program. Ideal for smaller businesses and
    if you will use features infrequently.
     
    neil, Aug 8, 2006
    #2
  3. mbiasotti

    Nev Williams Guest

    The last three on that list with particular emphasis on ease of use!
    I still quite often fall back Accurender

    --
    Neville Williams
    Z-Axis Design - NZ
    "remove the KNOT to reply"

    For those of you that do PhotoWorks renderings but sometimes or often
    incorporate other rendering/animation packages like Maya, 3D Studio
    Max, Maxwell, Alias Image Studio, SoftImage or LightWave3D into your
    process -

    What are some of the reasons that you use these other systems? In other
    words, what features and/or capabilities do these other
    rendering/animation packages have that PhotoWorks/Animator does not
    have that are necessary for you to get your job done? Here are some
    possibly suggestions to name a few:

    ? More advanced keyframe animation
    ? More advanced camera tracking
    ? Motion blur
    ? More advanced materials
    ? Particle affects
    ? More realistic lighting affects
    ? More Predictable
    ? Faster rendering
    ? Easier to use

    Any comments would be most appreciated.

    Mark Biasotti
    Product Manager
     
    Nev Williams, Aug 8, 2006
    #3
  4. mbiasotti

    John Layne Guest

    I use Maxwell and now hardly, if ever, use PhotoWorks, if I use PhotoWorks
    it's only for the fact that PhotoWorks is faster than Maxwell.



    The images that Maxwell can produce are simply far more realistic than
    PhotoWorks can produce. Visit the galleries at http://www.maxwellrender.com/
    or http://www.maxwellianart.com



    More advanced keyframe animation - not something I currently use
    More advanced camera tracking - not something I currently use
    Motion blur - not something I currently use
    More advanced materials - Much better in Maxwell
    Particle affects - not something I currently use
    More realistic lighting affects - Definitely Much easier/better in Maxwell

    More Predictable - Definitely Much easier/better in Maxwell, This was one of
    the major reasons I dumped PhotoWorks.
    Faster rendering - Maxwell is considerably slower than PhotoWorks but the
    near reality of the images more than make up for it.
    Easier to use - For me Maxwell / Maxwell Studio are far more intuitive than
    PhotoWorks.



    Thanks for asking the questions Mark, it is appreciated.



    John Layne

    Supreme Commander

    Solid Engineering Ltd



    www.solidengineering.co.nz
     
    John Layne, Aug 8, 2006
    #4
  5. mbiasotti

    bvw Guest

    The main reason why i am looking for a new renderer for solidworks is that
    solidworks will not render my imported surface models from other software
    packages (the surfaces show in solidworks but kan not be rendered).
    Only the solids show in the rendering , the surfaces disapear completly .

    Another reason is that perspective settings behave unreliable.Larger
    geometry has effect on the perspective.

    also photoworks is always giving my products an offset from the floor of the
    studio(very annoying).

    I am dissapointed with the photoworks add in, we bougt the add in 2000 when
    photoworks was using the lightwave renderer.
    The results were good and predictable in comparison with other packages,(My
    VAR used my pictures in precentations)
    But know the competition has become much better.

    I find the lighting difficult to control.
    The results are often not convincing enough.

    We quit our subscription and are planning to buy another render package from
    the money we saved .
    The main factor on what i want from a renderer is:
    realism, stability, ease of use, realism, predictable results , and realism
    ..

    I apreciate your work Mark on trying to improve on the software.

    best regards,

    Bram van Welzenis
    Noordzij Design


    <> schreef in bericht
    cwa.googlegroups.com...
    For those of you that do PhotoWorks renderings but sometimes or often
    incorporate other rendering/animation packages like Maya, 3D Studio
    Max, Maxwell, Alias Image Studio, SoftImage or LightWave3D into your
    process -

    What are some of the reasons that you use these other systems? In other
    words, what features and/or capabilities do these other
    rendering/animation packages have that PhotoWorks/Animator does not
    have that are necessary for you to get your job done? Here are some
    possibly suggestions to name a few:

    ? More advanced keyframe animation
    ? More advanced camera tracking
    ? Motion blur
    ? More advanced materials
    ? Particle affects
    ? More realistic lighting affects
    ? More Predictable
    ? Faster rendering
    ? Easier to use

    Any comments would be most appreciated.

    Mark Biasotti
    Product Manager
     
    bvw, Aug 8, 2006
    #5
  6. I have dabbled with other renderering software other than photoworks,
    but since timeliness is everything for me, I haven't had the time to
    self teach myself the way to a great result. Fact is, I think the
    interface in PhotoWorks is a good thing.

    That said, I think there are some things SolidWorks could do to promote
    PhotoWorks as a very powerful tool. Since PhotoWorks/SolidWorks is
    directly competing with the likes of Maya or MAX, some similar tools
    would be great. Below I'll list some.

    What I have learned, is I like Blender in theory, and I think
    SolidWorks/PhotoWorks would become infinitely more useful to me if
    there
    was tight integration with Blender and other useful open source tools
    and file formats like Blender and Rhino files.

    Porting of PhotoWorks materials and SolidWorks model data and perhaps
    even 2D/3D sketch or other entities could make the Blender / SolidWorks
    relationship very powerful for 3D content creators. Imagine the
    ability
    to define bones as pre-drawn sketches in blender.

    What I would MOST value in a future PhotoWorks are these features:

    1. The ability to open, convert to solids, render, and save as the
    most
    often used 3D graphics formats such as Blender, Maya, Rhino, 3D Studio
    Max, Cinema 4D, 3DS, See www.turbosquid.com for examples of models that
    we could be using for free in scenes, but cannot due to file
    compatibility issues.

    2. I would like to see the floor offset issue fixed. This has been a
    real deal killer in my place of work, forcing me to make a simple floor
    in the scene in every instance rather than using the tool as intended.

    3. I would like to see a SolidWorks sponsored online user environment
    for sharing materials, lighting, environment setups, etc. We all have
    some great materials we've customized, environment setups to share, but
    it's difficult to hook up with other users to do so.

    4. I would like to see better definition between environments,
    backgrounds, bases, showrooms, and studios... These seem
    counterintuitive in their implementation, with some settings changing
    without the user knowing or understanding.

    5. I would like the ability to more easily rotate HDR images that I
    use for environments so as to control my lighting and reflective
    directional properties.

    6. Add the ability to use third party renderers, those that come to
    mind: Yaffray, Indigo, others.

    7. Add the ability to render multiple configurations without a macro
    to file, with control over file names, and file formats, and
    resolutions.

    8. Add the ability to render distributed over a network (render farm)

    9. Add the ability to easily (one click or two) render with a
    transparent background.

    10. Perhaps have a Render Scope that works like assembly cut Feature
    Scope, so I can place objects in the scene that are hidden, and don't
    render, but do have shadows cast upon them? (Highly useful for
    creating illustrations etc.)



    --Matt Schroeder
     
    Matt Schroeder, Aug 11, 2006
    #6
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