Often with rendering programs you must render the image out and take it into a photo editing software such as Photoshop to get the exactly what you want; darken the shadows, exaggerate the highlights, change the saturation of the colours, add some blur for the depth of field. However inSOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional this is no longer necessary as Visualize provides a lot of tools before you even start rendering out.

In this blog we will be look at the post-processing options that can be found in the camera tab, but be sure to check out our other blogs about depth of field, motion blur, bloom and all the other Professional tools in Visualize that can help reduce time on Photoshop. The post processing options are edited by camera which means you can have different effects on different cameras – useful when comparing different options. They can also be used in keyframe animations by editing the values in the post-processing options for every new keyframe.

To start putting post-processing on all you need to do is tick the post processing check- box.

There are number of options to choose between:

Colour filter: adds a colour on the entire render between the model and camera.

Vignette: Adds to the drama of the image by darkening the edges of the image with a gradient to the center. This can help with draw the eye in too where you want.

Darken: increase to get deeper, richer shadows

Lighten: make your highlights pop and come out of the picture more

Saturation: increase to make your colours appear more "pure” and dramatic. Decrease to get colours appear more "washed-out", maybe you want an old fashioned looking render.

Exposure: shift the values for the entire image up or down to blow the highlights.

Gamma Correction: redistribute tonal levels closer to how our eyes perceive them, so make sure your renders look as realistic as possible. Gamma correction is available even when post-processing is cleared

Brightness: adjust the mid-tones of the render while preserving highlights without consideration of the contrast.

The difference between pre-post processing and post post-processing can be seen below. Notice how much deeper and richer the colours are, all without having to do anything in Photoshop.

Lamborghini without post processing:

Lamborghini with Post processing:

Rings without post processing:

Rings with Post processing:

Desk without post processing:

Desk with Post processing:

As with all rendering it is not as easy as saying this is right and this is wrong but with the post processing options it allows you to get something much more close to what you are after.

By Chris Green

Application Engineer

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SOLIDWORKS Visualize uses a non-biased rendering engine, which allows for physically accurate lighting within a scene. It generates images with high amount of realism and correct set up can replicate photo studio lighting.

SOLIDWORKS Visualize lighting can be set up I a variety of ways. It may be:

• an HDR image in the background casting light and reflecting off your model
• a point object emitting light in all directions positioned a distance away from your model
• a spot light with adjustable cone angle and position
• a set of parallel beams shining along a desired direction
• the material itself emitting light

…and any combination of those! Below is a brief summary of the available types of light.Scene Lighting is by far the fastest and easiest way to put your model in a pleasing environment. Visualize comes with a set of spherical HDR images that define the ambient lighting cast on the model. It can be set as a visible background (left) or hidden away but still casting light (right): You can adjust environment brightness, rotate it, and tweak some minor parameters such as floor roughness and reflections. At zero brightness the scene becomes pitch black. As can be seen the floor shadows are extremely soft and any specular accents and self-cast shadows are rather weak.

To spice up the image you can use a set of  Photometric Lights available with SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional. These come in three variety's, each having their specific application. The first one is the Point Light. Think of it as a bright candle shining in all directions around it. You can position it with X, Y and Z coordinates, control brightness, colour temperature and the Point Light Radius (size of the flame, if you wish). The radius controls how soft are the shadow edges. Below are two spotlights – with zero radius (left) and a radius set to 1 (right):

The next one up is the Spot Light. This one can be a projector light (or a reading lamp) with a distinctive conical beam. The shadow edges do not blur out, but there is a gradient within the shadow itself. The Cone Angle controls how focused the light is, and Falloff adjusts the variation of brightness within the beam. The position of this light can be controlled via spherical coordinates rather than XYZ, this makes it easier to control the orientation and distance from the object in contrast with Point Light. If the Spot Light cone angle is too tight, a considerable portion of the shadow may be ‘cut off’ due to being outside of the cone. Look at the two images below and guess which Spot Light is more focused:

The last one is the Directional Light. This is a point light so far away from object all of the rays reaching the object are parallel. Closest analogy in the real world would be a direct sunlight. Spherical coordinates make it easy to manipulate, distance however has no effect on the shadow size. Subtle shadows can be achieved by lowering down the brightness (left), go too bright and the image becomes overexposed (right):

Photometric Lights can be mixed together and with Ambient Lighting from the environment to achieve studio-like effects. Below are three spotlights combined to add depth to the object by inflicting self-cast shadows and make it stand out from the background via a back light:

Parts of the model with Emissive Appearance applied become light sources themselves. This is handy when a soft area light is required, or the product has any light indicators as part of its design. The light is tinted as per colour of the material (can be white!) and the tint is realistically reflected off the surrounding surfaces:

This concludes our summary of the lighting types available in SOLIDWORKS Visualize. Now go ahead and try them out yourself!

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Get SOLIDWORKS Premium for the Price of Standard*

SolidWorks Premium is now available with up to 37% off, for a limited time only.

One of the most widely used 3D CAD systems for engineers and designers, SOLIDWORKS has powerful design functionality with an intuitive user interface, helping to accelerate your design process. Plus, with technical support from the UK & Ireland's leading SOLIDWORKS provider - Solid Solutions - you will always stay productive.

The discount is available now, visit - www.solidsolutions.co.uk/specialoffers

Alternatively, call on 01926 333 777 to for an instant quote.

*Offer only valid when ordering the corresponding Subscription Service according to the current SOLIDWORKS Price List; Offer valid until December 16th 2016 and cannot be combined with any offer or discount; Offer not applicable to Education licenses. Other restrictions may apply.

SOLIDWORKS has two different methods to help you recover from an unexpected crash or loss of data which are Auto-recovery and Back-up settings.

These can be found within options  or Tools > Options and select Backup/Recover:

Auto-recovery

If ‘Save auto-recover information’ is selected and set to a value of 1 or greater when you restart SOLIDWORKS after an unexpected crash, any documents that had been active for more than the Auto-recovery interval should appear in the SOLIDWORKS Document Recovery Tab within the task pane which you can then save to replace the original file to create a new file.

When ‘Auto recovery’ turned on, then as you work on a SOLIDWORKS file, temporary files are created in the specified file location (\swxauto). These files are deleted when the original file is saved and closed normally, but the temp files will remain in the folder if the software did not close down normally and you will likely be prompted if you want to “open the backup versions” to recover the temporary files.

In the case that you don’t get the any recovered files upon restarting SOLIDWORKS then it is worth navigating to the ‘Auto recover folder’ through Windows Explorer, you should see a file with an .SWAR extension as shown:

The auto-recovered file will be name with a prefix ‘AutoRecover of’, the SOLIDWORKS file name and then the file extension ‘.swar’.

For Example: Propeller.SLDPRT is saved as: AutoRecover Of Propeller.SLDPRT.swar

You can recover a copy of your original file at last change saved state based on the number of minutes set in the Backup/recover options, if you edit the name and extension of the file, removing the AutoRecover prefix, as well as replacing the .swar extension with the correct part, assembly or drawing file.

Back up

Backup feature save a backup copy of your original document every time any changes are saved to the original file, i.e. every time you click (File > Save or CTRL+S). It is one version before the last saved version of the document. This provides a series of progressing revisions, which means that if you accidentally save a file but then wish to undo some changes, you can recover the previous version.

If you set the “Number of backup copies per document” to 1 or greater, then every time you save a document in SolidWorks, a new version of the file, up to the number specified, is created and after that the first backup version is overwritten.

The backup copies are either stored in the same folder as the original files, or you can specify a backup folder on a local drive.

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SOLIDWORKS Visualize Standard 2017 is  fully integrated with the regular SOLIDWORKS Install and is available as part of subscription for SOLIDWORKS Standard and Professional users. As a result of it's integration as part of the SOLIDWORKS install a new serial number is required for users which is available for Standalone and Network License users.

If you purchased Visualize Standard separately or have purchased Visualize Professional then nothing changes, you use the same serial number as Visualize 2016. However Professional users do also have a new serial number to obtain for Visualize Boost (network rendering)

For those of your using the complimentary license included with your SOLIDWORKS Professional and Premium Subscription some extra steps are required.

1 - Login to the SOLIDWORKS Customer Portal using the account your SOLIDWORKS serial number is associated to. 

If you do not have an account you will need to register first.

2 - Once logged in click on "My Products"

3 - If you see a SOLIDWORKS Professional or Premium with a + symbol next to it click this to expand to see your SOLIDWORKS Visualize Standard Serial number and skip to step 10. This will be listed as "With SOLIDWORKS Visualize Standard"

If you do not see such as serial number click "Home" go back to the main Portal login page as you will need to register your product to obtain the serial number

4 - On the main customer portal page select "Register My Products"

5 - Enter your 24 digit SOLIDWORKS Professional or Premium Serial number*

6 - Click Next

7 - Pick the tick icon to choose a product/ version 

Select the chevron next to SOLIDWORKS Professional or Premium 2017

8 - Click Ok then Select Next to finish. 

9 - Click home to go back to the main page of the customer portal.

10 - Select My Products, the "with SOLIDWORKS Visualize Standard" serial number should appear.

11 - You can now enter this new Serial number when installing SOLIDWORKS 2017

12 - Or if SOLIDWORKS 2017 is already installed you can modify your SOLIDWORKS Installation from the Windows Control Panel > Programs and Features. Pick the SOLIDWORKS install then select "Change"

Select the "Modify the individual installation" option

Expand SOLIDWORKS Visualize, check the box and enter your newly obtained serial number

* The process is the same for network license users, if you do not have a record of the full serial number please contact support.

Also new for SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional users is Visualize Boost (network rendering) this can be obtained from My Products using a similar process to above.

If you have any issues please get in contact with Solid Solutions Support and look out for more info on What's New for SOLIDWORKS Visualize 2017

By Alan Sweetenham
Elite Applications Engineer

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View the Video here

One of the many new features within the new release of  SOLIDWORKS 2017 is the enhancements made to the wrap feature. The updates now allows users to apply sketch geometry to all face types and multiple faces simultaneously.

In this blog we will explore the options available to us in the property manager of the wrap feature and how the different options will create distinguishably different appearances to the final design. To express this feature, we will look at the recently designed Solid Solutions Hover Mower.

When in the property manager of the wrap feature there are a number of options to choose from as seen in the accompanying image:

Wrap type: the wrap type dictates the protrusion applied to the sketch be it raised (emboss), indented (deboss) or simply imprinted on the surface (Scribe)

Wrap Method: the two wrap methods include the traditional analytical method whereby the sketch can be applied to cylindrical and conical faces and the new Spline surface method, used when applying a sketch to any face type.

Wrap Parameters: the selection made here define the sketch used and the faces to which the sketch needs to be applied to. Finally, the thickness value dictates the depth of the protrusion.

Pull Direction: this parameter determines the direction of the protrusion. Should a plane be selected, then the direction of pull will always be normal to the plane.

Accuracy: Controlled by a slider, this allows the user to determine how accurately the sketch is mapped to the surface, with a greater accuracy reducing the tolerance at which the defining geometry deviates from the sketch.

Preview: as with other features this indicates how the feature will look when applied to the model.

Within this case study of the Lawnmower, we can see how the various options alter the design of the model. Below we can see an example of how the wrap type varies from emboss, deboss and scribe when applied to the cutting blade of the lawnmower.

The feature is used here to add detail and inform the operator of the lawnmower the mounting orientation of the blade, should it be removed from the device and replaced.

Deboss

Emboss

Scribe

Further to this the spline surface method was used to apply the perforations to the surfaces of the grassbox. These perforations are essential to the air flow through the system to drive the impeller which help provide the lift for the lawnmower to hover. The design of the grassbox can be seen below:

This conclude our summary of What’s New with the wrap tool in SOLIDWORKS 2017. Go ahead and try it out for yourself!

By Jassim Alali

Applications Engineer

In this webcast we will show how to create custom pipes and fittings that are not part of the standard database. These will be put to action in a PVC musical instrument project similar those used by the famous Blue Man Group during their live performances. 

The webcast is aimed at beginner SOLIDWORKS Routing add-in users which is included within SOLIDWORKS Premium which is currently on offer.

View the Video here

Every year Father Christmas has to fly in his sleigh to deliver presents to boys and girls all over the world in just one night. To put this into perspective, it takes a little under 24 hours to fly from London (UK) to Sydney (Australia) in a streamlined Boeing 747, whereas Father Christmas’ mode of transport is believed to be a rather non-aerodynamic sleigh. 

If we take a few different figures we can get a rough idea of how aerodynamically suitable the perceived sleigh design is or, alternatively, how much resistance the reindeer are expected to overcome. For example, the earth’s circumference around the equator is a little under 25,000 miles, Father Christmas has around 12 hours to complete his delivery. If he averaged a speed of Mach 2.74, which is about 2,100mph at sea level, he would cover 25,200 miles in that 12 hour period.

Using this value for velocity we can get a good idea of any aerodynamic flaws which may be in the traditional sleigh design.

The renders below show a traditional type of sleigh modelled inSOLIDWORKS 2017 using both solid and surface modelling techniques and then being all brought together in an assembly to fit the guide brackets for the reins and the seat to the main body of the sleigh. 

We can now run the model through the Flow Simulation add-on to find out just where the problems lie in terms of areas of high pressure as well as how the air generally behaves as it interacts with the sleigh.

An external study was set up, the fluid chosen was ‘air’ at a flow rate of Mach 2.74, using a global mesh with an overall cell refinement level of 3, and automatic refinement during the simulation used to concentrate the mesh in and around the sleigh in areas were the flow changes.

Cell refinement levels of 2 between fluid and fluid cells and a level of 3 along the fluid and solid boundary were used during the simulation.

The cut plots below show the largest areas of high pressure on the sleigh are concentrated at the front, i.e. the leading edge. This high pressure creates a bow shockwave and, these are areas where the air is slowed down from 950m/s to just 340m/s (more than 50% less than the surrounding air flow).

Inside the sleigh, e.g. the seating area, the velocity also hugely decreases, and in some areas is recirculated in the opposite direction. Shockwaves also occur at the top of the seat, at the rear end of the present bay and underneath the sleigh around the centre. All of these disturbances in the airflow lead to increased drag and therefore more power required from the reindeer.

Now we have seen the areas of the sleigh which could use some adjustment and improvements, we can modify the model’s geometry to optimise the aerodynamic performance.

Using combined knowledge from the Solid Solutions Management technical support team, the sleigh has been remodelled and the outcome can be seen below.

The sleigh was made using surfacing techniques, adding a thin sharp nose cone which creates less drag than the previous design, a canopy was also added to allow the model to flow into a smoother overall shape. Vertical and horizontal stabilizers were added and the model was finished with a rear cone which comes to a point at the back.

The improved model was then put through the Flow Simulation add-on with the same parameters used as before, to ensure a fair comparison. The cut plots below show an oblique shockwave forming around the nose cone which interacts with much less of the air around the sleigh and has a much lower pressure of around 315kPa at the leading edge, whereas the traditional design had a pressure of 889kPa.

Due to the addition of a canopy, the new design has not had to deal with internal turbulent flow and as such the drag encountered will again be significantly reduced.

If you are feeling creative this Christmas and are tired of the same old tree decorations, why not create your own?

With just a 3D printer and a Standard licence of SOLIDWORKS you can create your own from home so you don’t have to go out into the cold this winter, just grab a mince pie, fire up SOLIDWORKS and get designing! 

From the models used in the Flow Simulations we created our very own using the MakerBot Replicator Mini Compact 3D Printer. A few modifications were required before printing could go ahead on the traditional sleigh design; a revolve to loop some ribbon through to hang from a tree, the ski’s on the bottom as well as their struts had to be thickened to allow for the necessary support for the model and also the brackets for the reins were taken from the model as they could not be created properly at such a small scale, and also the model was scaled to a little under 100mm in order to fit onto the printing bed.

The sleigh with the improved aerodynamics was modified by filleting the edges of the wings and the tail fin and adding the revolve to create the loop for the ribbon.

Here are a couple of  Renders produced using SOLIDWORKS Visualize

By John Van-Kesteren - SOLIDWORKS Applications Engineer

View the Video here

For this blog, I wanted to create an animation of a model surround by lighting rigs so that I can turn off and on these lights at different intervals to show off different features of a product – I’ve used 2 really useful tools that come with SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional, the Formation tool and Model Sets.

The formation tool within Visualize Professional takes advantage of designs that need patterns of models. Rather than having to align models linearly by eye, Visualize has this tool that will do this for you.

The formation tool can be activated by selecting multiple model with either Ctrl or box selection. Then within the Models toolbar,  ‘Formation’ box will show, here we have a number of selections we can make from the ‘Type’ dropdown – for example: Line, Vee, Circle & Semi Circle.

Once selected, spacing and orientation can be edited to the desired design. 

Next, we’re going to look at Model Sets. Model sets within SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional gives you the flexibility to manage not just one set of files but multiple in the same Visualize project. Multiple model sets are available only in SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional. These can contain identical geometry or unique geometry.

Some geometric operations you perform on a model that is present in identical model sets apply to all instances of that model across all model sets in which it is used. This includes part splitting, animation, grouping of parts, and decals.

In this case I have decided to work on the model of the car and the lighting rig separately as I want to easily be able to edit and manage the car model without the lighting rigs getting in the way.

[EMBED-VIDEO-1217]

In the animation video seen you can see that I have used the formation tool (as well as model sets whilst I was creating it) to form a lighting rig around the model of a car then using the animation tools to show off different aspects – much like they do on Top Gear when showing off the car central to an episode. Once created, I then pulled this into a video editor software to finish off the last tweaks and add audio. For the full experience please turn on your speakers!

For more information SOLIDWORKS Visualize information including the Why Go Pro blogs please follow our Blog or MySolidSolutions.

By Olly Smith

Elite Applications Engineer

Will it float? (And if so, how deep?)

Last month, I built a six-metre rowing boat in SOLIDWORKS. I was interested to know just how much I could find out about this boat using Simulation- for example, how many people could fit in here before it sank? 

Render produced in SOLIDWORKS Visualize

To do this is actually fairly straight forward. All of the values we need are provided by SOLIDWORKS. Thanks to Archimedes, we know that the bouyancy force is equal to the weight of the fluid that is displaced.

M g = p V g

(Mass of the Boat * Gravity = Fluid Density * Volume of Fluid Displaced * Gravity)

Gravity can be cancelled as it appears on both sides, giving us :

M = p V

We know the fluid density of Sea Water (1025kg/m3) and Mass Properties within SOLIDWORKS can tell us the mass of the (empty at this point) boat, which I have assigned materials to. The keel and planks are made from Oak, while the interior fittings are made from Teak.

This means that V is the only unknown value, so the equation is rearranged to place it on it’s own:

V = M / p

 (Volume of Fluid Displaced  = Mass of the Boat / Fluid Density)

137.144 Kg / 1025 Kg/m3 = 0.1337 m3 

This means that the empty boat will float at the point where it is displacing 0.1337 m3 of sea water.

I am going to use an iterative Design Study to measure the volume of the boat below a variable plane which will be used to simulate the waterline.

The first thing to do is to remove the unnecessary bodies from the model. This means the Interior fittings, and any passengers. Then I used the Intersect tool to cut the model at the variable plane, keeping only the bodies which lie below the plane.

Preview window of the Intersect command

I added a sensor to measure the volume of these bodies during the setup of the study. It’s quite a simple setup for this Design Study, as shown here.

In each successive scenario, the plane used in the Intersect moves by 100mm, and the volume of the model below is measured by the Sensor “Volume1”.

Once the results have been generated, I can create a graph illustrating how the boat floats-

Graph produced from the Design Study in SOLIDWORKS

This graph shows that the maximum displacement of this boat is 1.16 m3, in Scenario 27, when the waterline was 0.46m above the base of the keel. The sharp decline on the right of the graph is where water flowed over the gunwhals of the boat, filling it with water. In this scenario, the boat would have most likely sank (unless in very shallow water!).

Ideal waterline- just below the top plank

I added a few people into the model, to see how the boat sits in the water and try to work out the ideal number of passengers for this dinghy. I would expect the waterline to come up to somewhere on the middle plank. Lower would be unstable, higher would be at risk of flooding.

Three 85 Kg dummies in a boat, bringing the total weight up to 392 Kg

By putting any weight into our equations, we can easily test which waterline it would be closest to using the graph that SOLIDWORKS produced from our Design Study. Scenario 10 is the highest waterline which doesn’t touch the top plank, so we know that our optimum maximum displacement is 0.45 m3. We can extrapolate this to give a maximum weight of 461 Kg.

If we subtract the initial weight of the boat, this gives us 324 Kg of load that we can stick in our boat, or 3-4 people.

Some example waterlines: 0 people, 3 people, 6 people

Ben Pearson

SOLIDWORKS Applications Engineer

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