Blendigo Solidworks variant

jeffr · Post by **jeffr** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 12:24 am

For me, I don't like extra steps. I want to just export from SW and render without having to bring it into another program and setting up materials etc in it. Especially Blender. Blender is a powerful program but I don't care much for the interface personally.
I do however want to make sure I say that the guys, who are making it possible to use indigo with blender and this one to render solidworks files in blender using indigo, are doing great work. I just want to do my part and maybe this forum will be full of SW users one day soon.

Big Fan · Post by **Big Fan** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 7:44 pm

update time

the 09t2 version -without previews to keep file size small -raid smartdens official version for those

pretty much the same as before but removed stl support ATM.
havent updated the .nk files yet either.
should be up with most of ono's changes.
..also atmospherics enabled...
some of you non SW guys might like to rip the script out and try it.
I think it works correctly

you need to make 3 big spheres -see the globe example from ono for hints about materials etc. let me know

I'm trying to keep it clean but somethings are slightly diff from smartden - tags in xml are a bit neater and has old layout so buttons don't overlap
I think the history is up to date

EDIT: updated to 09t3
halt at samples and ono's albedo fix
included large experimental atmosphere spheres (I havent managed some good images yet myself) and a portal room prop

EDIT2: see improved file below..

Kram1032 · Post by **Kram1032** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 9:25 pm

what about making it like this: you add a button in the scrip, that auto-adds three spheres in the required size, with the "solid earth" sphere's top at 000 - as long as the scene doesn't get too big, we'd get a nice world, however, if the scene get's TOO big, some things in the distance are going to float a bit...

Big Fan · Post by **Big Fan** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 1:08 pm

ok redid the atmosphere as icospheres its better than previous but at the cost of file size
use the world scale now +-e3 to make globe fullsize

also here is a really bad render of the m.falcon for your amusement

EDIT removed - script discontinued

xrok1 · Post by **xrok1** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 6:17 pm

does this work directly from SW yet?

Big Fan · Post by **Big Fan** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 9:09 pm

How do you mean?
I am not trying to make it work directly...
There is nothing being done by me to link with SW API at all
I like Blender

and I know no API stuff

I want to use Blender because it is versatile
It is the pathway to all sorts of possibilities not just Indigo
I use it for animation as well using the internal renderer
I can pull in all sorts of file formats to use as well

This solution requires you to export from SW as vrml(wrl)
then import those to blender for materials, UV texturing and scene composition
and then export again to indigo in that format..but that bit does autorun

The only bits I have automated are the loading of the numerous files , the matching of std materials (if any) and the edgesplit -still thats quite a bit

...you can do that manually if you like for 16000 parts...

Shortly I hope to have sorted something out for chaining together igs so large models/assemblies can be handled effectively
If you read elsewhere here you will know I have been experimenting to see how large a vrml models SW, Blender and ultimately Indigo can handle

I am also trying to provide various studio setups in the blend to help people use it easily and effectvely for some nice pics

but there is nothing to stop people doing their own
soon I will put up an update of those I hope...and not too far in the future I want to revisit my hacked .nk files to be more realistic

I thought actually you and jeff were the ones doing API work

I am persisting with this for my own purposes (and esp since SW05 that I use doesnt have the required features to use yours) but thinking you guys would eventually make it redundant for most SW users

Sorry but no free lunch is coming your way today..
I suppose if you don't like Blender you could use Sketchup or something

xrok1 · Post by **xrok1** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 6:27 am

sorry just checking in to see if we could compare notes, but i guess you're going in a totally different direction.

jeffr · Post by **jeffr** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 10:39 am

....I thought actually you and jeff were the ones doing API work
I am persisting with this for my own purposes (and esp since SW05 that I use doesnt have the required features to use yours).....

I can definitely say I have an appreciation for all the work your doing. It's looking good to me and I'm sure there are lots who want the added ability and functions realized by bringing everything into Blender.

Nice work

Big Fan · Post by **Big Fan** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 11:11 am

ah nice of you to say but I think I am the only user

I put it up here if anybody else would like to make use of it in any way

I am looking forward to seeing your API work pay off..
It occurs to me that there is save as 3DXML in SW these days and that is akin to vrml...also I think you might extract UV texture information from that? I think if you look on Dassault's site you will find SDK stuff for that

EDIT link http://www.3ds.com/products-solutions/3 ... /overview/

jeffr · Post by **jeffr** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 11:20 am

I think there are only 3 of us SW users here right now. I'd expect that once we get a couple of tools fine tuned for Solidworks and word gets out there'll be many more show up.

Hopefully once we have our two options running good someone here will see it's worth it to put them up on the exporter downloads and give us a Solidworks section in the forum.

With mine right now I've been able to extract the UV info and the normals also. Problem is the normals are screwed up somehow. I've been banging my head trying to figure it out and haven't yet.

Big Fan · Post by **Big Fan** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 11:33 am

indigo normals are a little 'strange'..thats why we use the edgesplit in blender to mark the edges of holes etc to be square (correct normals) - otherwise they mess up some when you render.
possibly it is the same issue for your exported obj?
before edgesplit came along we used to have to actually separate the mesh in to parts on the sharp edges
HTH keep up the good work

Kram1032 · Post by **Kram1032** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:04 pm

Indigonormals aren't strange - they simply don't want to get sharper than ~30°, when beeing smoothed

jeffr · Post by **jeffr** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:51 pm

I'm pretty sure it's something from Solidworks but I have no idea what it is or how I can get some sort of visual on what way the normals are pointing and why.

xrok1 · Post by **xrok1** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 3:08 pm

jeffr,

i don,t know why you think you have a normal problem, when i export an obj from SW with your macro then open it in SK, all of the normals are fine. so i don't know if your trying to go directly to to igi format or what but as i said the obj normals are fine. any consolation? also i know that it seems surfaces won't export to obj from SW so make sure your'e testing with solids.

jeffr · Post by **jeffr** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 3:25 pm

I don't think I'm exporting the normals in the version your using. It works fine if not exporting normals in an obj and normal smoothing is off. Once I export the normals as they're given by SW and try using normal smoothing reflections etc. go really goofy. I'm trying to use normal smoothing to get rid of the obvious tessellation on curved surfaces without having to try and export a really huge file with super fine meshes.
This is what's been holding up my updating the version on the site. I think I'll have to just drop the smoothing part unless someone can help or I have a dream tonight that gives me the answer, but I'm not happy with the results so far.

On a more positive note, I think I may have found how to use just the view instead of a camera. I'm not sure if that would help Bigfan with exporting into his blender plugin. I'm investigating.

Blendigo Solidworks variant

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