sw exporting to 3rd party program

[emc2673]

quick question...

I was wondering what options I might have to export my solidworks ('06) files into Maya or 3DSmax to do a photorealistic rendering.

I tried to use the SW poto works but I was not satified with the result.

any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated,


EMC-

 

[Jabberwocky]

There's been many-a-thread on this, but my two cents are to try for an IGES, STL, or VRML file. All of these are basically program-neutral and will get you some good polygonal models for rendering. Going to NURBS and the like is another story, though.

 

[Mitsu50]

to import into 3ds max you can save the SW model as a vrml file. It does a good job of importing too. Unfortunately you end up with a ton of triangle polys since the packages model differetnly. i found that renders were pretty slow. but it works OK.

 

[rockguy]

Look at a program called "Polytrans" form Okino.

http://www.okino.com

Okino offers a plug-in for SW that will translate files into a number of formats (maya being one of them). I haven't used the application but have heard it works quite well.

Rob Rodriguez CSWP
President: Northern
Vermont SolidWorks User Group

http://www.robrodriguez.com

(updated 1/30/06)
SW 2006 SP 3.0

 

[afb66t9]

The best results I have found is to use a STL file. If you are using 3D Max the following settings work well

STL File Import
Use Quick Weld
Leave Auto Smooth On
Uncheck Doulble Remove Faces & Unify Normals

 

[Mindnumb]

I think I used maya to open a sw part directly.. no file conversion needed.... its ben a while now since I did this, but you can try it out...