Comment utiliser les configurations SOLIDWORKS dans SOLIDWORKS Visualize

One major advantage of SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional is the ability to use SOLIDWORKS configurations and toggle between multiple configurations within the rendering software. This is extremely helpful to save time when setting up multiple renders of similar products or to just quickly create product images.

Why Use Configurations in SOLIDWORKS Visualize?

When using SOLIDWORKS configurations in SOLIDWORKS Visualize, you can just import the one you need when you are ready to render it, and don’t need to be bogged down by importing every single configuration. For anyone designing products with more than one option (cabinets, couches, or phones), being able to get multiple renders of the various versions in the same scene with identical lighting and cameras can give a professional consistency.

Having consistency between product images makes a product page look nice and sleek, and as a bonus, setting up the scene and custom lighting only once for all the configurations can save time. It also makes those little tweaks down the line, like changing the brightness consistently and easily.

How to Send SOLIDWORKS Configurations to SOLIDWORKS Visualize

Even when using the Export Advanced command from the SOLIDWORKS Visualize tab of the CommandManager, there is nothing to designate which configurations are being imported. Similarly, inside of SOLIDWORKS Visualize you would just be met by the Default configuration with no others to choose from.

SOLIDWORKS model with many configurations

This is the default behavior when transferring files into SOLIDWORKS Visualize to reduce the amount of data transferred and speed up the operation. However, if we wanted to add multiple configurations, we would need to add a Display Data Mark. The Display Data Mark tells SOLIDWORKS which configurations to send to SOLIDWORKS Visualize, allowing you to pick and choose which to send.

How to Add Display Data Mark

To add the Display Data Mark, you need to activate it for the specific configurations.

1. Open the Configuration Manager.
2. Right-click on a configuration to add the mark to.
3. Select “Add Display Data Mark”.

Adding a Display Data Mark to a SOLIDWORKS Configuration

After completing the steps above, a new icon will appear next to the configuration: a part icon with an eyeball attached. What this means is that when transferring a file with configurations to SOLIDWORKS Visualize, the active configuration will be imported alongside any configurations with the Display Data Mark.

SOLIDWORKS configuration with a Display Data Mark activated on it

Exporting to SOLIDWORKS Visualize with the Display Data Mark

This time, when we use Export Advanced and we can go to the model tab in SOLIDWORKS Visualize, we will find that the configuration dropdown is now populated with the configurations we selected. This lets us easily switch between model configurations. For example, if I have a scene set just the way I want it and need renders of multiple variations, I can easily change the configuration to render them one after the other.

Multiple SOLIDWORKS configurations in SOLIDWORKS Visualize

Clicking the X next to the configuration in the SOLIDWORKS Visualize configuration list will remove it from the list. This means that if you need to render a lot of images, you can remove any that have already been completed to easily track your progress!

Comparing the configurations between SOLIDWORKS and SOLIDWORKS Visualize

Layering Up Efficiency SOLIDWORKS Visualize

While using SOLIDWORKS configurations in SOLIDWORKS Visualize is a great way to achieve efficient photorealistic rendering, there are a few other tools worth mentioning.

The first is the SOLIDWORKS Visualize Render Queue. The Render Queue allows you to stack up multiple renders to run one after another, completely hands-free. The second time-saving tool is Appearance Grouping, which lets you quickly change groups of colors, such as cabinet doors (different types of woods) and different hardware finishes. Appearance Groups will help get those different combinations set up quickly without needing to make a ton of selections

To learn more efficient rendering tips, register for an upcoming training class here.