Composer
SOLIDWORKS Composer can directly import Product Manufacturing Information (PMI) data from SOLIDWORKS models. PMI conveys attributes that are necessary for manufacturing a product component. The attributes include geometric dimensions and tolerances (GD&T), datums, dimensions, Special symbols such as diameters and degrees and surface finishes. To import…
How to customize the SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional Convert Task for unsupported file types
The default SOLIDWORKS Convert Task in PDM Professional (tasks are not available in SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard) allows you to export to many different file types. Unfortunately, at this time, .smg files (for SOLIDWORKS Composer) are not one of the supported file types. However, the SOLIDWORKS Convert Task…
SOLIDWORKS Composer like all other SOLIDWORKS products is constantly being improved from year to year. One of the biggest enhancements for the 2016 release in my mind has been the improvements made to the animation timeline. In previous versions, the animation timeline had a limited number of…
One of the greatest features of SOLIDWORKS Composer is the ability to update documents. Imagine your technical documentation team generates a 100-page instruction manual. Just days after completion, the engineering and manufacturing team makes some minor or major changes to their components and assemblies. Does the…
How to improve SOLIDWORKS Composer Digger Image Quality [VIDEO]
When using the SOLIDWORKS Composer Digger tool, you may notice that after capturing the image the quality of the digger image seems to be quite low. The reason for this is due to the resolution settings as defined in WorkShops → High Resolution Image. In the image…
The SolidWorks Composer Digger tool allows you to capture detailed 2D images. The quality of the captured image is controlled by the last used setting of the high-resolution image workshop. Watch the video below to learn how to control the image quality of the Digger…
How to Make a Camera to Follow an Actor in SolidWorks Composer [VIDEO]
Watch this video to learn how to add a camera and have it follow an actor. You can use this technique for generating walkthroughs.
Texturing in SOLIDWORKS Composer is not the same as in SOLIDWORKS. This is because a texture will always be placed on the Actor, based on how the Camera is angled. It is very important to make sure that the viewport is normal to the face to be textured. Watch this video for more information:
Importing SolidWorks Files with Textures in Composer [Video]
If you have been working with SolidWorks Composer you will notice that when you import a file you lose any textures that the SolidWorks files might have had. You still get all the colouring though. There is an easy way to get SolidWorks files into SolidWorks Composer with textures. That is to save your file as a 3D XML file. If you do a Save As in SolidWorks you will see this as an option. The Composer can import this and will keep the assembly file structure. This is a great workaround if you are making marketing material. The only drawback is you lose the meta data so this file type is no good for creating BOMs. Watch this video to see a step-by-step demonstration of this workflow: