Here is a quick test rendering of a SOLIDWORKS Motion Study, that was exported by a new version of the SW plugin currently in development.
Credit for the awesome model goes to Bill Gould, aka Speedster here on the forum. :)
Dries
This is awesome. An outstanding model and, at last, a way to get motion/anims out of SolidWorks and into Keyshot.
Which versions of SW will it be compatible with?
What is the guesstimated availability?
This will work with all versions of SOLIDWORKS.
We are still testing, but since this is an update to the plugin, we can release independently of KeyShot point releases.
Dries
Another test. The rendering took about 8 seconds per frame, so this is preview quality.
Model: https://grabcad.com/trinityscsp
Dries
YES!!! :D I'm really pumped about this! I'll be anxiously looking forward to this updated plugin!
Glad to hear about your pumpedness, Eric. :) We are pumped to.
Meanwhile, I did another test.
Again, this was rendered pretty quickly.
Model: https://grabcad.com/library/flying-bird-wooden-toy-1
Juarez has made some neat SOLIDWORKS models with motion.
Dries
I'm so excited to try this out! Such a valuable feature for me. When do you think this will be available for me to try out?
Magic!! I could have done with this a couple of years ago when we were working on a complex folding cover and deck system on this https://www.quintessenceyachts.com/discover_am37/
Instead we had to export the SW data into Modo and animate it there - which took ages.
So Dries, are you saying that if we set up a motion study in SW - with all the parameters that can be achieved in that (mates etc), when we "export to Keyshot" via the plug in, an animation is automatically created with all the pivots etc set up? And can we then tweak timing and range (so if we wanted a linear travel to me longer or shorter we could tweak this in Keyshot)?
This sounds great but the devil is in the detail ;)
Hi Kevin,
The animations will be of the "baked transformations" type. Similar to FBX or Alembic, if you are familiar with that. What you get in KeyShot will not be a mated mechanism, but the motion will be like what you have in SOLIDWORKS.
I can see the value in having mated behavior in KeyShot, but that is certainly not trivial.
Dries
Will there be a "How To..." video once the plugin is released or will it be self explanatory? I assume there will be some sort of selection option in SolidWorks to output the motion study to Keyshot, similar to the option to render to Photoview 360 now.