Graphics for manufacturing or technical documentation

[Stefj]

Hello,

i must do some  technical documentation, how to use Keyshot for this ? and how to achieve this particular look ?
thanks,

[Zeltronic]

Toon Material should be your friend on this kind of task

[jhiker]

Looks like it might be a job for the 'Toon' shader.

[Stefj]

ok, thanks ! i will try

[Stefj]

Ok, toon shader seems doing his job, but i have some problems with some lines...
Really not easy to have all lines...
For this kind of render, it seems that the camera must be in "Orthographic view" + "Isometric".

[Stefj]

here the problem !

[DriesV]

Hi,

The overall thickness of all lines can be controlled through Contour Width. To control the exterior/outline contours, expand Contour Width and adjust the Outline Width Multiplier. Make sure the check box is checked. This value works as a multiplier of the Contour Width.
You can also check and adjust Part Width Multiplier to create contours between individual parts, even when they are flush.

The issue you have on the right side of the image (with the thick black contour) might be caused by setting the Contour Angle too low. I usually try to keep this at 30° or above. Depending on the geometry, lower values can lead to edges being "fused together" in thick lines.

Also, it appears your contour width is defined in pixels. This will cause contours to look differently depending on image resolution. If you expand Advanced, then you can uncheck Contour Width In Pixels. The contour width will then be defined in scene units.

I hope that helps.

Dries

[Stefj]

Thanks a lot !

here my last update.
i noticed that some lines appear or desappear if i change the camera orientation..... not really practical !
can we export this kind of render in a .ai Illustrator file ?   it could be so useful to make a technical documentation !

[DriesV]

...
i noticed that some lines appear or desappear if i change the camera orientation..... not really practical !
...

What lines are disappearing, and in what way?

...
Can we export this kind of render in a .ai Illustrator file ?   it could be so useful to make a technical documentation !

No, export to vector graphics is not possible. What are you looking for in terms of editability later on in Illustrator?
We have had this request before from other users, but so far, we have not been able to figure out a way to export useful vector output. It's not that we can't convert the Toon contours to vectors. That would be easy. The tricky part is enabling the kind of flexibility that Illustrator users are used to having when working with line art. Toon creates its contours by means of raytracing. They are defined very differently than in Illustrator. It would be very difficult to output Toon as vector art with lines of which the thickness could be changed or shapes of which the fill color could be changed.

Dries

[Stefj]

What lines are disappearing, and in what way?

it's everytime inner lines of the object... maybe they are too much fine ?
sometimes i have all lines in a perfect way, and if i change the camera orientation a bit (to have a more interesting view), some interiors lines of the object disappear.

What are you looking for in terms of editability later on in Illustrator?
1/ .ai files for technical documentation, have a really light weight ! usefull when you have lot of pages and complex schemas
2/ it's more easy to change colors if needed.
3/ u can make some adjustments, in a very easy and fast way ( thickness of lines for exemple)

[Zeltronic]

If you want to convert to an .ai file the only way is to vectorize your bitmap file, AI can do it well but other tools can also nicely convert your bitmap to vector, especially if you don't have many colors & gradient

[mafrieger]

No, export to vector graphics is not possible. What are you looking for in terms of editability later on in Illustrator?
...
Dries

Hi Dries,

imho / for me it's mostly about

1) the document size:
especially if you have several or even ten's of images in the document. Nearly all documents are published as pdf online... since most views of pdfs are not on a powerfull notebook/workstation but on a) lower powered mobile device with b) mobile web access
->sizes is even double important.

2) quality on zoom:
a) within document setup process you do not have to render several times with different zoom levels but "simply pull it large"
b) when viewing it and you like to zoom in to get the details
-> zoom quality is double important too.

=> so in a first step vectors don't have to be perfect grouped etc... the big thing would be to have it as vectors :-)

==> to not raise high expectations, one could avoid exporting directly in ai format but export as pdf which could be imported...

[mafrieger]

No, export to vector graphics is not possible. ...
We have had this request before from other users...

Dries

yes you're right :-)
people (like me) start asking for it when great toonshaders arrived in KS. 5 years ago :-)

e.g.: https://forum.keyshot.com/index.php?topic=11735

[Zeltronic]

In some case vectorisation could be a good deal... In the attached file you can see that base on your low res picture result is not so bad, with a high res picture it could be perfect / conversion take 5 sec....