SW importing surfaces that are not required

[elliottanner]

Hi,

I am running SW 2011 x64 SP.5.0 and Keyshot 3. When I try importing parts or assemblies in to KS3 quite I am getting 2 problems.

1. With a couple of models the importer freezes and will not import the model. These are small size models ~3.5 mb.

2. When it does import it brings in all the surfaces that I used for the constrution of the part which are hidden in SW, these are now not needed and I definitely do not want to render them in the scene. KS 2 never used to do this.

Can some one help with my queries?

[Speedster]

I'm too having a lot of problems with the SolidWorks importer in KS3, like freezing up, not importing assemblies, missing parts, not recognizing lofts, and the like.  I just ran into the surfaces issue yesterday, and I agree it's a huge problem.  We often use surfaces for trim, etc., then hide them.  They should not import.  After import (if successful) you can hide the suspect surfaces in the Scene Tree, and perhaps even delete them.

You can also try using the "use old importer", under the advanced tab.

My workaround pending resolution of the KS3 import issues is to first import it into KS2, save it, and close it.  Then use "Open With" to open it in KS3.  Has worked fine so far.  Of course, you're out of luck if you don't have KS2 installed.

I understand the Luxion team is working on the SW importer. FYI- I'm running Win7x64, and SW2011 SP3.0.  I don't know what happens with SW2012, but I intend to find out today.

Bill G

[eric]

As a workaround you can add a delete body feature in the SW tree.
You can always suppress this if you need the surface bodies again.
We do this standard because also some export formats include all the hidden bodies.

[KeyShot]

We are testing out an updated importer right now. It looks promising so far.

[Patch621]

Also it takes 10x longer to load a native SW file.

I've been saving out as STEP or IGS and then importing (still takes longer, however) to resolve some of the issues mentioned above.  Saving out in KS2 is a good idea.. kind of embarrassing to take a huge step back like this in KS3 though.  :-(

[guest84672]

The reason for this is that we have a completely new import for KeyShot 3 that will allow you to import your SolidWorks files not only on PC, but also on Mac. We now no longer read the tessellated information, but are tessellation upon import into KeyShot 3. While this takes longer, it allows you to adjust your tessellation upon import into KeyShot. You no longer need to go back to SW to adjust your tessellation.

We will take a look at the hidden object issue.

[cubicart]

I think we're getting closer to the desired SW importer performance with the latest KS3.0.96 release ...

All weldment part bodies seem to successfully import now, whether you use the KS CTRL-I command or the plugin from within SolidWorks.

I've only just noticed something about material assignments, however. When you drag a predefined material from the "library", all parts update as you would expect. If you try a material cut / paste (select material Shift + LMB ==> apply selected material Shift + RMB) from part geometry to another part, not all instances of that part update. However, if you drag the material from the "project" material window to the new part all instances of that part update accordingly. Is this intentional? I think you should be able to copy materials from part to part in the model window.

[m2tts]

Just installed 3.0.96. On importing my SW assemblies I'm still getting hidden surface bodies and hidden components; as well as missing some surfaces from a solid body.

[guest84672]

We rare looking into this. On the PC, you can always use the "old importers" under the advanced tab in the import dialog.

[ToffLomo]

How's this hidden surface issue coming along, Thomas? The Plugin from SW end works ok, but if I open SW files from withing KS3 I get a birds nest with a part somewhere in the middle 

Cracking job on KS3 btw - just upgraded and the performance is amazing. Beautiful range of environments too.

[guest84672]

An update will become available shortly. It won't be in 3.1, but in an update to 3.1.

Thanks - glad you like KS3!

[ToffLomo]

Hi Thomas,

Any movement on this update to solve the Solidworks import issue?

Also, has any seen these issues before - occasionally the background environment colour shows grey, where it's set to white. I have to change the colour, then change back to white every now and then. Also, texture sales seem to reset to u/v 1.0 whenever I load a new image - I don't think it used to do that, but it's becoming quite frustrating when you are doing 30 images to demonstrate available decorations!

Cheers

[guest84672]

We have posted 3.2 in the download section. It is a preliminary version, but quite stable. This will address the issues you are seeing.

[ToffLomo]

Great, thanks Thomas!