keyshot 2 rejects solidwork data

[draughted]

hi, i have recently re installed keyshot2 and solidworks2011 on a fresh install of win7
and it seems that all of my solidworks file are useless on import citing that they do not have 3d geometry

has this happened to anyone else? the solidworks plugin did nothing.
some of my files are done on an educational copy at college, don't know if that is the problem.

[guest84672]

SW 2011 or 2012? This should not happen if it is SW 2011.

[draughted]

unfortunately it is solidworks 2011.

[guest84672]

Is the tessellated information not contained inside the file? Can you check whether this has been turned off inside SW?

[isucollateral]

Hi,

Im having the same problem and im using SW 2010.

"does not contain 3D geometry, you may need to export polygonal data from your modeling system"

its getting frustrating as my models clearly contain 3D geometry and they wont load regardless of whether the tessalation is saved with the part file.

if anyone can help id be extremely grateful.

[guest84672]

What version of KeyShot are you using?

[isucollateral]

3.3 demo. ive managed to get around it by loading my models via the solidworks plug in

Cheers.

[guest84672]

Your models should import without any problems, not unless you don't include tessellation with the file.

[br3ttman]

About half my CAD models I build for my clients are in ProE and the other half in Solidworks.  I rarely have any issues importing ProE data, but Solidworks can be hit and miss.  Sometimes I can just import the Solidworks models with the default importers.  Other times I need to check the 'New Importer' (Beta) and even then I often get some surface abnormalities that we have to address post in Photoshop.  Also, I do a lot of master modelling in Solidworks, creating a master solids and surfaces database that I import into different parts to create final part geometry.  With the 'New Importer' (Beta), I find that all the surface reference geometry is pushed out to KeyShot and I have to go through and delete or hide a lot of surface geometry (or I have to remember to delete those bodies in Solidworks prior to export).

After reading so many Solidworks related issues, I'm wondering if KeyShot might add a "Best Import Practices" section in the 'Tips and Tutorials' section of your website or on this forum for a single point of reference?  Forum users could help build this, but ideally it'd just be a single growing bullet point post vs. multiple forum posts for quicker reference.  Maybe this exists already?  If not, it'd be a helpful resource for every CAD package that KeyShot supports.

[guest84672]

Using the default SolidWorks importer should not give you any issues. It reads the tessellated information from the SW file. If you run into issues, please report them to support@luxion.com.

The beta importer is beta because of the issues you described. Some surfaces are missed, some are distorted, and hidden surfaces/bodies don't stay hidden. It is, however, the default importer on the Mac, because there is no Mac API for SW.

You always have the option of using the plugin as well which will give you the same results as the direct importer.

Other than that, there are no other "best practices" that I can think of right now.