add 3D effect to mesh texture

[zarghamkhan]

hi folks,
modeled the surface in solidworks and used a mesh texture as an opacity map from keyshot, but the mesh appears to be a thin surface, I want it to be look solid having some thickness, tried google but all in vain, could someone here like to help ? thanks in advance

[Chad Holton]

You could try adding some bump to give it the illusion of thickness.

[zarghamkhan]

I am novice to rendering, could you please guide me which type of bump should i add ? thanks

[Will Gibbons]

Because it is indeed a surface, it will always look like a surface. In order to avoid this, your best bet is to model this... which, I know in a CAD application is not a fun idea. You may wan to thicken your surface in SolidWorks, then export it as a STEP. Then, import it into MeshFusion a free product Autodesk makes that can enable you to convert the solid to a mesh. It takes some playing around with to get this, but I've used it to make some pretty complex voronoi mesh structures.

[Chad Holton]

Not sure how thick you want it to look but try setting the same texture you're using for opacity for the bump and adjust the bump height parameter to taste.

[Chad Holton]

Here's what it should look like, notice the bump height settings on the right.