Starting over...

[trice1]

If after spending much time "painting" and adjusting all of your settings you see that your model needs a small
change or a part added, do you have to start all over again from the beginning?
Can the settings be saved somehow when rendering very similar assemblies?
I have been opening another instance of Keyshot with the previous model in view so I can see or
copy the settings. Is this the hard way to do it?

Alibre Design user with the limited version of Keyshot 2.
I'm in the woodworking business so my models have to keep up with a lot of wood grain directions.
I would also like to say that I really enjoy using Keyshot.

[guest84672]

This can be done with the full version of KeyShot.

[trice1]

Thanks for the prompt reply.

[Speedster]

I've found that "Ratain Materials" can be erratic, and often fails in KS2 Pro 64 bit.  I heard this is all fixed on the upcoming 2.2 release. 

I'd like to see a "Re-import" capability, rather than having to drill down through the current process of importing.  That is, if KS could remember the model and address, and just "pop it in" after making minor changes.  I understand that new geometry would not import with previous settings.

I've also noticed with frustration that "same co-ordinates as previous" does not- all the position settings default back to 000 with the new import. 

Bill G

[JeffM]

Yes, the retain materials should be better, but if there are any issues it would be great to get sample files so that we can improve it further.

The "same coordinates" is just to make sure the new model comes in with the right relative size to the previous model. This is necessary because the first model is scaled by an arbitrary amount to make it "fit" within the environment so that it's easy to move around and work with. The next model will get it's own scale applied if "same coordinates" is not set. This setting does not retain further transforms or scales.

[Speedster]

Thanks, Jeff- that answers some of it.  The issue came up when I had to create a series of renders for a client project, with each image identical, and of the same model, but with several parts moved to a new position for each image.  At first I went crazy, then realized a simple method that worked like a champ.

In the SolidWorks top-assembly I prepared a configuratiion of each "position", also making sure that my decal surfaces were discrete as configurations.  See my other post on this.

Then I imported the first configuration into KS, but did nothing- no movement, materials, nada.  I then toggled the SW assembly to the next configuration, saved it, and imported it into KS with merge checked.  I did this for each configuration, ending up with a scene of all positions sitting on top of each other.

Now all you have to do is hide all but the active one, paint it up, hide it and show the next, paint it, and ditto to the end.  Since there were few materials, and all were in my clients library, painting them up was quite simple.

The final render set almost looks like an animation, which gave me a lot of ideas of how to exploit KS for a movie sequence.

Bill G

[JeffM]

The final render set almost looks like an animation, which gave me a lot of ideas of how to exploit KS for a movie sequence.

Yeah, just treat it like stop motion and you can do anything! 

I'll test on a similar project to see what workflow options there might be. Thanks for the info!

[Speedster]

Jeff, you may be on to something with stop-motion, or "poor man's animation". Didn't think of it, but that's what I've done with two projects now.

In the first, it was a simple action of removing a safety stop pull-ring, then moving a part along an axis.  I imported the parts separately and aligned them in KS, then locked the camera.  After each render I simply jogged the pull-ring part 0.05 in position and re-rendered, and on until it was finished when I hid it and ditto the moving part.  It stiched together very nicely as a short demo movie for his website.

The one I refer to in my earlier post was a different story, as the motion was complicated and likely impossible in current KS.  A number of parts were mated, and the final motion was driven by a wobble-plate cam/groove surface.  Easy to mate up in SolidWorks, but obviously not in KS.

So in CAD I had one angle mate that allowed me to increment each move precisely, at, I think, about five degrees.  This is the model that I brought into KS as "overlays", each with the 5 deg of motion.  It was time consuming, but worth the effort.  I wish I could share it, but an NDA is in place until it's released.

But that's the idea, and food for thought.  FYI- I'm just starting to work with the new SimLab-Animator application from www.simlab-soft.com, which is an astoundingly simple app, and based on the Luxion kernal as you know.

Bill G