Importing New Geometry at Correct Scale

[br3ttman]

 >:(Seriously, I've had KeyShot for nearly 4 years now, and it is the most unintuitive thing importing new geometry.  Live linking in theory is nice, but I'm often working files on 2 or 3 different machines, getting in and out of session multiple times over the course of a project, and I've had the Live Link work nicely maybe once on a project for me.

Today I had to create a new assembly in SolidWorks to part things out differently and then add it back into my scene.  It took me well over an hour to toggle through all the pick scenarios.   First I tried "update Geometry" along with each of the size options.  "Same Scale as Last Import"/Automatic/ and Keep Original, but nothing came in at the correct scale.  So then I start over with "add to scene" and try the 3 different size options all over again, because it just won't import to correct scale.  Still, nothing is working, so then I attempt to repeat the same picks with "New Geometry" just to find out that that flushes out all the old geometry and creates a new scene.  So why is this option even under "import".  Now I'm getting desperate so I uncheck the "New Importer (Beta) and repeat it all again. . . . . STILL NOTHING!!!!  Finally, I suspect that somewhere I must have mixed units in SolidWorks from Metric to English or vice versa.  So I go through the process a third time . . . and finally, finally, I get something !!!!!!!!!!!! 

Seriously, there's got to be a way to simplify the understanding of all those picks to guide the user.  Additionally, the Metric to English units mix is so, so common.  I know I can multiple or divide the scale, but if it imports tiny to begin with, the resolution will be horrible when I scale it up.  Here's a tip from Makerbot that might help:  Highlight the geometry with an orange line upon import and then ask the user if the scale appears correct, and if not give the option to flip between metric and English units, and then recalculate the geometry so it comes in at the correct size and at a good resolution.

Another tip:  and I think this one has been mentioned before on this forum: In the KeyShot Import window, give a better description with each menu pick, or allow the user to hover their cursor over the import picks for a pop-up description with more details.

[KeyShot]

If you have the correct scale setup in SolidWorks and you want to keep it then always import with 'Keep Original' for both the position and scale. This will ensure that everything lines up as it does inside SolidWorks.