Is there a way to apply a material to an assembly?

[Mike Gera]

Say I have a weldment assembly. The material of the each part is set to "Plain Carbon Steel".

I want the weldment assembly to be "Galvanized Steel" (or appear like it, as least).

How would I go about this?

Thanks for any replies.

[JSculley]

Say I have a weldment assembly. The material of the each part is set to "Plain Carbon Steel".

I want the weldment assembly to be "Galvanized Steel" (or appear like it, as least).

How would I go about this?

Thanks for any replies.

You want it to "appear like it" where? In the BOM? Graphically on the screen or in a render?

[Mike Gera]

You want it to "appear like it" where? In the BOM? Graphically on the screen or in a render?

Graphically / rendered.

[AlexLachance]

You could apply the "Galvanized Steel" appearance to all the bodies within your weldment assembly.

https://help.solidworks.com/2021/Englis ... ethods.htm

[Mike Gera]

You could apply the "Galvanized Steel" appearance to all the bodies within your weldment assembly.

https://help.solidworks.com/2021/Englis ... ethods.htm

Thanks but I don't see any material appearances. I only see "color" and "texture", and it's just one texture (black and white squares).

[JSculley]

Thanks but I don't see any material appearances. I only see "color" and "texture", and it's just one texture (black and white squares).

The appearance tab in your task pane should look something like this:

Appearances Task Pane

The appearance files are normally located here:

Code: Select all

C:\Program Files\SolidWorks Corp\SOLIDWORKS\data\graphics\Materials

Do you have this folder?

[Mike Gera]

Mine looks like this:

[JSculley]

Drag the horizontal bar between 'Appearance' and 'Default Appearance' down. You've just got the folders pane shrunk down where you can't see the child folders.

[Mike Gera]

Drag the horizontal bar between 'Appearance' and 'Default Appearance' down. You've just got the folders pane shrunk down where you can't see the child folders.

Ah ha!

Perfect, thanks.

Very helpful.

Now I just need to find an appearance that looks like clear zinc plate. The Galvanized looks ok but isn't anywhere near "correct".

[AlexLachance]

Ah ha!

Perfect, thanks.

Very helpful.

Now I just need to find an appearance that looks like clear zinc plate. The Galvanized looks ok but isn't anywhere near "correct".

You might need to play with the lights of the scene to get the desired result.

[Mike Gera]

You might need to play with the lights of the scene to get the desired result.

I'll take a look, thanks.

[AlexLachance]

I'll take a look, thanks.

I'm not the best reference for these things as I've only had to go through the process a handful of time but if you need more help just ask. It can be quite painful to do this depending on the complexity of what you're rendering and the level of detail needed.

[Glenn Schroeder]

Now I just need to find an appearance that looks like clear zinc plate. The Galvanized looks ok but isn't anywhere near "correct".

Find a picture you like, save it, and apply that instead of using one of the default appearances. I've done that with wood grain (this was two pictures, of course; one for the end grain and one for the sides).

[Mike Gera]

Find a picture you like, save it, and apply that instead of using one of the default appearances. I've done that with wood grain (this was two pictures, of course; one for the end grain and one for the sides).


image.png

That is pretty cool.

Thanks for sharing.

[SPerman]

You might need to play with the lights of the scene to get the desired result.

I don't ever remember having lighting issues in NX. White objects were also white. I assume this is because NX didn't try to be a renderer. (At least if it did I wasn't aware of it.)

[Mike Gera]

I've never had any luck playing with lighting in SolidWorks. I always manage to get everything hopelessly out of wack.

[AlexLachance]

I've never had any luck playing with lighting in SolidWorks. I always manage to get everything hopelessly out of wack.

Pretty much the same here. But I've had the lights get wack by themselves too which is why I know they can be a cause for bad renderings lol

[Glenn Schroeder]

That is pretty cool.

Thanks for sharing.

I was in a hurry yesterday when I posted that, so I didn't go into any detail about the procedure. After saving the picture, have the file open, go to where it's saved, and click on it and drag it onto the face of the model and release your mouse button.

Select the proper icon for Face, Feature, etc, and that will apply the appearance.

[Glenn Schroeder]

I've never had any luck playing with lighting in SolidWorks. I always manage to get everything hopelessly out of wack.

I've used it a time or two. For one example, if I want something yellow or orange, selecting them with the default lighting setting results in a dull color. Increasing the lighting will brighten it up considerably.

For example, here is what it looks like with the Luminous intensity set to 0.0.

. . . and this is with it set to 0.3.

[Dwight]

Increasing the lighting will brighten it up considerably.

It will also drive nuts anyone trying to do a rendering with it later.

My workaround for the unmanageable SW lighting is to move the Directional1 light around to the front and around a 30-degree latitude, then crank up the brightness with that.

Dwight

[Arthur NY]

Same base rules to follow and you can't go wrong. This is assuming that Sub-Assembly/Assembly are being used if not then All can be done at the Part level just fine.

Materials: ALWAYS apply materials at the Part level. Never at the Sub-Assembly or Assembly level...it gets WAY too confusing and too hard to keep track of what's being applied and where. Yes it's more time consuming but it 100% prevent any type of mishaps at all.

Lighting: ALWAYS apply environment and lighting at the Top-Level Assembly. There is max number of lighting that can be used in the current rendering package. (last I checked it was somewhere around 11-15 lights) and even if more can be added it would be overkill.

Environments: ALWAYS apply at the Top-Level. Use HDRI images to help make the renderings feel much more like they are in an environment but do not use it for what appears in he background. Just used a plain color or maybe a two color gradient at most. Start with this first to get a sense of how this is working throughout the whole scene. Leave the other lights off until this feels "correct" and to your liking.

Types of Lights: Spot, Direction, and Point. Once the environment is set then start to add lights and only add then one at a time. Directional lights are global in terms of all lighting will come from that direction as a whole. Point lights radiate 360* so be mindful of this depending on how you want to scene to look. Spot light.... gives the most control and takes some adjusting to get it how you'd like.

Lighting Cards: Create surface planes that are emitters and can help add subtle highlights and the likes.

Starting in 2024 the current rendering package, Photoview 360, will be gone and Visualization will be the replacement. It has yet to be determined (at least shown in public) how this will turn out or look. I doubt that, and this is based off of the previous experience of the rendering side of things, that it will be a 1:1. In theroy it "should" but since the programmers/product devs don't really understand or use renderings all the time they will be some missing current features will will take some time to get fully in place.

[Andy]

Starting in 2024 the current rendering package, Photoview 360, will be gone and Visualization will be the replacement. It has yet to be determined (at least shown in public) how this will turn out or look. I doubt that, and this is based off of the previous experience of the rendering side of things, that it will be a 1:1. In theroy it "should" but since the programmers/product devs don't really understand or use renderings all the time they will be some missing current features will will take some time to get fully in place.

Really not happy about this! Photoview360 is great for "quick and dirty" renders, and it's far easier to get decent results out of the box than it is with Visualize. Heaven forbid SW ever listens to the punters though.