• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

The easiest and most effective thing to do when you have a part that just displays dark for some reason is to add a single Point light to a model.

The Ambient setting raises the overall brightness of the part, the Brightness setting refers to just the light, and the Specularity slider controls how lights shine or create “hot spots” on curved faces of models. You can even edit the color of a light to give a part a two-tone effect. If you have a blue part and apply a red light that sits to one side of the model, you can get very interesting color effects where the red light reflects off of the surfaces of the part. Lighting effects are most dramatic on curved parts. Parts that are made mostly of flat faces do not reflect light as smoothly as curved faces. This is why even adding small fillets to a rectangular model can help make the part look nicer (more realistic) for presentation purposes. Figure 5.32 shows a comparison of a model with filleted edges compared to a model with perfectly sharp edges.

Working with cameras

You create cameras through the RMB menu on the Scene, Lights, and Cameras DisplayManager, as shown in Figure 5.33. When you add a camera, an interface displays in the PropertyManager, as shown in Figure 5.34.

FIGURE 5.32

Demonstrating the difference between the appearance of a part with fillets and a part with sharp corners

FIGURE 5.33

Adding a new camera with the Camera PropertyManager

In this interface, you can position the Camera object by dragging the triad. To resize the Field of View box, use the controls in the Field of View panel in the PropertyManager. In the graphics window, you can use the left panel to target and position the camera, while the right panel shows the view through the camera.

FIGURE 5.34

Positioning a camera with split windows

You get the most lifelike perspective from a lens setting of about 50 mm. Shorter distances produce wide angle or fish eye lens effects. Larger settings make it look like a telephoto lens. It should be noted that perspective within SolidWorks works much differently. Within SolidWorks, the setting is based on how many object lengths you are away from the object. So if a person is approximately 6 feet tall, and you are rendering that person, you would set your perspective as a factor of six. Three object lengths would be 18 feet.

The Depth of Field panel of the Camera PropertyManager is not shown, because it requires that PhotoView be added in. Depth of field can make objects outside of the focus area slightly out of focus, which can greatly add to the realism of renders.

You can use three methods to switch the graphics window to the Camera view:

• Through the View Orientation dialog box (which you access through the spacebar)

• Through the View Orientation popup menu (in the lower-left area of the graphics window)

• Through the RMB menu on the camera in the Lights, Cameras, and Scene folder in the FeatureManager

When you switch the view to the Camera view, the regular Rotate View command does not function. Rotating the view means moving the camera. You can move the camera by editing the Camera properties, reposition the camera by dragging the triad, or rotate the view while looking through the camera using the Turn Camera tool.

• Camera View. Views the model through a camera. You can use cameras for:

• Viewing the model from a particular point of view.

• Creating renderings with perspective and depth-of-field (focus) blur; this feature is only available when PhotoView 360 is added in.

• Animating the position and target of the point of view in an animation. This feature is only available when a Motion Study is active.

• Turn Camera. Enables you to rotate the camera view when looking through the camera without editing the Camera properties. You must be looking through the camera and it must be unlocked for this to work. Dragging with the MMB does the same thing if the camera is unlocked.

• Draft Quality HLR/HLV. Toggles between low-quality (draft) and high-quality