[Eric Lagman]

Looks like for 2011 version they have abandoned photoworks and now all decal functionality has been put into the core of solidworks. I hope this opens up a way for maxwell plugin to use more advanced texture mapping controls than previous versions

[JDHill]

Well, the timing is good, since the plugin is in need of a significant makeover. The upshot is that I tried to 'bring Studio into SolidWorks', but when all the pieces are put together, the result has not been satisfying at all, imo. The two systems are just too dissimilar -- certain conceptual incompatibilities have proved to be unresolvable, at least not in a way where things work 100% reliably, and with reasonably good performance.

So, from here, the sky's the limit...please feel free to let me know (specifically) what your perfect plugin would look like. I won't be abandoning the in-SolidWorks concept, as it appears other renderers have chosen to do, but we do need to approach this from a completely different direction than we have been.

Also, keep your eye on the new SketchUp plugin; I have been building it all along with SolidWorks in mind as well.

[Eric Lagman]

Sounds good. Also in 2011 they have integrated photoview which is the dumbed down version of the luxology render engine straight into solidworks. It has been separate app for the last few releases. I have not tried the beta out to see how they executed that, but maybe there is something there to borrow from for the maxwell integration.