[adman]

Having always corrected surface normal direction in Studio, I am exploring the plug-in workflow but can't see how to check and control the normals.
Is this done in SW or in the plug-in?

Adman

[JDHill]

The normals will be decided by SolidWorks, based on then inside- or outside-ness of the face being exported. In the case of a single surface, this will be determined by how the surface was drawn; to change it in a .SLDPRT, you would use a Move/Copy (Insert > Features) and rotate the surface as desired, while in a .SLDASM, you would simply rotate the part's Component.

[adman]

Thanks JD, with many single flat plane emitters in a scene I am finding it difficult to get them all the right way round.
I can see why it might be difficult but any chance of a reverse normal switch in the plug-in?

Adman

[JDHill]

It's technically possible, but not for the next update. Personally, I'm usually opposed to duplicating functionality that is already available using the tools provided by the host app, since it clutters the plugin and tends to produce confusion by giving people multiple (concurrent and competing) ways of accomplishing a single objective. In this case, however, I think SW is both very ambiguous and cumbersome, so I understand the request -- I'll make sure to keep it in mind for the future.

[Marco de groot]

I think i've found a workaround that works....
When you've exported to the maxwell studio, select the singls side surface emitters and choose export obj from file pulldown menu.
Then delete them from the scene.
Next import the obj to the scene and apply the emitter material again.

It worked for me.

[John Layne]

Thanks JD, with many single flat plane emitters in a scene I am finding it difficult to get them all the right way round.
I can see why it might be difficult but any chance of a reverse normal switch in the plug-in?

Adman

It's possible to predict which way the normals will be in SolidWorks when creating single plane emitters. When creating the the square emitter on a plane the normals will be projecting from the "green" side of the plane.

Image from inside SolidWorks


Image from inside Studio


Links to SolidWorks and Maxwell files
http://www.solidengineering.co.nz/help/ ... ormals.zip