[donb]

I'm having trouble getting MXM materials to render properly using the latest Solidworks plugin (Maxwell 2.7.0 64-bit, Solidworks 2012x64, Windows 7 Pro64).

I have assigned materials to individual components (Bodies) then loaded the component into an assembly. When rendered there are no reflections, all colors are matte. I opened the MXS in Studio and found that two different materials exist for each material in the model: the MXM's originally specified (e.g., called Chrome and Blue Anodized Al; and a matte color that appears to be the preview material used in Solidworks, e.g., called SW Body (mxm#1) and SW Body (mxm#2). In the Objects panel I see that the preview materials, not the MXM's, are assigned to the objects. Since there is no material applied at the Assembly level, the Body material should be used, according the the user manual.
The only way I can get Maxwell to render the MXM's is to assign them at the assembly level. This is unacceptable since an assembly can contain very many instances of the same object.

Am I missing something or is the plugin broken?

Regards,
Don

[JDHill]

Is it possible that components are being loaded lightweight (see SolidWorks System Options > Performance > Assemblies)?

[donb]

Thanks J.D., that was the problem.

I wonder if there is still a problem though. If components are loaded lightweight Solidworks issues a message before exporting noting that all components have to be resolved for the export operation to begin. Solidworks then resolves all components. Apparently the plugin doesn't get the message. It seems to me that if the plugin receives two materials for each component is should automatically use the MXM.

Thanks again,
Don

[JDHill]

It's not so much that the plugin is choosing between the two -- that would be great. What really happens is that the second material is created by the plugin on-demand, as a translation of the entity's SolidWorks material, and it is only created if no Maxwell data is found on the entity. One would indeed think that resolving lightweight components by means of the dialog (it is requested by the plugin) would work the same as loading them that way from the get-go, but in practice it just doesn't; unless the components are resolved at document-load time, the plugin's data is AWOL. And no data means no material, which is why why you see these dynamically-generated materials.

[donb]

That makes sense. From now on I'll load resolved once I get to the render stage of my projects. Thanks.