[b-kandor]

Hi,

I have a complex assembly in solidworks. I would like to apply materials in the individual multi body part files. Will they propagate upto the main assembly? Sorry for such a noob question...!

[JDHill]

Yes, but just make sure that you do not have "Automatically load components lightweight" enabled in System Options > Performance > Assemblies.

[b-kandor]

Ok, thanks - I did have it lightweight.

FYI, I reinstalled the plugin and it is working, however studio takes upto a minute to load. Otherwise it's looking good!

[JDHill]

I think I ran into that once...I don't recall precisely, but you might check two things: 1) there are some layout prefs files in Documents/Maxwell, and possibly also in the Maxwell 2 folder, you could try renaming/deleting them. And 2) the material browser may be open in your default layout, and may be populating with a directory tree that has a lot of MXM files.

[b-kandor]

Ok, I'll check.

In the meantime, this assembly has several thousand bodies in it, exporting is taking literally forever! Any technique to speed it up? It's taken 30 min. to get through 1000 bodies.

[JDHill]

Have you enabled instances (Scene Manager > Output > Export)?

[b-kandor]

that helped! Took about 4 min. to do 1500 bodies ( I stripped the assembly down)

[JDHill]

The other one to pay attention to is the Multi-materials option. If you disable that, you are letting the plugin know that it need not scan through every face of a body (even if the materials don't differ, it has to check), and depending on the model, this can save a good deal of time. To a far lesser extent, turning off Hierarchy can help, and I prefer dealing with the flattened object structure in Studio, too.

[b-kandor]

Cool, those are good tips.

Now that I instanced my assembly though, I'm having trouble with some of the instances. I don't seem to understand how they work in Studio anymore. I set the option to display all instances shaded but there are still some not showing up. Can I globally 'uninstance' them to make life easier?

[JDHill]

There is no option, as far as I know, to un-instance an instance. You write that you set instances to Shaded display mode, but did you also see the Display Proxy % and Display Mode settings? You can set them per session in the Instances panel context menu, or globally in File > Preferences > Instances.

[b-kandor]

Hi,

I did set the proxy to 100% and display mode to shaded, I just find instances in studio mystifying. It seems like you can only discover their existance if you happen to select the parent object. This file has 1000's of small bodies and it's really hard to sort out that way!

[JDHill]

It seems like you can only discover their existance if you happen to select the parent object.

Have you tried setting Display Mode to All? The behavior you describe is correct, if Display Mode is set to Selected Objects.

[b-kandor]

I do have it set to all, but with so many nested bodies it's really tricky to see. The issue is that for some reason not all instances are inheriting their parents material properties, so I only see it in the render and have to go hunt for them. Btw thanks for helping outside of the purview of the sw plugin!

[JDHill]

It depends on whether you have assigned a material to a body at the component level in the assembly. That overrides any materials that may have been assigned in the part file. I'm not sure what you mean by nested bodies, but if you haven't, you might want to try un-checking the Use Hierarchy switch I mentioned above.

[b-kandor]

Ok, I'll check the body assignment. By nested bodies I'm not referring to the hierarchy but more along the lines of a small machined parts with maybe 70 tiny circlips, bearings, machine screws etc. it's a challenge!