[big K]

hi,

i am working together with a company that uses solidworks.
i am going to setup an animation with some of their models. they have exported them in STEP format which i am able to read.
it all imports fine, i also get a color information and now the but...
but they have assigned realnames for the materials (i think via the photoworks tool) which get lost during export.
now i want to assign the imported colors to their counterparts (the real mats)

(and finally the question)
is there a way to get the information inside solidworks and print out something like a material list with the material parameters that is used for one project ?

or maybe you have any other idea how i could get the info i need ?

cheers and thanks
michael

[martgreg]

im thinking that the names they have applied are actually from the solidworks side and not the photoworks...

sometimes engineers will apply materials for testing etc...

but I only use it for basic modelling etc....

what app are you going to do teh animation in?? , and cant yo just see what they want it to look like and then apply maxwell materials as needed ??

let me know hopefully JD HILL can help ::

[big K]

hi,

thanks for your reply!
problem with the mats is, i have about 30-40 different materials on the objects and it is some very complex machinery. so i would like to have an idea what the materials are supposed to be.
about the names - i was at their place and i think i can remember that they had to dig a bit for the true material names. (it was more a property then the color material)

michael

p.s. i am going to animate this with cinema (import and export is done via formZ)

[JDHill]

let me know hopefully JD HILL can help ::

Sorry, I don't know. You can do alot of things with VBA in SW, I suppose maybe the data he's looking for is in the model somewhere, but maybe not.

[martgreg]

Hi Big K:

I am still a little confused about what you want to do?

Did they build the assembly in solidworks and apply material properties to it , and say we want it to look exactly like what it appears to be on the screen and that is what you want to match , or are you trying to mach the parts to what the builders have specified.

ie a piston being made of a chromed alloy , or something made from tungsten, stainles steel etc....

If it is teh first case you can download e drawings http://www.solidworks.com/pages/program ... check.html

and view the file they built and yo can see it and rotate with all teh colors and materials they applied.

If t is the second case then I think you would be in for a lot of work as there are many variations to materials and even if you match it to exactly what the engineer put in it may look wrong..

so see if they have any existing pictures etc... and tell them your dilema as soon as you can so you can get working...


good luck

[big K]

hi martgreg,

thanks for your reply.
it is more going your second example, but without having to match the material in detail.
it is more an information i need wether the material is a kind of rubber, or some copper for example. (it is not so important to match their render output in photoworks)
so far i have only got RGB colors assigned to the objects. (and i think this is the same for them - in their modeling view they have only assigned colors)
but somewhere hidden there is the information of the material of an object .(as i don´t use solidworks i am not too sure about the posssiblities)
i thought there might be an easy way of getting this information - as they (the employees of the company) don´t have too much time fiddeling around to get the stuff i need (this is in fact a problem if you are dealing with big companies)

but thanks anyway
michael

[martgreg]

Ok here is one more try that i might be able to help.

If you have solidworks then you can use the menu window on the side and expand the part that you want with the "+" sign to get the information about.





the information next to this icon is the material used for that part.


By martgreg

hope this can help

[big K]

thanks again.

no, unfortunatly i do not have solidworks.
i have this STEP files with the color info and thought it would be possible to print a list for example with all materials used in solidworks and their properties (this would be color and special names - the materials)
then i could compare my color info with the list and say this should be brass then.
today they gave me a kind of color code that they used with reds being copper and grey steel ....
i think i have to stick to this. better than nothing.

thanks for your help again.

michael