Maxwell Render | Official public forum

Posted: **Fri Jul 08, 2005 5:59 pm**

Post here any issue, crash, suggestion..

Posted: **Sat Jul 09, 2005 12:01 pm**

Hello Daniel,

dg wrote: SWmaxPM (property manager) does not remember most settings.

A change in the last step before release has generated this bug. It will be fixed early in the next week

dg wrote: It would be much better if you clear the selection filter after closing the PM.
Also for selection filters, I think the default filter when entering SWmaxPM materials should be object.

It will be fixed in the next release too.

dg wrote: if I create a camera in SW, and it say that it is 34mm lense, or some other focal length, why is it that SWmaxPM shows 50mm. Does it not pull any of this info directly from SW?
Camera correction is not clear to me. Must this be entered? If I understand the manual, this does not.... However, I was entering the number for example, 141mm (0.141m) and the focus seemed OK. For example, why can't it pull the camera correction info from SW? or is this actually redundant because max ius actually pulling this number from the camera position box (0.23 as per your manual example). However, it seems the images is more correct if I enter this number. Again, SWmaxPm should remember this number.

SolidWorks camera is very new and there is a lack of camera methods. Actually it's not possible that SwMaxwell get the distance between camera
and target automatically. It must be filled by the user. In next releases of SolidWorks it will not be necessary. Of course the value will be saved too.

dg wrote: Can maxwell detect the default units SW is set for? Or is it already autodetecting the "1" is already correct?Regarding scene scale. If I am working in SW in mm, why is it that SWmax works fine at scale "1"? If I understand correctly, I should have to set it to .001, when my SW working default is MM, right? But if I do that, I get black....

SwMaxwell will detect user units in the next release too. Also there will be a revision of scale issues.

dg wrote: It seemed to be that if I clicked inside the white materials list box, and there was no material there, it would crash. If I select polycarbonate Dielectric, and change the ABBE setting, it does not remain "polycarbonate".

Also both bugs will be fixed. Thank you for the report.

The rest of your suggestions are about general use of Maxwell. It better if you post them in the general forum to let other people to know that. Of course the way to select materials in the standalone will be different to swMaxwell. Each plugin has to handle the resources that its platform provides. Thank you a lot for you suggestions. There was a deep change in the internal core of the plugin but obviously there could be a lot of small bugs in the user interface. The next week we will release a new version with most of this issues fixed.

Best regards,

Posted: **Sat Jul 09, 2005 1:48 pm**

dg wrote: Do I understand correctly that all the shading will be handled in swMax? If so, will there be support for "true" shader pre visualization inside swMax? And ultimately selection based on existing libraries, rather than the workaround to copy and rename the MXM files?

When Maxwell standalone is released (in october) you could go on handling shaders in SolidWorks or you could export a single mxs file just with geometric data and default materials and then apply shaders in Maxwell. The tools that Maxwell standalone will provide for shading will be more powerful than any plugin tool, and also you will have pre visualization... material libraries will come later. But anyway the plugins will go on beeing useful and the material editor of Solidworks will be better in next releases.

Cheers!

Juan

Posted: **Fri Jul 15, 2005 6:32 pm**

Is it only me ? - but when closing SW20006 Pre-release 1 and I have Maxwell plugin turned on - the closing down of SW results in a crash and the new Customer Service Feedback form -- And who ever said that Americans don't get irony

If before closing down Sw I remove Maxwell from the plugin list , SW closes down fine. I do this anyway or else Sw2005 does not work properly. But occasionally I forget. Keep your patience Juan - I don't envy you trying to get a consistant copy of SW.

Jonathan

Posted: **Fri Jul 15, 2005 6:42 pm**

I think the plugin only works with the early visibility release of 2006 not the pre-release versions. I am just waiting on the final release of SW 2006 before I jump in. It should be out any day now.

Posted: **Fri Jul 15, 2005 8:50 pm**

Hi,

The next week (I suppose on wednesday) we will release a new version with all the bugs that Daniel has post fixed (thanks

dg) and with more features. Sorry for not release it today, sometimes the issues are more complex that you expect in the beggining. Also we have noticed that some users have crashes when the plugin is loading or when solidworks is closing, but we can not reproduce this behavior here. We are close to SolidWorks team to solve that issue very soon.

Posted: **Fri Jul 15, 2005 10:33 pm**

I think the plugin only works with the early visibility release of 2006 not the pre-release versions.

Well it does work with the pre release - I am using it , but then anything I report is probably fixed in the EV version.

SW are taking their time - I think it was June when 2006 was launched but still no sign of SP0 -- I take this as a good omen - and today I also ate a pasty and the insides where not grey - this I also take as a good sign for the coming year.

TTFN

Jonathan

Posted: **Thu Jul 21, 2005 5:06 pm**

Hi Daniel,

mmm... you guesshow difficult is to know how much will take something that has never been done.. We will try to have it on Friday. SOrry, we are working hard with it.

Best,

Posted: **Wed Aug 03, 2005 12:14 am**

Couple of things I have noticed after a few hours of playing with the latest plugin.

The camera seems to be off from sw to maxwell. What I see in my viewport is not what I am getting when it renders. It will be shifted a bit one way or the other. The other plugs like Rhino and C4D render what I see through my camera in the application viewport. I did try copying the position of the camera to the L dimension in the camera setting as the video shows. This seemed to help me get my image in focus, but the view is still off.

I seem to have to make my emitters much brighter than in the other plugins to get the results I want. This could just be user error on my part though. Do I need to adjust units anywhere? I see it is set to 1. If I am using inches is this correct?

The application of materials is a bit akward. Once I put a material on a body or face is there a way to click on it in the viewport, and know what material it has. If it doesn't maybe a way to do this would be when you click on a body or face the material in the list gets highlighted. It would be cool also if maxwell materials would update the color or transparency of an object from the solidworks color properties. For example if I but a green maxwell diffuse on a part it turns green in the viewport by having the sw color match it. Right now there is no visual cue what materials I have applied to an object. Also would it be possible for a maxwell material to show up in the new flyout display pane in the feature manager. This would be very handy.

Sorry if any of the recomendations or observations have already been mentioned, or are in the process of being updated. It seems to be coming along well. Keep up the good work.

Posted: **Wed Aug 03, 2005 9:13 am**

Hi Eric,

Eric Lagman wrote: The camera seems to be off from sw to maxwell. What I see in my viewport is not what I am getting when it renders. It will be shifted a bit one way or the other.

Yes, there are differences between Solidworks camera and SwMaxwell camera. I am working with it at now, I will update a version with more camera issues fixed as soon as possible.

Eric Lagman wrote: I seem to have to make my emitters much brighter than in the other plugins to get the results I want. This could just be user error on my part though. Do I need to adjust units anywhere? I see it is set to 1. If I am using inches is this correct?.

Let me take a look, Theorycally there is no differencs, so I will compare it with other platforms. If you can provide a very simple example it will be very useful (i.e a emitter cube with 1m strips in swMaxwell and Rhino)

Eric Lagman wrote: Once I put a material on a body or face is there a way to click on it in the viewport, and know what material it has. If it doesn't maybe a way to do this would be when you click on a body or face the material in the list gets highlighted.

Yes is is possible now. If you enable the check box "show the material automatically" when you press an entity in the viewport or in the feature tree the material applyed to this entity is highligthed in the list. If this feature does not work in your system please let me know.

Eric Lagman wrote: It would be cool also if maxwell materials would update the color or transparency of an object from the solidworks color properties. For example if I but a green maxwell diffuse on a part it turns green in the viewport by having the sw color match it.

Eric, thats a great idea. I thought about it in the past but I was not sure if it was appropiate to change the appereance of the model, perhaps the user do not want I change his assemblies. But now I see that you could find it very useful. I will investigate the possibility of adding this feature very soon.

Eric Lagman wrote: Also would it be possible for a maxwell material to show up in the new flyout display pane in the feature manager. This would be very handy.

I am not sure if I know exactly what you mean. Are you talking about the floating tabs in the right, like toolbox of 3Dcontent link?

Eric Lagman wrote: Sorry if any of the recomendations or observations have already been mentioned, or are in the process of being updated. It seems to be coming along well.

All your comments are very useful. You know developing a connection between maxwell and a CAD platform is a long way. In fact the most CAD platforms just would not allow this connection. SolidWorks is as powerful that we will have a great integration soon. We will provide a plugin more powerful with each update, we have done important steps last month but there are a lot of improvements for the future. SolidWorks Corp is helping a lot to do this way easier.

Regards

Juan

Posted: **Wed Aug 03, 2005 10:23 am**

buffos wrote:juan i really dont understand all that plugin madness
Why not develop a simple exporter.
Export geometry uv, all you need, grouped be material names.
Then texture it in your GUI. Just like matador.

I really dont understand all that world madness.
Why not develop a simple money interchanger.
Get money from rich people, all you need.
Then give it to poor countries.

buffos wrote: Do i miss smthg?

Absolutely all. Perhaps exporting geometry in a CAD program is a code with many thousands of lines. Perhaps you can't export stuff grouped by material names because you do not have material names, even you do not have a material editor. Perhaps get uvs is not so easy. Perhaps a huge integration is desired for many very important reasons, not only in the technical area... Perhaps... Perhaps....

Welcome to this section buffos

have you purchased SolidWorks? I will be glad if you post here some of your renders with maxwell.

Best,

Juan

Posted: **Wed Aug 03, 2005 10:48 am**

Hi

,

buffos wrote: 1) Exporting geometry. You actually do that in the plugin and much much more. I am wrong?

yes.

buffos wrote: 2) Export by material names. If the program can export in obj then it can group by material names.

CAD programs usually do not export to obj. CAD programs do not work with meshes, but with parametric geometries. The concept of "object" in very different in this type of programs in comparison with 3d artistic software.

buffos wrote: Is there a program which supports materials without material names?

yes

buffos wrote: 3) uv.... Doesnt the plugin, when saving an mxs file export uv. it does.

I do that.

buffos wrote: What i am asking, is why do you need complete integration in the modeler and not just an export plugin with simple save as...

Perhaps a huge integration is desired for many very important reasons, not only in the technical area... not only in the technical area... not only in the technical area...

buffos wrote: Please juan dont get me wrong. i am not trying to be hostile.
I just try to understand.

I know you are not trying to be hostile, I want help you, I hope I achieve it. You are welcome here indeed.

Best,

Juan

Posted: **Wed Aug 03, 2005 7:01 pm**

[/quote]Eric, thats a great idea. I thought about it in the past but I was not sure if it was appropiate to change the appereance of the model, perhaps the user do not want I change his assemblies. But now I see that you could find it very useful. I will investigate the possibility of adding this feature very soon.

Yes this might annoy some people. Maybe just the option somwhere to check a box and it does this. That way if they dont want maxwell materials to affect their model color they dont have to.

[/quote]I am not sure if I know exactly what you mean. Are you talking about the floating tabs in the right, like toolbox of 3Dcontent link?

See down and dirty photoshoped image. Icons copied from C4d plug

If the icons had a visual cue as to what the material was would be nice also. This is roughly shown in my image with white text. E=emitter Di=Diffuse etc. This might be very hard to code, but maybe solidworks team would help you out with this?

I will test the emitter power between the rhino plug and sw plug later on today or tomorrow.

[/img]

Posted: **Wed Aug 03, 2005 7:22 pm**

Thank you Eric!
I need to investigate if it is possible to integrate maxwell plugin in this fashion, anyway this is a good idea.

You have a private message

Cheers,

Juan

Posted: **Wed Aug 03, 2005 9:38 pm**

Just installed sw2006 Sp0 and have mx plugin appearing and I can assign material etc - However when I render SW always crashes before the MX windows appear. It even crashes on a a virgin file where I just use the render button and efault MX materials. I had thought that this was just my sw2006 Beta copy not being the latest, but it happens with the SP0 copy.

I think it is time for a clean install of MX - how do I acheive this?

What is the correct procedure for uninstalling Maxwell aswell as the MX SW plugin and then re-installing them? This way I can at least be confidant that crashes etc are not due to past install blemishes.

TTFN

Jonathan

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