5 Replies Latest reply on May 27, 2017 9:55 AM by Christopher Lewis

    Rendering clear plastics in Solidworks Visualize

    Christiaan Van Aardt
    Christiaan Van Aardt Mar 9, 2017 2:04 AM

      I have a clear plastic cup that I created in SW. In SW I applied a transparent plastic

      that appears clear SW but when opening the part in Visualize the clear plastic appears solid. Even when I apply a clear plastic appearance that is found in Visualize library it is not entirely clear (maybe 10%). This is for all plastics.

      I have tried glass appearance but this is not realistic to a polyprop or polycarb plastic.

      does anyone have solution for this or even a custom material with its setting that I can use in Visualize please.

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        • Re: Rendering clear plastics in Solidworks Visualize
          Ron Bates
          Ron Bates Mar 9, 2017 9:49 AM (in response to Christiaan Van Aardt)

          Hi Christiaan,

           

          In Visualize, most transparent objects will be "solid"...which means you may have to adjust the Color Density parameter.

           

          Click on your appearance and observe the properties.

          In all likelihood if it is of type "Plastic" and it may also have Solid checked, and a Color Density value.

          You probably have to slide the Color Density value down quite low. 

          Also, make sure Transparency Color is entirely white (100%).

           

          We realize we need to improve these appearance translations in many cases...clear plastics certainly not excluded.  We are working on it!  ;-)

           

          As an alternative, you can also copy the 5 clear plastics from here, and put them in your library, and try applying one of them on the problem appearance after you import it. NOTE: These use the Sub-Surface-Scatting appearance type and currently will render best (albeit slow) in Accurate mode:

           

          ClearPlasticTest 2.png

          • Re: Rendering clear plastics in Solidworks Visualize
            Christopher Lewis
            Christopher Lewis May 24, 2017 12:27 PM (in response to Christiaan Van Aardt)

            I thought I should also comment in this forum, in case someone sees this one before they see the one in grabcad.

            Rendering clear plastics in Solidworks Visualize - GrabCAD

            By the way Ron, your link is dead. I really like your picture that you rendered that would have looked great for my safety glasses.

             

            Anyway, I have been playing around in Solidworks Visualize not Photo view 360 and I am trying to render some plastic Safety glasses. I started messing around with the parameters like Ron said.

            Appearance type: Plastic; always gives me something really dark. They look more like sunglasses with glitter in them than clear safety glasses.

            Appearance type: Glass; also comes out really dark. but they are at least one color without glitter. (I am really curious how people make realistic glass cups with this texture.)

            Appearance type: film; comes out the clearest but it also has a bit of glitter in it. However, I can overcome most of the glitter by making the pass count really high and it takes forever but looks ok.

            Both of these pictures are at 200 passes. I think I am going to up it to 600 and see if most of the glitter comes out.

             

            Thank you, Winston Jennings and Todd Abernethy from Grabcad for making the Safety glasses so I could mess around in Visualize with plastics.