My ambient occlusion doesn't appear to be working properly. I discussed this issue with Ron Bates at SolidWorks World. He suggested that I make sure that the lights are set to be low, and have it mostly lit by the ambient light. I have reviewed my settings, and I still cannot produce the ambient occlusion effect.

I have attached a sample screenshot, and the SW2009 part file that I used. For that screenshot I have RealView turned on, and "shadows in shaded mode" turned off. I also included one with "shadows in shaded mode" turned on. Note how it gets really dark. I am using the standard lights created by the scene. I have an nVidia Quadro 3450 video card. I set the part appearance to be satin plastic.

So, to get ambient occlusion to work, is "shadows in shaded mode" supposed to be on? If so, what's the deal?

Sorry for the large file size, but I wanted to make sure the images properly showed all the detail.