Create High Quality Images using PhotoView 360 in a minute

PhotoView 360 is a SolidWorks add-in that produces photo-realistic renderings of SolidWorks models. The rendered image incorporates the appearances, lighting, scene, and decals included with the model. PhotoView 360 is available with SolidWorks Professional or SolidWorks Premium.

For this example we will go with the default settings. In case custom settings are required, you can always adjust the Lights, Background and other options to improve the rendered image quality.

With a model open, click Tools > Add-In and add in PhotoView 360.
 

Go to Task Pane and select the Appearances, Scenes, and Decals tab as to the part. Here we are selecting the Red high gloss plastic from the Plastics appearance menu. To apply the appearance just drag and drop on the part and then select the options as shown below. You can apply appearance to Face, Feature, Body, Part or Custom filter. In the part shown below we are selecting the Part option.shown below. Once the tab is open select the appearance that you want to apply

 

 

   

    Once the Appearance has been applied we can select the type of Scene (Background)as shown below. In scene’s you can control the background color, light settings etc. You can also use an Adobe Photoshop or illustrator image and use that as the background image for your rendering. To apply a scene, select it and then just drag and drop in the graphics area.

 

 
Now we go the Render Tools toolbar in the command manager and select the Final Render option as shown below.

 

 

 

 

As shown below it opens a Final render window and starts performing the render operation. The render time depends on the computer graphics card and the options selected. Starting 2013version of SolidWorks you can use the image editing tools from the right and further enhance your image quality. Once you are done with this you can save the image into various formats.

 

Below is the final output from PhotoView 360 saved as a JPEG.