Whats New in SolidWorks 2016: Photoview 360

PhotoView 360

  PhotoView 360 has been used in SolidWorks to generate life-like renderings of SolidWorks models.  These renderings are excellent communication tools to showcase your product as it would appear in real-life.  SolidWorks 2016 has added new features to PhotoView 360 to streamline the rendering process.

Consider the following stapler:

The preview window is a feature we can access from the Render Tools tab and it allows the designer to preview the render before it is applied to the model.  This is a valuable tool because to fully render a model takes time and a preview window helps the designer decide whether they would like to proceed or not.

The preview window now has a resolution slider on the bottom that increases or decreases the quality of the preview render.  This gives the designer more control over the quality of render being previewed.  The designer can dynamically change this value depending on whether it is approaching the desired render effect. 

 

The edit scene feature is also available from the Render Tools Tab and it allows the designer to edit the lighting, reflectivity and environment variables that effect the final render.  This has usually been an iterative process requiring multiple trials before arriving at the desired image render.  A new tool to help with this process is the Scene Illumination Proof Sheet feature from the Render Tools Tab.

The Scene Illumination Proof Sheet feature uses the base render as baseline and shows multiple previews of multiple variations. This includes rendering brightness, background brightness and scene reflectivity.  

Each of these tiles displays a preview of the rendered image with modifications.  By selecting a tile, it replaces the baseline render and recalculates all of the previews based on the new baseline.  This functionality allows the designer to home-in on the desired rendering faster and more efficiently.  At any point in time, the designer may flip between the original and current baseline for comparison using the tabs provided.  By selecting OK, the settings will be applied to the PhotoView 360 scene allowing the designer to start rendering the final product.  

The improved functionality in PhotoView 360 allows designers to converge on the desired rendered look faster and more efficiently in SolidWorks 2016.