Faces / Materials.

[DIXON]

As a follow on from my thread over on the Keyshot section [ edit geometry ] is there anything I can do in Alibre that would enable me to take my model into Keyshot and apply different materials/ colours to specific faces of the same part.

Regards.

 

[DavidJ]

Not sure (I don't use Keyshot very much). If for just a few faces, maybe applying labels in Keyshot could be a possible route.

 

[bigseb]

I have tried but couldn't do it. If I really need to have certain face a different colour or texture I add a thin surface, say, 0.01mm thick on top. Tedious, so I don't do it much.

 

[NateLiquidGravity]

I haven't tried lately but I used to use a method like bigseb. In assembly I added parts for different surface treatments or paints. I edited the paint part in place, selected the face I needed to paint, projected it to sketch, and extruded a thin layer. Many changes to the underlying part cause the paint to not align anymore so I would (try to) do this as a last step before sending to Keyshot.

 

[HaroldL]

Here's a link to an old post from back in the HyperShot days about applying colors to the faces of a model using MoI (that's "Mo-Eye"). You might find it helpful.

 

[DIXON]

Thanks folks.

 

[JST]

There is a fundamental problem with the interface between keyshot and Alibre. Materials DO NOT GET TRANSFERRED.

So that kills the transfer before it starts. I do not think what you want is possible anyhow, though, as the part has a singular material, and it is not possible (as far as I know) to change materials for different faces unless you apply an "overlay" as bigseb and Nate suggested. Even then, you still have to apply the property in Keyshot due to the material not getting transferred.

They are supposed to be transferred, but in fact there is an error in the interface that substitutes the Alibre filename for the material property. So the transfer does not occur.

I was using Keyshot quite a bit, and discoverd that it did not work. When I slogged through the bip file, I found the filename substitution.

 

[DIXON]

Thanks JST, Looks like I will have to upgrade the Keyshot to a Pro licence, as that has the "edit geometry "feature that I would like.

Regards.