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[fix target: v23]Does V22 split every single surface when you pass a model through to Keyshot now?

jhiker

Alibre Super User
Maybe this has been mentioned already but you can paste the material onto the part on the model tree in the scene tab. Works fine.
Yes, you can apply a material to the 'parent part' and it applies to all the surfaces. The 'collapse' feature is useful here.
 

NateLiquidGravity

Alibre Super User
Never mind everyone - I had transferred the license for Alibre Design using the license portal and didn't realize I hadn't put it back on this machine. So Keyshot opened into full version DEMO mode with no capacity to save. :oops: After loading the license back I get the same "open" formats as you.:(
 

HaroldL

Alibre Super User
...@Max any chance of a super quick fix for this?

I just ran a quick test on this to see how KS would handle Procedural Wood since it will render the end grain on a piece of wood. I'm glad to see that it works ok, IF you drop the wood material on the part in the real time view or on the top level in the scene tree.

One issue comes up if you RMB clik on the part in the Scene tree and select Material>Edit Material. IF the part has material applied at the top level you can edit the material from the Scene tree. IF any part or surface has a different material applied then the Edit Material option is grayed out for the upper level part.

I'm not sure but the material editing option more than likely performed the same way in KS v9. And, at least in KS Pro, you also have the option to split surfaces. But it would be nice if AD didn't do that for you.
 

HaroldL

Alibre Super User
This came to my attention when I was attempting to apply a RealCloth material to a part in KeyShot and is another example of unintended consequences of Alibre's ability to send surface colors to KeyShot. In KeyShot you cannot Edit Normals of a part, you can only select a surface in Geometry view. And that is useless as far as I can figure out.

Parts created prior to the implementation of the new "face color to KeyShot" feature were able to be edited in KeyShots Geometry Editor so that the UV's could be edited. This is no longer possible. Just try to apply a RealCloth material to an Alibre part and see what happens - a warning dialog full of Red error messages is what.


This is the dialog I get when trying to apply a SS Mesh in KS to an Alibre part.
No UVs fFor RealCloth.jpg

Somehow I get the impression that this new feature was not fully vetted before being implemented.
 

Uman

Senior Member
Has Alibre acknowledged this issue yet?
I am really hopeful Alibre releases an update to correct this soon.

update 210121: PM sent to Max
 
Last edited:

Max

Administrator
Staff member
Has Alibre acknowledged this issue yet?
We are prioritizing a fix that we hope to get in v23. The spec of the fix covers the following, though when we implement things may change slightly:
  • Parts of all 1 color will not be broken out at all into geometry sub-groups (so no more lists of every face)
  • Parts of more than 1 color will continue have subgroups of faces
    • Unlike what we do today, there will be as many subgroups as there are distinct colors. So a gray cube with 1 red face will produce a Part<1> node with 2 geometry subgroups, one representing the 1 red face and the other representing the 5 gray faces. It will not be a list of every face, unless every face has a distinct color.
This should address the most common workflow side effects of the prior change including making it easier to copy/paste materials to parts and not just faces. It also similarly affects Keyshot's move and duplicate tools.

This implies that if you want a face to have the ability to be distinctly colored in Keyshot, you must assign it a face color in Alibre Design first.

We are not prioritizing the RealCloth issue for v23.
 

HaroldL

Alibre Super User
We are not prioritizing the RealCloth issue for v23.
Max, That's okay for now as I have found a workflow that gets me what I needed.
I don't know what the limitations are of KeyShot for Alibre or if it supports Geometry View and editing UV's. Here's how I replied to my Support ticket on this subject.

I am using KeyShot v10 Pro and Alibre Design v22, latest versions of both. The fact that Alibre now splits out the surfaces of all parts does help in this case since I don't have to edit the part in Geometry View to split out the surfaces or at least the one that I want to apply a Realcloth material to. (It does not help when trying to apply Rounded Edges but the solution to that is to apply them in Alibre.)

The process steps I have learned to take allow me to apply the Realcloth material. The key point to Realcloth is that this new material can only be applied to surfaces. That little nugget was mentioned in one of the KeyShot Quick Tips and it went by so fast that I almost missed it.

I am attaching some screen shots of the steps I learned to follow to apply the Realcloth material to one surface of the part. Visibility of all other surfaces must/should be turned off unless they are to be similarly "materialized".

If I understand correctly KeyShot for Alibre may not have the functions for editing UV's and applying Realcloth so these steps are not going to apply to it. And I won't get in to editing the 3d mesh to change its appearance, warp and weft, etc.

Maybe someone could check to see if these steps work in KeyShot for Alibre.

1-Select Unwrap UV.jpg

2-Select Surface.jpg

3-Click Apply.jpg

4-Drag Material.jpg

5-Turn Off Surfaces.jpg
 

Max

Administrator
Staff member
We are prioritizing a fix that we hope to get in v23.
This has been addressed in the latest internal build. Every face is no longer split out. Within a part all faces are stitched together into a single group, unless a Face Color has been defined. If one or more face color features exist, the faces associated with those features will each be separated out into their own groups, by feature.

This now means that it is easy to copy/paste materials to entire parts, versus single faces, through the work area shortcuts and without the need to use the design tree. Access to face-level colors is still available so multi-material parts can be created - this requires you to create Face Color features in AD. The design tree in Keyshot is now much, much shorter as well, and vastly easier to navigate since every face isn't its own node. We are targetting v23 for end of April / week 1 of May.
 
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