"Next" release for GMD

[JST]

Yeah..

A lot of what I have seen is basically just surface finish stuff that lets a manager see directly something that looks like a part to him/her. Busy people hate waiting for a real modeler to work, and the export/import/assign materials steps are a pain when some "suit" is tapping her/his foot behind you.

Now, if GMD would do what I asked them to do, and export to keyshot the MATERIAL or a similar field instead of the filename, then you could assign the keyshot material right in GMD. But the clod who programmed that part didn't look at what it was being exported TO....

I think it was a "rush this through" deal to slam Keyshot export into the product.

Customer service really got a chuckle out of that when they looked at it after I reported what was going on. I looked at the BIP file output and saw where the field was going. And of course it shows up in Keyshot that way. Yes, they pushed that one up to development.

 

[HaroldL]

I'm not sure that 3DSystems has any control over how it exports the model to Keyshot, it may be programmed into the api they get from Luxion. I see the same thing in Keyshot Pro using the plugin from Luxion- the model imports with the same file names and structure as in SolidWorks. Take a look at this KS Tutorial, just after the video starts and he Hides and Locks the part the scene tree is scrolled over to reveal the materials. Is that scene tree similar to what you see on your installation?

Have you discussed this on the Keyshot forum or with Keyshot Support?

 

[JST]

I'm not sure that 3DSystems has any control over how it exports the model to Keyshot, it may be programmed into the api they get from Luxion. I see the same thing in Keyshot Pro using the plugin from Luxion- the model imports with the same file names and structure as in SolidWorks. Take a look at this KS Tutorial, just after the video starts and he Hides and Locks the part the scene tree is scrolled over to reveal the materials. Is that scene tree similar to what you see on your installation?

Have you discussed this on the Keyshot forum or with Keyshot Support?

Yes, I see basically that. You would still get that, but the material etc COULD come in directly. Otherwise you are stuck with selecting every nut and screw to be "matte chrome" or whatever IN KEYSHOT. But if you could fill out a material field in GMD, you would be able to do that once, putting in the Keyshot material ID, and have ALL the parts so identified show up that way AUTOMATICALLY upon import. You would just enter the "matte chrome" ID once for the part, and binga-bong it would happen in KS. You would not have a white part that you need to assign things to.

Tying this to the "semi render" display, Managers and other "suits" have no tolerance for waiting through several steps to see what they suggest. If they want to see it blue, they want to see blue when the screen refreshes, not after a few steps and gyrations.

If they see gyrations, they start bringing up "inefficiencies" in high level meetings, and suggesting all manner of ways to get it fixed, better software, outsource the whole thing, etc. Seeing a "fake render" in the S/W directly makes them think things are humming along correctly and efficiently.

No, I have not discussed it on the KS forum. It did not seem to apply. GMD does the programming to create a ".bip" file, and so they would have control over that.

You are perhaps referring to the direct integration approach. I have never used that, as I technically do not have enough RAM to run GMD, although it does run fine just as I was told it would by an Alibre/GMD programmer here on the forum. I figured that I didn't have the ram for the job of dealing with both programs. And it would presumably end up using one of the two cores for each program. KS is slow enough with 2 cores working.

If Luxion had done the programming, they STILL would have almost certainly just provided "slots" for GMD to plug variables into. GMD would have decided what goes into each "slot".

Luxion would have known not to use what really is the filename as the material identifier.

The "by material" is an option, and there would be a variable for some identifier that the user can fill out in "properties". The RIGHT way to do it is to have ANOTHER "property" that is a rendering material ID, but it could work to use the "material" property that exists, although that is likely used already.

What does NOT work very well is to use the part name/filename. It's OK if nothing ever changes, or you were to know everything in advance. Otherwise, changing a part from gloss blue #714 to hot pink #937 would get you in trouble with the constraints all over the assembly in which the part is used, as you would need to do a replace. If it is a property, you change the property and you are done.

That's even more so when you are fairly sure (that would be nearly every time) that the marketing person requesting that will change their mind, or be over-ruled later. Then you get to do a replace BACK again (or to some other choice).

 

[HaroldL]

I think I understand your issue. I just ran a test on a small GMD engine assy I modeled some time ago on my home computer and was a little surprised by the results. I have been using Keyshot at work with SolidWorks and have gotten quite used to being able to kick an assembly over to KS via the plugin and quickly apply materials to all the parts that have the same appearance/color. It seems that the Luxion plugin for SWx will link materials of the parts that have the same Appearance/Color.

What I found is that the GMD plugin from 3DS will not link the materials even though they are the same color in GMD and "Link materials of duplicate parts" is selected in Preferences. I seem to recall that was working on my install of GMD/KS Pro. :?


What may be some good news though is that if the assembly is exported out of GMD as a STEP214 and the STEP file is imported into KS then the materials are linked. Go figure!


Maybe you already know this and are doing it but, one thing that can be done in Keyshot is to manually link the materials right after the file is imported. This can be quite an undertaking if the model is large and has a lot of parts. This method has also been pointed out on the KS forum for those using other CAD and 3D modeling programs that don't link materials. If you go to the Materials tab in the lower part of the Scene Pane, you can shift or control select all the materials that you want to link. Once they are selected, RMB and select Link Materials from the pop up menu. Until GMD fixes their plugin that's as close as we will get with linked materials on the GMD/KS combo platter.

 

[nvanlaar]

Those images are all nice and shiny but I wouldn't call them "realistic". They're packing so much fake rendering into CAD software now that it's becoming too bloated to do its original intended purpose. Now you need a high end graphics card in order for some CAD just to run. And some of those cards can be half the cost of your computer or workstation.

That's what is nice about Keyshot. It does a better job of rendering than CAD and you don't need the high end gpu but can use what ever cpu you have.

True that they have rendering built-in but like Harold says they are not photorealistic. Now I should add that I have past experience with Solidworks but not Autodesk. Standalone specialist software like Keyshot and Simlab blows anything I've seen out the water. My opinion. YMMV.

These are some strange comments. All I was pointing out was other CAD packages DO have built in rendering. Would I ever model like that? No. But it's really nice to do the modeling, switch to rendering and be done. If a revision is done, the materials and settings hold true without extra monkeying around. And it can be done all in one CAD package without any export/import, adjust/change/revise, export/import again, re-assign materials..., etc. This would be great if 3ds implemented some form (if it works well).
Keep in mind you are looking at a screenshot of parts in render mode/environment without any tweaking. All I did was drop some materials on the parts and take a screenshot to demonstrate that yes, others do in fact, have built in rendering. With some tweaking and actually doing a render yes, they are every bit as realistic as any other renderer. Also this was done on a 5 year old laptop fairly quickly. The high end GPU/CPU gets you faster renders, not better renders. Fusion can actually do cloud based rendering, so you can do other stuff while the renders are being done on a server farm somewhere.

 

[Lew_Merrick]

As I understand it, there is no "API connection" to the File Properties->General->Part Data "entries."

 

[RCH_Projects]

As I understand it, there is no "API connection" to the File Properties->General->Part Data "entries."

I wouldn't say that. I go for the "brass rings". As soon as I acquired Alibre CAD I sought direct access to the API.

It has "been a while", but I can show you that I added (or maybe it was automated) the "AlibreX" toolbox to VBA (in this case "Excel", but I am sure any app should accept this access). No doubt in Wizoscript().



Here is the exposed structure.



It may take a little digging. Just FYI.

 

[RCH_Projects]

I would mention that exposing the API this way permits for almost unlimited customization of administering and controlling files and CAD designs.

Don't like the implementation of a feature - WRITE your own!

YMMV (time and money, time and money :? )

 

[Lew_Merrick]

It has "been a while", but I can show you that I added (or maybe it was automated) the "AlibreX" toolbox to VBA (in this case "Excel", but I am sure any app should accept this access). No doubt in Wizoscript().

Ok, I am far outside of my experience zone, but according to Andy Ayre (or, as least as far as I understand the explanation) it requires an Iron Python library to make it work with WizoScript. I have also been told (by Andy) that there is no access to the File Properties->General->Part Data section of the code. I am repeating what I was told (by somebody who knows a 7764 of a lot more about this than I do)!

 

[ajayre]

I have also been told (by Andy) that there is no access to the File Properties->General->Part Data section of the code.

This is what I wrote to you about it on October 10th 2016:

Appears to be supported in the GD API, but I haven't tried using it.

 

[RCH_Projects]

I see now that they expose it but do not allow access. Way to go Alibre/3DS!

Wish I had some of my old toolkits :mrgreen: .

Some day with more time I'll tackle it if only for learning.

 

[fiddler]

Rumors are that a new Alibre release is coming very soon.....

 

[HaroldL]

Rumors? :shock: . . . where from?

 

[Fx.CAD]

...reseller rumors, who are desperate to get maintenance money in... ;-)

 

[Ralf]

...reseller rumors, who are desperate to get maintenance money in... ;-)

You are a reseller?
I ask, because your comment make no sense.
All / the most Alibre Design resellers had to sign an NDA...

 

[albie0803]

So... time will tell if there is any truth in this comment. Considering their track record so far I hope if there actually is an update that there are real fixes and improvements and not just a few minor tweaks/3d print addons and then "Hey, you got an upgrade, so keep up your maintenance if you want more".

But sadly I won't be holding my breath.

 

[MikeHenry]

If there is an update coming, GM is doing a poor job marketing it. It's a little odd that the recent update pre-announcements refer to the product as "Alibre" since that product hasn't technically existed for several years.

 

[JL82]

http://maxfreeman.com/

Alibre

 

[Dave H]

http://maxfreeman.com/

Return to Alibre

What does this REALLY mean??

 

[RocketNut]

I agree Dave H what does it mean? :?