simlab vs keyshot
- Thread starter dammerel
- Start date
AndrewTing
Senior Member
keyshot is wysiwyg. simlab is still pretty much like a simpler to use rendering system.
output wise, keyshot is easier to configure to get that perfect shot in 1 render, i need a few renders for simlab to configure the color, lighting and exposure.
not sure if the new keyshot have options for lights now, the previous version i used doesn't have that feature and its more like a UV mapping of the HDR background for lights, so if you have something like a round hollow tube, it'll render a black abyss for the interior. simlab have lighting system for you to do lighting in a much more flexible way.
output wise, keyshot is easier to configure to get that perfect shot in 1 render, i need a few renders for simlab to configure the color, lighting and exposure.
not sure if the new keyshot have options for lights now, the previous version i used doesn't have that feature and its more like a UV mapping of the HDR background for lights, so if you have something like a round hollow tube, it'll render a black abyss for the interior. simlab have lighting system for you to do lighting in a much more flexible way.
We are coming out with Keyshot for Alibre near the end of November. It will be $199 and is equivalent to the $1000 version from Luxion. It has one difference in that it can only import BIP files, which Alibre Design exports.
Keyshot has a fundamental difference with other rendering packages - namely the realtime aspect. Let's take an example: you apply a material to something in KeyShot and the same material to something in Simlab. In Simlab, you have no idea what this material will look like when it's rendered until you actually render it. In KeyShot, you see the results immediately and can tweak them in real time. Scale this problem up to an assembly with 50 parts. You are going to be doing a lot of intermediate renders (lots of time) to get your final result in Simlab. With KeyShot, you simply apply and you can immediately tell whether or not it's perfect - and you can adjust it in real time. The point of KeyShot is to make rendering substantially faster than in other packages.
Before KeyShot for Alibre existed (3 days ago?...) SimLab was turning out to be a good option for people because of the resolution limitations of KeyShot for CAD (800x450) and people did not want to spend $1000 to upgrade to a higher version of KeyShot. We realized this problem and worked with Luxion to bring KeyShot ($1000 version) to our customers for only $199, in general making the Simlab problem a non-issue moving forward.
This is because you don't have detailed indirect illumination checked on
Ralf
Alibre Super User
OK, here are some FACTS.
SimLab Import formats
SimLab Composer offers support for a wide range of CAD/3D file formats, including (ACIS, STEP, 3D PDF, FBX, SolidWorks, Inventor, SolidEdge, Collada, OBJ, SketchUp, …),
KeyShot for Alibre Edition on the other hand will only support importing Bip File format.
Scene building capabilities
SimLab Composer has superior scene building capabilities, including snapping objects, creating copies and instances.
Those capabilities can be used to place your 3D model in a great environment for rendering and sharing.
Full scene tree
SimLab Composer provides a full scene tree showing assemblies, subassemblies, parts, and faces. Scene tree can be used to hide/show, and manage instances. It also allows the user to set materials on the appropriate level assembly, sub assembly, part or face.
Rendering Resolution
SimLab Composer has unlimited output resolution while KeyShot Alibre edition has a maximum resolution of 4.1 Mega pixels.
What does this mean: While 4.1 Mega pixels is enough for sharing images on the web and seminars, it is not enough for printing high quality images.
Light Support
In addition to environment image lighting (HDR) supported by KeyShot, SimLab Composer adds multiple light types that can be used to get a perfect light appearance of the model.
Advanced material management
In addition to importing materials assigned to objects in Alibre, SimLab Composer allows the user to change and mange those materials. For example a user who imported an Alibre model with 50 bolts each of them has a different material can link them to a single material. Also 50 bolts linked to the same material in Alibre can be broken to different materials groups. The user of SimLab Composer will be able to assign new materials on parts and faces without the need to change the model in Alibre.
Real-time Ray tracing
Unlike KeyShot which has a real time ray tracing (WYSIWYG), SimLab Composer uses an OpenGL preview to work with the model. While WYSIWYG approach makes it easier to experiment with material assignments, the OpenGL preview offers the following advantages:
1- It makes working with the scene more interactive
2- It makes adding new features in development faster and easier
3- It does not consume all the CPU power during the process of preparing the model for rendering
SimLab Composer also offers a preview mode to make it easier for the user to get a quick feedback of the material assignment and the lighting of the scene.
Additional features
SimLab Composer animation edition offers more than rendering, additional functionalities include:
1- Exporting the geometry to be used in other applications: SimLab Composer supports exporting 3D sense to Obj, FBX, Collada, U3D and BIP.
2- Creating animation. The animation edition allows the user to create stunning animations of Alibre models.
Animated models can be exported as rendered movies ready to be used in presentations, or published in the web, or as an animated 3D PDF file.
With an i7 processor 4 x 3 GHz -> HT activ -> Maybe, but NOT with a Quad or Dual Core....and 50 parts :!:
SimLab Import formats
SimLab Composer offers support for a wide range of CAD/3D file formats, including (ACIS, STEP, 3D PDF, FBX, SolidWorks, Inventor, SolidEdge, Collada, OBJ, SketchUp, …),
KeyShot for Alibre Edition on the other hand will only support importing Bip File format.
Scene building capabilities
SimLab Composer has superior scene building capabilities, including snapping objects, creating copies and instances.
Those capabilities can be used to place your 3D model in a great environment for rendering and sharing.
Full scene tree
SimLab Composer provides a full scene tree showing assemblies, subassemblies, parts, and faces. Scene tree can be used to hide/show, and manage instances. It also allows the user to set materials on the appropriate level assembly, sub assembly, part or face.
Rendering Resolution
SimLab Composer has unlimited output resolution while KeyShot Alibre edition has a maximum resolution of 4.1 Mega pixels.
What does this mean: While 4.1 Mega pixels is enough for sharing images on the web and seminars, it is not enough for printing high quality images.
Light Support
In addition to environment image lighting (HDR) supported by KeyShot, SimLab Composer adds multiple light types that can be used to get a perfect light appearance of the model.
Advanced material management
In addition to importing materials assigned to objects in Alibre, SimLab Composer allows the user to change and mange those materials. For example a user who imported an Alibre model with 50 bolts each of them has a different material can link them to a single material. Also 50 bolts linked to the same material in Alibre can be broken to different materials groups. The user of SimLab Composer will be able to assign new materials on parts and faces without the need to change the model in Alibre.
Real-time Ray tracing
Unlike KeyShot which has a real time ray tracing (WYSIWYG), SimLab Composer uses an OpenGL preview to work with the model. While WYSIWYG approach makes it easier to experiment with material assignments, the OpenGL preview offers the following advantages:
1- It makes working with the scene more interactive
2- It makes adding new features in development faster and easier
3- It does not consume all the CPU power during the process of preparing the model for rendering
SimLab Composer also offers a preview mode to make it easier for the user to get a quick feedback of the material assignment and the lighting of the scene.
Additional features
SimLab Composer animation edition offers more than rendering, additional functionalities include:
1- Exporting the geometry to be used in other applications: SimLab Composer supports exporting 3D sense to Obj, FBX, Collada, U3D and BIP.
2- Creating animation. The animation edition allows the user to create stunning animations of Alibre models.
Animated models can be exported as rendered movies ready to be used in presentations, or published in the web, or as an animated 3D PDF file.
I run Keyshot on a quad core and regularly render things with hundreds or thousands of parts. The image for the Alibre Design Expert box for 2011 has around 3K parts if I remember correctly. It handled this without problems. There are free trials of both software packages. A user should take his biggest assembly and put it into both software packages and see for himself, based on his hardware, what the performance is like. When rendering in real time with KeyShot, it's advisable during the texturing phase to turn on Performance Mode, which dramatically improves performance during repetitive operations such as texturing different parts.
No argument there. However, you can always import most of those formats into Alibre Design and simply export a BIP. Most Alibre Design users don't work with Collada, OBJ, FBX, or SketchUP. So, in general, most users will not find this to be a limitation. If you do need those formats though, this is a valid point. Most mechanical designers do not.
The other thing to note is that importing ACIS/STEP/SAT/etc. always has the potential to incorrectly translate geometry. By using the native BIP exporter inside Alibre Design, one can be sure that there will never be incorrectly translated geometry, such as missing faces.
While it does have native instancing, it is almost as easy to just import a copy of the BIP file you are working on in order to get a duplicate. While I agree this would be nice to have as a direct feature (and it will be eventually), the workaround in KeyShot is about 2 seconds long. This has nothing to do with placing your model in a "great environment for rendering and sharing".
KeyShot has the same thing, minus face specific selection.
Resolution limitations have to do with the possible size on paper at a particular DPI setting. If your objective is to get something printed, and by printed I mean "print quality, 300 DPI, magazine ready" print it, then you must divide the total resolution by 300 to get our output size on paper.
A 4.1 mega pixel output is the equivalent of 2560x1600 resolution. If you were to get this printed at 300dpi, your image size maximum would be around 8"x5". If your objective is to get billboards, busses, posters, etc. then this would be a limitation. At Alibre, a company that regularly does print work in magazines, we have not ever made anything in an actual, printed, full page advertisement that could not be made in KeyShot for Alibre at 4.1 mega pixels. Our DVD cases, manual covers, website images, magazine art etc. is produced using the equivalent of KeyShot for Alibre. Users would need to judge for themselves whether or not this is a real limitation based on their objectives and requirements. We have made big 5 foot by 3 foot banners where this would be a limitation, if a requirement is to keep the image at 300 DPI.
I agree Simlab one-ups Keyshot in terms of user-defined lighting. However, the point of using HDRs is so that you don't have to mess with lighting a scene manually. Some users may want and like manual light setups, and those users should download and evaluate both packages. The question is can you get what you want?
Simlab does not "import materials" from anything assigned in Alibre. It takes, at best, the RGB value of a color defined in a STEP file. This process is the same as happens when a file gets exported to BIP natively into KeyShot. In Keyshot, you can also change and manage materials, group them into a single material, or break apart groups of materials. This is done using the scene manager in KeyShot by simply multi-selecting items, right clicking, and selecting Link.
1 - more interactive = a higher frame rate during pan/zoom. This is at the complete expense of knowing what you are going to get until you press Render.
2 - This is a questionable feature...
3- Keyshot is designed to utilize all of the processing power available. You are not "preparing the model for rendering", you are always rendering. This is the advantage of KeyShot, not a limitation.
1- true
2- true, however the animation edition not only isn't shipping yet, it is also not $149.
This is the bottom line:
For 90% of all people, KeyShot is the better solution. Instead of going back and forth here, those that are evaluating a rendering solution should download both and compare both. Compare the following:
- Can I open the models I need to open?
- How fast can I produce something that gets me to a final render?
- Based on my intended use, can I export images of sufficient size to get the job done?
- How easy is each product to use?
That is the only way someone will get a valid comparison of the two products.