low and behold an alternative to Photoworks

Today i had the alias rep drop by and he showed me a new or not so new product they were pushing

Alias image studio

i must admit i was much impressed by its ability to directly open and render SW FILES no inbetween translator like okino polytrans needed

to top it off it rendered using mental ray

just thought id drop a quick link seems like a lot of folks including myself are doing things long handed when it comes to finding an alternative renderer

Reply to
mike.mcdermid
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"just thought id drop a quick link", oops, no link.

Is it better than Maya 3ds max, lightwave, this new maxwell? How?

Reply to
Keith Streich

sorry

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ive been playing with the demo this evening

i wouldnt say its better than maya or max as they both have the mental ray engine as a full blown release which is superb and i dont know much about the lightwave product having only used it aqs a tester before buying maya

but alias image studio has the same mental ray renderer as maya as its a sister product so from my brief testing of it its pretty good and a hell of a lot better than photoworks

i must admit being able to open a large cad data set straight in with no translation is appealing to say the least

maxwell im not so sure about its supposed to offer a SW plugin and then you just tweak and render but having said that if you already have a scene set up in maya using a real world environment that works then you just drop in the model apply materials then render

Reply to
mike.mcdermid

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sorry

Reply to
mike.mcdermid

Dont you need to buy Alias DirectConnects to import SW models... at least the 30 day demoversion is nagging about it... or am I missing something?

Reply to
Kvick

Just checked the help... You do Need to buy Alias DirectConnects before you can import SW models... so IT DOES NEED inbetween translator....

So its 1.499,00 EUR for the renderer and how much for the translator? does'nt say on the web page...

Don't bother to download the evaluation, If your thinking to try it with SW.... I did...

Reply to
Kvick

the demo doesnt come with direct connect image styudio 2 i got my eval from the rep who i have a preety good relationship with also im basing my pricing on the fact that whilst its 500 gbp cheaper than mayapeople who havent got okino already wont be laying out the 400 or so for a translator and then an extra 1500 or so for mental ray

Reply to
mike.mcdermid

Mike - who is the UK reseller who arranged the Alias DirectConnects software for you? I've just downloaded the Image studio but will not 'kick in' the 30 day trial if it will not work with SW - I'll contact the reseller to send through the Alias DirectConnects - as the website says it is free .

Regards

Jonathan

Reply to
jjs

Alias has just announced this week that DirectConnect for SolidWorks will now be included free of charge in Image Studio 2.1. Should be available about mid-June.

Check the below link to see the full announcement.

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Reply to
Dave

Just wanted to throw my two cents in...

*One* way around the "no translator needed" issue is for software (Alias?) to grab the OpenGL mesh from the frame buffer. This "becomes" your new model. As such, be aware of your Image Quality settings. If you want a low poly count model, keep the settings "low". The higher the settings, the more accurate the mesh (more polys). However, this will directly result in longer render times (more polys=higher render times). Also, in most 3D renderers, the "hidden polys" (inside surfaces, for instance) are handled in different ways. Some will remove them, some calculate them (Lightwave "looks" at all poly's, and figures out which are seen and which are not by the camera. Even if they are not "seen", they are still considered, adding time to the render). If possible, remove ALL poly's not seen by the camera.

A poly mesh reduction program goes a long way to improving render times (check out Polygon Cruncher from Mootools -

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Lightwaves renderer is very good (I prefer the images over Mental Ray, but that's just an opinion). You can buy a seat of Lightwave for $495.00 right now (with a valid license for Solidworks). I then suggest 3D File Export

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another $295.00. This add-in allows you to save the SW part in a number of formats (obj, lwo) with a simple "Save As...".

Maxwell is going to be the sh*t once ready, but that's a little way off (they're saying beta by June, full release by October)...

Mike Tripoli

Reply to
Mike Tripoli

What I understood from the site is that the direct connect (only for imagestudio, not studiotools) is free for SW. I think it is not actually available until the 15th of June as I read in a press release.

Reply to
daniel

Anyone found a UK dealer who will sell Lightwave at this price, as Newtek site only sells in USA.

TTFN

Jonathan

Reply to
jjs

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