How would I get very realistic renders for my parts? Mostly for metals like aluminium, stainless etc in different colors. Inventor's own materials look very unrealistic. I've seen some very realistic looking parts on the internet (not sure if the CAD program used was Inventor though). Is additional software needed or how people do it?
DarrenP
Did you find this post helpful? Feel free to Like this post.
Did your question get successfully answered? Then click on the ACCEPT SOLUTION button.
Ok I will look into that. If I want animation for my assembly. Should I animate the assembly in Inventor and then change materials and make better renders in 3ds max or is the animation possible to do in 3ds max too?
For creating realistic rendered images you should take a look at Inventor Studio. This a package within Autodesk Inventor. You can find some good tutorials on youtube.
To get quicly and very nice realistic images use Autodesk Showcase. Its ease and powerfull. Look at suites to undestand if you have Showcase and 3DMax.
Showcase example
With enough time spent modifying/playing with the Inventor colors you can get some pretty darn realistic renderings using the new raytracing option alone.. There is almost NO need for studio anymore. And if you have been on subscription you now have access to showcase as well as 3ds max. Start by spending a little time in Inventor and see where you can get with it. I'm very happy with what I can do with Inventor now (raytracing alone) and am very excited to see what 2013 has to offer.
Thanks guys. I will play more with Inventor's own material options first before trying the other methods. I will update here how it goes.
Update: Showcase looks very nice from what I saw in youtube and there's also 30 day trial for it so I will check that out for sure too. If I want to make animation for my assembly (about 1min long), do I have to make the animation in Inventor or is it possible to just assemble in Inventor and then make the movement in Showcase?
Hi again!
Autodesk Showcase its amazing!!!!! Very very ease.
In Showcase you create scenes from an Inventor file, complete with Materials, Shots, Alternatives, Storyboard, and animated Constraints.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/limage?siteID=123112&imageID=16831153&id=6834016
Downloaded the 64bit trial version for my 64bit Win7 Home Edition. I played with it and the software seems pretty easy to use. After a hour or two of testing I quit it and started Inventor and the graphics in the Inventor had changed. I used Inventor with "compatibility" setting and it always used the highest graphics. Now it always uses the lowest graphics. In "performance" mode now the colors are normal but the edges of the part look like crap and with the "compatibility" mode it changes the part color to almost white.
I uninstalled the Showcase and reinstalled Inventor but that didn't help. I had planned to reinstall my OS so I made new clean Win7 install and downloaded all the latest drivers. Same problem with the Inventor. I have no idea what happened.
I have integrated graphics card btw, but that shouldn't make any difference since the softwares worked fine before.
Just try doing a system re-boot. There is a screen switch in the DirectX when using Showcase, possible after exiting Showcase it didn't fully switch back because of your integrated graphics card.
@Anonymous wrote:Just try doing a system re-boot. There is a screen switch in the DirectX when using Showcase, possible after exiting Showcase it didn't fully switch back because of your integrated graphics card.
I made full reinstall of Windows and installed all new drivers but the problem is still there. It feels like the fps dropped from 100 to maybe 60 while rotating the parts. Looking from the task manager the processor usage doensn't go higher when I rotate the parts. I don't remember how high the memory usage was before, but now it's 3,3gb/4gb.
showcase is a graphic intensive program
so i am not suprised your having problems with using a integrated graphics card
DarrenP
Did you find this post helpful? Feel free to Like this post.
Did your question get successfully answered? Then click on the ACCEPT SOLUTION button.
I don't have prolems with Showcase. It's not even installed now. I have prolems with Inventor. and Inventor has worked fine before for the past 6 months.
Showcase is easy to use and can generate nice looking results pretty quickly - I use it extensively rather than tweaking Inventor's materials (which, to me do not look even close).
I also see the same behavior you are describing when I switch from Showcase back to Inventor. It actually changes the option in Inventor for "Software Graphics" (Tools > Options > Application Options > Hardware > Software Graphics). So, you have to open Inventor, uncheck the Software Graphics checkbox, close Inventory, then re-open it.
It also resets the selected Project in Inventor each time I use Showcase. Little disappointed in the "interoperability" between the two applications, but once you get used to the song and dance you can be productive with the combination.
I've also tried using 3DS Max, but so far the learning curve has been steep enough that I've not made the switch from Showcase.
Check into Keyshot when you get a chance. I had the same issue you had with Inventor Studio. I personally think it looks terrible. I've attached a render I did of one of our mobile towers. I think it looks pretty real. Also Keyshot took me about 5 minutes to figure out how to use it and it also has animation capabilities. And if you were wondering, I have no affiliation with Keyshot I honestly just think they make a good product.
Is it possible to make the parts travel freely in Showcase or in Keyshot? In Showcase was only able to move them so that they travel to one direction and then the part would make "corner" and travel to the another direction. I don't have Showcase installed anymore so can't test myself.
Can't find what you're looking for? Ask the community or share your knowledge.