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Today, we’re going to look at the newest photorealistic rendering tool that SOLIDWORKS has added to their portfolio – SOLIDWORKS Visualize (formally known as Bunkspeed)! Then, we’ll dig deeper into the first level of SOLIDWORKS Visualize – Visualize Standard!
First off, what is Visualize?
Visualize, simply put, is a camera for your CAD data! It’s a separate standalone application which enables fast, industry-leading rendering performance while being easy, intuitive, and fun! It has the power to capture beautiful photographic quality images of your work without going through manufacturing to get photos of the actual product. Its ease of use means you don’t have to be an engineer or graphics professional.
What problems does Visualize seek to solve?
- Imagine your design team just finished their year long project and are asked to present the finished product to investors, stakeholders, and possible clients – will SOLIDWORKS screenshots be enough?
- What if the product was passed approval, and now falls onto marketing’s lap. Will you have the resources and materials to make sure your project shines and separates itself from the current products already on the market?
Why is photo-quality visualization important?
- No surprises in aesthetics during the prototyping phase, it’s reliable!
- You can generate high quality marketing materials, quickly!
- Make a great first impression when presenting your design!
- Keeps up with the emerging shift in consumer demand for more interactive content to contribute to purchasing decisions.
Now that we’ve discussed why Visualize is so important, let’s take a look at the different packages available to you!
With Visualize Standard, you’ll have the ability to:
- Import various CAD formats such as SOLIDWORKS, IGES, STEP, Parasolid, and files from Pro/E, Rhino, SolidEdge, Inventor, and much more!
- Use “Easy Mode” user interface option makes rendering incredibly easy – just drag and drop in the appearances to “paint” the model, place the desired environment, and render!
- Incorporate professional texture maps and pull from an expansive cloud library of materials and environments.
- Import HDRI images or use existing HDRIs from the library to provide accurate scene-driven lighting.
- “Fast” rendering mode allows incredibly fast creation of product concept shots and even renders suitable for marketing purposes. “Accurate” rendering mode adds even more realism – usually only necessary for scenes featuring heavy amounts of transparency, reflection, and refractions.
- GPU Accelerate your renderings. This means that while Visualize should run on any engineering workstation that can support SOLIDWORKS, when paired with a powerful NVIDIA GPU (or even multiple GPUs!) Visualize can offer rendering performance and accuracy far beyond what is possible in a CPU based renderer.
- Lastly, but definitely not least, Visualize Standard is already included with SOLIDWORKS Professional and SOLIDWORKS Premium packages!
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In today’s blog, we dived into the problems Visualize was created to tackle, and then looked at what SOLIDWORKS Visualize offers. Visualize Standard provides us the ability to produce quick conceptual renders and standard marketing materials. If you want to take your renders to the next level or create additional outputs such as animations – stay tuned for Part 2 of this blog to discuss the feature of Visualize Professional!
For more information, check out our YouTube channel, get a SOLIDWORKS Visualize quote or contact us at Hawk Ridge Systems today. Thanks for reading!