Poly V pulley photo rendered with new Alibre ...

[nheng]

This was a simple first shot at a poly v pulley design. Alibre will now supply Keyshot in place of Hypershot as the photo renderer in the pro version. Not clear yet on the limitations but the prior supplier (Bumpspeed) used a digital camera pricing model. The more pixels in the output image, the higher the price tag. If you're making poster sized product images for the board room or publication, you will pay accordingly.

These were rendered with gold and with some blue gem stone as the materials. Of course you can use cast iron or aluminum if concerned with strength or weight

To me this is a good reason to upgrade as Keyshot is not all that cheap on its own. Of course, if you don't need photo rendered output you don't need to upgrade but it's still pretty cool.

No connection with Alibre other than as a frequently happy, occasionally frustrated user Den

updated - better sizes

[S_J_H]

I'm pretty new to 3d cad and I'm currently learning with Solidworks, but your renderings look great to me.

[nheng]

Images sizes have been updated.

[Evan]

I thought I would give a comparison using a freeware solution. This is a planetary gearbox I am working on. I didn't use high precision for the circles so they appear to have flats. That is because the true involute teeth use mega amounts of polygons. This is an example from SketchUp using the PovRay plugin.

[EddyCurr]

These were rendered with gold and with some blue gem stone as the
materials. Of course you can use cast iron or aluminum if concerned
with strength or weight

I am thinking that there would be a fair amount of interest from the
TFTF segment in versions made of Blue Gemstone. Especially if you
can mount a light behind.

Booking booths at SPOCOM, PRI & SEMA might be in order.

Nice illustration.

.

[EddyCurr]

I thought I would give a comparison using a freeware solution.
This is an example from SketchUp using the PovRay plugin.

Your posts in AutoCAD or Solidworks Training first brought
SketchUp to my attention.

It looks like a very accessible & useful tool for visioneering.

.

[Evan]

PovRay is an open source ray tracing program that has been around since the dawn of the PC. I first used it in the 80's on my Amiga. It is the granddaddy of all the other PC ray tracing programs because the source code has always been available for inspection and the help system is second to none. What puts people off PovRay is that it has no graphical interface. All image generation done directly in PovRay is done in the edit console using a programming language designed specifically for the purpose.

Now that the SU>POV plugin is available there is finally an effective and relatively easy to use interface to PovRay that take a lot of the pain out of using it.

I changed a few lighting parameters in SketchUp and re rendered the gearbox in PovRay.

[BobWarfield]

Love the Keyshot renderings!

I have been wondering about getting a better renderer for Rhino3D. It cries for it as the one that comes with is pretty weak. More like Evan's freeware renderer, so I don't use it much.

So, I do a search and discover Keyshot is available for Rhino. Only (drumroll please), $995.

Wow! That's a lot of dough to render my pulleys in gemstone materials.

Guess I'll stick with what I got.

Best,

BW

[EddyCurr]

I have been wondering about getting a better renderer for Rhino3D.
It cries for it as the one that comes with is pretty weak.

So, I do a search and discover Keyshot is available for Rhino. Only
(drumroll please), $995.

Wow! That's a lot of dough to render my pulleys in gemstone materials.

I notice that McNeel's Brazil Rendering engine for Rhino is $895.

.

[japcas]

I think the sketches above look great, but am I the only one that thinks the highly reflective finishes make it hard to see the detail? I know it's as simple
as clicking a few buttons to change the color of the parts but the shadows and reflectiveness almost go overboard when trying to make the parts look more photographic instead of drawn.

[Ken_Shea]

Downloaded the trial version, looked for pricing by selecting "BUY IT NOW", but that seemed to mean nothing, still no prices.

When I did find pricing, it was indeed $995, tooooo much in my book just for a pretty face.

[nheng]

Guys, The nice thing about Alibre's offering is that it is now standard on their pro level for $499 (total). I upgraded to pro to get it and just received the license key. A linkage to Rhino is supposed to be free. Not sure how you get a $999 package included like this but it's only software, right

Japcas, You can control just about any aspect of the render as you surmise. I used gold and clear gem as they were just cool to start with You can select from many other materials and finishes as a start point.

This is from the Alibre forums and is somewhat hard to distinguish from a prototype cleaned up for a photo session: (note that this is from Hypershot, the predecessor to Keyshot, same base technology, now from Luxion who is the creator)

http://www.alibre.info/uploads/Service800x600.png

Once you get the lighting, materials and finishes about right, it starts to come together. Add a realistic surrounding and you're there. If you're interested check out the Audi, ring and watch at the Keyshot site.

Evan, It's nice to see the SU option. I've considered that but Alibre was a pretty close match for my SolidEdge exposure at work. My daughter has promised to make me a few SU models on her break this week. I want to see how you drop 2D out of that too.

Den

[lazlo]

This is from the Alibre forums and is somewhat hard to distinguish from a prototype cleaned up for a photo session: (note that this is from Hypershot, the predecessor to Keyshot, same base technology, now from Luxion who is the creator)

http://www.alibre.info/uploads/Service800x600.png

Wow, that's incredible!

[J Tiers]

As one who is just starting with Alibre, I have NO IDEA which version, because they seem to be all the same but different depending on which deal you bought........ my deal was $200, but by the time they bothered to ship it to me (I got the disc), they were offering it at $100 again, just like the week BEFORE I got it.................


Anyway, I am getting the picture that extracting renderings is going to cost lots more money.

I ASSUME that an ordinary 3D view can be got out of it with tools which are in the package...... yes? I have already discovered that I will have to buy the book in order to get any serious use out of the package....... more $$

[nheng]

JT, You have a PM but I just realized that your original question went unanswered. With any version you will have 3D solid views available with as wireframe, solid, solid with edge highlights and solid with hidden lines visible. You can't control light but you can control reflections and your workspace background. It will give a nice view but not photo-realistic. Den