[Visualize] Importing Appearances into Visualize

When creating a project in SOLIDWORKS Visualize, you’ll have to import or create a model. During Import, you’ll have the ability to import appearances, appearances with textures, and appearances without textures. You can control these import parameters by using the import options dialog box, shown below:

You can choose to not import any appearances whatsoever in Visualize by unchecking the “Appearances” tab itself, or you can leave the options alone to import the model with all appearances and textures. In the "Appearances" tab, you can choose to “Ignore texture references” by checking the appropriate checkbox and control search options and locations for missing textures.

Differences between imports with Textures, without Textures, and no Appearances

To see a comparison of each type of import style, let’s take a look at the image below:

With appearance and texture imported, the wood texture from SOLIDWORKS has been applied to the model. When the appearance checkbox is completely off, nothing from the appearance is imported and thus resulted in a gray body. When no texture is imported, Visualize still creates the appearance in the Appearance tree and auto selected an appearance type, but no texture has been added.

If no texture has been imported, you can manually add the texture in the general tab of the appearance, and the texture tab will be populated with property you can control once more.

For further technical support, please contact Hawk Ridge Systems at 877.266.4469 for the U.S. or 866.587.6803 for Canada and support@hawkridgesys.com.