Problem

This article goes over how to tweak a part's appearance by modifying the Luminosity in the Illumination Settings to aid in Color Correction. Luminosity essentially refers to a color’s brightness. 

Solution

Follow the steps below to increase the Appearance Luminosity to increase the brightness of the appearance. 

1. Open SOLIDWORKS and open a Part file with an existing Appearance

2. In SOLIDWORKS 2026 or newer, go to Options > System Options > Display to change the Appearance Visualize Style to "Legacy Appearances" so we are working with legacy appearances, then click "OK"

   

3. Switch to the Display Manager tab

4. Right-click on the Appearance to select "Edit Appearance"

   

5. Switch to the Advanced tab in the Appearance Property Manager

6. Once the Advanced Options are turned on, choose the “Illumination” tab to access the specular and luminosity parameters.

7. Adjust the Luminous Intensity slider to make the Appearance brighter as desired. A higher value increases the brightness.

In this window, there are multiple options to change the brightness and light reflectivity of the appearance (we recommend using the “Dynamic Help” checkbox to gain further information on what each option actually does). Below are some different luminosity settings and how they will affect our yellow appearance from before.

There are other lighting tricks that you can play with in order to get the final result that you’d like, but changing the luminous intensity is an extremely easy way to perform basic color correction on your part’s appearance.

For additional support, existing customers can submit a ticket or new customers can contact Hawk Ridge Systems.