Free SolidWorks OBJ Exporter v2.zip

================================================================================================= Free SolidWorks .OBJ Exporter v2.0 published 1/4/2012 ================================================================================================= DISCLAIMER: This software is free for use and to distribute. It is NOT to be sold as is, nor in modified form,nor incorporated in other software for sale. This software and the accompanying files are provided as is. The macro will act upon the current SolidWorks document. As a precaution be sure you have a current back up your data before using this macro. There are no warranties, expressed or implied, that this macro will perform without fault. Use at your own risk. This macro has been tested with Win XP Pro 32 bit using SW2005 and SW2009 and with Blender 2.62 and Octane beta 2.57 but not exhaustively. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this macro is to export meshes in Alias|Wavefront .obj format from SolidWorks. The materials details are also exported as a standard Alias|Wavefront .mtl file. These may be subsequently automatically loaded into Blender or Octane for rendering purposes. The .obj and .mtl are also suitable for use in other cg applications. All files produced during export are placed in a new folder created in the same directory as the current document. eg D:\surfboard.sldpart --> D:\surfboard OBJ\surfboard.obj When you export again from the same SolidWorks document any existing OBJ directory and the contained files will be overwritten without warning. The macro UI provides the user with an opportunity to set custom tessellation parameters and other useful options. The macro should work as intended with SolidWorks version 2005 and up. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INSTALLATION: The SW macro can go anywhere but conveniently where you keep your other SW macros. You will need to use the provided toolbar button to launch the macro from SW. See the SW Help>Macros>customise buttons to find out how to set this up. See also the included picture of the custom button showing to select the modSWtoOBJ.InitialUI as the 'Method' to start. NOTE: The macro will not run from the menu Tools/Macro/Run> or from the toolbar Macro>Run. The macro included was authored in SW2009. Different SW versions will require you to open the macro in the SW MS VBA window, reselect the Reference Libraries appropriate to that version, and then save the macro. See the included 'References' picture of SW2009. Opening in another version may show the References as being 'MISSING'. Look down the list and find equivalent entries but for the year of your SW install. Sometimes SW will find these references itself. The Blender helper script is required to load the finished .obj into Blender automatically. It should work with Blender 2.5 and up. Make sure it goes in the same folder as the Blender.exe The path to Blender is assumed to be C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\blender.exe The path to Octane is assumed to be C:\Program Files\Refractive Software\OctaneRender\Octane.exe You can change these paths if necessary in the vba module code by going to lines 627 & 632 respectively. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FURTHER USEAGE NOTES not covered in the 'About': CONFIGURATIONS: The macro should correctly traverse complex configuations and all forms of patterns correctly including exploded views. Assembly Features like holes and cuts are only considered if they are propogated to the parts. If your assembly has instances of the same subassy or part but in different configurations it is necessary for the macro to force rebuilds as it progresses. This takes extra time and does leave open the possibility that some rebuild errors may be discovered in the model while that is underway. The macro will stop with an error, but no harm is done. You will however need to fix the issue in the problem part or assy before you can successfully run the macro through entirely when rerunning the macro again. After running the macro you should NOT accept the SW prompt to save your models when closing a document because they have changed. There is no change. It is only flagged so because of the harmless rebuild. This also minimises the risk of some unintended change occuring by accident. COMPLEX PARTS AND ASSEMBLIES: The tessellation from complex parts and assemblies is liable to take several minutes to complete particularly those with numerous configurations to traverse. The files can also be quite large. Be wary of tackling too much at once and creating a .obj that is too big to handle in other applications. Because the macro only exports visible objects you can break the mission down into convenient bites and then combine those .obj manually later in, say, Blender. The origin will be consistant across the files. It also means you can avoid having to redo the whole mission again if something changes. You will find it hard to handle more than about 12m tris in any cg application presently. Such an .obj file out of this script would amount to something in the order of 2gb and take about 35 mins. A practical maximum size is probably 5 m tris. Note that 64 bit Windows is required for dealing with such large files. To give an idea of what a large model means the Mach5 model shown in some of the pictures is about 450,000 tris and the .obj is 87mb, so 11 of these would be enough. The number of tris produced isnt so much to do with the size or number of objects as the need to capture fine details with sufficient tessellation not to appear faceted. TEXTURES: You are not limited to the colour textures supplied with SolidWorks. You can substitute others individually in the SW Appearances Property Manager or add a folder in the SW Task Pane for the usual drag and drop application. The exporter should find these and copy them to the same directory as the .obj at the end of the export process. You could also substitute other textures for the exported ones when the .obj has been loaded into another cg application. You can nominate to export 'spec' and 'bump' maps(textures) on the basis of the colour map (texture) used in SW. The requirement for this is that these need to have the same basic name and be in the same location as the colour map(texture). For example - D:\myplace\mytexture.jpg, D:\myplace\mytexture spec.jpg, D:\myplace\mytexture bump.jpg If you want to change the ' spec' and ' bump' labels to suit your own texture collection go to lines 592,593,596,597,605,611 in the vba module code. If you nominate to use spec and/or bump maps in the UI the texture name will appear in the .mtl even if the images dont actually exist. The macro will skip any textures it cannot find. In the case of a missing texture Octane will prompt you for one as the .obj loads. Blender will load the file unhindered but you will need to source a substitute image afterward in the material's texture panel. In some later Sw versions some materials do have bump maps (of a sort) supplied, as well as the colour map(texture). SCENE COMPOSITION: You can set up a studio scene in a SW part and use that with your model. For example, it might include a floor/backdrop and rectangular surfaces to use as area lights. The part can either be inserted into your model part or used as a component in an assembly. You can use mates to position your studio or props exactly or just leave them floating. Of course you can use a number of parts for individual elements of your scene. See the included simple example of a studio made in SW09. Going through a cg app like Blender allows you to incorporate different props like trees or people that a