Appearances

An appearance is a set of parameters that determines how a model surface reacts to and refracts light.

SOLIDWORKS Visualize uses Dassault Systèmes' Enterprise PBR Shading Model (DSPBR) to closely replicate the realistic appearance of metal, glass, plastic, and other surfaces. DSPBR is a material model for physically based rendering, supported by many renderers in the 3D EXPERIENCE platform.

To simulate the appearance of car paint, metal, emissive, textile, leather, wood, glass, or plastic materials, select the appropriate Appearance Type. The parameters for each Appearance Type are organized into related groups. You can work with the parameters pertinent to the chosen material while ignoring extraneous ones.

To simulate a different material, you can select the Basic Appearance Type to work with a common set of parameters. You can also select the Enterprise PBR Shading Model Appearance Type to see all the 30 parameters included with the model.

See Appearance Parameters for details.

Legacy Appearances

When opening a project with legacy appearance types in SOLIDWORKS Visualize 2024, you can convert it to use DSPBR appearances. Alternatively, you can decline this option and continue working with the project using the legacy appearance types.

If you choose to convert, all appearances in the project become DSPBR appearances. While some assets may look slightly different, this conversion brings benefits such as more appearance options, improved texture usage, compatibility with various materials, the ability to use assets from sharing sites, and consistency across different renderers and design tools.

You can also convert only certain appearances in a project by declining the conversion option initially. When the appearance types display, select the assets to convert to DSPBR.

New projects must use the DSPBR appearances and assets in the cloud library also use them. If your local library still contains assets with legacy appearances, delete those files and work with the DSPBR-based assets and sample projects in the cloud library.