Scenes and Lighting

Scenes and their lighting schemes are closely connected. Lighting works differently in SOLIDWORKS than in PhotoView 360.

Sources of Scene Lighting

Lighting in SOLIDWORKS scenes comes from ambient and directional lights. Lighting in PhotoView 360 comes from the Primary PhotoView 360 Lighting (scene environment). The scene environment is an HDR (High Dynamic Range) image that surrounds the scene spherically, creating realistic light and reflections. PhotoView 360 lighting is only visible when you preview or create a final render of your model. The ambient and directional lights in SOLIDWORKS scenes mimics the Primary PhotoView 360 Lighting .

Scene lighting can come from these sources:

Visible in Light Type
SOLIDWORKS Open GL graphics and RealView Ambient, point, spot, and directional lights and sunlight.
PhotoView 360 Primary PhotoView 360 Lighting, point, spot, and directional lights, and sunlight.

When you apply a new scene to your model, ambient and directional lights automatically update in SOLIDWORKS and the Primary PhotoView 360 Lighting automatically updates in PhotoView 360. Because they are visible in both SOLIDWORKS and PhotoView, each point, spot, and directional light appears in both SOLIDWORKS Lights and PhotoView 360 Lights .

In addition to controls for point, spot, and directional lights, you can control Primary PhotoView 360 Lighting when PhotoView is added in. These controls are available in the Edit Scene PropertyManager, on the PhotoView 360 Lighting tab. Right-click Primary PhotoView 360 Lighting and click Edit Primary PhotoView 360 Lighting.

To verify the effects of PhotoView 360 lighting changes, before editing the primary PhotoView 360 lighting, right-click Primary PhotoView 360 Lighting and click Integrated Preview or Preview Window .

Editing Lighting

You can add spot, point, and directional lights and sunlight to both SOLIDWORKS and PhotoView 360. When you add a light, it is off by default in PhotoView 360 and on in SOLIDWORKS. The best way to light your model in PhotoView is to use the Primary PhotoView 360 Lighting.

Saving a Scene

When you save a scene, all currently applied point, spot, and directional lights are saved as part of the scene. When you apply a new scene, all lights are replaced with the lighting scheme of the new scene. You can override these rules by selecting the lighting option Keep light when scene changes, available in PropertyManagers for directional, point, and spot lights.