Scenes and Lighting

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

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 realisticlights 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 the SOLIDWORKS scenes mimic the Primary PhotoView 360 Lighting .

Scene lighting can come from these sources:

Visible in Light Type
SOLIDWORKS OpenGL 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, ambient and directional lights automatically update in the SOLIDWORKS lights and the Primary PhotoView 360 Lighting automatically updates in the PhotoView 360 lights. 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 you add in PhotoView. 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 the SOLIDWORKS lights and PhotoView 360 lights. When you add a light, it is off by default in PhotoView 360 and on in SOLIDWORKS lights. 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 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 the PropertyManagers for directional, point, and spot lights.

The default scene, 3 Point Faded does not have lights associated with it. If you select another scene and then select the default scene, the lights from the previous scene appear for the default scene.

For example, the default scene has 4 lights in the Lights folder. You select the Ambient Only scene and then select 3 Point Faded. Now, the Lights folder lists only an ambient light.