Render Tab

When you click Output Tools > Render, the Render tab in the Output Tools dialog box contains settings that control the rendering process.

Output File

Filename Lets you name the output file.
Output Folder Specifies the folder where the render is saved.
Image Format Specifies the format of the output file. (Radiance HDR preserves 32-bit per channel RGB data, but the other formats do not.)
Output Mode Available in SOLIDWORKS Visualize Standard and SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional:
  • Render. Renders a single image using the current camera.
  • All Cameras.

    Renders a single image for each camera in the scene. This produces the same number of renderings as you have cameras in the scene.

Available only in SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional:

  • All Configurations.

    Renders all configurations in the project.

  • Panoramic.

    Takes an image cube. (An image cube is six images taken from the same location, pointing at 90º angles from each other.) It stitches the six shots together to form a 360º panorama around the camera. Then it outputs an HTML file and stores content images in a subfolder so you can view the panorama in any browser. You can pivot and zoom (not pan) the camera in the browser. This is convenient for interior spaces, and you can use it with all render modes.

  • Interactive Image.

    Takes several stills from dozens of camera locations in multiple orbits to support the ability to move around the output model in any browser. Parameters include:

    • Orbits. Specifies the number of camera height levels.
    • Images per Orbit. Specifies the number of renders from each camera orbit.
    • Start Angle. Specifies the lowest angle of orbit.
    • End Angle. Specifies the highest angle of orbit.
Include Alpha Proves the support for alpha channel files (.png and .tiff).

Resolution

Size Specifies image size in pixels, inches, centimeters, or millimeters.
Resolution Specifies the print resolution to pixels per inch or pixels per centimeter in the output file.
Result (Read-only.) Displays the size in pixel per in/cm/mm from the settings above.

Render Settings

Renderer Selection Specifies the rendering engine:
  • Preview. Uses a hardware agnostic, high-quality interactive WYSIWYG rasterizer that creates a real-time and noise free approximation of lighting.
  • Fast. Hardware agnostic, biased, interactive WYSIWYG raytracing using Nvidia iray, which enables the fastest time-to-quality lighting.
  • Accurate. Hardware agnostic, unbiased, interactive WYSIWYG pathtracing using Nvidia iray, which enables accelerated best quality lighting.
Available only in SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional:
  • Boost cluster. Renders image to a Boost cluster.
Render Mode Specifies high quality rendering options:
  • Time Limit. Stops the rendering after reaching the time limit you enter, regardless of the final quality. After the render starts, you can stop it early.
  • Quality. Stops the rendering after reaching the number of rendering passes you enter, regardless of time.
Render Passes Represents the number of iterations or cycles performed on the image where each iteration or cycle increases the quality and reduces the noise present in the final image.

Fewer passes yields an image in a shorter amount of time but with potentially less completion and more noise.

More passes yields an image in a greater amount of time but with less or no noise and full completion.

In most cases, 250 passes would result in a complete image except for fully enclosed interior or enclosed environments, which typically need 1000 passes to generate a complete image.
Show Progress Opens the Render viewport to let you see the progress of the rendering as it occurs.
Render Device Sets graphics card usage:
  • CPU. Uses your CPU exclusively (good for users with basic graphics cards or who want to perform other graphics intensive tasks in parallel with rendering).
  • GPU. Uses your CUDA enabled Nvidia card exclusively (good for users with powerful graphics cards or multiple graphics cards for maximum render acceleration).
  • Hybrid. Uses your CPU and GPU.
Start Render Starts rendering using the offline renderer on the local computer.
Close Saves the current render settings and closes the Output Tools dialog box so that you can make additional changes to cameras, appearances, and other settings.

You can then reopen the Output Tools dialog box and use the saved settings.

Render setting changes are stored with the currently active Render Profile and persist across different visualize sessions automatically.

Available only in SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional

Render Layers

Generates specialized output layers that you can use in post-processing software. Render Layers, which uses Iray’s compositing elements, provides very fast performance by rendering simultaneously rather than sequentially.

The rendered layers created by Render Layers align closely with industry standard render passes known as Arbitrary Output Variables (AOVs).

Limitation: Render Layers does not work with Toon. If Toon is enabled in Camera, the rendered layers are not displayed in the viewport and are not available for final renders in Output Tools.

Different render modes (Preview, Fast, Accurate) support different sets of layers to render.

Select layers to render:

Layer Preview Fast Accurate Description
Beauty Contains the rendered image with all contributions.
Alpha   Contains the alpha channel (transparency) based on primary visibility.
Depth Contains the depth of the hit point along the (negative) Z-coordinate in camera space. The depth is zero at the camera position (black) and extends in a positive direction into the scene (brighter, white).
Normal   Contains the surface shading normal in camera space.
UVWs   Contains the texture (or UVW) coordinate at the hit point.
Clown Contains the ID for the scene element at the hit point.
Diffuse   Contains all light transport paths that are diffuse at the first bounce.
Specular Contains all light transport paths that are specular at the first bounce.
Glossy Contains all light transport paths that are glossy at the first bounce.
Emission   Contains the emission contribution from directly visible light sources and emitting surfaces.
Shadow     Contains the shadow in the scene. More precisely, the layer contains the light contributions that are missing at a certain point because it is blocked by an object (the shadow caster).
Ambient Occlusion   Contains the ambient occlusion in the scene in the range from 0 (fully occluded) to 1 (not occluded).
Albedo   Contains approximate color weights for the constituent bidirectional scattering distribution functions (BSDFs) of the material at the first hit. This value generally reflects textures (bitmap and procedural) used to color material components.
Enable Denoiser Uses the Denoiser for offline renderings. The Denoiser is not automatically used for offline renderings or renderings using the Queue.

When selected, you need to reduce Render Passes to 1/10 of what you use without the Denoiser for increased performance. For example, a complex scene that needs 5000 passes can finish in 500 with Enable Denoiser selected, and the standard 500 passes can finish in 50. If you do not reduce Render Passes with Enable Denoiser selected, performance does not improve. You may be able to use even fewer passes with the Denoiser depending on your goal for the image.
Send to Queue

(Check box and button)

 When the Send to Queue check box is selected, clicking Send to Queue adds the current rendering to the SOLIDWORKS Visualize Queue so you can render it later.