Appearances

An appearance is a set of parameters that determines the ways 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 3DEXPERIENCE 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

You do not need to convert existing files to the DSPBR appearances. You can continue working with files created with legacy appearance types or convert them to the DSPBR types. New files must use the DSPBR appearances.