OTOY Forums

Just saw this thread, sorry for posting so late. I'm a big fan of SW and quite annoyed by the Solidworks\moi\octane (even if i love MOI) workflow, very interested on your work so keep me informed and give some links when you're done tweaking! Thanks..

The macro has been posted at the SW forum here https://forum.solidworks.com/message/284991

Hopefully I've got it mostly right now.
Feedback still welcome

Great, i'm trying it right now.

I gives me a
"Compiler error
Impossible to find project or library"

but it's not the first time it happens using macros, don't know what the problem is, any idea?

A bit frustrating cos I know it works fine here with SW2005,2009....
Perhaps if this error has happened before there is something missing from your install although I am not sure why that would be..... Did you do a standard SW install? Which SW version do you have?

Most probably though it is to do with not finding a Reference for some reason although there is nothing unusual about the ones used. SW macros you might find on the internet will often need to have their References updated or they wont run for you.
Change the References to suit your particular version manually via SW/Tools/Macro/Edit>(open the macro) then in MSVB/Tools/References>(update the references) and save the macro.

Can you do a screenie of the references you have presently for me please if that isn't the issue.
BTW you have to run this macro from the custom toolbar button and have that starting with the UI.
There are some pictures of these install details included in the HELP folder and the README mentions them.

Here are some alternative notes from another site about SW references that might assist you.
http://www.3dvision.com/wordpress/index ... rks-macro/
BTW although you have the error at the moment did you generally find the README and other info adequate?

Edited just a few times to be complete/exact

hey this thread should be good enough to create a new Plugins section for Solidworks - ask the admins to start one up for you

I wouldnt want that. I am not going to add to this macro at all or provide support past the initial release.
I'm actually loathe to call it a plugin because it really just automates exporting/importing an .obj and .mtl
The native SW materials and textures are not the greatest, so you need to at least play around in Octane to set things up properly before you render, if not stop off in another cg app beforehand for some UV surgery.
This is why I haven't gone any further with exporting SW camera details and including Octane settings in the UI.
SW is a 3d CAD program foremost so it isn't really equipped for setting up a scene for rendering or animations.
Coupled with the likely move away from Octane using .obj, and the pending redundancy of SW itself, I don't really see the point of spending any more effort on it than this, and frankly I don't have the time either.
With so few SW users using Octane developing an integrated plugin isn't viable. Think of this as a handy starting point. Anyway having this is better than what I was doing before to get a render. Hopefully its of some use to some other people too, all 2-3 of you.
Better it lives on the SW forum for general purpose use rather than be closeted away here.

Edit: If more people find they need a bit of help to set up the macro and use it I will make a few quick low budget video tutorials but I am hopeful the README etc is enough.

The macro's existance has been picked up on by a couple of SW bloggers now so more people in the SolidWorks community might get to know about it and perhaps some of them might become Octane users as well.
Its kind of hard to know how many times it has been downloaded from these various outlets though.
I've been wondering if anyone reading here has taken to using it yet?
SW Octane users don't seem to say very much perhaps you were put off by the RC issues or you are sticking with your existing methods?
Anyway I would be interested to hear about any success stories with it or see some renders.