Emailing Maxwell Setup and Materials to Clients

Does anyone here have experience creating a Maxwell render studio for a
client and then emailing it to them. How would you create something
similar to Photoworks "Pack and Go"?

 

Pretty sure, you just send the .mxs file, it contains all the model
geometry and materials etc.

Haven't tried it though.

John Layne
www.solidengineering.co.nz

 

As you say John - All they need is Maxwell as the mxs file contains
all info needed for simple SW created materials - except I have found
it does not include

- texture maps used in creating any materials in Studio. In Studio
these are assigned a path to the bitmap file - and on the new machine
the path may be different and needs reconnecting. So to be on the safe
side - send through the texture bit maps as well.

Parel - if you are thinking of letting your client use their machines
to do the render , then it may be easier to up load the mxs file to a
website with all the textures on the site and then let them access the
file that way so they don't need to re-connect the textures. However
I have not done this so can't say if it will work.

Maxwell is still under development and in Solidworks is very
constrained by its very poor use of material textures so these sorts
of issues are not fully resolved. SW2007 is sopposed to solve a few
of these issues so we wait and see.

John thanks for the suggestion on the Stainless steel - rendering now
- I'll let you know if it worked.

Jonathan

 

Yes- The idea is to get a parametric file with n number of
configurations that can be rendered in the client Maxwell station. Less
expensive for everyone concerned I think.

So, if I sent the Solidworks file with the MXS file in a zip file,
then the plugin would automatically read from the MXS right? I will
have to test this out. I am not sure exactly how the plugin works. How
does it "remember" material settings? Does it reference the last
created mxs and mxd(?) files?

 

Perhaps - if they have the time and they don't blame you when they
can't work it ;-) I hope you get on well with your clients ! I
would advise caution unless you are happy to let them use a software
that is still in beta and they won't blame you if things in the final
release are not as as they are now.

If the client has Maxwell and SW2006 then all you have to send them is
the SW assembly and files ( assuming you yourself have added the
maxwell materials within the SW Plugin environment at your end) .

They then open up SW files and can:-


either render straight from SW using the Maxwell plugin

or they can create the mxs file using the Plugin and then open this
up in Maxwell Studio and render from there.

or use the command prompt and correct commands render the mxs file
direct without using the Studio. This way would allow less tampering
with your set up but does require a knowledge of the command line
commands that maxwell uses. Or you could write them out for them and
then ask them to cut and paste into the Run C prompt.


OR You send them the mxs file for each configuration you create and
they open in Max Studio and render it or use the command prompt to
render the mxs file


If you have assigned the materials at your end this info is saved in
the SW Assenbly file ( not in the part files) and the mxs file
created. Textures and bump maps placed in SW use SW textures and
relie on the same textures being available on your clients machine in
the same file address. Or they will have to 're -address' them.
However having said that - placing textures and bumps in SW2006 is
very difficult and is just not worth it - we wait for sw2007 so people
tend not to use textures when using SW and maxwell . All we use is
roughness with is not based on a texture file.

If there are any unssigned textures in the mxs file then it will fail
to render.

Concerning Configurations in SW - Maxwell plugin, I have just checked
- If a Mat A is assigned in Config A it is also assigned in Config B
until you change it to Material B, so you can make Maxwell specific
configurations.

TTFN

Jonathan