SolidWorks - Object Properties

The Scene Manager's Object Properties window manages Maxwell-specific information, which is stored on SolidWorks objects:

The information shown here is context-sensitive, tracking the current object selection in order to shows relevant information about the selected objects. The page is divided into four main sections.

Selected Object(s)

This section shows info about the selected entity or entities, including:

The plugin follows standard SolidWorks material-precedence rules. This means that:

• Face-assigned materials override Feature- and Body-assigned materials.
• Feature-assigned materials override Body-assigned materials.
• Component-assigned materials (i.e. in Assemblies) override all other assignments.

Material-assignments are managed using the Object Properties toolbar. For example, here is how the toolbar appears when a Body is selected, which has had its Multi-materials flag set:

This is showing that the Body has ‘cups’ assigned to it, and the highlighted toggle-button in the toolbar is indicating that this Body has its Multi-Material flag set. By default, Bodies do not have this flag set, but it will be enabled either when it is explicitly done using this toggle-button, or when assigning a material to any of its child Faces or Features. Clearing the flag when it is not needed can speed up export, since the plugin will not have to traverse all of the Body’s faces.

Now, were you to be working with this Body in the context of an assembly, then its parent Component may have a Material assigned to it, and this Material would override the ‘cup’ material assigned directly to the Body. In the Object Properties window, this is how this Body would look:

As you can see, the Material shown is no longer ‘cup’; it is now ‘cup_plates. We can see that this material is assigned to this Body’s parent Component by noticing that Selected Object(s) > Info has added a hyper-link indicating this. Clicking on this hyper-link will cause the Body’s parent Component to become selected, and that would look like this:

As indicated, the Body’s parent Component has now been selected, and we can see that it is at the top-level; it has no further parent, and the green ‘up’ arrow has been disabled. Clicking the red ‘X’ button at this point would remove Material ‘cup_plates’ from the Component, and the body would revert to the ‘cups’ material which is assigned directly to it.

Assigned Material

This section shows which Material, if any, is assigned to the selected object or objects. Clicking on the preview image opens or closes the plugin’s Material Editor.

Properties

This section contains checkboxes for enabling the various Maxwell object properties:                                          

Modification

The parameters in this section are used to modify meshes after they have already been exported, or during render time.

Texture Rotation

When an entity which supports texture rotation is selected, this slider and numeric input box will be enabled. This parameter corresponds to the texture-rotation slider in native SolidWorks materials. Note SolidWorks material-precedence rules when adjusting rotation; if no effect is observed, it may be because the selected entity is deriving its material from a parent entity.

MXS Reference

If a Maxwell MXS file is specified here, then all instances of this object will be replaced with an instance of that MXS at render time. This section only applies to Bodies.

Extensions

This section holds a list of extensions (Maxwell Grass, Sea, and/or Volumetric) which have been assigned to this object. Using the context menu, it is possible either to create and assign a new extension, or to assign one that already exists. This section only applies to Bodies.