Take a peek at the latest features in R2014x Composer. If you have not tried it yet, you can download a free trial at http://www.3ds.com/products-services/3dvia/3dvia-composer/resource-center/free-trial
you can also grab the latest fact sheet here.
http://www2.3ds.com/fileadmin/PRODUCTS/3DVIA/3DVIAComposer/3DVIA-Composer-R2014x-Fact-Sheet.pdf
Enjoy
Goat
In the past I’ve shown some fluid techniques with http://www.3dmojo.com/2008/05/15/3dvia-your-ipod-70-simulating-fluid-flow-in-a-tube/ This episode shows some nice tips if you are going to use 3rd party composting packages.Using selection sets to help render out layers gives you added flexibility and control.
Goat
It’s time to show off your Composer skills.
In talking with users at trade shows and customer sites many of you have developed really cool tips and tricks of your own to help speed up your production or help in specific situations.
Why not show off those skills and be a hero to others who may have similar needs. In the near future, we will be taking submissions from our users and resellers to help you do just that.
We realize that some of you may have cool ideas but may be a bit shy so you may not want to make a recording of yourself. We can help there too. If you submit a “rough” of either an idea or technique in any forum maybe it’s just screen grabs and a written procedure or a rough Camtasia screen recording I’ll be happy to re-record and give full credit to you for your ideas.
For those of you who wish to submit a full video just a couple of tips. Try to keep the video as short as possible. 3 to 5 minutes is a good target and a maximum of 10 minutes. 1280 x 720 works great as a resolution and I can modify most video formats for posting.
I guess we will have to think up a name instead of Tod Cast but start thinking of technique’s that you have that might help others and make you look like a hero. Might not be bad publicity for your company either. Who knows maybe it will help get you noticed in your company and may even get you a raise.
You can reach me at editor@3dmojo.com for any submissions or ideas.
Tod (Goat)
I just talked with a SolidWorks Composer customer with a pump, pipe, and valve company. He is a service manager who needs to create and conduct training with hundreds of reseller field service members who directly support their end users and bear their…
As part of this post for today, I will be reviewing the necessary steps for using 3DVIA Composer files within Microsoft PowerPoint 2010. This process can use a number of formats directly however for the purposes of this post I’ll focus on the most common .smg. Fundamentally by setting this up allows the presenter to interact with a 3D model in the midst of a presentation. Before I go through the steps to set this up I believe that it is important to mention a housekeeping measure for file management that could help in working with this setup. When linking the .pptx to the .smg file (or supported format), each program looks in a specific location to find the referencing file. To make it easier to find the referencing file and also when sending these kinds of presentations outside of your organization, it is my recommendation that the .smg file (or supported format) is saved in the same folder as the .pptx.
Before you can import a .smg file directly it is important to either have 3DVIA Composer installed or you will need to install the 3DVIA Composer Player. Installing either program should automatically initiate the RegisterAll.bat found in the following location; C:\Program Files\Dassault Systemes\3DVIAComposer\X.XX\Bin. This batch file registers the 3DVIA Composer Player ActiveX control within PowerPoint and allows users to import .smg files with relative ease. To begin importing content you will need to turn on the Developer tab within PowerPoint, this is done by selecting the “More Commands” pull-down from the Customize Quick Access Toolbar. After the PowerPoint Options dialog has opened select the “Customize Ribbon” option from the left-hand side of the dialog. Next by adding a checkmark to the Developer tab under the Customize Ribbon (Main Tabs) column will allow this tab to remain open by default. To wrap up this up simply select Ok and exit back into PowerPoint.
Next with the Developer Tab ready for use, simply select it and find the “More Controls” button found on the Controls pane. Right at the top of the More Controls dialog the 3DVIA Composer Player ActiveX option should be highlighted and available for use. After selecting OK the cursor will change, and the user will be allowed to select the size of the viewing window for this presentation. If it is important to play the inserted content at full screen, make sure the Presenter’s View is enabled in PowerPoint to make it easier to exit out of the full screen view.
The last piece is to connect the ActiveX window with the .smg file, this can be accomplished by selecting the outer boundary of the window and right-clicking. The right-click menu will give the “3DVIA Composer Player ActiveX Object” option and provide two additional functions; Edit and Properties. For the purposes of this post, I will focus on the setup and configuration of the Properties function for the 3DVIA Composer Player ActiveX Object. After selecting Properties option from the right-click menu the 3DVIA Composer Player ActiveX Properties dialog will open, simply select the ellipses button in the upper right corner and browse to the .smg file (or supported format) that you want to import. Before selecting OK be sure to select any other options on the General tab that you want to include such as Ground, Ground Shadow, Anti-aliasing on idle, or any of the other available settings. 
Also take note of the “Pack 3DVIA Composer document” checkbox, this function takes the referencing .smg file (or supported file) and packs it into the .pptx file removing the referencing file altogether. I should add that this also increases the size of the .pptx accordingly. Finally, before selecting Ok to insert the .smg, take a moment and review the Layout tab as it includes a number of options that control whether the toolbars are displayed for use during the presentation. Personally, when I add 3DVIA Composer content to PowerPoint I generally turn off all the toolbars so that the focus can remain on the product. Once you have confirmed all of these settings simply select Ok and place the .pptx in Slide Show mode…..and Voila, you now can easily present your 3D models from 3DVIA Composer in a PowerPoint presentation.
Dominick D. Gallegos
Let’s first start with some definitions:
Monolythic files are actually archive file (a .zip file) containing the structure and its associated authoring features such as labels, arrows, views, properties, animations etc… It is one single file.
FullyShattered mode represents an exploded structure. It is a 3DVIA Composer product with multiple .smgXml and .smgGeom files. SmgXML can also point to .smgSce (e.g animations) + .smgView (e.g. views). These animations and views are available for all using this smgXML
Fully-shattered assemblies have several advantages:
When using fully shattered format, it is always advised to create a new project and reference the top-level product XML file. But what is a Project file?
A project file .smgProj points to an .smgXML with the lower structures and geometries included, it also points to .smgSce (e.g. animations) and .smgView (e.g views) files. These animations and views will be available for all users using the smgProj-file, but do not affect the included .smgXML or .smg files.
Working with project files present several advantages:
Therefore, it is easy to understand that SMG monolythic file format should basically be used for small data/minimal number of files whereas FullyShattered associated to project files is the best way to manage large data assemblies.
Gordon Benson from NACCO Materials Handling Group explained that the decision to choose fullyShattered Vs Monolythic mode “really depends on your use case and how your business operates. For our company we replaced a different visualization tool with Composer specifically because the other tool did not support shattered structure. For us the benefits are significant over a monolithic file not only in terms of administration, automatic updates whenever the file is opened, and how we use Composer in a distributed global company.”
Julien
In this post I want to address a technological issue related to the use of the relatively old ActiveX technology together with newer technologies provided by Microsoft that do not natively support plugins such as ActiveX controls.
In the past, Microsoft provided us with Windows Forms for developing user interfaces for Windows – these were pretty straight forward visual elements that could be placed upon a surface by drag and drop. So, for instance a button or a list box could be placed on the form and resized to meet the developer’s requirements. These were fairly static elements that were pre-defined, even though the user had some control over colors and size, etc. Windows Forms and ActiveX controls were developed around the same time and used a similar architecture that enabled an Active X control to be embedded in a Windows form with no more effort than drag and drop.
In 2006 Microsoft released .NET 3.0. Included in this release was a new architecture for building applications named Windows Presentation Foundation or WPF for short
Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is a user interface (UI) framework for building Windows client applications with immersive and intuitive user experiences. It is a subset of the Microsoft .NET Framework and was first introduced by Microsoft as part of .NET 3.0. It combines the application UI, 2D graphics, 3D graphics, documents, and multimedia into a single framework to help developers create rich and interactive applications. Its vector-based rendering engine takes advantage of the hardware acceleration of modern graphic cards. This makes the UI faster, scalable, and resolution independent.
The predecessor to WPF is Windows Forms, but WPF differs fundamentally in that it builds on top of DirectX, a technology that originally focused on multimedia and game programming. This adds the ability to implement advanced visual behavior such as animated cartoons, videos, or immersive 3D environments as well as take advantage of hardware acceleration when it is available. As it is still a subset of the .NET Framework, the WPF programming experience should be similar to Windows Forms or ASP.NET; however, the programming model is closer to web development with the “code-behind” approach. It should also be noted that WPF was not created to replace Windows Forms for every application as there are still cases where Windows Forms are good enough. Rather, WPF will continue to grow in popularity as a modern UI design tool and must be considered for any application that stands to benefit from a richer user experience.
WPF also fulfills the need for technology and tools that make it natural to separate the UI from the rest of the implementation as much as possible. The WPF system lets developers decouple visual behavior from the underlying program logic and provides a unified API and supporting tools for creating sophisticated UIs.
Microsoft’s Silverlight provides functionality that is mostly a subset of WPF to provide embedded web controls comparable to Adobe’s Flash.
There are many benefits to using WPF over Windows Forms below is a subset of the key benefits that I have found while building applications:
For more information on WPF please refer to this link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa970268.aspx
As mentioned above, Windows Forms and WPF are two very different architectures that really have nothing in common with each other. This being the case, implementing an old technology such as ActiveX inside WPF should not be supported – and originally this was the case! However, very quickly Microsoft acknowledged that developers had built many controls and components that they needed to reuse within WPF based applications. In order to accommodate their developers and increase the acceptance of WPF as the new standard for Windows development, Microsoft was nice enough to provide a control inside WPF that can host Windows forms components – aptly named the WindowsFormsHost. It is this control that enables us to embed our 3DVIA Composer Player inside a WPF application.
So, let’s get started. Using Visual Studio, start a new WPF Project. I’m using version 2012 for this example, however any version from 2008 onwards will be supported. In these examples I’m also using C# as my preferred programing language however feel free to use Visual Basic if you so wish.
Once the Project opens you will be presented with an empty Window as shown below. The screen is divided into two main areas – the design surface and the resulting XAML code. The toolbox should be located on the left by default.
Locate the WindowsFormsHost Control from the toolbox and drag and drop it onto the window as shown. As you place the control on the window you will notice how the XAML code updates. The control is inserted with some basic defaults that need editing. Either edit the XAML directly or use the Properties window on the right to resize the control as follows:
<Grid>
<WindowsFormsHost x:Name=”playerHost” HorizontalAlignment=”Stretch” Height=”Auto” Margin=”2,2,2,40″ VerticalAlignment=”Stretch” Width=”Auto”/>
</Grid>
This will stretch the control over the complete window leaving a margin at the bottom where we can place a button.
Drag and drop a button from the toolbox onto the Window surface and place it near the bottom of the window. You can edit the XAML code as follows:
<Button x:Name=”btnClose” Content=”Close” HorizontalAlignment=”Right” Margin=”6,6″ VerticalAlignment=”Bottom” Width=”75″ Click=”btnClose_Click”/>
Note: I added the “Click” event to the control by typing “Click”. Visual Studio did the rest for me and created the appropriate event. This can also be added through the properties window.
Now we have our basic layout we can add references to the 3DVIA Composer Player so that it can be used inside our WPF application.
In the past, using Windows Forms, we could add the Player control directly into the Visual Studio toolbox and then drag and drop it onto the form. Windows Forms created the required references for us automatically. However, with WPF, ActiveX controls are not natively supported and they therefore do not appear in the Toolbox. Instead, we can add a reference to the controls and manually add them into our WPF application. There are two DLL’s that we need to reference in our application, by default the DLLs that we need are not included with the Composer installation (since they are created through Visual Studio). The easiest way to create these DLLs is by creating a Windows Forms Application that uses the Player Control. If you haven’t done this previously, you can reference the Visual Studio project provided with the Sample in the Composer installation directory.
Once you have the two DLL’s required: AxInterop.DS3DVIAPlayerActiveXLib and Interop.DS3DVIAPlayerActiveXLib add a reference to these two DLL’s as shown below:
Right click the References node in the Solution explorer tree.
Browse to the location on your disk where these two DLLs are located and add them in as references.
Click on the Interop.DS3DVIAPlayerActiveXLib and edit its properties as shown below:
Now that we have a reference to the 3DVIA Composer Player we need to add in a little code to make it all come together. Collapse the references tree and expand MainWindow1.xaml. Double click to open the code behind.
If you created the Click event for the button you should have an event stub created for you as shown below. Edit the code so that it looks similar to the code shown below.
(click this image to enlarge it)
There are really only two lines that are key to our integration at this point and these are as follows:
In the class MainWindow we define a reference to the ActiveX Control as follows:
AxDS3DVIAPlayerActiveXLib.AxDS3DVIAPlayerActiveX dsPlayer = new AxDS3DVIAPlayerActiveXLib.AxDS3DVIAPlayerActiveX();
In this case I have named the ActiveX control “dsPlayer”. All of the 3DVIA Composer Player APIs can now be accessed through this reference.
The next stage is to assign the player to the WindowsFormsHost control as a child of that control. This is achieved through the line defined here.
playerHost.Child = dsPlayer;
playerHost is the name that I gave to the windowsFormsHost Control in the XAML code.
Now compile and run the code – you should receive the Player embedded in the window as shown below. Note that the settings that we used in the XAML code allow the Player to be stretched to fit the window as we resize it.
<WindowsFormsHost x:Name=”playerHost” HorizontalAlignment=”Stretch” Height=”Auto” Margin=”2,2,2,40″ VerticalAlignment=”Stretch” Width=”Auto”/>
The Margin defines the placement of the control within the context of the parent control – in this case the window. The Horizontal and Vertical Alignment definitions define that the control should be stretched in both directions and the since the Height and width are set to Auto, the control will scale according to the size of the window.
Now that we have the ActiveX control embedded in our WPF application, we have all of its API and capabilities available to our application. As shown below, I can now create Player events and dynamically load files as required.
(click this image to enlarge it)
The result of this code is to load the Player in the window and once it’s loaded go and load an SMG file from a pre-defined location. Once the file completes loading in the Player, the user is notified that the file has been loaded.
From this point onwards, accessing and programing business logic into the Player is just the same as with the windows Forms implementation. Obviously with the power of WPF, you can do a lot more than with the windows forms implementation. Here, for instance I used the code behind to implement the events and much of the business logic; however this would be better placed in separate classes therefore separating GUI from logic. Obviously you can complete your program by putting all the code in the Mainwindow code behind file, but this will create a very big and unmanageable file. For more information on separating code please refer to “WPF Apps With The Model-View-ViewModel Design Pattern” http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd419663.aspx
When creating technical illustrations with 3DVIA Composer a frequently asked question is how to show a drawing frame with title block in the generated vector outputs.
With the Model Browser it’s easy to create a library of drawing frames including the necessary text fields. The video shows how to create a standard A4 drawing frame with text fields and how to use it from the model browser for technical illustrations.
As usual for 2D drawings you’ll need one template for each paper size (paper space) you’re using. But have a look at the video… it won’t take more than 5 minutes for each.
Enjoy… and just ignore the German title block 
Jochem
Today I’d like to show you how you can present your 3DVIA Composer content combined with images, videos, documents and other supporting materials in a mobile setting using your iPad or iPhone and a 3DVIA Spotlight. This post is a quick look at the workflow for publishing your 3DVIA Composer files to 3DVIA.com, adding supporting materials and then creating a mobile 3DVIA Spotlight presentation.
3DVIA.com is an online storage spot for your 3DVIA Composer content published as 3DVIA.com model files. You then add your supporting files to the 3DVIA.com models. The 3DVIA Spotlight you create contains the 3DVIA.com model files you choose and allows you to present your content wherever you have a WiFi connection. Many questions about 3DVIA.com can be answered by viewing the FAQ.
The extensive example shown above on the iPad combines 3DVIA.com files and related company materials to create a 3DVIA Spotlight presentation. To view it follow this link and then email the 3DVIA Spotlight link to yourself by clicking on the “Send to…” and then the “Share With” tools.
On your mobile device check your email for the invitation and click on the link to the 3DVIA Spotlight. The images, videos and documents will be viewable. In order to view the 3D models, you will need to sign up for a free account on 3DVIA.com and download and install on your device the 3DVIA Mobile HD app from the Apple App Store for $4.99. Be sure to go to the 3DVIA Mobile HD app settings and change the model size limit to “Unlimited”.
Other good examples can be found on the Featured 3DVIA Spotlights page.
Creating your own 3DVIA Spotlight presentation also starts by signing up for a free account on 3DVIA.com. A Basic free account gives you 2GB of online storage space, lets you publish your 3DVIA Composer content to 3DVIA.com and then create and edit a 3DVIA Spotlight. Once you have activated your 3DVIA.com account you can publish your 3DVIA Composer files directly from 3DVIA Composer to 3DVIA.com.
You can also create an account directly from 3DVIA Composer (red ellipse) during the publishing process.
During publishing you have the choice to upload just the 3DVIA Composer model or the whole 3DVIA Composer Experience (green ellipse).
(model by mserafim)
Including the 3DVIA Composer Player allows the viewer of the model on 3DVIA.com to click on the 3DVIA Composer icon and open the 3DVIA Composer Player or 3DVIA Composer Player Pro directly from the model page. This gives them direct access to the interactive materials you’ve already created in 3DVIA Composer.
Once your 3DVIA Composer model is published, it will have its own page on 3DVIA.com, which is where you add the content that you’ll use to make your mobile presentation. The model page on the left shows a just-published model and the one on the right has a description, rendered images, a document and a link to a video.
When your models on 3DVIA.com are ready, follow the process outlined in the Making Great Spotlights document. Clicking the link will automatically download it for you.
If you have questions you can contact me directly. Click on the “Send a message” on my 3DVIA.com home page.
Don Swavely
3DVIA Composer gets lots of use in different kinds of manufacturing organizations, but the basic value of having clear and concise work instructions can benefit other industries. For instance, In the AEC industry worker safety is a top concern. Construction is one of the most dangerous occupations in the world incurring more occupational fatalities in both the United States and European Union than any other sector. Of course, there are obvious safety concerns if you assemble an airplane or automobile incorrectly, but most assembly workers are seldom at risk and problems are likely to be found in QA and testing, well before the plane has passengers. In construction, installing a 7th story window incorrectly could lead to fatal consequences (construction workers wear hard hats for a reason!)
Another difference between manufacturing and construction is the work force. While assembly line workers are typically well trained and become proficient at their specific tasks, construction laborers often move from job to job. Each job may have different construction specifications and standards, product manufacturers and installation requirements. For the average laborer, becoming proficient is very difficult. Proper and current work instructions are critically important to ensure construction is done properly.
If you want to learn more about the AEC industry and their challenges and how better work instructions help you should read this new whitepaper: Work Smart, Work Safe, Work Productively
Howie
Your illustration customer has a very specific style for their Detail View bubbles. Here are some techniques to match those styles. Lets get creative!
Tim
This is my favorite feature in Composer! I use it every single time I am in the product, it saves massive amounts of time when modifying and updating my views.
Let me know if you agree!
Enjoy! Garth
The Silhouette rendering mode of Composer is a great way to present 3D models as if they were 2D drawings, which is beneficial for people who are in transition from 2D to 3D.
However, there are some limitations for this black and white rendering mode.
We often see our users struggling with some parts sticking to their original colors even in the Silhouette mode.
In such a case, the parts may have the Opacity values less than 255, and we can easily fix this issue by adjusting the Opacity value to be 255.
After the change, we can now see the desired rendering.
The other issue typically reported is that, when a cross-section plane is activated, the Silhouette mode suddenly turns to the Smooth rendering mode.
The solution is to change the Emission to be 1.000 and the color to be white for all parts:
– Shuji
Vascular disease has become a major health problem for more than 17 million people. Cardiovascular Systems, Inc. (CSI), is revolutionizing the treatment of vascular disease through the development of a disposable, diamond-coated catheter-based device…
Recently a customer told me he wanted to be able to turn off all selection and highlighting including the red bounding box but still see only specific objects clearly .so I showed him how to do it. I thought to myself, this would be a handy little tip for a TodCast so here it is.
Enjoy
Tod
This post is a bit different from most as it relates directly to a recent experience in putting together a swing set for my children over the weekend. This project started out with much excitement and even more of a commitment to get this project finished well before the cold winter weather comes to the Northeast. Considering I have a background with 3DVIA Composer, I was confident that my predisposition led me to think that the directions for this swing set would be logical and well-planned…. as you can imagine probably it was disappointing and even more frustrating the further we got into this project. To reiterate the point, my brothers and I worked through the initial construction of the base structure three times because the instructions provided were simply inadequate and did not provide the necessary details…although I would admit that there may have been some incompetence through this process but the point still remains. To be fair, the instructions provided did offer a good overview of what needed to be built however we found on multiple occasions that a number of the structural elements were installed incorrectly because adequate information was not provided. For example on Step 2, there is a general view of the base structure, and it looks to be straightforward (take note of G3). To my dismay, I discovered six steps and more than 250 pieces later two key elements that needed to be reversed before proceeding. 
Looking closer at Step 8, notice that the H7 piece is a supporting cross member for the floor above however the pre-drilled holes (labeled near G3) are barely mentioned. Rather than simply drilling new holes to overcome this obstacle we chose to do it the right way and disassemble a good portion of the structure. Now, the point of highlighting this is to show that even though my brothers and I overcame this problem it took a considerable amount of time and a bit of effort to disassemble and reassemble the structure. Looking at this process through the lens of a customer it is easy to see how the lack of minor but essential details in our product documentation can easily remove the excitement that our customers have for the products we work so hard to create.
Dominick D. Gallegos
Hello, my name is Tod, author of the “world renowned” TodCast’s on the blog. You may have seen me on the Forum as user Goatshrink. Long story but let’s just say it was once a massacre of my last name and it kinda stuck.
I’ve been a visual communicator forever, graduating from UW stout with an industrial design degree in 1982. Of course I was only two at the time that makes me in my 30’s still, right? I guess I’m trying to stay young by doing things like the Tough Mudder Challenge. This last one did not quite go as expected.
Aside from my weekend warrior excursions I’ve been a long time animator and Pixar wannabe. I love communicating through animation. Hopefully some of my Tips and tricks will help make your lives as communicators a little easier.
One non related Composer tip. When climbing over high walls its probably a better idea to climb down and not yell Boo Rah and jump off.
Goat
For those in the community who are also designers, Dassault Systemes has a new contest entitled “MOVEin3D – A 3D Print Oriented Design Contest.” You can win an iPad mini!! All you have to do is submit an original 3D creation that includes at least several mechanically independent, but not separable, parts. Real, original, funny, or mind-struggling creations are preferred. Your object must be 3D-printable and meet the requirements of today’s 3D printers.
To learn more go here: http://www.3dvia.com/madein3d
Check it out, and let me know if you win!
Dominick D. Gallegos
Apparently, before the idea of a “precision air drop” was invented, there was only the standard “air drop,” which was military-speak for dumping tons of supplies from an airplane and keeping your fingers crossed that at least some made it to…
Don’t forget about Custom Rendering.
Win friends, influence people, look like a big time illustrator, whatever reason you can think of, custom rendering in 3DVIA Composer is easy and a powerful way to highlight specific parts and produce cool illustrations.
If you have not tried it yet, you should.
Enjoy Custom rendering,
Goat
