Best practices: CAD file workflow
Description
When working with CAD-files in your Prespective project having a proper workflow is strongly advised. In this article we share some tips and best practices to help you setup and organize your CAD-files. Before you import your CAD-files we recommend determining the goal of your project early on. This will help you with decisions regarding optimizing and managing your CAD-files.
Introduction
Before you start importing any Cad files make sure you know which file types are most usable. To help you out choosing a proper file we recommend you to take a look in this document Choosing a proper 3D-file
Performance of a project on your system is essential for running Prespective simulations. We will show you how to keep your project manageable and accessible for these simulations.
Because a computer does not have infinite computing power, it is important to know which quality level fits your project and system the best.
When importing CAD-files the first step is to define the quality level of the 3d model. You can choose between a high, medium or low quality for your CAD-files. A lower quality will generate a model that has the same measurements, but less triangles and detail as a higher quality model. This is most obvious in circular and spherical shapes.
Low Quality : Generates less detailed models. Using a low quality model may be necessary to enhance performance for large CAD-files, or those with a lot of details.
Medium Quality : A good model that works well in combination with Prespective. This setting can be used on a single detailed machine. We recommend this preset for most cases. This preset does not reduce the details too much and is performance friendly.
High Quality : A highly detailed model is generated. This preset is mainly used for simple objects and high quality visualization.
Step 1 : Import and verify your CAD files with Pixyz
For more documentation on Pixyz’s import settings, please visit their documentation page.
When importing your CAD files, choose a “Mesh Quality“ level that matches the goal of your project. As shown in the introduction above. In most cases the default import preset gives a good result as shown below.
Make sure the Z-up direction matches that of your CAD-files.
Make sure the Left Handed matches that of your CAD-files. Otherwise your model will be mirrored.
Generate UVs on import
Make sure to check the “Create Ch.0 UVs“ to create an unwrap of all generated mesh files so you can add materials later on.
Verify the Cad model
Check whether the model has been imported with the correct scale, rotation and position in the Inspector as seen below.
Check the model on data loss / missing parts.
Create a “Cube“ from the top menu “GameObject->3D Object->Cube“ in order to compare if the scale is correct or not.
Look for the usability such as a complete Hierarchy tree.
Usable pivots. Set your “Tool Handle” on the top left of your screen to “Pivot and Local”
To check the usability of pivots you can select an parent or object that already has a rotation. If the if the pivot gizmo aligns with the selected object you probably got a usable 3D Model
To Check if the Unwrap has worked out well you can create an material. Put an “Checker texture“ in the “Albedo” channel of the created material.