As the title suggests, I am struggling to load all Stainless Steel materials from vMaterials 2.3 into SolidWorks Visualize 2022. Many other materials seem to be working, but not these. This is the error I get when trying to apply these textures:
Tried to repair the installation files, but it did nothing. Same thing when trying vMaterials 2.2.1
Hi @Danii
It might be a problem that this material needs MDL version 1.6 and Iâm not sure about the render engine update of SolidWorks Visualize 2022. I try to get a license to recheck this.
Meanwhile, could you do a complete uninstall of all vMaterial versions and a clean install of version 2.3? Not only a repair.
Is there more about the error? Like the console output?
Sorry for my very delayed reply, busy schedule here at the company.
I did a complete uninstall and reinstall, same thing. Even tried another computer, same thing.
Thatâs all Visualize is giving me. Unsure if there is a console even, tried Googling but to no luck.
vMaterials will release 2.4. Try the new version when it is out. It will be in the next weeks.
We looked into it and found some issues but none that would lead to your problems. I couldnât get a Visualize license to test it by myself.
If it is still an ongoing problem I would suggest asking Solidworks Visualize.
I will get back when I publish vMaterials 2.4.
Hi @Danii
vMaterials 2.4 is out now. Could you test Stainless Steel?
Best,
Maik
Dear Rohland,
I am currently away on vacation, but will try once I get back to the office! đ
Hi All, I am facing the same exact issue too. I have just updated from 2.3 to 2.4 and it is still persistent. Would this be an issue with NVIDIA MDL Material Exchange too? We are running Soldiworks Visualize 2021
Hi @jngasd
which version of the material exchange manager is installed?
Could you please provide a crash report or a log file?
For now, it looks like the render engine does not support the stainless steel brushed feature.
I will look into it. But it would be helpful if we get more information. It can be a problem on mdl or SV.
we are using mdl-material-exchange-nt-x86-64-21.1.3961-344800.3961, (in windows Installed Apps it says 22.1.1.1351) latest version to my knowledge and downloaded directly from the nVidia mdl page.
I have attached the log file. "
SLDWORKSVisualize - all.zip (13.1 KB)
When I apply the material it just comes up with the error dialogue exactly as the image that was originally posted at the start of this post, the program still runs fine and doesnât crash after this appears.
I believe it is not related to the render engine but I could be wrong. Itâs because we have no issue with aluminium and have rendered a lot with brushed aluminium. But I did open the mdl file and noticed alu is using MDL 1.5 while Stainless is 1.6.
Thank you for your prompt replies,
Jim.
@Rohland Hello any direction would be greatly appreciated. Let me know if you require any other files.
Hi @jngasd
the mdl-material-exchange manager is the latest. Thatâs fine.
Thank you for the log files.
If you are allowed to please update to the latest RTX Driver.
I can see in the log files that there are many compiling issues with stainless steel brushed.
I tested a fresh install of vMaterials 2.4 multiple times and everything is compiling well. Also, I did tests in Iray and couldnât find anything. The material file should be fine.
I can see that your Solidworks Visualize 2021 is using an older version of Iray, which might be a problem.
Unfortunately, I couldnât get an answer from Solidworks yet and the Cloud-Test-Software doesnât allow adding mdl-materials.
Iâm sorry about the issues. I will talk to the MDL team to clarify the problemâs roots and they will get back to this thread as soon as possible.
One more question: @Danii talked about all stainless steel materials. Is that true for you or itâs just the stainless steel brushed materials?
Best,
Maik
@jngasd, thank you for the logfiles, those were really helpful. Thanks to those, I found the problem:
Visualize 2021 is using an older version of iray which does not support yet the updated version of the texture lookup functions found in some newer materials.
The good news is: We do not need these new features, so as a courtesy I can remove them from all .mdl files where these function calls appear. Before I do so, please test the modified (and hopefully fixed) version of the Brushed Stainless steel material and let me know if that worked for you. I can then apply this change to the all materials in vMaterials that use this function to increase our backwards compatibility.
P.s.: Aside of that, we strongly recommend updating to a newer version of Solidworks Visualize which uses a newer version of Iray that provides more features. We use new features of MDL in some of our newer materials. Those will not with an older older version of Iray.
Stainless_Steel_Brushed_FIX.mdl (63.9 KB)
Hi Ruediger,
I want to chime in and let you know that the Stainless Steel file you provided worked for me in Visualize 2022.
I would love to update to the latest Visualize, but as it is up to our company when they update our software, we have to wait until they do. I will have to make do with 2022 for the time being.
Thank you for all your hard work! Looking forward to being able to use your stainless steel materials, as all our products use them.
That is great to hear. We will batch-fix all MDL files to use the backwards-compatible texture lookups which will make those materials also work in the older Solidworks versions. Thank you for reporting and testing! We will build a re-release of the latest vMaterials with the latest changes, though it may us take a while before we got it through QA and up on the website.
Best Regards,
RĂŒdiger
Hi all, awesome collaboration and progress with this. Really appreciate everyone with solving this issue, thrilled a fix is found and will be implemented in next update! Thank you also for uploading a fixed file meanwhile. Can confirm the fixed file works for me too on SW 2021.
as noted by Danii software update is out of our control unfortunately I am on SW21 until update is approved. Very glad that it will be made back compatible now however. It is great we can use this material now.
Absolutely brilliant work on this material. It is very versatile having dent, smudge and stain options. I noticed the ability to add maps for each option, does this replace the existing default? I have been trying to add a custom one for dent bump but the original dents still show.
In regards to the update rollout, would be awesome to have a feature embedded in this material to change the base colour. One can dream.
Thank you all again for the efforts!
That is great to hear. We will batch-fix all MDL files to use the backwards-compatible texture lookups which will make those materials also work in the older Solidworks versions
Just to let you know: rubber materials are showing the same error that Stainless Steel does!
Additionally, there are currently only two rubber materials available, Tire and Caoutchouc. Are there any plans to expand the selection? For instance, by adding Neoprene, EPDM Rubber, or Polyurethane?
Hi @Danii
we are aware of this and have fixed it already. vMaterials 2.5 will be ready for older Solidworks versions. I appreciate your help.
There will be more rubber materials in the future. 2.5 will have nearly 100 material appearances, including nitrile, latex, silicone, âeraserâ rubber, synthetic rubber materials, etc. Materials you could use because of their similar look.
Hi @Rohland
Wonderful! Thank you once again for all your hard work, vMaterials is truly amazing.
