In the last few years, photorealistic CAD renderings have become quite popular for a number of reasons. One of them is that renderings allow us to visualize a realistic image of a product before it is actually made. These renderings can be used for many applications, such as: marketing materials, design proposals as well as light and colour studies. There are many good rendering packages available, one of them is PhotoWorks, which runs right in SolidWorks. Another widely used rendering solution is POV-Ray, which is freeware.

But what if you wanted to enhance your renderings by adding artistic effects or combining them with real photographs, how would you do this? One way would be to use Photoshop. Photoshop is a graphics editing software that can be used to greatly improve visual communication.

At CADmech we have used Photoshop to enhance our CAD renderings. A good example is our Holiday e-card. Note that the layout, text, background, animations, and sparkles were all done in Photoshop, while the car and the igloo were modeled in CATIA.

- by Joseph Vera