Based on contributions by Luckyhipster10.
For a presentation-quality image of your design, use SOLIDWORKS Visualize to render your part with realistic materials, lighting, and camera settings instead of a plain screenshot from SolidWorks.
Example result:
What you need
- SolidWorks with the SOLIDWORKS Visualize add-in.
- A finished part or assembly.
Steps
1. Apply appearances to your surfaces
Before rendering, make sure every surface has the correct texture and color. Open Appearances, Scenes, and Decals on the right side of the screen, select Appearances (color), and drag the textures you want onto the corresponding surfaces.
2. Enable SOLIDWORKS Visualize
Make sure SOLIDWORKS Visualize is enabled in Add-Ins.
3. Export to Visualize
Select SOLIDWORKS Visualize and press Export Simple.
Visualize will launch — wait for it to start up.
4. Set up the camera and environment
Adjust the camera and environment settings until you’re happy with the composition.
5. Open the render wizard
Once the camera angle is correct, press the Render wizard.
6. Choose render quality
Select the quality you want under Image Presets.
7. Set the output file
Go to the Output tab and fill in the file name and save location.
8. Render
Hit Render and wait for the project to finish. Render time depends heavily on your PC’s performance and the quality preset you chose — higher-quality presets can take significantly longer.
Related
Rewritten and consolidated (Sept 2026) from the original student how-to’s: How to make a render in SolidWorks.