KeyShot supports a variety of file formats from third-party applications. A list of the files currently supported can be found on the KeyShots website. For our projects, we will be working with files with the OBJ (object file) extension. Let's go ahead and get started. Perform the following steps:
Open KeyShot.
At the bottom of your viewport, you will see six icons—Import, Library, Project, Animation, Screenshot, and Render, as shown in the following screenshot:
Go ahead and click on Import.
Let's choose our lesson file,
Wacom_2, from thedatafolder.A new window for configuring imported files will appear.
The new settings window allows you to choose the orientation or the direction in which your 3D object will be placed in the viewport. Depending on which application we are importing our files to, some of them have their Cartesian axis orientation set up differently. In this case, the file we will be working with is an OBJ file imported from Maya, and this file has Y Up as its Orientation, as shown in the following screenshot:
When working with our project files in KeyShot, it is important to remember prior to importing any models that, all parts of the model need to have their own material assigned to them. To do this, before exporting any of our 3D files from other applications, make sure that the option material is checked in the export options. Once all the pieces of our model have been assigned with their own material, KeyShot will be able to understand how to assign materials properly to all parts of the mesh. A new feature called Material Template, currently available in KeyShot v3.3 and later versions, allows us to link materials and parts of our models to the materials found inside KeyShot's library. For example, instead of copying and pasting materials from one object to another, we can create a template that automatically applies all the materials to the corresponding parts of a model when it is imported into the scene.
When creating a template, we need to specify a source name and a destination name.The source name is essentially the name of the part or the material exported directly from a third-party application such as Maya or SolidWorks. Once it is added to the template list, KeyShot will search for any parts or materials associated with the names in the source list and apply any assigned materials in the destination list. We can see an example of a template list in the following screenshot, with the parts of our Wacom tablet listed on the left-hand side and the materials we assigned them with on the right-hand side:
Next, let's see how to move, rotate, or scale our model in the viewport. Perform the following steps to do so:
Right-click on the model.
A new selection box will appear; choose to either move a part of the object or the entire object.
When working with a mesh that has multiple parts, it is good practice to hide the parts we don't currently need. To do this, simply right-click on the part we wish to hide and select the Hide Part option from the new menu.