Windchill upgrade to Creo - decal issue (duller/greyish colors?)

[egreenberg]

Hey folks,

Our company upgraded from Wildfire 5 to Creo 2, since then I've had a nagging issue with the "decal" functionality.

I want to overlay an image (.bmp or .png) onto a surface of a model. The image contains text, graphics, etc. It needs to look aesthetically correct. The way I always do it is by the Decal tool in Appearance Editor (without touching bump/color texture). When I do this in Wildfire it looks how I expect: the colors match the original image.

But if I follow the exact same procedure in Creo the results are different: the colors look significantly more dull than the original image. Any white graphics become gray, everything is a shade darker. I've tried this a hundred different ways with different images and different models on different computers to the same result.

I've resolved that it has nothing to do with the "color properties" (as in intensity, ambient, highlight, transparency), because these have no effect on the tint of the image, just the color behind it. And if I make them identical in both programs I still have the same issue. So I assume this is caused by some setting that changed from Wildfire to Creo.

Here's a random example. The image on the left was made on Wildfire... the decal looks just as vivid as the original. The right is with Creo... the decal is duller. I can't figure out why.

Thanks!!

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[TomD.inPDX]

Welcome to the forum, Eric.

So it not just me! It seems you could open a support case to have PTC tell you exactly what happened. I might suggest supplying a sample like you did with pure colors and note the difference there.

I too would like to understand the difference. I don't have WF so I could not provide the samples.

[TomD.inPDX]

I might have figured out the difference... lighting will affect decal brightness. This might be a change from WF.

[egreenberg]

You're right Antonius I think I'm seeing what you're seeing, lighting affects the decal brightness. If I play with the lighting I can brighten the decal.

One thing I tried was changing the "lighting color" to pure white (255/255/255). This does brighten the decal but it also messes up all the other colors in the model making them a lot brighter and more reflective. Which means I have to go and change all the colors of other parts to compensate for the fact that they look brighter. Something about this approach is not consistent with the way wildfire did it, so I'm still not sure what's wrong there

I also noticed that the default scene changed. Wildfire used "default_enhanced_realism.scn" by default but creo uses "creo_default_scene.scn" by default. But reverting this didn't seem to make any difference.

[TomD.inPDX]

Tweaking scenes to give a good development environment is a real challenge. Using one of the few default scenes provided in the scene manager is probably the best bet. Make sure you don't have a scene selected as a default, and don't safe the scene with the part. I've really painted myself in a corner with these.

And avoid those pesky teaser PhotoLux scenes. I don't know why PTC thinks we need more spam in our lives!

[gkoch · Accepted solution]

Hello Eric,

you might try the config.pro option "enable_opengl_shader no" to revert to pre-Creo lighting.

Seems like another case where one man's enhancement is another man's grief.

Here is the reference in the PTC database: http://www.ptc.com/appserver/cs/view/solution.jsp?n=CS66811

Gunter

[TomD.inPDX]

Nice tip, Gunter! Thanks.

[egreenberg]

Gunter,

You nailed it! That's exactly what I was looking for. Thank you... this one was bugging me for a long time.

Eric

[TomD.inPDX]

There is a strange option in the system color file (.scl):

USE_PRE_WILDFIRE_ENTITY_COLOR YES

Support could not tell me what this means. I wonder if this is related.

[gkoch]

I don't believe it should have an impact on lighting.

USE_PRE_WILDFIRE_ENTITY_COLOR is supposed to affect the system colors for entities at creation time, mainly datums. If I remember correctly there is a difference for the color of sketched curves, maybe others too.

[TomD.inPDX]

Thanks Gunter. That is more than I knew before.

[oratalino]

Hi Gunter,

I am using Creo 3 and am having the exact same problem. A sort of grey wash over ever decal I insert. Even transparency seems to be effected.

I have tried adding the config.pro option"enable_opengl_shader no" as you suggested to Eric but it doesn't seem to have had any effect. Is there perhaps a different solution for Creo 3?

Thank you.

[gkoch]

Hello Oscar,

No, sorry! There is nothing known about differences (with this option or with shading) in Creo 3.0.

It still is a valid option and should disable OpenGL shading (which seems to be generally duller) and use Phong shading instead, like in previous versions.

Probably best, if you open a case with TS.

Maybe you have an example that can be compared with Creo Elements/Pro 5.0?

Or if there is a difference between 2.0 and 3.0, it would be sufficient, if the example opens there.

Regards,

Gunter