Raytracing shadows

robert_semenoff

My design has a point light source and I want to see the shadows cast by the other parts on the top plane. Two possible ways to do this: 1) Render Studio, or 2) the raytracing custom feature. I asked the AI assistant, but it told me that the custom feature was really more intended for modeling refraction through objects rather than shadow rendering, and didn't seem to know much about how Render Studio could be used for this. Any suggestions as to which rabbit hole is least likely to have me coming up empty-handed would be greatly appreciated!

MichaelPascoe

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Not sure this is exactly what you are looking for but it might be.
You can make shadows with the mold features or the silhouette feature here:
https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/11011/silhouette-outline…
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robert_semenoff

Silhouette feature is close! That one does project rays, but those are from a collimated light source, not a point source. Think of a laser pointer that swivels, and you wanted to know if there were any blind spots due to other mechanism getting in the way….

S1mon

Do you need to visually simulate the shadows or just confirm if certain areas are in/out of shadow?

Render studio will do both, but take more steps to manage. It's also only available at the Professional or Enterprise level.

There are some raytracing custom features which are free and should be able to get more of the second answer.

@EvanReese
Has an Optics feature which might do what you need.

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/de8cbd559bd2dcc347c38ff3/w/3603b1286161ccca20f2e841/e/dc711ec427553a8ae736daac

EvanReese

Simon is right on both points. There was also this thread about a similar problem where I made a demo model, but it took some cleverness, and isn't directly applicable to any arbitrary shape (primitive solids are easier than organic blobs) https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/28672/shadow-from-point-source