pic: Cheesecake, anyone?

[Jon K.]

Originally Posted by cxcad

You can use photo realistic decals, but that would only work for certain lighting conditions and angles.

Depending on the software you can also apply textures, but again it will only work so well. There are a few ways you could pattern "defects" into the part as well in the way of modeled bulges and gouges. It really depends on what you are going for. You usually can adjust the sheen that parts have as well. I know Inventor and Solidworks have different plastics with different shine to them. A major problem with a cheesecake is the fact that you almost always have browning in certain spots, and that would be the most difficult part to model in my mind.

[tindleroot]

Using CAD software to make photorealistic pie is like trying to eat soup with a fork. It might work if you really try, but it's the wrong tool. The spoon is either a photo-editing program or a 3D animation program. Either one allows you to generate random noise patters to texture the pie and to create random surface variations (in 3D) to account for the imperfections. Not only that, you would have much more control over the lighting and shadows.