Forging new generations of engineers Animating Assembly Models

Forging new generations of engineers

Animating Assembly Models and Exporting Video

• The Exploded Assembly Presentation can be animated to show the components and subassemblies fit together. • Components move following tweaks and trails that have been created. • Exploded Assembly animations can also be saved as an external AVI file.

Animating • To animate the presentation, select the Animate tool from the panel bar. The animation dialog box will appear.

• Steps the animation forward one tweak at a time. • Steps the animation forward one interval at a time. Click the button to move forward one interval.

• Steps the animation in reverse one interval at a time. Click the button to move back one interval. • Steps the animation in reverse one tweak at a time.

• Plays the animation forward for the specified number of repetitions. Before each repetition, the view is set back to its starting position. • Plays the animation for the specified number of repetitions. Each repetition plays start to finish, then in reverse.

• Plays the animation in reverse for the specified number of repetitions. Before each repetition, the view is set back to its ending position. • Pauses the animation playback.

• Records the specified animation to a file so that you can play it back later. • Minimize during record: minimizes the dialog box while the animation is being recorded. Select the box to minimize the dialog box. Clear the check box to leave the dialog box active.

• The Interval is the number of steps a component will take to travel along the path. The larger the interval number, the slower the object will travel; conversely, the smaller the number, the faster the object will travel. • The Repetitions field specifies the number of times the animation will play.

• The more button expands the Animation dialog box. (In the expanded dialog box, you can re-sequence or group the tweaks in the animation. )

Look at the Animation Sequence: • The first animation is the Gasket: 1, followed by Bolt: 5. • The order can be changed and sequences can be grouped together.

• Moves the selected tweak up one place in the list. • Moves the selected tweak down one place in the list.

• Hold down the shift key to select multiple items. • Groups the selected tweaks to keep them together as you change the sequence. • Ungroups the selected tweaks so that they can be moved individually in the list.

Exporting Video from a Presentation File • Click on the red circle on the left side of the animation dialog box.

• A save dialog box will appear prompting you for the file name and location in which to save the AVI movie. • Select the location and enter a file name.

• Next, a dialog box appears prompting you for the video compression to use. • Click OK and use the default Cinepak Codec. • Your instructor may request that you use a different codec.

• This will return you to the original dialog box. • Click on the motion that you want to be recorded. • When you click on the motion button, it will begin recording. (The dialog box will minimize while the animation is exporting, but will reappear when it is finished. )

• When the dialog box reappears, you need to click on Reset. • This finishes writing the file. • If this is not done, the movie may not play correctly.

Tips and Hints • The size of the screen will be the native size of the AVI movie. So you might want to make the window smaller to make the movie file size smaller. • You may want to turn off the 3 D axis indicator by selecting the Tools Menu, Application Options, and unchecking the Show 3 D indicator checkbox on the upper right side.

Tips and Hints continued • You may want to change the background of the AVI movie to match or compliment the background in a Power. Point presentation. This can be done to a limited degree. • Go to Tools Menu, Application Options, and click on the Colors tab to select a different Color Scheme.