Animating Assembly Models and Exporting Video

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Forging new generations of engineers
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Animating Assembly Models and Exporting Video
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• The Exploded Assembly Presentation can be
  animated to show how 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.

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Animating

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

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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

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Look at the Animation Sequence

• The first animation
• is the Gasket1, followed by Bolt5.
• The order can be changed and sequences can be
  grouped together.

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

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• 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.

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Exporting Video from a Presentation File

• Click on the red circle on the left side of the
  animation dialog box.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.)

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• 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.

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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 3D axis indicator by
  selecting the Tools Menu, Application Options,
  and unchecking the Show 3D indicator checkbox on
  the upper right side.

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Tips and Hints continued

• You may want to change the background of the AVI
  movie to match or compliment the background in a
  PowerPoint 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.