Animating an exploded view?

[cjm23]

Is it possible to save an animated exploding/collapsing assembly as a GIF file so that it can be used on a website?

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Not with standard SW tools. You could use the Rx tool, or Animator add-in, to save as an AVI then use a 3rd party convertor.

3rd party screen capture software exists for AVI and Flash, but I've not seen one for GIF ... but then I've not been looking for one.

 

[cjm23]

Hey CorBlimeyLimey!

What is Rx tool?

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

It is a diagnostic and "Problem Capture" tool.

Start > All Programs > SolidWorks > SolidWorks Tools > SolidWorks Rx

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

http://www.javelin-tech.com/main/support/solidworks_rx.htm

http://manufacturing.cadalyst.com/manufacturing/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=124227

 

[cjm23]

CorBlimeyLimey, thanks for the help. I am such a novice when it comes to animation. Could you tell me what I would do. I run Rx, but then in order to save the file, I would need to enter a description of the "problem", and enter my e-mail address. Do I need to do this part (I don't have a problem w/ Solidworks) or do I use the 3rd party screen capture software once the recording begins?

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Yes you need to fill out that information, but don't worry it does not send anything automatically. A zipped package will be created and stored in My Documents/SW Log Files. The movie file can be extracted from there.

A simpler way would be to use Cam Studio from

http://www.camstudio.org/

or something similar, but you will have to convert the result to GIF.

 

[Theophilus]

Or--use third party software to convert your normal animation (like AVI format) back into animated GIF software. You can find quite a lot of freeware out there that may be able to do what you need.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.

 

[draftsman101]

http://www.mikejwilson.com/solidworks/animator_guide.htm

 

[cjm23]

Thanks for your help.

I actually used Mr. Captor to create an AVI file. But then when I sent the file to my client, Media Player won't play the video because it has a problem loading codec! I was able to play it no problem on my laptop, but not on my wife's (same problem)

So I used Video Inspector to see what codec was needed. Anyways, after I did all that, it still doesn't work! Why does it seem like nothing is ever easy?

So, then I decided to convert the avi to wmv, so I had to download more software to do that. The end result is a very poor looking animation. The quality of the video is seriously degraded. Is there a better way to do it?

 

[Theophilus]

Open your AVI in Windows Movie Maker--it's built in to Windows XP Pro (and probably XP Home). In that, you can "import" your AVI file and export it into differing compression rates, frame rates, frame sizes, etc. Very nice (for once) for a Windows freebie. I use it quite frequently, since I output my rendered animations with no compression (45 second animations get as huge as 1GB). To compress for web viewing, I use WMM to get what I need for a given connection speed or download size. Very nice.

Here's an example:

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com/internet/G2-38-Tommy-Gate.wmv

By the way, I've found that the WMV format is well-compressed for the quality. It's the best compromise I've been able to find for my work.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.