Animation Requirements

[GunT]

Hello all,

We are Automated Process Equipment Manufacturer loacted in Bay Area,CA. We want to do a motion animation of our assembly which consists of 3174 parts @ 30 MB file size. But the file size of the folder that includes all the parts and sub-assemblies to open the assembly accounts to 262 MB.

I am looking for what it takes to animate this assembly (Computer hardware requirements etc.)

Also I want recommendations from anyone in the group about some consultants who can do the job.

Thanks

 

[MadMango]

First off, you'll want to simplfy your assembly. There's no need to have every last nut, bolt, component-hidden-behind-a-panel to be resolved.

What are the computer specs for teh machine that put all of these 3174 components together? It should do pretty well for Animator.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

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[Theophilus]

When I do this stuff, I group things into singular chunks of parts (subassemblies) that don't move. Once you do that, you can save your subassemblies as a parasolid or such (to remove all the feature overhead, etc.) and then import the parasolid to start assigning materials, colors, etc. So you'll want to create a special directory into which your existing assembly will be saved (File > Find References, and Copy your files [from the top-level assembly] into your new directory)--this directory will be dedicated to the animation, so you don't want it mixed up with "production" files.

That brings us to a big question--do you need photorealistic rendered frames, or is this something that can be rendered as your existing SolidWorks viewport. This is near photo-real, animated in Animator and rendered using PhotoWorks (compressed for web viewing):

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

The more time spent on assigning materials, setting up scenery and lights, and working out camera angles, the better the animation.

If you want rendering, multiple cores on your CPU really pays off. If not, you don't get much advantage. With what you're talking about as RAM goes, you'll probably want a system that can use near 2GB of RAM--less may work, but if you render, as soon as you tell the animation to "save", your RAM will spike and perhaps crash your system if your near your RAM threshhold.

I and others here can give you more detailed info, depending on the details of what you're facing.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.

 

[rockguy]

Sounds like you've recieved some good advice already. In addition to simplifing your assembly as much as possible you may also want to investigate simplfying the parts as much as possible as well. The more complex the part is to rebuild the more computer resources required. Also, I would reccommend enabling the 3 GIG switch in the operating system.

If you're using PhotoWorks as well as Animator look at your materials. Materials that are translucent or transparent will require more processing times and a multicore system can process the information faster. Also, be leary of configurations if you're using PhotoWorks. There are a couple of bugs in PhotoWorks with configurations that could spoil the Animation. It's no fun to spend hours saving an Animation only to find out PhotoWorks didn't render correctly.

Rob

Rob Rodriguez CSWP

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[GunT]

Hi,

Thank you all for the wonderful advice. I am trying to play with the Animator/PhotoWorks to produce the animation. It may take me awhile to do it.

But starting this endevaor made me realize something ( most of you might already know this). I spend a lot of time thinking about the design intent of the assy. I ask my designers to do the same. It takes a lot of effort and time to think about an assy. consisting 3000+ parts. Its like putting all the pieces of the puzzle together. So its kind of frustrating to comeback and redo some or all of the work to produce good animations.( I know I need a lot to learn and my frustrations may be because of that too).

My questions to the members here is: How do you plan for the animation while creating the assy to begin with? What are the steps that need to be taken to reduce doubling the effort?

Thank you so much.

 

[Theophilus]

I don't.

In fact, lots of companies who need animation find people who don't even use the same model database--they create everything from "scratch", normally in a more animation-friendly package (note car ads in magazines and even TV--lots of "non-real" virtual stuff shown there--rendered/animated on the computer).

This is just part of doing everything. Focus on design when designing. Focus on the animation when animating. You have different needs in the two scenarios, and I cannot normally find any reconciliation between the two (although I would love to so I could save time/money).



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.

 

[MadMango]

I don’t think you can accommodate both design and presentation with the same models, as they serve two distinct functions, and have different requirements.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?