Animator Issues 1

[JMirisola]

Has anyone here experienced any animator issues? Specifically, distance mates suddenly changing causing the assembly to look like crap?
No, I can't post any files (due to confidentiality issues...).

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP, Certified DriveWorks AE

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

 

[TheTick]

Anyone NOT have Animator issues?

I get a glitch that resets to original positon before starting animation in "animation defined" position. Also very sensitive to which config I am using. I find it helps yo make a special config for animations. Sometimes mates need to be rearranged.

 

[JMirisola]

Yeah, I know Tick, but this one seemed especially strange. I'm blaming the latest "updates" from MS...I ended up repairing all the messed up distance mates, then suppressing all the mates and fixing all the components. What a PITA...

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP, Certified DriveWorks AE

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

 

[Eltron]

My favorite is when the mates flip for no reason, especially distance, angle and width mates. Each time it happens I beg for more. I mean, after all, why wouldn't a gear suddenly shoot to a different position in real life?

Dan

http://www.eltronresearch.com

 

[adampunch]

this is just a band-aid, but i have made my animations with a 2-step process. For each movement, i first drag the part by hand 90% of the way to where it's supposed to go. Then i move the timeline down a touch and unsuppress the mate that brings the part to its exact location. This method has prevented issues with dozens of mates flipping at once (and undo doesn't work!) I still haven't been able to make an animation that looks 100% how i want it to.

SW 2008 Office Professional SP 4.0
Intel Xeon 3.40GHz
3 GB RAM
Windows XP SP 2

 

[JMirisola]

I guess I should have mentioned this part...I wasn't moving any of the components in my assembly. I was doing a "fly-by" with a camera.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP, Certified DriveWorks AE

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

 

[Eltron]

Jeff, is your camera mated to anything in the assembly or are you doing it freehand? If it's not mated to anything in the assembly, then I think that weirder than the normal weirdness.

Dan

http://www.eltronresearch.com

 

[JMirisola]

It's not mated to anything, Dan, hence my confusion and frustration. The only thing that changed between when I started the animation and continued with it, was a MS update.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP, Certified DriveWorks AE

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

 

[TheTick]

Mate the camera to an invisible component (I call it a "camera sled"). Use distance mates to drive the position of the camera sled.

 

[Eltron]

Yeah, that's kind of what I was getting at with my question, but I'd be concerned that if he's already having mating issues throwing more in the mix might not be the road to happiness.

Dan

http://www.eltronresearch.com

 

[JMirisola]

I don't think the "camera sled" would work in this case. The camera flies up, over, under, around and through the structure. Also, the focal point changes throughout the animation. I thought it was a pretty simply animation, actually.
The most confusing thing is that not every component was affected and only distance mates changed/updated spontaneously in the affected components.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP, Certified DriveWorks AE

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

 

[TheTick]

Make a 3D sketch of the camera flight path and mate the sled to the path.

 

[JMirisola]

I'll check that out, Tick. How would you handle the focal point?

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP, Certified DriveWorks AE

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

 

[Theophilus]

You can change the focal point as you move along--check it out (maybe the Animator tutorials?).

Unfortunately, Animator is more buggy than a beetle-killed pine tree. So I don't think the MS update had anything to do with what you see. This is the sort of thing I've fought even since the interface update of SW 2006 (better, but not solid at all).

A few things:
You really cannot edit an animation to any real degree without parts suddenly misbehaving. If you return parts to where you want them, you'll get the evil red diamonds of death. This requires a new attempt at the animation.
Because of this, I write out a detailed script for time and part movement so I get it right the first time.
I also use sketches and camera sleds to guide my camera. My camera sled has a sketch of various lines and endpoints that I use to minimally-constrain it to my guide sketch. I can slide the camera along this sketch easily within SW, but in Animator, this must be done in incremental steps or strange things happen. The problem with this is that it's very tough to get the speed of the camera even by doing so.
Never use a production assembly for creating Animations. Break moving "chunks" into sub-assemblies, and dis-allow flexible sub-assemblies. Sometimes I even save sub-assemblies as part files for further simplification. The assembly must be rebuilt entirely under these principles (depending on the complexity of your motion).
I use lots of ghost parts where the nature of the motion must change. So if I have a tailgate that must rotate into position and then a flipper gate on the end of that that unfolds, and then the whole must move down, that requires four separate moving chunks that alternate within fractions of seconds in visibility. All are hidden until needed, all are constrained except in the one range of motion I require. All must be quickly shown, moved, and hidden again to get what I want (the animations at Tommygate.com were all done with Animator in this way).

A Possible work-around for what you're encountering:
If you don't need motion in your assembly, but are concentrating on camera motion, create a new assembly in which your current one is used as a sub-assembly (even if it's the only "part" of your assembly). Dis-allow flexible sub-assemblies, and nothing will move. If this fails, a more sure way to go is to save your assembly as a part file (or export to parasolid and re-import as a part file). The down-side here is that you'll need to apply materials/decals to everything again--so try the first method and see if it works.

Good luck--Animator is terribly unpredictable and the motion rules run counter to the rules used by SolidWorks--so what works with SolidWorks will not work with Animator. The trick is in figuring out the sinister, limited rules by which Animator works.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

A people who value security over freedom will soon find they have neither.

 

[JMirisola]

Jeff,
Many thanks!
After suppressing all the mates and then fixing all the components, I was able to get my fly through to work. I wasn't left with enough time to render it, but the customer was still impressed, so all is well.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP, Certified DriveWorks AE

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

 

[Theophilus]

Nifty. Customer impressions can be quite important--particularly if you're overpaid.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

A people who value security over freedom will soon find they have neither.