Animator Question

[Mitsu50]

Hi all,

I've been thinking about this for a while and can not come up with a solution. Is it possible to animate cutting a path? for instance. i'm doing a part, and wanted to animate some of the tool cut paths removing material. I know you can animate sectioning of parts, but what about something like this? Thoughts? Thanks!

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Check out these;

Curve Driven Animation at

http://www.mikejwilson.com/solidworks/solidworks_files-02.htm

Have a Nice Day and Slot Cars on

http://www.mikejwilson.com/solidworks/solidworks_files-06.htm

Replace the moving bits with a cutter.

 

[Mitsu50]

but what about removing of the material? thats what i'm really after

 

[ctopher]

You will need a CAM package or export/import into an animator like 3D Max.

Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 1.1
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 10-07-07)
ctopher's blog

 

[Mitsu50]

i have 3ds max, any idea how to do it? or can u point me to a tutorial?

 

[ctopher]

http://www.cadmonkey.com/tut8.htm

Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 1.1
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 10-07-07)
ctopher's blog

 

[Mitsu50]

i'm sorry, i meant as far as the cutting sequence in 3ds max.

 

[ctopher]

That would be a longer tutorial. I don't know of any tutorials to show how to do a cutting sequence. If you know 3DS, import your part & tool and create the path.

Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 1.1
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 10-07-07)
ctopher's blog

 

[Mitsu50]

sounds like its going to be a bit to time consuming. All i really wanted to try and do was in SW start with the round stock, and animate some of the cutting operations, just for fun, showing that tool as it removes the material.

 

[ctopher]

Or you can make several configuration of the part with different pieces of mtl removed. Create the animation within SW removing the pieces as it goes. It won't be a smooth animation, but will get your point across.
Either way, it will be time consuming.

Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 1.1
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 10-07-07)
ctopher's blog

 

[Mitsu50]

yeah, sounds like it. oh well no biggy. thanks for the suggestions!!!

 

[Theophilus]

You may be able to create a part that has nothing other than a cut operation that is done within the context of the assembly. So insert a blank part, put it where you need it, and perform an assembly cut. Move the part and the cut should move with it. If you tie a separate solid part to your blank cutting part, you might get the illusion of the solid cutting your work piece in the animation.

This all assumes, of course, the cut part will update with part movement in Animator. Animator is quite limited, so I'm not sure whether that will work in this instance. But if I remember correctly, SW use to do something like this to "show off" Animator. Definitely a hack, but if the concept works, doing this for a lathe should be a convincing piece of cake.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

What did you dream? It's all right--we told you what to dream.
--Pink Floyd, Welcome to the Machine

 

[dogarila]

I did once a simple animation by saving a series of slides (jpegs) from SW and assembling them into a video using a small piece of free software called imagetoavi (I downloaded it from the internet). Another option is called jpegvideo, does about the same thing. Credit for this should go to the guy from New Hampshire, I think his name is Jim Jones.