Can this Animation to be done ? 2

[jacek0841]

Imagine you have a Horizontal Cylinder - Rod fully collapsed and a Roller 2" in front of the rod.

Now you extend the rod (Linear Motor) and when the Rod comes with contact with The Roller the Rod pushes the Roller.

 

[jacek0841]

No way - during the replay Angle1 begins as suppressed and Angle2 as unsupressed - that is the way it was at the end of the cucle.

 

[jacek0841]

And BTW - that's how now I managed to get the end of the cycle working properly (at last) but the beginning, which was working O.K., now is messed up :-( :-(

 

[sloth4z]

I don't know about this specific example, but I have used mates to position parts during certain timestamps, and then suppressed all mates when I ran the animation.

 

[JMirisola]

How to Suppress and unsupress those Animator tree mates at certain times.
Time1 (start) to Time2 Angle1 is unsupressed, Angle2 suppressed.
Time2 Angle1 gets Suppressed
Time3 Angle2 gets Unsupressed.
Time3 to Time 4 Angle2 Unsupressed.

Assuming that Time1 is zero then my instructions should be correct. However, if Time1 isn't zero, then start my instructions from Time1.


Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
CAD Administrator
SW '07 SP2.0, Dell M90, Intel 2 Duo Core, 2GB RAM, nVidia 2500M

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

 

[Theophilus]

If you've tinkered with your mates after starting this particular animation, you'll probably have to start a new animation for the mates to work properly (or to better figure out how to get the mates to cooperate as you'd expect).

One thing that has always helped me immensely is writing out a detailed script of my animation before "programming" the animation in Animator. I think the recent SPs for 2007 have helped, but Animator is still tremendously unstable and inflexible. I commonly make mistakes along the way (forget something tiny in my script) and try to change the animation, and often am better off starting clean (or else I get the dreaded red diamonds of death). Other nebulous factors contribute to the obstinate nature of Animator, but it's difficult to understand why, exactly, these factors matter. So I drastically dumb-down my assembly such that I have the least amount of dependence on mates as possible--and I eliminate as many parts from the assembly as I can. I even combine clusters of parts (subassemblies) into part files to reduce assembly complexity (and this helps with big assemblies).

After all my efforts, I do normally achieve what I need. But Animator has a long way to go before even approaching the sort of motion that is common in the assembly I wish to animate (for instance, I can easily drag a part and the dependent parts will follow--while in SolidWorks--but in trying to translate this into Animator motion the same attempt yields only red diamonds of death--no good).



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.

 

[jacek0841]

... you'll probably have to start a new animation for the mates to work properly ..

Yes, I figured that out ...

But Animator has a long way to go before even approaching the sort of motion that is common in the assembly I wish to animate (for instance, I can easily drag a part and the dependent parts will follow--while in SolidWorks--but in trying to translate this into Animator motion the same attempt yields only red diamonds of death--no good).

Tend to agree - after all I have only 3 parts - one fixed and two moving - and as soon as I suppres the Angle1 I get red diamonds.

I fact I created simpler model - a Path (spline), which is the fixed part and a part mowing along it which has Angle1=0 (to force Parallel)

When it gets to the end of the path ("Manually") it's O.K. and it can be replayed - but as soon as I want to unsuppres Angle1 (so I can rotate the part) and rotate the part (of course after moving the time line to the next time) the things get weird. ... :-(

 

[jacek0841]

... as I want to unsuppres Angle1 ...

Ooops ... meant to read suppress

 

[jacek0841]

I guess I am going to give up - as soon as I try to suppress a mate the things get weird, no matter what I try.

If somehow there was "a clean break", that is if after arriving to that "weid" point one could start totally new an animation, but "glued togather" to the previous one (or even perhaps with a small "time gap" between them as to not confuse the system) then I think that could have a much better chance of a success.

 

[JMirisola]

Don't give up. I remember how frustrated I got the first time I tried animator. You just need to try a little more.

Start over, from the beginning. Either with a brand new animation or by deleting all the diamonds in your present one. Work with just one mate and see how it goes. It's been my experience that a little trial and error goes a long way.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
CAD Administrator
SW '07 SP2.0, Dell M90, Intel 2 Duo Core, 2GB RAM, nVidia 2500M

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

 

[Theophilus]

. ..or at least a lot of trial and error goes a little way. ..



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.

 

[jacek0841]

It looks like if you want to go along the path that consists of straight line and a tangent arc (on the same sketch) the simulator gets confused. I tried to make this into Composite Curve, but the simulator would not let me to select it.

So far it looks like I have to use a Spline (using the end points from the previously mentionned elemets) plus some "readjustments" of the spline tangency (to simulate a straight line).

BTW, if the spline first goes a bit down and then up I can not travel that in one swoop - system gets confused - I had to add some entermittent points (around when the spline is at its "bottom", to clear the confusion).

Did you guys have had a similar experience ??

 

[Theophilus]

Yes, definitely. I use normal lines and arcs and then select the Fit Spline command to make it selectable. (I do this for camera paths--very nice action with that tool.) Add intermittent points where necessary to break down your motion into simple steps.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.

 

[jacek0841]

Guess what - now that I finally got the thing working - I can NOT record it as AVI file - one of the items jerks as if it was sick - but only when recording as AVI file. During normal replay everything is fine ... :-( :-(

 

[jacek0841]

Well, got around that too ... Let it jerk without interrupting the recording . After the recording got finished I re-recorded it again - of course got the message - Want to overwrite existing AVI file - just clicked Yes - and this time around it went O.K.

 

[Theophilus]

Yeah, that's another glitch. To avoid this, I normally drag my timeline through the animation very slowly to make sure everything can keep up with the animation--usually have to go backward several times to "grab" the action properly--all the way through. And then save to an AVI. Usually works that way.

By the way, if you want a smooth animation, just save your assembly as an eDrawing assembly. Perfect smooth play in the eDrawing, plus you can check out other aspects of the assembly within the same small file. Very cool! (v. 2007)



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.

 

[jacek0841]

... Perfect smooth play in the eDrawing, ...

I am totally lost - yes I can save the assy as eDwgAssy - but how do you play it ??? Which icons do you use ?? So far I managed to completely "desintegrate" eDwg while manually moving the "moving" part.

 

[jacek0841]

I guess I found it - its called ... Animations ...

Thanks for the tip anyway ...

 

[jacek0841]

I have turned on one of the Annotations view (on detail Part) so the dimensions can be seen (for demo purposes).

Now, during the Animation the sizes of the Dim (Lettering) and the size of the Arrow Heads seem to be all right - not too big, not too small, just right.

But when I save this Annimation as *EASM file and play it back with eDrawings, the sizes of the Dim (Lettering) become huge and the size of the Arrow Heads microscopic.

I am trying to play with various Document settings, like Font size for dims and Arrows - it works for "normal" animation (by SW), but so far does not make any difference in the EASM file (I know, I did save it again).

Is it a bug or is it a feature, or am I doing something wrong ??

SW 2007 SP3.1

 

[Theophilus]

eDrawings tends not to display text at the same size. So you may need to reduce the text size within the eDrawing file. If you zoom in or out, the text will change size (don't know why it cannot be displayed at a constant size like in SW).



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.

 

[jacek0841]

I made another simple assy and an animation. From the beginning I used smaller font size and it looks like it remains the same (smaller) size in the eDrawing animation.

Need to do more "research" in this area - could it be that eDrawings "remembers" original size of part that had had the bigest font and later changes are of no use ?? - just speculation ..