NX4 - Create animation?

[VmaxVboost]

I know View > Visualization > Create animation

..but how do I define it first?

I have a main body, a latch with a hole, and a pin (3 parts in an assembly part) enabling the latch to rotate relative to the main body. In my assembly part, I have an expression called "latch angle" that correctly rotates the latch.

How do I set this animation up, varying the latch angle from 90 to 180 degrees, and showing the results in a saved video file? Simple step by step for a novice, please!

Thanks,
Brian

 

[MSPBenson]

First you need to make your expression of latch angle a function of an expression called "FrameNumber" case sensetive.
If you want your latch to rotate 90 degrees and take 4 seconds to rotate you would use the following expression
(Frame rate is 25FPS so no of frames = 100)


latch_angle = FrameNumber * (90/100)

In the animation dialogue set up your animation using keyframes set your view as you want it and set the first keyframe. Create a second keyframe with 100 frames and a blend factor of 0 (this is smoothing if the views change in the animation and causes a small movement if the view doesn't change when it is set to 1)
Make sure update expressions is toggled on and it should work.
Use F1 for further help on the dialogues.

Hope that's useful,


Mark Benson
Aerodynamic Model Designer

 

[VmaxVboost]

Yes! Got it. That rocks. Thanks for your help.

Brian

 

[VmaxVboost]

One more thing...the background color of my model is light gray, but the animation background color is black. How do I change it to light gray, or white?

Brian