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Animating Assembly Models and Exporting Video Introduction to Engineering Design TM Unit 2 – Lesson 2.3 –Advanced Modeling Skills Animating Assembly Models and Exporting Video Project Lead The Way, Inc. Copyright 2007

The Exploded Assembly Presentation can be animated to show how the components and subassemblies fit together. Components move following tweaks and trails that have been created. Exploded Assembly animations can also be saved as an external AVI file.

Animating To animate the presentation, select the Animate tool from the panel bar. The animation dialog box will appear.

Steps the animation forward one tweak at a time. Steps the animation forward one interval at a time. Click the button to move forward one interval.

Steps the animation in reverse one interval at a time Steps the animation in reverse one interval at a time. Click the button to move back one interval. Steps the animation in reverse one tweak at a time.

Plays the animation forward for the specified number of repetitions Plays the animation forward for the specified number of repetitions. Before each repetition, the view is set back to its starting position. Plays the animation for the specified number of repetitions. Each repetition plays start to finish, then in reverse.

Plays the animation in reverse for the specified number of repetitions Plays the animation in reverse for the specified number of repetitions. Before each repetition, the view is set back to its ending position. Pauses the animation playback.

Records the specified animation to a file so that you can play it back later. Minimize during record: minimizes the dialog box while the animation is being recorded. Select the box to minimize the dialog box. Clear the check box to leave the dialog box active.

The Interval is the number of steps a component will take to travel along the path. The larger the interval number, the slower the object will travel; conversely, the smaller the number, the faster the object will travel. The Repetitions field specifies the number of times the animation will play.

The more button expands the Animation dialog box The more button expands the Animation dialog box.  (In the expanded dialog box, you can re-sequence or group the tweaks in the animation.)

Look at the Animation Sequence: The first animation is the Gasket:1, followed by Bolt:5. The order can be changed and sequences can be grouped together.

Moves the selected tweak up one place in the list. Moves the selected tweak down one place in the list.

Hold down the shift key to select multiple items. Groups the selected tweaks to keep them together as you change the sequence. Ungroups the selected tweaks so that they can be moved individually in the list.

Exporting Video from a Presentation File Click on the red circle on the left side of the animation dialog box.

A save dialog box will appear prompting you for the file name and location in which to save the AVI movie. Select the location and enter a file name.

Next, a dialog box appears prompting you for the video compression to use. Click OK and use the default Cinepak Codec. Your instructor may request that you use a different codec.

This will return you to the original dialog box. Click on the motion that you want to be recorded. When you click on the motion button, it will begin recording. (The dialog box will minimize while the animation is exporting, but will reappear when it is finished.)

When the dialog box reappears, you need to click on Reset. This finishes writing the file. If this is not done, the movie may not play correctly.

Tips and Hints The size of the screen will be the native size of the AVI movie. So you might want to make the window smaller to make the movie file size smaller. You may want to turn off the 3D axis indicator by selecting the Tools Menu, Application Options, and unchecking the Show 3D indicator checkbox on the upper right side.

Tips and Hints continued You may want to change the background of the AVI movie to match or compliment the background in a PowerPoint presentation. This can be done to a limited degree. Go to Tools Menu, Application Options, and click on the Colors tab to select a different Color Scheme.