Render Simulations with Inventor Studio

When your simulation is complete and you want to record it as a realistic rendered animation use this method which takes advantage of Inventor Studio.

When you run a simulation the time steps parameter is cached for use with Inventor Studio. Before exiting the simulation run environment, render your simulation by selecting Animate Publish to Studio in the simulation command panel. You enter the studio environment. A new animation: Dynamic_Simulation is created automatically and the simulation steps are added, as a new parameter: Simulation_timeline, to the Animation Favorites folder.

A simulation may have been run with a high number of time steps, for example, 100 or 200 per second which is superb for isolating specific events in the simulation. Typically, animations run at frame rates of from 15 through 30 frames per second (fps). There is no need to adjust the simulation time steps to try to match the frames per second value you plan to use. Inventor Studio compensates for the difference during animation. All that is needed is to specify the output frames per second.

By way of example, the following steps show how to use a 5-second simulation, with the default 100 time steps per second, to create a 7-second animation.

1. Run the simulation to make sure that the simulation results are current and cached. Do not return to the simulation construction environment.
2. If you are using Color mobile groups but want the model colors and textures for the design to be used in the rendered animation, right click the Mobile Groups node in the browser and uncheck Color mobile groups.
3. On the ribbon, click Dynamic Simulation tab Animate panel Publish to Studio . This option causes certain actions to be taken automatically to reduce your effort
   • A new animation: Dynamic_Simulation, is created.
   • The time step variable is parameterized: Simulation_timeline, and exported.
   • The Simulation_timeline parameter is added to Animation Favorites in Studio.
   • When you enter the Inventor Studio environment, the new animation is active. The animation timeline is displaying.

   The following steps are done in Inventor Studio.

4. In the Animation Timeline, click Animation Options located to the right of the camera list box. Set the Length parameter for seconds to 7.0 (5 seconds of simulation and 2 seconds for staging).
   Tip: Leave a little time on both ends of an animation to allow the viewers eyes to adjust and take in the scene, and then meditate on what was shown.
5. Set the graphics region to the type of viewing and position you want for your camera, then right click and click Create Camera from View. Later, you could use this camera to create an animated fly-through of the simulation.
   Tip: Try using a perspective camera to add a sense of depth to the scene.
6. Set the timeline slider to 6 seconds.
7. In the Studio Scene browser, expand the Animation Favorites node.
8. Right click the parameter, Simulation_timeline, and select Animate Parameters. The Animate Parameters dialog box appears.
9. To set the time, click Specify and set the Start value to 1.0 and the end time to 6.0.
10. Set the parameter Action End value to 500. Simulation defaults to 100 steps per second. Thus, 500 represents 5 seconds of simulation at the default setting.
    Note: If the number of times steps results in too few steps for Inventor Studio, default is 15 per second, a dialog box is displayed and instructs you to increase the number of steps in the Dynamic Simulation.
11. Click OK. You can play back the animation using the controls in the Animation timeline.
12. If you have used Inventor Studio before and have set up lighting or scene styles, activate any as needed. If you have not used Studio before, review the tutorials or help pages relative to setting up cameras, lighting styles, scene styles, and rendering an animation.
13. On the ribbon, click Render tab Render panel Render Animation .
14. In the Render Animation dialog box, on the General tab, specify the Camera, Lighting Style, Scene Style, and Render Type. Here we use the defaults.
15. On the Output tab, specify a filename for the animation, the time range, anti-aliasing. and format to use. We recommend doing a Preview Render so that you see the results quickly and can determine if the cameras and simulation are synchronized the way you want them.
16. On the Style tab, for final renders, specify whether you want to render true reflections. If you selected Illustration as the Render Type, the style settings for that render appear on the Style tab.
17. Click OK to render the animation.
    Note: Trace curves, force vectors, and other simulation output are not transferred to or used by Inventor Studio.