Animations

To save your animation as an AVI file, click Export Animation. Alternatively, from any of the Results tabs, you can select CapturesAnimateSave As AVI. In the dialog box, specify the file name and location for the animation. The animation will have an .avi extension. If you have an existing animation file for this mode, you will be asked to append this animation to the end of the existing one. This is especially useful for linear dynamic analyses because you can have a single animation show the deflected shapes of all the calculated mode shapes. After you have set the controls defined below to the appropriate settings, press the Save button the animation will be generated. After the animation is completed, you will be asked to view it now. If you select Yes, the animation will be launched in your default media player.  The animation player can be executed in stand-alone mode by running the AVIPLAY.exe file in the Autodesk Simulation installation directory.

Types of Animations

  • : If this button is depressed, the animation will start from the undisplaced shape and will finish at the displaced shape at the current scale factor.
  • : If this button is depressed, the animation will start from the undisplaced shape, go to the displaced shape at the current scale factor and then return to the undisplaced shape. This option is useful if you are going to append another animation after the current one because it will bring you smoothly back to the starting point of the next animation.
  • : If this button is depressed, the animation will be divided into four quarters. The animation will start from the undisplaced shape, go to the displaced shape at the current scale factor in the positive direction for the first quarter of the animation. In the second quarter, it will return to the undisplaced shape. In the third quarter, the animation will go the displaced shape at the current scale factor in the negative direction. In the last quarter, the animation will return to the undisplaced shape. This will result in a smooth sinusoidal animation of the deflections.

These options are only applicable if the analysis is not time-dependent.

Control Animations for Time-Dependent Analyses

Control the speed of the animation by selecting the number of frames to be displayed in each second of the animation in the Playback Frames per Second (FPS) field. Each time step will comprise a single frame.

If the Setup by Step Number radio button is selected, you will control the range of the animation by selecting the Start Step and End Step of the animation. You can limit the number of intermediate steps used by increasing the Step Increment value.

If the Setup by Time radio button is selected, you will control the range of the animation by selecting the Start Time and End Time of the animation. you can limit the number of intermediate steps by entering the Time Increment or the Capture Rate. The Time Increment controls the amount of time between subsequent steps. The Capture Rate is calculated as the inverse of the product of the Time Increment and the Play Back Frames per Second. If you specify a Capture Rate, the Time Increment will be calculated using the same relationship.

Control Frame Rate

Specify the amount of frames into which you want the results to be divided in the Number of Frames to Generate field. The results will be linearly distributed over this amount of frames.

Control the speed of the animation by selecting the number of frames to be displayed in each second of the animation in the Frames per second (FPS) field.

Other Animation Parameters

If you currently have a result contour on a model, you can have the values change linearly with time by activating the Animate Results check box. Only the contour colors on the model will reflect the changes in the result values. The legend box will only report the results at the end of the animation.

You can control the size of the animation screen using the Width and Height fields. By default, they will be set as the current dimensions of the display area. You can also select a preset window size in the Preset drop-down box. Activating the Lock check box will cause the ratio of the width and height to remain constant when you change one of the values. If the Auto-Enclose Each Target Frame check box is activated, the screen size will change for each frame to enclose the entire model.

Pressing the Compression button will allow you to specify the compressor to use to create the animation file and the quality of the compression. The compression you choose is remembered from one session to another. In order words, the last compression used when creating an animation is the default for the next time you create an animation.