Animate results

For studies using the online viewer (Static Stress, Thermal, Thermal Stress, Injection Molding, and Electronics Cooling), the animation bar appears at the bottom of the canvas when you open Results.

All other study types use the legacy animation dialog.

Use online viewer playback controls

Use the playback controls on the animation bar to navigate through result frames:

• Click Go to start to jump to the first frame
• Click Step backward to move to the previous frame
• Click Play to start automatic playback (changes to Pause during playback)
• Click Stop to stop playback and return to the first frame
• Click Step forward to advance to the next frame
• Click Go to end to jump to the last frame
• Drag the timeline slider to jump to any specific frame

To adjust animation settings

1. Click Options on the far right of the animation bar.

2. Set Speed (.25x, .5x, 1x, 1.5x, 2x).

3. Set Intervals (number of frames, maximum 100).

To change playback mode

1. Click the Playback button on the right of the animation bar.

   The icon on the button indicates the current playback mode:

   • Mirror loop (default): Animates forward then backward in a continuous loop
   • Loop: Repeats the sequence continuously in one direction
   • Playback once: Plays through the sequence one time

2. Select a different playback mode from the menu.

   The icon updates to reflect your selection.

To save the animation

1. Click Record on the animation bar.

   The Save Results Animation As dialog opens.

2. Enter a Name for the animation file.

3. Choose to save to your computer or to a project in the cloud.

4. Click Save.

To collapse the Animation bar

The animation bar opens by default when you enter Results. To gain more canvas space when you don't need animation controls:

1. Click the collapse button to the left of ANIMATION on the animation bar.

   The animation bar collapses to show only the collapse/expand button.

2. To restore the animation bar, click the expand button.

Legacy animation dialog

Studies not using the online viewer (such as Nonlinear Static Stress, Modal Frequencies Analysis, Structural Buckling, and Shape Optimization) use the legacy animation dialog with a Steps setting (maximum 100):

1. In the Results tab, select Result Tools > Animate .

2. In the Animate dialog, specify the number of Steps, analogous to images that you want to cycle through to see the displacement changes.

   • To have a smoother or slower animation, increase the number of steps.
   • Valid numbers range from 2 to 100 steps.

3. Click Record to create an AVI (MOV on Mac), specifying the save location as part of that process.

4. Specify the playback Speed. There are five speeds from Slowest to Fastest.

5. Click Play to see the animation.

   • Specify One-way to play in a loop going in one direction or Two-way to watch in a loop from no load to full load and back to no load.

     Note: While looking at a Modal Frequencies Analysis the displacement is animated from the negative displacement to the positive displacement showing the full range of the oscillation.

6. Click Stop or OK to end the animation playback.

7. You can manually select the step by manual entry or using the slider.

Clicking OK or Cancel takes you out of the dialog box, it does not play the animation.