udesouza

I like your suggestion. Is there a good free ware creator for animated GIFs? I once used LViewPro which was decent, but you needed a non-windows codec to install for playback. thanks, Urban

Does anyone know how to add absolute time to prexisting animation timelines?. In a tooling and mechanisms animation, I have multiple tools and assemblies in my animation, all timed from 0 to 40 seconds. Now I wanted to add time, let's say another 40 seconds to all of them assemblies without stretching individual motions and absolute starting times and durations. All this keeping the frame rate fixed.

Okay I've figured how to use projection constraint to attach a straight line section of a 2D profile spun object to a separate block - thanks to the help received from this forum. Any animation motion applied to the block causes the 2D profile to change and thus also the spun object. Now what I'd like to be able to do is attach a bezier or spline point to a separate block as an extension of the concept?. Anyone know how to do this? I believe if this is possible then one can get smooth spun objects with much less disjointness during "morphing". thanks, Urban

In INOVATE, what are best AVI settings for creating and embedding compatible videos in MS Power point. Any snazzy codecs? I'd like to go to higher or maximum edge resolution at much slower frame rates to illustrate tooling motions and concepts. Compression is good but not at the expense of frame quality. Any ideas would be appreciated. thanks, Urban

Tom, THanks for the video and narration. Now I know how you did it. I tried to create a projection constraint myself between a segment of my 2D curve profile and a dummy animation block but kept getting an error, it was telling me I was selecting the same part for the projection constraint. I looked up help on projection constraint but did not have much luck. Regards, Urban

Tom, I ran the animation and it's looks pretty realistic!. Am impressed! I wish you had added a last step to move up the upper die to expose the final deform shape -- but I'll try to figure that out. Will show the avi to my FEA colleagues who will be tickled. I am now figuring what you you did (and learning INOVATE too). At first glance, you created your own cylinder since it probably had the shape change parameters/handles you needed. Then added constraints between the parameters. Then added motion to the top die to the final position. Then added the same speed at the appropriate time, to the top surface of the cylinder. Can you list the INOVATE GUI tools you used in sequence and I'll try to figure what you did? Thanks for the morphing demo! Urban

Tom, Here's the file. Hopefully you can open it. thanks, Urban Cylinder_Deform.ics

I am new to INOVATE and have learnt how to draw a 2D profile and "spin" it to form a solid cylindrical object. I noticed the drop and drag animations in the Catalogue browser are really simplistic -- i.e. translate in x or y for example or hop or fly in or fly out. What I would like to do for my solid spun cylindrical object is to have it animate being "squashed" between two dies -- so the spun object reduces in height and expands sideways simultaneously maintaining the volume. I noticed handles are available to yank the 2D profile which updates the spun object. Is it possible to attach an animation effect to the yanking of the 2D handle? This should make the squashing between two dies possible and look realistic. Thanks for your help, Urban De Souza Sr. Project Engineer ATI Allvac R&D