Animations �Copying Assemblies/Parts.. BUG report?

[mmccall]

Hold on guys/gals... this one may be of some real value to you!

 

Copying an assembly or the assembly of another externally linked object a 2nd time in the same scene, meaning you now have 2 of the same objects in the same scene (one is a linked copy/paste of the other or inserted again using the Insert Part/Assembly button). IC will give you a warning message, something like the inserted part is the same configuration.

 

If the 1st object already has an animation path tied to it and you get this second object in there by any of the pre-described means, you may find that the animation of the 1st component will become volatile. It may loose all of its motions and constraints even if they are locked, and in most cases, the constraints will continue to show even though they no longer work. The animation path will still show up in the smart motion editor even though they no longer work ( I have another thread in Bug Reports called Smart-motion Editor Ghosts !).

 

You have several things you can TRY at this point. They all have some issues typically reverting back to NOT WORKING !

 

1) Start over, meaning re-assign all the motions again.

 

Problem:

You may find that IC wont let you do it. Remember, you still have these linked objects in the same scene. So you can go ahead and animate one part; it will work fine, but as soon as you apply some other animation to the second identical part, it will apply those animations to the parent or the 1st one again, really screwing things up in a major way now!! Or maybe nothing will move at all !

 

2) Try dragging the second identical object in as an intellishape.

 

Problem:

IC wont like this one either. Im not really sure why, but BAM! Start over because you WILL get into that same do-loop as in option 1, maybe not now, but possibly later, like next Tuesday. Its happened to me twice, really screwing things up in a major way!! Only the customer is at your door and you really look like a fool; better show off at how fast it can be fixed. Can you say smoke and mirrors?

 

3) Backing out because you think you previously saved the good animation; that seems easy enough.

 

Problem:

BAM fooled you IC already changed everything as soon as you dropped that 2nd linked object in there. Forget it !!. Its all jacked up !! START OVER !!

That previous animation you thought was saved is gone! Oh yeah, never mind about whats showing up in the smart motion editor or all your constraints showing; its just a ghost !

 

None of these events are isolated. I have repeated these options with the same results- lost constraints and animations and ghosts everywhere.

 

 

 

NOW LETS LOOK AT THE ONLY WAY I HAVE FOUND THAT WILL WORK!

(really you have 2 options- one will keep them linked-the other totally separates them)

 

1) Save the object again as something else ( now you have the same object just 2 different names. Then you can add it into the assembly with no problems. Its just that they arent linked, so any changes you need to make will have to be done twice-not a good option in some cases.

 

2) To keep the ability to have two of the same file linked, animated differently and in the assembly, you need to go to this 1st component, do another Save/as Assembly Part, and give it a new name, something B. Now, you will notice that the background colors have changed. The B part will carry all the changes you make to part A.

Now, all you have to do is put it into the assembly. They can be animated independently with no risk of loosing any constraints or paths. And best of all, any changes to part A will show up on part B.

 

 

Some of you out there may have already figured this out, but I really hope this helps someone.