Ever struggled to show rotation and translation of actors in
SOLIDWORKS Composer? If so then read on! For threaded components like screws, these cannot just be pulled out from their fixing, a rotation needs to be applied as well to give an accurate representation of the movement. However, when attempting this in Composer, there are a few things to be aware of...
Firstly this could either be shown as a movement between views (in view mode) or set up in an animation, and so decide what method is best for you i.e. whether your goal is to publish to the Composer Player software or to create an AVI. Once decided, you can go about setting up the movement in your preferred mode. I will run through the animation method as this is slightly more involved...
First of all record the initial location of an actor, for the point in the timeline for when the movement will begin from. Then move the timebar to the end of the movement and select the actor which you want to move. Once selected you can translate the actor a given distance, but then immediately rotate the actor following this (at the same point in the timeline).
TIP:// When you click an axis to rotate the actor around you can simply type an exact angle into the properties area, this can even be greater than 360 degrees!
Once this has been done you will potentially get lots of keys placed down in the key track (if you specified an angle greater than 179.9 degrees). You must specify a translation at each of these keys that are created to get the correct movement.
Why not try it out!
Further tips and tricks can be found in todays' webinar at:
Thanks,
Dave Ashford
Applications Engineer
Solid Solutions Managment