Animation or Kinematic software?

Joe Dunfee

 I have some mechanical designs I would like to animate.  The 1st involves some linkages that I would like to animate.  So, that one involves kinematics.  2D would be sufficient, and I don't need collision detection.

In the 2nd case, I would like to animate a vehicle driving around a space.  Ideally, I would like to be able to do this in real time with joystick or game-pad control.  I don't need collision detection here either.

I didn't find anything in the application store. Any suggestions?

-Joe

Roy Klein Gebbinck

This can work, but may be a pretty involved process:
1. Add 3D constraints to the assembly.
2. Create a script to rotate or move certain key objects. See example below.

I was able to animate a simple flywheel/connecting rod/piston rod/piston assembly using:
1. Lines with 2D constrains.
2. Block references 'attached' to those lines. Using the method described here.
3. A script. See below.

First part of the script. In the full script the rotate and delay commands occur 60 times (for a full 360 degrees rotation).
[code](setq ename (handent "AF"))
_.rotate !ename  0,0,0 6
_.delay 20
_.rotate !ename  0,0,0 6
_.delay 20
_.rotate !ename  0,0,0 6
_.delay 20[/code]

Roy Klein Gebbinck

... Note: In the script there are two spaces after '!ename'.

Dmitry Ushakov

 Hello Joe, Roy,

You can also use -PARAMETERS command in the script to change the value of a particular parameter (which can be linked - directly or via formulas - with both 2D and 3D constraints). Here is the idea of a lisp script for parametric-based animation:

[code](defun c:animate()  (setq Name (getstring "Enter parameter name: "))  (setq From (getreal "Animation starts at: "))  (setq To (getreal "Animation stops at: "))  (setq NbSteps (getint "Number of steps: "))  (setq Step (/ (- To From) NbSteps))  (setq NbSteps (1+ NbSteps))  (repeat NbSteps    (command "-parameters" "e" Name From)    (command "regen")    (setq From (+ From Step)) )) [/code]

Peter Görlich

Hallo Joe,

nur in Deutsch (GDESIGN Assistent)

Gruß Peter

Joe Dunfee

Peter, while I do not speak German, I did look up the GDESOGN Assistent program using an online translator.  However, I did not find anywhere that it described the program for kinematics or animation.  It is possible that the English translation used a different term.

Are you sure it is the Assistent program that does the kinematics and/or animation?

-Joe

Peter Görlich

Hallo Joe,

GDESIGN Assistent:  2D und 3D kinematische Simulation, 3D kinematische Kollisionsprüfung !

Gruß Peter

Joe Dunfee

 It looks like the Gdesign Assistant program may meet my needs, though the lack of English will certainly be a barrier for me.  Be sure to post to this thread if you all ever do an English translation.

-Joe

Roy Klein Gebbinck

Joe, can you give us an update? Have you managed to create an animation?

Joe Dunfee

 I ended up just dropping any plans to animate the assembly.  I actually think I need to change to another, much more expensive, CAD program to do the type of machine design I am doing now.  But, the budget is certainly not going to allow that for a while.

-Joe

Tim Neumann

Geomagic by 3Dsystems is a cheaper package than Sworks and etc. that has animation from what the site says. Beware though the forums are covered up with gripes and complaints about it. Bottom line is you indeed get what you pay for!

Dmitry Ushakov

 Hello Joe,

Some kinematic analysis possibilities are presented in BricsCAD as demonstrated in this video Kinematic analysis in BricsCAD

We at Bricsys are interested to know your point of view on what is missed in BricsCAD for kinematic animation.

Could you please open a dedicated support request and list the functions you need?

Best regards,

Dmitry

Joe Dunfee

 I had not used that process, since my assembly used xrefs.  And since blocks cannot be constrained to other blocks, I thought I could not use BricsCAD.  However, now that I saw the video you linked me to, I see that I was wrong.

But, I am running into problems, and always have when ever I use a number of solid bodies.  Though, there is no point in doing a support request, since version 14 is now fixed, and will not be updated.  I purchased the Platinum v14 just to do this sort of design work, but now regret the purchase. Here are some of the issues I ran into.

When I publish my 11-page set of drawings, where each page has something that must be rendered, BricsCAD tends to crash when printing them to the default printer.  So, it takes several attempts to try to create the drawing package.  The PDF export option of the publish feature produces a file with 0 bytes.

Inserting a mechanical component will show up on a BOM, but there is no way to know what the component is after it is created.   So, if you want to call out a particular C-Channel in a drawing, you have to measure the width and thickness of all the C-channels in the model, and deduce which size of c-channel it is.

There is no way to produce a view where the hidden lines show as hidden lines.

Documentation is weak as well, so looking up how to do things is frustrating.

I should mention that your note to me on the forum  is and example one of the very good things about Bricssys, and one of the reasons I have been recommending your products to others.  Your company really seems to be one that cares about its customers. But, your jump into the world of 3d design has not gone very smoothly, and really frustrated me.  

-Joe

Dmitry Ushakov

Hello Joe,

Thank you for this post.

For me it is clearly divided into:

1. Bugs (crashing when printing, empty PDF files)
2. Feature requests (highlighting mechanical components from BOM, hidden lines on a drawing view)
3. Some general remarks with no pointing out particular places (documentation, 3D design)

I see that you have already filed many support requests, but was not able to associate the topics listed above with any of them.

So I kindly ask to to submit all these topics as support/feature requests - because different software developers are responsible for these functions, and the best way to manage bugs/requests in BricsCAD is to input them in our support system.

Best regards,

Dmitry

Joe Dunfee

Thank you Mr. Ushakov for replying.  I know that software forums can sometimes be a hostile place for a software vendor, since a percentage of the people posting are having problems, either because of they are not understanding the software, or a legitimate problem with the software.  I try to guard myself against just venting my frustration, but sometimes I know that I succumb to it.

As for submitting new support requests, I felt somewhat burned by my upgrade to version 14 platinum.  When my  main motivations for the upgrade didn't turn out to be workable features for me, it was quite frustrating.  And because of that I am not planning to upgrade to 15. Bug fixes to version14 are not going to happen anymore, so for me to invest time to do the support request is a waste of my company's time and money.  Support requests for bugs are often very time consuming, since you have to figure out the trigger and prepare a set of files to demonstrate it to you.

I know the Bricsys has a presence on the forums, so any thing that is mentioned there can be passed on to the appropriate department by Bricsys' employees.

-Joe