How to generate an animation with several motors moving one component

(Assembly environment)

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Introduction

It is sometimes required to create an animation showing the mechanism of a machine. A more complex, but common, case implies that an object will be moved by a conveyor, then a robot, etc… This component must then follow moves from several motors (linear, rotating,…). When the animation sequence is created, there is a rule that forces the motors to respect insertion order in the sequence.

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Recommended method to control insertion order

Firstly, name all the motors with the same naming convention, meaning for example a name for the component followed by 001 then 002, 003, etc... This way, the order in the alphanumeric list of available motors (‘Edit definition’ command in the animation editor) will match the desired sequence even if the motors were not created in the proper order in the pathfinder.

Secondly, if one or more motor end up at the wrong place in the sequence, you will have to remove it along with all motors for that component. Then reinsert those motors as a group (providing that the naming convention was used).

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Other recommendation :

Increase the number of frames to obtain accurate moves (300 frames for example).

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Conclusion

By following these recommandations, it will become easy to generate complex animation with Solid Edge. It is also possible to add camera movements, appearance changes and rendering parameters.