T-FLEX Parametric CAD. Fundamentals. 2D Design

Fundamentals. Two-Dimensional Design
ANIMATION
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Animation is an effective mechanism that helps designing products. Animation helps analyze the behavior of
kinematic mechanisms and mutual situation of parts in assemblies. Animation creation is a logical
continuation of developing a parametric model. It allows visually inspect the impact of parameter
modifications on the shape and position of the objects in the 3D scene, model operation of kinematic
mechanisms, record and analyze the process of exploding the parts of an assembly. This system capability is
yet another advantage of using parameterization when creating separate parts as well as assemblies.
Analyzing a parametric model by means of animation allows mitigating errors at an early stage of designing
a product. Use of a movable camera in animation allows creating realistic clips supporting the effects of
zooming in and out, and spinning the object being viewed.
In animation, the system renders the state of the model under continuous modifications of its parameters. A
requirement for creating an animation is presence of variables controlling the model parameters. For
example, to have a part spinning with respect to a fixing point in animation, a variable is introduced whose
value is equal to the rotation angle. In other words, the user must define variable parameters when building
that model (geometrical shape or element positions) and assign the driving variables to these parameters.
T-FLEX CAD has two means for creating an animation. The first and simple one is using the command
“AN: Animate Model”. When animating using this command, one can vary the value of one variable from
its starting to the ending value with a specified step. A more powerful means for creating animations is a
stand-alone application "Animation Screenplay". This application provides control over an unlimited
number of variables in the model and drive variable variations by complicated diagrams. A T-FLEX CAD
document can have any number of animation scenarios included within, representing various model
modification schemes.
Animating Model by Command "Animate Model"
Drawing animation is implemented by a step-by-step modification to
some parameter defined by a variable. The drawing is simultaneously
redrawn at each step.
Suppose, we have created a drawing of a kinematic mechanism. The
drawing is assembled from fragments, each of which is a link in the
mechanism. Now, we would like to view the behavior of the mechanism
as the position of the driving link is varied.
The driving link position is defined
by the parameter of a construction
line defined as a line passing
through a node at an angle to the
horizontal. This parameter is the
angle of rotation.
One can assign a variable to drive
this parameter. Let's call it
“alpha”.