Mechanical APDL Basic Analysis Guide - Ansys

Chapter 17: Animation
Animation is a valuable tool for graphically interpreting many analysis results, especially nonlinear or timedependent
behavior. The ANSYS program provides tools that enable you to animate any type of display.
Many workstations, PCs, and some terminals having local segment memory support animation. However,
some hardware platforms do not support online animation well (or at all). An alternative to online animation
is to capture a sequence of images offline, frame by frame, on film or videotape.
The following animation topics are available:
17.1. Creating Animated Displays Within ANSYS
17.2. Using the Basic Animation Commands
17.3. Using One-Step Animation Macros
17.4. Capturing Animated Display Sequences Off-Line
17.5.The Stand Alone ANIMATE Program
17.6. Animation in the Windows Environment
17.1. Creating Animated Displays Within ANSYS
The easiest way to perform animation in ANSYS is to use the functions available under Utility Menu>
PlotCtrls> Animate. These GUI functions allow you to achieve "push-button animation" effects in ANSYS.
The GUI functions internally execute ANSYS animation commands, which you can type in directly if you
prefer. Procedures for using commands are discussed next. See External Graphics (p. 275) for information on
viewing animated sequences in the stand-alone DISPLAY program.
17.2. Using the Basic Animation Commands
You can display several frames in rapid succession to achieve an animation effect, via these commands:
Command(s): /SEG, ANIM
GUI: Utility Menu> PlotCtrls> Redirect Plots> Delete Segments
Utility Menu> PlotCtrls> Redirect Plots> Segment Status
Utility Menu> PlotCtrls> Redirect Plots> To Segment Memory
(UNIX)
Utility Menu> PlotCtrls> Redirect Plots> To Animation File
(Windows)
Utility Menu> PlotCtrls> Animate> Replay Animation
Utility Menu> PlotCtrls> Animate> Replay Animation
The /SEG command allows you to store graphics data in the terminal's local "segment" (graphics operation)
or "pixmap" (screen dot) memory (which may or may not be available, depending on the type of graphics
device you are using). The storage occurs at the same time that a graphics action command produces a
display. You can then use the ANIM command to display the stored frames in a sequence. A typical command
stream for animation would look like this:
/SEG,DELE ! Deletes all currently stored segments
/SEG,MULTI ! Stores subsequent displays in segment memory
... ! Plot-creation commands to generate a sequence of images
... ! (See below for options)
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