Tutorial : Using DMU Generic Animation Toolbar
Follow these steps.
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Step 1:
We will now simulate the motion without regard to time based angular velocity. Select the Simulation icon from the DMU Generic Animation toolbar.
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Step 2:
This enables you to choose the mechanism to be animated if there are several present. In this case, select Mechanism.1 and close the window.
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Step 3:
As soon as the window is closed, a Simulation branch is added to the tree.
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Step 4:
As you scroll the bar in this toolbar from left to right, the crank begins to turn and makes a full 360 degree evolution. Notice that the zero position is simply the initial position of the assembly when the joint was created. Thus, if a particular zero position had been desired, a temporary assembly constraint
could have been created earlier to locate the
mechanism to the desired zero position.
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Step 5:
When the scroll bar in the Kinematics Simulation pop up box reaches the right extreme end, select the Insert button in the Edit Simulation pop up box shown above. This activates the video player buttons shown
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Step 6:
Return the block to its original position by picking the Jump to Start button .
Note that the Change Loop Mode button is also active now.
Upon selecting the Play Forward button , the crank makes fast jump completing its revolution. In order to slow down the motion of the crank, select a different interpolation step, such as 0.04. Upon changing the interpolation step to 0 0.04, return the crank to its original position by picking the Jump to Start button . Apply Play Forward button and observe the slow and
smooth rotation of the crank.
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Step 7:
Select the Compile Simulation icon from the Generic Animation toolbar
and activate the option Generate an animation file. Now, pressing the
File name button allows you to set the location and name of the animation file to be generated as displayed below.
Select a suitable path and file name and change the Time step to be 0.04 to produce a slow moving rotation in an AVI file.
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Step 8:
The completed pop up box is displayed for your reference.
As the file is being generated, the crank slowly rotates. The resulting AVI file can be viewed with the Windows Media Player.
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Step 9:
In the event that an AVI file is not needed, but one wishes to play the animation, repeatedly, a Replay need be generated. Therefore, in the Compile Simulation box, check the Generate a replay button.
The skip ratio (which is chosen to be x1 in the right
box) controls the speed of the Replay.
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Step 10:
Select the Simulation Player icon from the DMUPlayer toolbar.
The outcome is the pop up box above. Use the cursor to pick Replay.1 from the tree.
The player keys are no longer dimmed out. Use the Play Forward (Right) button to begin the replay.
