| ProTIPS | Pro/ENGINEER | Animating Pro/E models (without Mechanica) |
QUESTION
How can I animate my model using Pro/E (version 2000i) without Pro/MECHANICA?
Is it possible-and/or is it possible using Relations?
ANSWER
You can set up a relation which will increase a dimension by an increment
every time the model is regenerated. If you want to produce a movie
file then you will have to capture the images and paste them together into
an animated GIF or an MPEG or MOV file, using a third-party tool. The
right tool from PTC for this whole problem is the Behavioural Modelling Extension
- you don't need Mechanica.
Here is an example of the relations:-
| X=D25 X=X+30 if X>=360 X=X-360 endif if 0>X X=X+360 endif D25=X |
D25 will increase by 30 for every regen. If the new value becomes
360 or greater then 360 will be subtracted (this is required for an angular
dimension if the increment is positive). And if the new value is less
than 0 then 360 will be added (this is required for an angular dimension
if the increment is negative). The variable X is used to temporarily
hold the new value while it is brought back into the 0=<X<360 range,
to prevent errors.
You may also wish to add a mapkey to give you a quick regeneration.