About 3D Animation Actions

This section describes the basic concepts of 3D animation actions.

The actions are created in the Excitations panel. Each action (except the text action) is associated with one or more parts, or the product as a whole.

You can specify a duration for each action. If you do not specify the duration, the action remains in effect from its introduction until the end of the simulation or until you introduce an action that cancels the initial action. For example, if you create a visibility action that hides a part, it remains hidden until a visibility action occurs that makes the part visible.

When the action has been created, a stamp showing aspects of the action or part appears in the Excitations panel. To modify the action, double-click on the stamp. To delete the action, right-click on the stamp and select Delete.

During simulation, changes affecting a subassembly do not display if the entire subassembly was already modified by a choregraphy action. For example, when simulating a sequence, once an assembly is colored, subsequent color changes made to any of its subassemblies do not display in the 3D view.

The transparency qualities of an object affect how the color action behaves when it controls transparency.

In visualization, there are two levels of transparency quality:

• Screen Door allows only two levels, either transparent or non-transparent. Screen Door is the default for all view modes other than Shading with Material.
• Alpha Blending allows multiple transparency levels 0–255. When the view mode is set to Shading with Material, Alpha Blending is the default.

When you modify the transparency with a color action while you have Screen Door set, the color action does not override the property setting. To modify the setting, select the Me > Preferences > Common Preferences > 2D 3D View Display> Performance.