About Animation

When you begin an animation (by clicking in the Compass), the app animates the current results. The Play section also appears in the action bar providing control buttons and a slider that shows the progress of the animation.

The basic animation controls enable you to change the animation playback.


	Jump to the beginning.
	Step backward.
	Play in reverse.
	Pause.
	Stop.
	Play.
	Step forward.
	Jump to the end of the images in the animation.

The playback mode button switches between the four playback modes:


	Continuous loop.
	Alternate playback between forward and backward.
	Play forward.
	Play backward.

You can change the animation type by clicking Options , then selecting an animation type from the dialog box that appears. The following animation types are available:


Scale factor	Produces a sequence of images from a single frame of simulation results. The images vary in the scale factors applied to the single deformation and results output.
Scan single frame	Produces a sequence of images from a single frame of simulation results. The images vary in the value of the upper limit applied to the results. This mode is particularly useful for animating material filling the mold cavity in injection molding simulation.

Note: The available animation types depend on the simulation results. Animation behavior is also dependent on the active view if multiple views are displayed.

The Animation Options also enable you to change the number of frames in the animation. The effect of increasing or decreasing the number of frames depends on the type of animation selected. In a scale factor animation, increasing the number of frames can prompt the app to displays its data with a finer resolution over a longer duration. In a time history animation, you can affect the number of frames by adjusting the sampling rate according to time or frame intervals.

For each animation type, you can edit the Target speed by specifying the desired rate in frames per second or by adjusting the total duration of the animation sequence. By default, the maximum speed for the animation is selected.

Note: The speed you specify is only a target speed, not an absolute speed. Physics Results Explorer attempts to achieve the requested speed without significantly going over it. However, Physics Results Explorer cannot exceed the capability of the hardware and might not always achieve the requested speed.

Some commands can operate simultaneously with the animation. You can play an animation and run or edit certain commands at the same time. For example, you can view cuts, extrema, results options, and display groups while the animation is running. You can also make edits to the legend, plots, and streams while an animation is in progress.

The following speed controls are available:


Speed	Speeds up or slows down the speed of the animation. You can specify the speed with the slider, or you can enter a fractional or whole number multiplier directly in the list box.
FPS	Controls the frames per second of the animation.
Duration	Controls the time duration of the animation in seconds.
Maximum	Runs the animation at the fastest speed possible.

Note: You can also adjust the speed controls with the + and - keys from your keyboard number pad.

For FPS and Duration, you can request a playback speed that is faster than achievable. In that case, the target speed runs as fast as possible, the same as if Maximum were selected.

Click Exit to close the animation player. The selected animation type is not saved when you close the player. However, the other settings are preserved independently for each animation type.