Playing Mechanism Using the Compass

You can play a mechanism by clicking Play in the Compass.

Before you begin: Open an assembly with a mechanism and a command associated with a motor.
  1. Select a mechanism in the tree and click Play in the Compass.
    The Play panel appears and the play starts.
  2. Click Options .
    The Play Parameters panel appears.
    Tip: You can also open the Play Parameters directly by clicking from the action bar.
  3. Select either a Dynamics or a Kinematics play type.
  4. Specify the Graphics Updates options:
    1. Specify the number of Frames per Second.
    2. Specify the number of simulation steps between each graphic update.
  5. Optional: For a Kinematics simulation, specify the Time Step and the Penetration Max in the Simulation section.
  6. Optional: For a Dynamics simulation, specify the Simulation options according to the selected integrator:

    For the DASSL integrator:

    1. Click Tolerance to open the DASSL integrator tolerances dialog box.
    2. Specify an absolute and a relative tolerance value for each type of errors.
    3. Click OK.

    For more information on the DASSL integrator, see About the DASSL Integrator.

    For the Symplectic Euler integrator:

    1. Specify the minimum and maximum time step.
    2. Specify the maximum penetration value.

    For more information, see About the Symplectic Euler Integrator.

    The Contact Model is defined automatically according to the selected integrator, and cannot be changed:
    • The Surfacic Contact Model for the DASSL integrator.
    • The Restitution Contact Model for the Symplectic Euler integrator.
  7. Click OK.
  8. Click an empty area of the 3D area to stop the play and close the Play panel.