Assembly Sequence Gantt Chart

You can build up an Assembly sequence for simulation. The sequence can include activities such as law excitations, segmented excitations, visibility actions, and other sequences. Constraints can be defined between activities.

The left frame of the Gantt chart lists the individual activities in the sequence, the icons that identify the type of activity, and the following data:

Duration: how long the activity takes
Begin Time: when the activity starts, relative to the beginning of the sequence
End Time: when the activity ends, relative to the beginning of the sequence
Associated Parts: parts associated with the activity
Type of Time: calculated or estimated time, for example

You can turn on or off any of the columns on the left frame by right-clicking on the column header and selecting the fields you want hidden or shown.

The right half of the Gantt chart provides a graphical representation of each activity along the time-line. This representation indicates the start, duration, and end of each activity. In addition, any constraints between activities are shown.

By default, the time is expressed in seconds. To modify the time unit, the space between lines, or the scale each line represents, right-click the right-frame column header, and select Set Scale Units. The Set Scale Units dialog box appears.

Activities may be directly selected in the Gantt chart or from the tree.
If you simulate a sequence, each activity is highlighted in the Gantt chart as it is simulated.
Right-click an activity and select Properties to display the activity's Properties dialog box or Delete to remove the activity from the sequence. Depending on the application from which you access the Gantt chart, you may also have other options available to you.
Note: You cannot remove the root (top) activity.

You can create tracks (assembly tracks or kinematic tracks) to activities by right-clicking activities and selecting the appropriate track creation command.

For a system, all the sub-elements (sub-systems, operations) are visible in the Gantt chart and you can manage constraints between animation actions and sub-elements. These constraints can be created by dragging and dropping the animation actions onto the systems and operations.

Assembly Sequence can be simulated by clicking Play in the Compass. A control bar allows you to replay the simulation using capabilities such as play forward, play backward in continuous and step-by-step modes.

When you select an activity on the tree the activity is also highlighted in the Gantt chart and vice versa.

When you right-click any row of the Gantt chart, the Export as XML contextual command lets you generate an XML file containing information such as object name and type, begin time, and duration.

Constraints between Activities

You can create constraints between activities (assembly sequences, tracks and animations) in the Assembly Sequence Gantt chart by dragging and dropping activities.

You can dragged an activity and drop it before, in parallel or after the target activity as follows:

Dropping before creates a precedence constraint between the two activities.
Dropping in parallel creates a start-start synchronization link between the two activities. The activities start at the same time.
Dropping after creates a precedence constraint between the two activities.

Dragging and dropping an activity to another activity and pressing the Ctrl key opens a context toolbar for defining the desired constraint. See Precedence Constraints Context Toolbars.

Note: If a precedence constraint exists between two activities, it is not possible to horizontally drag and drop an activity (to set a delay between activities, for example). To set a delay between activities, you must first replace the precedence constraint by a synchronization link using the context toolbar and then horizontally drag and drop an activity.