Kinematics Player Options

You can animate and record the position of bodies by controlling the degrees of freedom of the joints enforced in the mechanism. The following describe the Kinematics Player dialog box options.

This page discusses:

See Also
Previewing the Motion of Mechanisms

Mechanism Animation Options

Manage Controlled Degrees of Freedom
Displays all the degrees of freedom of joints enforced in the current mechanism, and that can be animated.
Reset All
Resets the model to its initial position.
Lock All
Locks the position of all the degrees of freedom listed in the dialog box.
Tip: Click Lock next to specific degrees of freedom to lock their position.
Unlock All
Unlocks the position of all the degrees of freedom listed in the dialog box.
Tip: Click Unock next to specific degrees of freedom to unlock their position.
Record Animation
Opens the Record Animation context toolbar. For more information, see Record and Play Controls.

Record and Play Controls



Drag handle
Moves the context toolbar to any location in the 3D area.


Count bubble
Displays the number of positions added to the animation.
Note: The count bubble appears in yellow if the animation includes no recorded positions.


Step Duration
Specifies the time between two positions of the animation. By default, the value is 1 sec.

The animation of the following position occurs after the number of seconds specified in the step duration box.

Add Position
Records the position of the mechanism based on the current values of the active degrees of freedom.
Remove Last Position
Deletes the last position recorded in the animation.
Animation Settings
Displays the total duration time of the animation and frames per second.
Note: To define the animation settings, create at least two positions in the animation.
Frame Rate: defines the speed of the animation. Increase the value to slow the animation.
Duration: displays the time duration of all the positions added to the animation.
Note: You can specify a Step Duration for each position.
Play
Plays the recorded animation.
Note: To play the animation, add at least one position.
Stop
Stops the animation and resets the model to its last position.
Exit Record Mode
Closes the context toolbar and exits the Record Animation mode.