Playing an Animation
After you simulate a 3-D model, you can play an animation of the simulation.
To play an animation:
Simulate your model by clicking Run Simulation ( ) in the Main Toolbar.
Click Show Simulation Results ( ). The Analysis window comes into focus, with the Simulation Results tab selected.
Select the 3-D Playback Window. (If the playback window is not visible, double-click 3-D Playback Window in the Plot Windows palette in the left pane of the Simulation Results tab to view it.)
To play the animation, click Play ( ) in the Playback Toolbar.
Use the playback controls to run the animation forwards, backwards, or at different speeds. The timeline on the Playback Toolbar indicates the current frame in the animation. You can drag the slider to view specific frames.
If you arrange the windows so that the Probe Plots window is beside the 3-D Playback Window, when you play the animation, a trace line appears on the probe plots showing you the location of the current animation time. In the following figure, the blue line on the probe plot is at 3.034 s, matching the current animation time.
By using the Playback Toolbar, you can also select perspective or orthographic views, navigate the model, and control the display of axes, gridlines, attached shapes, and implicit geometry. For details, see Toolbar: Playback Controls.
By default, the virtual camera that projects your 3-D model is stationary when you play an animation. You can enable tracking if you want the camera to follow the movement of a selected component. For details, see Playing a Tracking Animation.
Notes
You must simulate your model or select a stored simulation result before playing an animation.
The 3-D Playback Window shows the animation data for the Latest Results by default. To view other results, right-click on a stored result in the Stored Results palette and select Toggle Visibility. If more than one result is set as visible, all of the animations will be overlaid during playback.
The quality of the visualization is affected if any open plot windows are behind the 3-D Playback Window. If you are experiencing playback issues, try moving the 3-D Playback Window so that it does not overlap a plot window. Alternatively, minimize or close any open plot windows.
Quality can also be improved by animating the model with interpolated frames turned on. For more information, see Animating a 3-D Model with Interpolated Frames.
See Also
Animating a 3-D Model with Interpolated Frames
Exporting a Movie
Overlaying 3-D Visualizations
Playing a Tracking Animation
Running a Simulation
The Simulation Results Tab
Toolbar: Playback Controls
Viewing Stored Simulation Results
Visualizing a 3-D Model
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