How can I do this and am I approaching it in the best way?

[Former Member]

OK...

I am having trouble figuring out if VE can do what I want it to do. I am using steps and procedures. (Not sure if I should be using portfolios and model views. Not quite sure what the difference is)

I have this file. It has 2 multi-piece models in it. They are someting that our company makes and are in the same "family" of product. We want to make a single file to highlight these two products. It is an air handler unit with different stages of filters inside. I would like to click a button (a step I guess) and have the green filter slide out. The presenter can talk about that filter, then click another button and have the yellow filter slide out and the green filter slide back into place.. there are a total of 4 different types of filters to do this with.

I have created an animation on their own sequence that slides it out of the unit. I made 4 steps under the same procedure and assigned a different animation to each step. It seems that as I go down the steps, whatever was animated in the previous step doesn't reset and stays slide out of the unit.

The presenter will not go through the list of filters in the same order every time. Is there a way to randomly select a step with an animation assigned to it and have the previous animation reset?

Another thought: Do I need to make a "slide in" animation the put the filter back in place and tell the presenter that he/she has to go through the unit in the same order every time?  Does that make sense?

TIA

Dean

[former_member261344 · Accepted solution]

Hi Dean,

I think what you are looking for is something like I have in this sample file. You want to play an animation, but don't want the previous animations end keyframe showing. How you accomplish this is make sure you activate the sequence you want to edit. Select the object you want to hold in placeThen go into Windows -> Panels -> Animation Timeline. At frame 0, make sure to right click -> Insert Key. This will lock the object in that position and will stay there when the step assiociated with the sequence gets played.

Hope this helps,

Kelvin M.

Rename stepTest.txt to stepTest.rh

stepTest.txt.zip

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Yes, that works correctly.

Now, if that were my file and you played the last step, the right wheel would already be off the shaft (because that is where the right wheel was in the previous step) and the left wheel would slide off the shaft.

So when playing the last step, both wheels would be off the shaft.

For whatever reason, your file works great. I don't know how mine is different. I'm going to try to make a new file with some primitives and see if I can post a file with my problem.

Is it best to change the file extension to txt when posting rh files?

Thanks for your input,

Dean

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

OK...here is a sample file demonstrating my problem.

Boxes.txt.zip

[former_member261344 · Accepted solution]

Hi Dean,

I already explained how I created it.

1. How you accomplish this is make sure you activate the sequence you want to edit.
2. Select the object you want to hold in place.
3. Then go into Windows -> Panels -> Animation Timeline. At frame 0, make sure to right click -> Insert Key.
4. This will lock the object in that position and will stay there when the step assiociated with the sequence gets played.

Regards,

Kelvin M.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Kelvin,

I got it to work with your workflow. Thanks!

OK...now to part 2:

If I have an animation sliding something (like your wheel on its shaft) Is it possible to assign a second animation to slide the wheel back on the shaft before moving on to the next step?

I know you can assign multiple animations to a step, but in my case...the order that the presenter clicks on the steps will be random. There is no guarantee that they will click them in the same order every time.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

lol, ya....it helps if I read the entire message...then open the file.

[former_member261344 · Accepted solution]

You can have multiple procedures. Each procedure could contain a slide out and slide in animation. It would be up to the presenter to play the slide in animation. There is no way that can happen automatically.

Regards,

Kelvin M.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your help Kelvin. I was going to mark your answer correct but I see you did already. 

[Former Member]

Hi Dean,

I am not 100% sure exactly what you are trying here, however i think this might help, if you save the file out to a format like 3d html (pdf template etc) you can control the way animation is played.

I tried 3d html and every step reset for me. Let me know is this what you are trying to achieve.  Is  3d html ok for you.  Hope this helps.

Kindest Regards

Fergal.

[Former Member]

Hello Dean,

Very difficult for me to understand in detail your procedure without to see your .rh file or a clear example.

Seem easy to show your product, but I can help you if you send to me the example file.

In VEA is possible to create model view with stored object position, to have step with different visualization etc. etc.

Let me know.

Ciao,

Salvatore

[Former Member]

Attached is a semi-stripped down version of the file I'm working on. I have 4 animations set up in the file. (One on each filter type) I also have 4 steps set up, each has one of the animations assigned to it.

If you play the last step (Green Filter Pull) notice that all the steps before it are all activated.  I don't want that.  I want each of the steps to play independent of each other.

This is part 1 of my question. If I can solve this problem, I'll move on to the second part.

Please let me know if you are able to open the file and see what I'm talking about. Sorry if I haven't been clear concerning my problem.

Grrrrr....I just tried to attach my file, but it looks like there is a 1meg size limit. My file is 5.5 megs - compressed. I will happily send it to anyone via email. I really need to try to resolve this.