DRAWING ANIMATE Type Control

                                  

This command allows the user to:

1.

Display an animation sequence using pictures stored in plotfiles. Each plotfile will be a frame of the animation sequence and must have been previously generated using the DRAWING SAVE PLOTFILE command or by the animation macros described below.

2.

Use animation macros to automatically generate and display animation sequences without having to setup the individual frames with the DRAWING SAVE PLOTFILE command. The animation macros currently provided generate a mode shape animation sequence, an animation sequence of complex results with changing phase angle, or an animation sequence of the current results presentation over the currently specified range of loadcases.

The theoretical maximum number of pictures that FEMGV can use in an animation sequence is 97. However, the animation technique uses bitmap images and so the actual practical limit may depend on the amount of primary memory available. If the computer has to page its bitmap images from disk, then the speed of animation may be unacceptably slow. A viewport size of 1000x1000 on an 8 plane device would generate an 1 Mbyte bit map for each frame in the animation sequence. A means of reducing the memory requirements is to reduce the viewport size prior to generating the animation.

Type Control Comments

PLOTFILES filename filename ... Displays an animation using pictures stored in the specified plotfiles (see note 1).

LOADCASES [PLOTFILE filename] An animation macro to generate and display an animation sequence showing how the current results presentation varies over the currently specified range of loadcases see notes (2 and 5).

MODESHAPE STEPS n [FACTOR factor] An animation macro to generate and

.... [PLOTFILE filename] display a mode shape animation sequence. (see notes 3 and 5).

COMPLEX [FROM ang1 TO ang2] STEPS ang3 An animation macro to generate and

.... [PLOTFILE filename] display an animation sequence of complex results with varying phase angle. (see notes 4 and 5).

Notes:

1.

The PLOTFILES command
The plotfiles have to be in the FEMGV Plotfile Neutral Format described in Appendix E of the User Manual Appendices.

2.

The LOADCASES command
The range of loadcases for which the animation is generated is as currently selected by the RESULTS LOADCASE command. Note that frames of the animation may be displayed as a cyclic or linear sequence as required, and as set by the UTILITY SETUP ANIMATE command.

3.

The MODESHAPE command
The currently selected results attribute, which must be a nodal vector quantity comprising three cartesian components, is used as maximum displacement data for the VIEW OPTIONS DEFORM display. The current view mode is maintained but any results presentation is de-activated.

The STEPS n control specifies the number of steps required from the datum to the maximum displacement. A total of 2 * steps + 1 frames will be generated from +max to -max inclusive. The steps will be equally spaced at $\theta$ degrees (datum = 0 degrees) with the displacement for any step calculated as maximum_displacement * $\sin\theta$ * factor. The frames of the animation are then displayed in a cyclic sequence.

The FACTOR factor control allows the user to specify a scale factor to be applied to the attribute. If no scale factor is specified the program will automatically scale the data such that the maximum displacement will be 1/20 of the screen if it were viewed in the plane of the screen.

4.

The COMPLEX command
The currently displayed results must be complex values. The STEP ang3 control specifies the phase angle increment to be used between frames. It is also possible to specify a lower and upper limit of phase angle for the animation by using the FROM ang1 TO ang2 controls where ang1 and ang2 must be values between -359 and +359. If no start and finish values are specified then a range of 0 to 359 will be used. A total of (ang2-ang1)/ang3 + 1 animation frames will be generated and displayed as a linear sequence.

Note that the DRAWING ANIMATE COMPLEX command will also be effective where the model has been deformed using complex values via the VIEW OPTIONS DEFORM USING ..... command. In this case it is not necessary to have a current presentation of complex results. However, if such a presentation is current, both the model deformation and results display will be animated simultaneously.

5.

The PLOTFILE filename control
When running one of the animation macros, this control enables plotfile copies of each animation frame to be created in the current plotter format as specified by the UTILITY SETUP PLOTTER FORMAT command. Animation plotfiles written in the FEMGV Plotfile Neutral Format may be subsequently replayed via the DRAWING ANIMATE PLOTFILES command.

Note that generally, the creation of plotfiles requires all the animation frames to be generated twice and will therefore increase the time taken to set up an animation sequence. The filename specified will be used as a generic name and the plotfiles generated will have names filename1, filename2, filename3, ..... etc. Filename extensions will be installation dependent, but are normally .dat. The default is that plotfiles will not be created.

After an animation sequence the user will be offered an animation sub-menu. This enables modifications to the animation sequence controls to be made, and the animation sequence repeated, without the frames comprising the animation sequence having to be regenerated. This animation sub-menu provides the following controls, which can also be applied using the UTILITY SETUP ANIMATE command before an animation sequence is started.

Control Comments

REPEAT To repeat the animation sequence.

DURATION To modify the duration of the animation sequence. The duration is specified in seconds and can be from 5 seconds to 36000 seconds (10 hours). The default is 20 seconds.

SPEED To modify the speed of animation. This can be set from 1 to 100. The default is 75

OSCILLATE To switch to an oscillating animation sequence.

LINEAR To switch to a linear animation sequence.

EXIT To leave the animation environment and return to the primary menu.

Examples:

1.

DRAWING ANIMATE PLOTFILES t1 t2 t3 t4

The pictures that have been saved in the plotfiles t1, t2, t3, and t4, in the FEMGV Plotfile Neutral Format, are used to display an animation.

2.

DRAWING ANIMATE LOADCASES

Generates and displays an animation sequence showing how the current results presentation varies over the currently selected range of loadcases.

3.

DRAWING ANIMATE LOADCASES PLOTFILE m

Generates and displays an animation sequence showing how the current results presentation varies over the currently specified range of loadcases. In addition, for each frame of the animation sequence a plotfile will be generated in the current plotfile format. Plotfile names will be m1, m2, m3 etc. An filename extension may be added, normally .dat.

4.

DRAWING ANIMATE MODESHAPE FACTOR 15.0 STEPS 5

A mode shape animation will be generated and displayed such that the current nodal attribute (which must be a vector) is scaled by 15.0 to give the maximum displacement. The sequence will have 5 steps (frames) from the datum to the maximum displacement inclusive. This will give a total of 11 frames for the complete mode shape animation sequence, ie: +max 2 3 4 5 datum 7 8 9 10 -max. The frames will be animated in a cyclic sequence.

5.

DRAWING ANIMATE COMPLEX STEPS 60

Generates and displays an animation sequence showing how the currently displayed complex results vary with a phase angle increment of 60 degrees. Frames will be generated for phase angles of 0, 60, 120, 180, 240 and 300.

6.

DRAWING ANIMATE COMPLEX FROM 0 TO -179 STEPS -30

Generates and displays an animation sequence showing how the currently displayed complex results vary between phase angles of 0 degrees and -179 degrees using a phase angle increment of -30 degrees. Frames will be generated for phase angles 0, -30, -60, -90, -120, -150.

See also the following commands

'DRAWING SAVE PLOTFILE'
'UTILITY SETUP ANIMATE'