Animation Controller

The Animation Controller plays an exploded view as one smooth animation. If the assembly has a Gear, Rack and Pinion or Screw mate, the gears turn and mesh first. Then the parts come apart step by step while the camera circles the model, and the picture holds at the end. It is display only: the real placement of every component and every mate stays exactly as it was. Anyone who views the assembly can play it. You need Pro to change how it plays.

With nothing set up, the first part that a gear mate can turn makes one full turn in 2 seconds, each explode step takes 3 seconds and starts a little before the last one ends, and the camera goes once around the model. You can change the 3 seconds for every new view in Settings (see Default Time per Step below), and give each step its own time in Animation Settings.

Step by Step

1. Open an assembly that has an exploded view. Make one first if needed (see Assemblies: Exploded Views).
2. In the Model tree, open the Exploded Views folder and click Play on the view's row. You can also right-click the view and choose Play Animation, or click Play Animation on the Features tab (with more than one view it asks which one).
3. The Animation Controller window opens and the animation starts.
4. If the gears turn, the window first says Working out the motion... with how far it has got. Click Cancel to play the explode without the motion.
5. Click Play to pause it and Play again to go on. Click Reverse to play it backward.
6. Drag the slider to any moment of the animation. The line under it shows the time, such as 0:03.2 / 0:12.4, and what is happening: the motion, an explode step or a hold.
7. Click Loop to play it over and over. Pick a speed from 0.25x to 4x in the list.
8. Untick Camera moves to keep the camera where it is. If you turn the view yourself while it plays, the camera is left where you put it until you play it again from the start.
9. Close the window with the X, Close or Esc.

The Buttons

• |< goes to the start and >| goes to the end.
• Reverse plays backward and Play plays forward (it shows Pause while it plays).
• Loop plays it again and again.
• Settings... opens Animation Settings (Pro).
• Export Video... saves the animation as a video where your plan includes it.

Saving Camera Shots While It Plays

Pause the animation, turn the model to the angle you want, and click Save View. The shot is added to the exploded view's steps, in the spot that matches the paused moment. It is one step on the undo list. You need Pro to do this. Then press Play to see the camera move there. To work out the shots in a good order, build the explode first, then play, pause and save (see Assemblies: Exploded Views).

How the Camera Moves

Without any camera shots and without an End setting, the camera goes once around the model, as it always did. Once a view has camera shots, or an End setting, the camera holds the angle you saved, glides between shots, and does not circle unless you ask for it at the end.

Default Time per Step

Each explode step takes 3 seconds unless you change it. To change it for every exploded view that has no time of its own:

1. Open Settings.
2. Go to Animation (on the classic page it is under General).
3. Type the seconds in Default time per explode step (seconds), from 0.1 to 30. It is kept in this browser.

A view whose time per step was set in Animation Settings keeps its own time.

When You Close It

If the gears had turned or the parts had moved, the assembly stays drawn that way, as an exploded view, until you choose Collapse. If nothing had moved yet, it collapses. While it is shown this way you cannot move components or add mates.

When the Gears Cannot Turn

• If the part to turn is fixed, you are told to pick a part that can turn.
• If it has no Concentric, Hinge or Gear mate, there is no axis to turn it about, and you are told so.
• If a mate stops the parts part way, they turn as far as they can and the window says where they stopped.