Making a Simple Animation in SOLIDWORKS – Part 2

Step by step process on how to input appearance changes, rotation around an
axis, and utilize an exploded view (explode/collapse) in an animation using
SOLIDWORKS.

Before starting, here are a couple things to help:

• The time bar is the orange vertical bar that is moved with a click and drag
  [Figure 1]

Dragging the time bar along the timeline sets the point where the next animation key will be created.

• Turn on Autokey: Automatically places keys and creates the animation command
  where the time bar is at [Figure 2]

The Autokey button, once enabled, automatically records a new key whenever the model changes at the current time.

• Make sure view key creation is not disabled: Disabling prevents changes in
  views from being created; right click on Orientation and Camera Views
  [Figure 3]

Disabling View Key Creation from the right-click menu prevents extra keys when only the view changes.

Make Animation of changing the appearance

1. Drag time bar to desired result time

2. Right click on part in the motion tree and choose Appearance [Figure 4]

3. Change to the desired appearance

4. The key is created at the time the bar was dragged to

5. Can move the start key to a different time to start transitioning to that
appearance

Right-clicking a component and choosing Appearance sets up a key for animating a color or material change.

Make Animation of Explode/Collapse/Rotation using an exploded
configuration

Note: You have to have created an exploded configuration to display an
explode/collapse of the model in an Animation

1. Click on the animation wizard button [Figure 5] -OR- right click in the
motion study area [Figure 6]

The Animation Wizard button on the MotionManager toolbar launches guided explode, collapse, or rotate animations.

Right-clicking in the animation timeline also opens the Animation Wizard as a shortcut to the toolbar button.

2. Choose Explode/Collapse/Rotate and click Next [Figure 7]

Figure 7: Animation Wizard to Rotate/Explode/Collapse

3. Input the duration and start time for Explode/Collapse [Figure 8]

4. Input the axis of rotation, number of rotations, and direction then the
duration and start time for Rotation

The Animation Control Options dialog sets the duration and start time before the wizard generates its keys.

Figure 8: Duration and Start Time

5. The keys are created at the specified points