Animate stalling
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I am animating a wheel in a track. The first section of track is linear with a slope. The second section is vertical. The third section is curved. The fourth section is horizontal. The wheel traverses the slope,vertical,curved sections. For some reason I cannot advance the wheel in the horizontal section even if I hard code some numbers.
Here are the Y,Z values:
========================================================= Z value
=IF(test!delta<=ROUND(vert!Z),SMALLEST(test!delta,vert!Z),
IF(test!delta<=curve!Z,test!delta,
IF(AND(test!delta>=curve!Z,test!delta<=horz!Z),(test!radius*SIN(ASIN(OP)))+curve!Z,
IF(test!delta>=horz!Z,horz!Z))))========================================================= Y value
=IF(test!delta<=ROUND(vert!Z),SMALLEST((test!deltatest!slope)-0.39403,vert!Y),
IF(test!delta<=curve!Z,vert!Y,
IF(test!delta>=curve!Z,test!radius-(test!radiusCOS(ASIN(OP)))+curve!Y,
IF(test!delta>=horz!Z,horz!Y+test!delta-horz!Z))))I have attached v7 model
skyfish
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Hello skyfish,
That's awful hard to figure out, and maybe not an ideal application for DC's. To begin with, I would suggest factoring out some of the Boolean expressions into separate attributes. (I think this is what your expressions are doing in essence.)
Maybe have some extra attributes so you can simplify the expressions that control the wheel position.
inNip; IF( wheel is in nip, true, false) inHoriz; IF( wheel is in horiz , true, false) inCurve; IF(wheel is on curve, true, false) inVert; IF(wheel is in vert, true, false)Also I can't help but think there might be a completely different approach to the entire problem of animating a wheel in a track. As I said, I don't think a DC is the ideal solution. There are a couple of flight-path animation plugins that may make your work simpler. Are you stuck on using DC's?
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It is kinda complicated. I didn't know how and when sketchup evaluates expressions, so I left everything inline. I will definitely group according to your suggestions. After I get this part worked out, I am going need more hairy relations that require trig functions. I am not aware of any alternative, but certainly open to suggestions.
skyfish
@jim said:
Hello skyfish,
That's awful hard to figure out, and maybe not an ideal application for DC's. To begin with, I would suggest factoring out some of the Boolean expressions into separate attributes. (I think this is what your expressions are doing in essence.)
Maybe have some extra attributes so you can simplify the expressions that control the wheel position.
> inNip; IF( wheel is in nip, true, false) > inHoriz; IF( wheel is in horiz , true, false) > inCurve; IF(wheel is on curve, true, false) > inVert; IF(wheel is in vert, true, false) >Also I can't help but think there might be a completely different approach to the entire problem of animating a wheel in a track. As I said, I don't think a DC is the ideal solution. There are a couple of flight-path animation plugins that may make your work simpler. Are you stuck on using DC's?
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If I make a substitution for "InHorz", the wheel falls to zero and the animation falls apart. Replace the original value, and the wheel is stuck just past the horz origin, but the rest of the animation works. Substitution works of other cases. I am attaching report.
skyfish
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I'm almost convinced what you are trying to do can be done in a better way. Is it possible to give an overview of what you want to accomplish?
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@jim said:
I'm almost convinced what you are trying to do can be done in a better way. Is it possible to give an overview of what you want to accomplish?
The goal is very much like a garage door. Panels will move with the wheels and rotate according to position. In addition, the Rod pulling on the panels (attached to top panel) changes angle depending on how far along the close/open operation is.
Have you tried running the animation? Except for a general lack of commands/data structures/debugging, ugly as it is, the nesting IF statements works (almost). The SU Animate plug-in looks like the sledge hammer approach.
skyfish
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I have not tried this, so it is just an idea...
I removed because the technique is not possible with DC's.
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I think the point is that DC's are not made to do what you are trying to do. Its not their fault you're asking for too much... Its cool to push limits, but you can't complain when things won't work beyond their scope. SketchUp is not really made for animation at this point. But some of the animation plugins could help,
Chris
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I am through wasting my time on sketchup. I was hoping to avoid have to learn a less buggy program. Sketchup is too flakey.
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@chris fullmer said:
I think the point is that DC's are not made to do what you are trying to do. Its not their fault you're asking for too much... Its cool to push limits, but you can't complain when things won't work beyond their scope. SketchUp is not really made for animation at this point. But some of the animation plugins could help,
Chris
I didn't think I was pushing the envelope - just changing coordinates and using the documented intrinsic animate(). The nested IF statements aren't explicitly mentioned, but what good is a single if-then-else. Maybe you should take a look at the model. It works fine except the stalling problem. I have 9MB of work invested in this model (not the test I posted). I am not looking forward to learning Autodesk Inventor to finish this project.
skyfish
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The idea I had does not work in DC's. I need to be able to interpolate a value from an attribute - and for some reason I thought this was possible, but it appears not. I apologize for any confusion I may have caused with that post.
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Its fixed. My error. I hate when that happens. For those of you playing at home, I have attached the fixed version. On to the hairy part
skyfish
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