[Plugin] SAT: animation plugin - Give life to your models!

congellous

Does this plug in work with OSX ?

SimFonIA_team

Hello all,

Some time ago, I explained the concept of procedural animation to jgb in these terms:

To understand the philosophy of external data-files, it is interesting to look our use of SAT. SimfonIa is indeed an engineering company. Our main task is to predict the behavior of complex systems like an aeronautical hydraulic pump, a battery for hybrid car or a smart-grid network for residential complex. A simple worflow would be:

Our customer want to predict the fall of an apple => Newton gives us the gravitational equation => our simulator solve the equation => we deliver curves, Excel datasheets and analysis to our customer

SAT was thus developed in order to emphasis the work with a video showing the result: the falling apple… That is what we call procedural animation. It is a really interesting perspective for customers to be able to see their product live instead of trying to imagine its movement from 10 stacked curves.

And as a video is worth 1000 pictures, here is an illustration of the concept through a project that kept me busy lately.

SimFonIA_team

Hello all,

Firstly I wanted to thank you for the encouragement messages and for welcoming our designer during basecamp 2012 (a great adventure for him). Today we present you some "exotic" applications of our SU tools:

The combination of SU and WebGL export allows for creating interactive assembly / disassembly manuals (think about your IKEA furniture ^^)

- In scientific computing we often need to decompose the physical phenomena in elementary meshes (lumped model, CFD ...). In order to easily visualize the results we are preparing an automatic meshes generator for SU.

Best regards,
Julien From SimFonIA team

SimFonIA_team

Hello all,

Here is a video to show the possibilities of SAT. We illustrate how we might have intervene in the Vauban's Gateway of Patrick (http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=47725). From simple geometries concept to the object in its environment.

SimFonIA_team

And to celebrate Christmas wee also have a special offer : -50% on SAT Office Version (200 €->100 €) and on SCA Extension (150 €->75 €). Available until 02 January 2013 )).

Quick-start guide to come ))

SimFonIA_team

On the advice and with the help of Pilou we have created a quick-start guide for SAT.The objective is to present the philosophy of the transformation processor through the most frequently used functions: rotation and translation. The first part is a short introduction to SU and thus will not be interesting for most of you.

But the next two part will led you to rotate Pilou's weathervane! Normally, after that, nobody should say that our plugin is complicated))

If someone try the challenge we will be very interested in his feedback.

Best regards,
Julien from SimFonIA

Quick_Start_Guide_en_V1.0.pdf

Girouette.skp

Girouette_mouvement_compose.skp

SimFonIA_team

Hello All,

A few words to wish you an happy New Year and to thanks those who bought the plugin during this christmas offer. Don't hesitate to ask your question here or on our email adress if you have questions.

Best regards,
SimFonIA team

SimFonIA_team

last word to remember you that today is the last day of our Christmas offer, do not miss this opportunity ))

driven

@simfonia_team said:

do not miss this opportunity

Hi I tied not to miss this, but now I'm confused if it will all works on mac?

Error Loading File /Users/johns_iMac/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/Plugins/simfonia/SimfoniaLoader.rb
(eval);18;in `require'; no such file to load -- /Users/johns_iMac/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/plugins/simfonia/PhysicControl/RubyControllerInterface.dllError Loading File simfonia.rb
(eval);18;in `require'; no such file to load -- /Users/johns_iMac/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/plugins/simfonia/PhysicControl/RubyControllerInterface.dll

There's no obvious[to me] warning that it won't...

john

Edit: I just had time to revisit the site, to see if I'd missed the 'doesn't work on mac' warnings, and they are not there, I think they should be, I did leave a contact message so I guess I'll get a reply...

SimFonIA_team

Hello Driven,

I regret to announce that indeed the SAT plugin does not work on MAC. As specified in the first page of the installation manual, the plugin works under windows XP to seven, and Version 8 or higher of SkecthUp.

You're right, it does not appear clearly on the website and we will fix it. If you have purchased a paid version without the proper configuration we will fix the problem simply with the message on contact.

Unfortunate that you can not try the SAT beast...

driven

Cheers for the reply,
I've been an avid follower since first announcements, and when i saw the 'offer' had some spare 'xmas' cash I thought I'd jump right in, I didn't read the installation instructions...
Sort out the mac version, please!!!

john

ps I want it for stuff like this, so I can do them better...

SimFonIA_team

Hi all,

     @driven,

Normally, the problem was solved this morning, hoping that you are not too disappointed.

@driven said:

Sort out the mac version, please!!!

I also believe that it would be a good idea, especially as many architects (who are mainly SU users) use MAC. The problem is mainly due to the use of dll to read the data contained in the scenario files, but it is not on our close agenda; the priority is rendering. But we like apple pie )).

I must confess that I find it hard to understand the function of the object you posted in video. Our hypothesis is that it is a system for climbing ropes?
In all cases it seems quite feasible for SAT!

   @sketchucation world

We worked with Pilou to see what is the learning curve of our plugin. It results in the quick-start guide posted above and a series of video tutorials that Pilou has kindly made (sorry it is in the language of Molière ^ ^).

http://moiscript.weebly.com/deacuteformations.html
http://moiscript.weebly.com/rotations-1.html
http://moiscript.weebly.com/tableur.html
http://moiscript.weebly.com/texte.html
http://moiscript.weebly.com/visibility.html
http://moiscript.weebly.com/table.html
http://moiscript.weebly.com/discret.html

driven

@simfonia_team said:

     @driven,
Normally, the problem was solved this morning, hoping that you are not too disappointed.

Hi, thanks, got the email, any news on when a mac version will be available?

@unknownuser said:

I must confess that I find it hard to understand the function of the object you posted in video.

exactly why I keep looking for better ways of demonstrating this type of object...

@unknownuser said:

Our hypothesis is that it is a system for climbing ropes?

originally, it was designed as a filament (soft 3mm 'plastic' cord) feed mechanism for a ''RepRap' style additive 3D printer. The Miga Motor is the size of a credit card.

@unknownuser said:

In all cases it seems quite feasible for SAT!
...very

john

SimFonIA_team

I was editing my answer when you wrote your message :

@unknownuser said:

I also believe that it would be a good idea, especially as many architects (who are mainly SU users) use MAC. The problem is mainly due to the use of dll to read the data contained in the scenario files, but it is not on our close agenda; the priority is rendering. But we like apple pie )).

dickorama

I don't know if this has been covered yet, but will animated sequences export in pbx?

SimFonIA_team

This is a very good news for MAC users: SAT, our SketchUp plugin for 3D animation, has been successfully tested on a Macbook Pro 2010 (OS X 10.8.2) with a “windows virtual machine”.

To illustrate this, here is a video showing the installation of SAT on a MAC using the VM "Parallels Desktop for Mac 8". Now you can use SAT on your favorite computer!

SimFonIA_team

@dickorama said:

I don't know if this has been covered yet, but will animated sequences export in pbx?

Hello Dickorama,

I do not know the .pbx format, you can tell me more?

SimFonIA_team

Hello everybody!

We are proud to announce that the new release V1.1 of SAT is available.
You can download it in our website http://www.simfonia.fr/SAT

This release contains 3 new functions:

copy/paste the transformations from a group to another
find and replace a text inside the transformations
the Clone processor for quick duplication of groups

The following video is a tutorial for the Clone processor. Other video tutorials will come very soon!

SimFonIA Team

SimFonIA_team

Hello,

Below is a tutorial which illustrates another function available in the new release V1.1 of SAT.
This function allows to quickly copy the transformations applied to a group to another groups.
This can save a lot of time if you wish to build a model where many different groups have the same motion.

You can download SAT V1.1 in our website http://www.simfonia.fr/SAT
For users that already have an account, you just have to log on your existing account and download it again.

We are looking forward to seeing your animations!
SimFonIA Team

SimFonIA_team

Hello everyone!

Last but not least, here is the third and last function available in the new release V1.1 of SAT.

This function allows to quickly find and replace the text used to define the transformations of your groups.

In this tutorial we also show how you can use of a data file (a simple text file which contains data, for instance a scenario of the animation) to drive the transformations.

Dedicated tutorials on data files and other basic functions will come soon.

SimFonIA Team