Best Hierarchy for Animation of Assembly Diagram

davethomaspilot · 8 Jan 2022, 20:48

I want to to an animation to show assembly of an electronics enclosure. I'm struggling with how to best use layers and components to do the assembly animation, while preserving the ability to export parts to be 3d printed by hiding layers.

I want to start with what is basically an exploded diagram, but everything is not exploded from a central point. Rather, things are moved out along one of three major axes. The animation will consist with moving things back to the original, assembled position in several steps. The steps will be like moving threaded inserts into position in the part to be 3d printed, moving a regulator into position, moving screws to attach regulator. Screws, inserts, regulator--everything in the higher level component will finally get moved into its place.

Currently, the hierarchy is like this:

Left
geometry for a 3d printed part
left threaded inserts
regulator
regulator screws
battery dock
battery dock screws
regulator screw inserts
insert 1
insert 2
...

battery dock screw inserts

Right
geometry for a 3d printed part
right screws
right screw inserts
screw 1
screw 2
..

Top
geometry for a 3d printed part
screws

The problem I'm running into is that I keep having to rearrange things inside components for different steps of the animation.

Is it necessary to keep everything that needs to move independently at the same level of the hierarchy?

ntxdave · 8 Jan 2022, 21:05

Suggest you have a look at Animator and some of its videos. I think you should be able to accomplish what you describe. Check I out.

davethomaspilot · 8 Jan 2022, 21:43

@ntxdave said:

Suggest you have a look at Animator and some of its videos. I think you should be able to accomplish what you describe. Check I out.

I've watched the videos several times. I don't see anything which addresses this issues--maybe I'm just not seeing it. Let me try to restate my problem.

Currently I have things organized in Sketchup components, with each component containing other components (and some of these "subcomponents" contain other components).

At one step of the animation, the positions of sub-components in a higher level component need to be in "position A". At another step, they need to be in "position B". At still another step, the containing component needs to move while the subcomponents stay in "position B", relative to the containing components origin.

I think I can get what I want if components that need to move independently of each other are at the same level of the hierarchy, but I have to "flatten" everything. If this isn't clear, I'll try making a gif to show my problem.

davethomaspilot · 8 Jan 2022, 21:48

Actually, my problem might only occur when I try to use positioner to move things around then update a position.

I need to play around some more and I'll then update the post.

ntxdave · 8 Jan 2022, 21:56

Check out this animation showing an exploded view . I think it is very close to what you are describing.

davethomaspilot · 9 Jan 2022, 14:21

@ntxdave said:

Check out this animation showing an exploded view . I think it is very close to what you are describing.

Unfortunately, exploded view doesn't do what I need. Everything is exploded around a central point. As I posted, I need components to move along the major axes.

davethomaspilot · 9 Jan 2022, 14:54

I shouldn't have posted yet--I need to get some more time using the Animator.

I'll try to explain what is confusing me with an update to the post, after I'm a little farther down the learning curve.

ntxdave · 9 Jan 2022, 15:07

I am currently having some problems on my laptop or I would try to build an example for you. Actually it should be rather straight forward. You start with all of the pieces put together, then you create a “movement” for each part where you want it to be when “exploded”..

I think the key elements to understand is how to create a movement and synchronization of the movements. It is also fairly easy then to reverse the movements to put the pieces back to their original positions. Wiz’s I could get things going on my laptop so I could show you.

I thought there was a sample video somewhere but I have not been able to find it. Maybe later today I can help you.

Let’s assume you have a simple model that is made to 4 components/groups (both should work the same in this situation)and that group A has 3 sub groups.

Here are the steps to take to show the “exploded” model:

Select Group A and move it up along the Z axsis and set a duration for the movement (I.e. 2 seconds)
Select each of the other 3 groups and perform the same steps for each them along the axsis that you want foe each of them. You can move the timelines so that they are concurrent or one after the other as you wish.
Now go to Group A and double click on it to select subgroup A1
Now move subgroup A1 to the position you want and again set a duration for that movement as well
Repeat this process for each of the subgroups
If you want to put the pieces back together, select each of the items in the Animator timeline and reverse them (there is an embedded process for doing this).

With Animator, once you have set up the movements and timelines for each of the elements you can manipulate them by dragging them around in the timeline.

Hope this helps and points you in the right direction. Wish I could get on my laptop and create an example for you.

davethomaspilot · 9 Jan 2022, 17:30

I was trying to create a groups or components of things that would move together at some point in the animation. I see that I can have several movements in parallel, but when editing the time line, I'd have to take care to move them all together.

So, the group or component was going to keep the movements together like a group or component does (among other things) in Sketchup.

But, you can't group items that are contained in other groups. So, for maximum flexibility in moving objects, it seems best to create groups ONLY for objects that ALWAYS move together.

In my case, that meant destroying the existing component and group hierarchy, just for the purpose of creating the animation. I got the animation I needed, but it meant having a separate model just for the animation.

I guess what I'd like to have is a way to create a "movement group" where that group could contain groups/subgroups/components/subcomponents that were not constrained by the existing sketchup hierarchy. That way, the model hierarchy need not be driven by the animation.

ntxdave · 9 Jan 2022, 18:47

@davethomaspilot said:

I guess what I'd like to have is a way to create a "movement group" where that group could contain groups/subgroups/components/subcomponents that were not constrained by the existing sketchup hierarchy. That way, the model hierarchy need not be driven by the animation.

Yes, it is a matter of “grouping” your items in relation to potential movements. When you move/animate a group, all subgroups will be moved/animated as well. You can move/animate a subgroup independent of its master though.

davethomaspilot · 9 Jan 2022, 21:16

Just discovered "group as clip".

Maybe using instead of adding groups to the model (as suggested in the SketchUcation) will let me do what I need without having to destroy the existing hierarchy in the model.

I'm hoping that I can set up parallel in time physical movements on objects nested in different groups, but have them movable on the time line (and editable for time duration, etc) as a complete entity--clip, I guess.

Playing with that now.

ntxdave · 9 Jan 2022, 22:02

I think you can do that.........you can move clips around in the timeline so yes you should be able to get them all working at the same time.

Animator is a very good and powerful tool but it does take some practive to get it working the way you want to.