The only draw back to sketchup

jgb

SketchyPhysics perhaps work for you?

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http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=33128

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewforum.php?f=61&start=0

Regards

SketchyPhysics is all but dead. Chris Phillips has disappeared into the ether.
No response from him in over a year to any posts. Very sad.

Dave R

I don't know, Kurt. I guess I haven't had any problems with that sort of thing. I posted an example in this thread.

Humpmetwice

Yeah Dave I really like that video. Its not the fact I'm saying it can't be done its just so time consuming to do, well for me it is anyway.Seems someone would have came up with an easier way by now. By the way, I wouldn't have a clue with SketchyPhysics Rodrigonotor thanks tho.

Dave R

I think a little practice and a clear plan before starting to make the animation makes it pretty straightforward and quick for me. I don't have a need to do them very often and this works fine. Maybe you ought to check out Keyframe Animation. I don't know if it is any faster but maybe it would work for you.

DanYHKim

I have often used SketchyPhysics for complex machine simulations and animation. I use either CamStudio or Camtasia for screen captures during the simulation, to capture the action. Using SketchyPhysics can be a challenge, especially since the machine simulation requires duplication of the actual components and their jointing, which is not always straightforward. The results can be very gratifying, though.

Here is a link to a video showing a mechanical chile pepper cleaner. The machine itself and the closing logo animation were made using Sketchyphysics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRNFi0DzGm4

The animated logo I use for NMSU-Project Lead the Way is also a SketchyPhysics animation sequence
http://pltw.nmsu.edu/cPage.aspx?pageid=main&queryid=aboutlogo

For a short animated sequence, one could use one of the animation plugins described in this thread, or even simply re-position the different objects and take a series of screenshots or 2D exports to put into a stop-motion animation sequence.

I am not familiar with how Solidworks does animation, but I once made a moving toy train engine (rotating wheels, moving along a track) using Inventor. I was not impressed with the method described to me for Inventor to animate that action, since it seemed to use a change of angle over time script to make the wheels rotate while simultaneously changing the train's position over time. It seemed like a cheat to me, since the wheel rotation did not 'drive' the movement of the train, but was only synchronized to be proportional to the x-offset over time. In any case, the train still needed to be constructed in a functional way, with jointed constraints to keep all of the components in proper relation during the movement, just like in a SketchyPhysics simulation.

jgb

A major shortcoming of SketchyPhysics is that you cannot position moving articulated parts at various points along the motion path for further study or edit in native SU. SP is a run-only app. When the run is over or stopped, the components positions revert to original SU position. Catching a moving part interference was iffy, as SP only regarded the envelope, not the actual part shape for complex solids.

SolidWorks animation capability is a real time articulated joint processor, like SP but without the gravity field. You can move a piece manually and the joining/articulated parts will follow suit, and stay put. This is great for determining moving part interferences, and fixing the parts when positioned at the right points.

But then SW costs about $4,000 for a minimal license.

Which is why I use SU and not SW.

Still looking for a decent SU Articulation pluggin.
Keyframe is not quite up to what I want to do.
SP could, to a great extent, but the run-only aspect made it less than useful to me.

pilou

you can take a look this system of animation for Sketchup

Humpmetwice

@unknownuser said:

you can take a look this system of animation for Sketchup

Thanks all but I think I have looked at all possible plugins and stand alone programs to make the animations I wish to make. Some work great but I was thinking it should be something native to Sketch-up itself that would work as well.

jgb

@unknownuser said:

but I was thinking it should be something native to Sketch-up itself that would work as well.

Ain't gonna happen.
The SU Dev Team seems reluctant to incorporate great 3rd party pluggins or develop equivalents.
Even Ruby FIXES are ignored.

New bells or whistles, yeah.. for sure, but few real fixes to long standing problems and aggravations.

Maybe Trimble will shake that tree.

jgb

@unknownuser said:

you can take a look this system of animation for Sketchup

My Bad
Did not explore the whole site before I put my foot in my mouth...

Looks very promising.
I downloaded SimFonia (trial) and will report back here in a few days about it.

A few comments about the SimFonia website....
Nicely laid out.

There is a mix of English & French in the demos, but not to the extent it gets confusing.

Nowhere does it say how long the trial lasts. Found out it is not time limited as much as results limited. It seems to infer animations can only TOTAL as long as 10 seconds, for EVERYTHING, or 10 animations total.
Gotohttp://www.simfonia.fr/SAT/index.php?page=compare for more info and product restrictions.

Nowhere does it say how much it costs, until you register and attempt to d/l the full app. Yeah, it does, in the Sat Products Versions.

You need to enter your PC MAC address in order to register, as it is a 1 PC install only.

Price is in Euros. About E60 plus E180 for the Character Animator.

Documentation (looks extensive) is a separate download. Go for the all in 1 ZIP file.

jgb

I have opend a SimFonIA thread - http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=46496&p=415716#p415716

My experience with SAT will be posted there.