Animating Results

ETBX animation panels can generate animations based on calculated results data.

The Results Case list to the right of the main view shows the available results cases. Click on a results case in the list to specify the data to be used to create the animation.

To begin animating, turn on the deformed shape by selecting the Deformed box in the Model Display input group. Then select the Animate box. The animation will start and continue to repeat until the Animate box is deselected. Enter a numerical value in the Scale Factor input field to adjust the magnitude of the deflected shape. Enter an integer value in the Number Of Steps input field to specify the number of steps in each cycle of the animation. Click on the Animation Speed drop-down list to adjust the speed of the animation.

Saving An Animation To A File

The Save To Animation dialog box lets you save an ETBX animation to the following media file formats:

• .AVI - Short for Audio Video Interleave, the file format for Microsoft's Video for Windows standard. AVI files can be viewed using the Microsoft Media Player.
• .MOV - The QuickTime Movie format was developed by Apple Computer and is built into the Macintosh operating system. Windows computers can also run files in QuickTime format, but they require a special QuickTime driver.
• .GIF - The Graphics Interchange format is a bitmapped graphics file format developed by CompuServe. Animated GIF files can be embedded in any web page and will play in all popular web browsers. GIF images are limited to 256 colors.

To open the Save To Animation dialog box, choose the File -> Export -> Save To Animation menu item.

The Output group contains controls for specifying the output format, frame rate, number of frames, and more. Select an item from the Image Format drop-down list to specify a file format. Enter an integer in the Number Of Frames input field to specify the total number of frames in the saved animation. Adjust the Frame Rate slider to specify a frame rate. The GIF file format cannot save images with more than 256 colors. ETBX will reduce the number of colors in each GIF output frame to the value shown in the Maximum Colors drop-down list.

The File group lets you specify the output file. Enter a valid path and file name or click the Browse button to set the file save location. Click the Save button to create the animation and store it to the specified file.