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Animated Geometry Does Not Remain Visible after Finishing

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Message 1 of 12
BigAl70454
6848 Views, 11 Replies

Animated Geometry Does Not Remain Visible after Finishing

I have an animation linked to an MS Project schedule.  Everything works except the objects will not remain in their final keyframed positions.  Think of it as stacking boxes on top of each other and each box needs to remain in place so the next one can be stacked on top of it, then the next, etc.  For some reason the boxes appear to be moving back to their original start postion.  I've made the boxes required objects, changed the configuration to "model appearance" across the board, and double checked the animation sets.  I'm at a complete loss.  Please see attached video. 

11 REPLIES 11
Message 2 of 12
JeffH_ADSK
in reply to: BigAl70454

Hi there,

 

This is the intended behaviour at this time for Navisworks Timeliner animations. The initial expectation was that simple animations would always bring the model geometry it was animating back to the CAD model positions, and thus the reset that is occurring would be acceptable.

 

Coincindentally I was discussing this with our Product Design yesterday and we agreed this needed improvement to allow the customer to do exactly what you are describing, so thank you for providing validation of that! It is something we intend to address in future releases.

 

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news,

 

Jeff



Senior Software Engineer
Navisworks
Autodesk Ltd.
Message 3 of 12
BigAl70454
in reply to: JeffH_ADSK

Jeff,

Thank you for the clarification.  This is a big deal for our company in particular and I'm sure we're not the only ones who would like to see this added capability.  We would like to be able to connect the live geometry to the actual schedule.  We are also investigating using GPS coordinates for positioning when assembling these units.

In the meantime, is there a work around?  Is it possible to change the animator timeline to hr/day/month increments?

Message 4 of 12
BigAl70454
in reply to: BigAl70454

I fiddled around with the scene some more and placed all of the animation sets under one scene.  The rendered video looks ok, but changing the mpp schedule doesn't effect the animation like it should. The models show in animator and the rendered video, but not in the timeliner simulate tab.  I've uploaded the files.  Would appreciate anyone taking a crack at this. 

Message 5 of 12
JeffH_ADSK
in reply to: BigAl70454

The only workaround I could suggest at this time would be to attach a single animation for the objects to a task, a custom Add Task created one if necessary, that spans the duration of the intended tasks, and set the animation to be scaled to the task's duration.

 

It is thus somewhat fiddly to manage - you'd have to adjust the keyframes in line with the individual sub-tasks' durations, as compared to the spanning task's duration and scaled down to the animation's length - but it should be feasible to achieve.

 

Hope that helps,

 

Jeff



Senior Software Engineer
Navisworks
Autodesk Ltd.
Message 6 of 12
NFN101
in reply to: JeffH_ADSK

I just installed Navis 2012 with huge hopes of this issue being resolved, unfortunately it does not seem to have been addressed in this release. Is this correct, or am I missing something? Please help. 

Message 7 of 12
BigAl70454
in reply to: NFN101

We have another situation where this is again a problem.  We have a structure model that requires fab pieces to be attached.  After attaching one side, the structure model needs to be rotated and the remaining fab pieces attached to another side.  Well, we can add a task and attach it to the rotation animation but when the animation task is complete, of course the structure model snaps back to its original position.  This is really an enhancement that would be beneficial in construction simulation.  Or at least include the option to add a keyframe at the end of the simulation to keep the objects in place.

Message 8 of 12
BigAl70454
in reply to: BigAl70454

Not to change the subject, but it would save a tremendous amount of time if it were possible to select an object in the selection tree window, right click on it, add it as a selection set, and the selection set would by default reflect the name of that object.  Presently we have to manually select the object, add current selection to selection set, and type in the name.  We have to do this for hundreds of objects.  Probably the majority of time per unit is spent doing this. 

Message 9 of 12
john.lipp
in reply to: BigAl70454

Hi BigAl70454,

 

I’ve attached a sample file example_TL_animation.nwd that demonstrates how to create an animation with durations that match the durations of your TimeLiner tasks and use the “Match Start” Animation Behavior in TimeLiner so that the animation does not return to its previous position once the task completes.

In the example, there are two tasks “Dwayne” and “Jay” that have corresponding animations of those items moving across the floor.

The first TimeLiner task Dwayne, starts 6/1/2011 and end 6/14/2011, which is 13 days long.  In Animator, I created an animation “Scene 1 > Dwayne move” where the key frame of the ending position of the item occurs at 13 days.  To do this, rather than dragging the time slider in the animator window, I entered the time in the time position box as “13d 0h 0:00.00.”  It also helps to click the zoom out button multiple times so that the timeline spans across days/months rather than minutes.  Since the simulation will continue to play after that animation’s key frame, and we don’t want the item to return to the original spot, I created one more keyframe of the item remaining in that same position farther out in the timeline at 40 days. This is longer than the length of the TimeLiner project’s duration, and will ensure that item remains in that position while the simulation continues to play on.

I repeated this process for the second task Jay, which starts 6/7/2011 and ends 7/6/2011: 29 days long.  I created an animation “Scene 2 > Jay move” where the key frame of the ending position of the item occurs at 29 days by entering “29d 0h 0:00.00” in the time position box for that key frame.  Again, I created another key frame of the item remaining in that position at 40 days so that it doesn’t reset after the simulation finishes.


In TimeLiner, rather than use the “Scale” animation behavior, I set it to Match Start.  This will cause the animation to start playing at the same time as when the task occurs in the simulation, but the ending of the animation is not determined by the end of the task it is attached to.

Rather than thinking in terms of how long your simulation is playing in Navisworks (seconds), when using Match Start and Match End as animation behaviors, you’ll need to specify times that match actual dates in real life (days/months) in Animator.  Since the resulting animation durations are so long, they can’t be played back using the playback button in Animator, but you are able to drag the time slider in the timeline of animator to see the movement.


Best regards,

 

autodesk_logo_signature.png

 

John Lipp

Product Support Specialist

Autodesk Product Support

Message 10 of 12
opesch_
in reply to: BigAl70454

Thanks for the workaround but wouldn't it be easier to include a check box to let the user choose ?

 

in fact I'm expereriencing two behaviors

 

water area to pump out : demolish task associated with a top-down translation in the animator 

---> result is perfect : water level is originally at top, goes red and down and then disapear from the scene

 

new water area to fill-up : construct task associated with a down-top translation in the animator

----> BAD !

_if the water entity is placed at its "below ground" level it returns at this position at the end of the fill up action

_if the water entity is modelled at its final (up) level - so it won't move after the last keyframe - it always appear during half a second at this up (modeled) level before comming up from below the ground

 

Even worth I encounter the same "unattended ghosting position" with my on-rail tower cranes which appears at the modeled coordinates before starting they work at their animator staring position !!!

 

and NO my annimator keyframes are not offset in any way ! They were all manualy set (by edit keyframe) to start at 0h0m0s and finish their action 5 min after with an ending keyframe

 

then the animation is attached and scaled to the corresponding task (which is comming from the shedduler and assumed to be changed each week.... so it is not a solution to manualy match its timeline into the animator !)

 

putting a latermost end date keyframe would also be quite complicated as the sheddule cover 4 years of works (that's also why I used the scale option !) !

 

So... my questions are :

 

_why does the demolish task works well when the construct won't ?

_why does the entities appears at their CAD position at the begining of the task in place of the position set into the animator ?

_why can't we check a box to tel "extend start/end keyframe position to whole animation" (which should be the default behavior unless we check the loop mode !)

 

I hope you'll answer with some solutions to those questions because these are realy big issues for the 4D animations we present to clients and other subcontractors !

 

Regards ;o)

Message 11 of 12

i made my 3d in revit and scheduling in msp2007. 

convert both to navis 2012 and can c them. atached 3d to my scheduling and im sure atached is corect...but i cant c 4d in simulation part.....wht is the problem...?????????

Message 12 of 12

I'm having this same issue but surely this has been fixed by now.  Can anyone help me?

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