Navisworks Animation Output freezes

[freedom1k]

Hello, We've recently started using Navisworks for PointCloud fly-throughs, as opposed to a popular Bentley Tool. For about a month Output Animations would export without a hiccup, but now Navis Manage would only export about 25% of the Frames. THen it would hang-up/Crash. If I lower the aspect ratio, I'll get a little further in the exporting, (about 27%). If aspect is higher, maybe 17% before crashing. See Screencast for sample. I've installed SP2, but the same results.

A colleague and I tried a few different scenes with the same results. I've cleared temp folders and cache. Nothing seems to work in overcoming this crash on Animation output. has anyone experienced this and discovered a fix? please share.

https://screencast.autodesk.com/Embed/Timeline/9fe71b9f-120e-4e2b-bab7-462155c45d24

[Patrick_Aps_9121]

What Codec do you use to encode the movies ?
I installed the Xvid codec and could create animations directly, of 30 sec each.
Check if your hard drive can folllow saving and buffering all the data upon generation, so check your File I/O instead of the CPU load.

[freedom1k]

Thanks for the info Patrick.
I only export Image Sequences at default jpg settings, so there should be no Codec needed.
I'll check the File I/O settings. I suspect I'm hitting some limit setting on my HD, though I have around 300 GB of free space available.

[autodesk]

A Colleague of mine stumbled on that if you do not save the Navisworks file, then the animation will output to completion.

This worked yesterday for me on 3 animations, but this morning I tried outputting a new 900 frame animation; it makes it to 102 then hangs up.

[freedom1k]

Ditto. It’s frustrating. All I need is an animation that finishes. It’s hit or miss, mostly miss. I’m using the Animation output in the most simplest terms: Saved viewpoints of Apended PointClouds. Major Bug with animation Outputs. I need a good Autodesk tool, so we do not go back to using Bentley’s PoinTools.

[Patrick_Aps_9121 · Accepted solution]

As I already stated, if the JPG is not working, DO in stall a codec and use that for generating an AVI using that codec. This uses a lot more calculating, but far less File/IO on your hard disk, avoiding the HD limit you expericene.

[freedom1k]

I was hoping there was a solution to the Image Sequence output method (png or jpg). Maybe sometime in the future. Meanwhile, I installed the Xvid Codec, restarted Navisworks and it works fine. Glad Xvid is free. 🙂 After Effects also reads the codecs. Thanks for your help!

[Tim.West]

I've just output 15001 png images at 1920 x 1080 totalling 87GB from Navisworks Manage 2016 SP2.

Not sure why this wouldn't be working for you? Maybe try .png instead of .jpg?

[dgorsman]

I think they were looking for a direct-to-video method.  Given that such a process has similar problems in software like 3DSMAX or Maya I don't think we'll be seeing a solution in Navisworks anytime soon.  If anything I'd like a little more control over the Navisworks render settings ie. specify a range of frame numbers to output rather than a whole animation sequence.

[Tim.West]

You can render different segments, using "Override Start / End Dates" in the settings dialogue box. This allows you to output specific segments of your sequence, though it is limited by day, which is failry coarse.

Also this doesn't consider 'Frames' as such...

[Anonymous]

I am having the same problem, and tearing my hair out! I ideally want to export images rather than direct to video, but I've tried every export option - including XVid - and tried breaking the animation down into smaller parts. Nothing is working for me it just hangs up. Are there any particular settings within the output that are working for you guys? Any help gratefully received!

[freedom1k]

The Xvid has been working for me most of the time in Navisworks Manage. Other Colleagues of mine repeatedly have had issues (imageSeqence or video output), even when using the same settings. The difference is that I have 64 GB of Ram.

I also had uninstalled Navisworks Manage, then reinstalled it with the SP2. 

So it’s hit-or-miss with Navisworks animations.

However, the Xvid has done wonders now for Preview Animations in 3dsMax. So, I’ve switched to that for quick and dirty Draft Animations, plus the camera has smoother transitions.

I know, that’s useless for a solution to Navisworks…. Maybe others have found a better answer.

Just noticed SP3 is out. http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/navisworks-products/downloads/caas/downloads/content/naviswork...

 Give that a try.

[Anonymous]

I do have 3Ds too, but found it a bit overwhelming, but perhaps the answer is to persevere... Having spent a bit more time with Navisworks it I'm finding that, as you say, the export is very hit and miss. Sometimes I've got a whole animation out but there's no predicting it so more often than not I'm wasting my time making them! Thanks for your response though.

As an aside, I tried making an animation using timeliner, which I much preferred to the viewport animator, however when it came to exporting it the entire animation was just one frame over and over again - the frame that was current on my screen when I did the export. Is that right or is that just me?? Do point clouds only work with viewport animator?

[ryan.aisthorpe]

Hi,

Out of curiosity what graphics card was you using at the time?

[Anonymous]

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760. As advised above, we upped my RAM to 64gb but that didn't help

[-Navisworker-]

Not sure if this will help but its an old post of mine from 2011 on animation exports: http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?132209-Animation-Resolution&p=1138301#post1138301