How can I do some like that - Scott Bruins' wall smash animation (link in the description)

w.wolf

7 Oct, 2011 06:48 PM

This method only works with animations that utilize gravity, like GrabCAD Logo Smash and not GrabCAD Wall Smash ...
It's hard to explain everything that could be involved in other animations, so feel free to ask here if Damián Hardeo doesn't mind or in a separate question ...
There are several ways to do this but here's the work flow I used ...

1. Step 1:

   Set up your scene in an assembly ... here I have few marble balls, two are a above the others, and a floor because if you don't put one, the balls will just keep falling. Make sure the floor is set to Fix ...
   

   

2. Step 2:

   It's good to check for interferences between parts before moving to the next step ...
   

   

3. Step 3:

   Click on Motion Study or Insert>New Motion Study ...
   

   

4. Step 4:

   Make sure you have Basic Motion chosen ...
   

   

5. Step 5:

   Click Motion Study Properties and here's the settings that I used, increasing accuracy results in more calculation time ...
   

   

6. Step 6:

   Now we need so set the contacts between parts or the parts will just go through each other, here I needed to select all parts ...
   

   

7. Step 7:

   After you finished step 6 you'll have an orange bar and a black key, for now we'll activate the gravity and set its direction, leave the value as it is ...
   

   

8. Step 8:

   Another orange bar appears, those shows the period that Gravity and Contact are being active in ...
   To set the animation time, drag the black key to the position you desire ...
   

   

9. Step 9:

   Now click Calculate and wait for a few seconds ...
   

   

10. Step 10:

    Surprise surprise, SolidWorks messed up the shadow, I just love it when that happens ...
    Anyway, you'll notice the change in color of the time bar and now you can playback your animation with the control buttons ...
    

    

11. Step 11:

    If you're not satisfied with the result try to adjust the parts position and hit Calculate again, but make sure the time line is set to 0 before that or they will go back to their original position ... Here I moved one marble higher and adjusted the others a little ...
    

    

12. Step 12:

    When you're done with setting the scene and you want to save the animation, click on Save Animation and choose the settings that suites you, for a rendered animation choose PhotoView, note for that you need PhotoView plug-in activated ...
    

    

13. Step 13:

    I wanted to render the animation like this test render but it took too much time ...