Make Movie

Background: A moving, 3D model is CPU intensive. And as a result, MechDesigner may not show all steps on your display. Also, commercial video software may miss a frame when recording the screen. The Make Movie dialog-box does not skip any steps of frames.

Use the File menu / toolbar > Make Movie to record :

• a movie: use the GIF file-type.

or

•a number of images, use PNG, JPG, or BMP file-types.

The images are at equal increments of the Master Machine Angle.

Icon-MakeMovie

File toolbar > Make Movie
Make Movie dialog-box

Make Movie dialog-box

Top-Tip - Before you open the Make-Movie dialog-box, click ALT+H to home the model to zero degrees.

To open the Make Movie dialog

- or -

tog_minus Frame Size and Position 

Dialog-13.2-MakeMovie-FamSize

You should see a black box in the Graphic-Area. This is the recording Frame.

Usually, you will want to edit the size and position of the recording Frame.

To select a typical Frame size, use the:

Pre-set Frame Size...

1.Use the Pre-set Frame Size...  list-box to select a typical frame size

OR,

To edit the Size of the Frame:

1.Edit Width and Height to define the size of the frame.

Top-Tip: When you use a Pre-set Frame Size, to remove the focus from the Pre-set Frame Size... list-box click the Left box. If you do not, you may select a different Pre-set Frame if you use your mouse scroll-wheel.

To edit the Position of the Frame:

2.Edit the Left and Top to position the frame in the graphic-area.

Do 1-2 again to put the recording Frame in the correct position and to specify its size..

tog_minus        File-name and File-type 

Dialog-13.2-MakeMovie-FileType

File-path and File-Type button

1.Click the File-name and file-type... button (at the bottom of this separator)

Use the standard Windows® Save As dialog to:

a.Browse to a File-path and enter a File-name
b.Use the Save as type* list box to select a file-type - Note: different file-types have different results - see File-Types
2.Click Save button in the Windows® Save As dialog

The File-path and File-name show in the boxes.

IMPORTANT: FILE-TYPES

GIF file-type.

Makes a movie in GIF format.

GIF files can be very large when the frame-size is large.

PNG, JPG, JPEG, BMP file-types.

Saves one image file for each frame. See Number-of-Frames

MechDesigner appends 001, 002, 003, ... to the name of each image. Eg: Hinge-A000.png, Hinge-A001, Hinge-A002, ... "Hinge-A-" & "Number-of-Frames"

Top-Tip: Enter a file-name that ends with a letter and not a number.

To compile separate PNG images as a movie, I use Avidemux 2.6. - a free tool on the internet.

In Avidemux2.6:

1.Open the first image in the sequence of images - e.g. Hinge-A000.png

You need to import the first image only. Avidemux2.6 automatically imports the other images in the numbered sequence.

2.Save the movie with the MP4 movie format.

MP4, with the x264 codec, is the recommended format for YouTube®. The files are small and without much loss.

tog_minus        Make Movie... 

Dialog-13.2-MakeMovie-MakeMovie

Number-of-Frames

1.Edit the Number-of-Frames box [Default = 30 Frames, Minimum=5 ; Maximum=10000]
2.Edit the Machine Start Angle [Default=0 ;  Maximum > Minimum ≥ 0]
3.Edit the Machine End Angle [Default=360 ; 720 ≥ Maximum > Minimum]

Note-Pencil-20: 720 is 2× full machine-cycles.

Make Movie... button

Note-Pencil-20: Before you click the Make Movie... button, move the model to Home, with Run toolbar > Home

4.Make Movie button

When you click the Make Movie button, the model moves the model to the Start Angle and makes the movie.

If you think the model does not complete a machine-cycle, please wait file(s) are being saved to your drive.

 

Tutorials and Reference Help Files for MechDesigner and MotionDesigner 14.2 + © Machine, Cam, Mechanism, and Motion Design Software by PSMotion Ltd