MechDesigner Reference & User Interface

Feedback-Area

The Feedback-Area is below the graphic-area.

It has five different areas.

As you move your mouse above each icon in each toolbar, the Extended Hints box shows the tool-tip.

Note: To see all of the hint, you may need to drag the spacer-bars upwards, and/or to the right, a short distance.

The most recent message is at the top of the list.

There are four columns in the Message Area.

Count :	The message number since you last cleared the Message-Area or started MechDesigner.
Topic :	Importance Level: – Information; – Warning; – Error - save your work now!
Message :	Relates to the command. This is the message you should read!
Time :	When the message was displayed.

To clear messages from the Message Area:

1.Right-Click, with your mouse-pointer in the Message Area

2.Click Clear Messages in the contextual-menu

Message Sounds:

With your computer sound on, and enabled in Application Options | Accessibility tab, you hear a honk with each new message.

The Master-Machine-Angle is the virtual axis, and the virtual input to all kinematic-chains in the model.

Master-Machine-Angle (MMA) :	Range 0 – 360, equal to one Machine-Cycle.
Revs :	Number of machine-cycles
Machine-Angle-Indicator :	(Read-Write) - the exact machine-angle of the model.

To edit the Master-Machine-Angle:

Exactly :

Use the Machine-Angle Indicator to:
Move to an Exact Angle :	Enter a Machine-Angle between 0 and 360.
Inch :	OR Use the Spin-Box tool to increase or decrease the Machine Angle by the Spin-Increment. Edit the Spin-Increment (by factors of 10) to change the inch-step.
Jog :	OR Press & Hold the Spin-Box to continuously increase or decrease the Machine-Angle.

Approximately :

Mouse-button-down and move you mouse to the left or right, with your mouse-pointer INSIDE the Master-Machine-Angle area.

The orange triangle (▲) below the MMA moves with your mouse-pointer.

Click the up /down arrow-buttons to increase or decrease the length of vectors in the graphic-area.

V = Velocity Vector; A = Acceleration; F = Force; T= Torque

Velocity and Acceleration Vectors

See Point Properties dialog-box to display the Velocity Vector and/or Acceleration Vector of a Point

Force and Torque Vectors

See Calculate Forces and Display Force Vectors to display Force and Torque Vectors at joints.

See Configure Power Source to hide or show Force Vectors on each Part.

Note: The Power Source and mass-properties of each Part must be correct.

Use the Animation Speed Slider to speed-up or slow-down the Animation Speed of the model as it cycles.

The Animation-Speed does not change the kinematic-data or motion synchronization between kinematic-chains. They all move together.

Mouse-button-down and move you mouse to the left or right, with your mouse-pointer INSIDE the Animation-Speed Slider to change the animation speed.

To edit the simulation-speed: see Edit menu > Machine-Settings > Cycling Parameters.