MechDesigner Reference & User Interface

Feedback-Area

The Feedback-Area is below the graphic-area.

It has five areas.

Extended Hints

When enabled, Tool-Tips show next to your mouse-pointer as you move it above each icon and command in a toolbar.

When enabled or disabled, Tool-tips shows in the Extended Hints box

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

Message Area

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 of messages.
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.

Master-Machine-Angle (MMA) ; Revs ; Machine-Angle-Indicator

The Master-Machine-Angle is the virtual axis, and the virtual input to all kinematic-chains in the model. You can imagine it as a drive shaft that rotates one time per machine cycle.

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 :

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 :

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.

Kinematic and Kinetostatic Vector Scale Buttons

Use the Velocity, Acceleration, Force, and Torque Buttons to increase or decrease the length of vectors in the graphic-area.

These buttons DO NOT change the values of the vector.

Velocity (V) and Acceleration (A) Vector buttons

Click the up /down arrow-buttons next to:

•V to increase or decrease the length of Velocity vectors

•A to increase or decrease the length of Acceleration vectors

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

Force (F) and Torque () Vector buttons

Click the up /down arrow-buttons next to:

•F to increase or decrease the length of Force vectors

• to increase or decrease the length of Torque vectors

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

See Configure Power Source to make sure the Power Flows through the model as intended, and to hide or show Force Vectors on each Part.

Animation-Speed Slider

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

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.

The Animation-Speed does not change the kinematic or force analysis, or motion synchronization between kinematic-chains.

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