Abaqus/CAE
offers two means of animation: object-based and image-based.
Object-based
animation
Object-based animation is the display of a sequence of deformed shape
plots, contour plots, symbol plots, or material orientation plots.
Abaqus/CAE
can produce three different types of sequences of these plots. These three
sequence types are called time history animation,scale
factor animation, and harmonic animation.
Time history animation produces a sequence of deformed shape, contour,
symbol, or material orientation plots that vary over time according to actual
analysis results. Scale factor animation produces a sequence of images that
vary only in the scaling of a single deformed shape, contour, or symbol plot.
Harmonic animation produces a sequence of images that represents complex result
values varying according to applied angles.
To better understand these three types of
animation, see
Time history animation;
Scale factor animation; and
Harmonic animation; respectively.
While an object-based animation is playing, you can dynamically change
display characteristics such as the view, any viewport annotations, and plot
state-dependent customization options.
Image-based
animation
Image-based animation is the playback of an animation file. You create an
animation file in
Abaqus/CAE
by first playing object-based animations in one or more viewports and then
selecting AnimateSave
As from the main menu bar. Once saved, your
animation can be
played external to
Abaqus/CAE
using
industry-standard animation software. You can choose to save your
image-based animation file in either QuickTime or Audio Video Interleave
(AVI) format.
From within
Abaqus/CAE
you can also display an image-based animation by selecting the animation file
as a background movie. When active, the background movie is displayed in a
viewport in
the Visualization module.
For more information, see
Displaying and customizing a background movie.
Note:
Abaqus/CAE
also enables you to save an animation in VRML
format, which creates a three-dimensional rendition of the animation. Because
these files are three-dimensional, they are not strictly image-based; however,
you can play and distribute animation files in
VRML format as you would files in QuickTime or
AVI formats.
In general, animation playback from a file provides better performance
than object-based animation, particularly for large models. While an
image-based animation is playing, you cannot change its display
characteristics.