Animations

Animations you can view in the SolidWorks eDrawings Viewer:

• Animations generated in eDrawings (Reorder Views tab ). Play through the view orientations or drawing views with shaded data in the order displayed on the Reorder Views tab. Reorder the views to control the order of the animation. The animation tools are on the eDrawings toolbar.

• SolidWorks Motion Studies animations (Animations tab ). The Animations tab is available only when SolidWorks Motion Studies are included in the document. Use the animation tools, including playback options, on the Animations tab.

Animations generated in eDrawings

Use the eDrawings animation tools to animate models using drawing views contained in drawings and standard views for parts and assemblies. You can animate drawing files published as eDrawings (*.edrw) files if the drawing views contain shaded data.

When animating drawing files (*.edrw and .eDw), section lines and detail circle annotations hyperlink to the associated section or detail view. When you stop an animation, if you click a section line or detail circle annotation, the related view appears in the graphics area, and vice versa. See Hyperlinking Views in Drawings.

To animate a model or drawing:

	Continuous Play	Starts a continuous forward play loop.
	Stop	Stops the animation at its current position. When you stop the animation, you can use the zoom, rotate, and pan tools. When you restart the animation, it zooms to fit the animated view in the graphics area and returns to the previous active view.
	Next	Advances to the next view in the animation sequence.
	Previous	Returns to the previous view in the animation sequence.
	Home	Returns the model to its original orientation.

To customize animations:

1. Click Tools, Reorder Views or select the Reorder Views tab .

On the tab, the current view sequence appears in animation order.

2. To reorder the views, select one and click Up or Down . To reset to the default order, click Reset .  

For drawings, on the Sheets tab , as the animation cycles through the views, the current view is shown with the icon and all other views change to .

SolidWorks Motion Studies Animations

When you publish eDrawings files from SolidWorks files that contain SolidWorks motion studies animations, you can view these animations in the eDrawings Viewer.

You must have SolidWorks eDrawings Professional to publish eDrawings files that contain SolidWorks motion studies animations. Once published, the SolidWorks motion studies animations can be viewed with the complimentary SolidWorks eDrawings Viewer.

Limitations

• Mixed-mode rendering, where the animation shows the model in different modes such as HLR and wireframe, is not supported.

• Animations that contain body size or shape changes are not shown in eDrawings files.

• Perspective cameras saved in SolidWorks Motion Studies animations are not supported when viewing animations in eDrawings.

To publish SolidWorks Motion Studies animations:

1. Click File, Save As.

2. Select the eDrawings file type in Save as type.

3. Click Options and select Save Motion Studies to eDrawings file, then click OK.

4. Click Save.

If you use the Publish SolidWorks eDrawings <version> File tool, animations are included in the published eDrawings file.

To view SolidWorks Motion Studies animations:

1. Select the Animations tab .

2. Drag the slider to adjust the animation speed.

3. Select a playback option:

	Normal Playback	Plays the animation once.
	Loop Playback	Plays the animation from start to end in an infinite loop until you stop or reset it.
	Ping-pong Playback	Plays the animation from start to end, then from end to start, in an infinite loop until you stop or reset it.

4. Click a command:

	Play Animation	Plays the animation in the selected playback mode.
	Stop Animation
	Reset Animation	Resets the animation to the beginning at any time.
	Home	Returns the model to its original orientation.

 

Animations