| SimMechanics™ | |
| On this page… |
|---|
Starting SimMechanics™ Visualization Rendering Your Machines in Static Display Animating Your Machines During Simulation Other SimMechanics™ Visualization Controls |
Starting SimMechanics™ visualization requires two choices, one for your entire model, the second for each machine in your model. These choices are part of configuring your model for simulation, as discussed in Starting Visualization and Simulation in the Running Mechanical Models chapter. Implement your visualization choices at any time by clicking Apply or OK.
You can choose whether or not to visualize a specific machine in your model through the Visualization pane of its Machine Environment block dialog. A single window displays all selected machines in a model. By default, each machine is selected for visualization.
You enter the visualization settings for an entire model in the Visualization area of the SimMechanics node of the Configuration Parameters dialog. To open visualization, you must select at least one of these check boxes.
Model-wide visualization is turned off by default.
Select the Display machine after updating diagram check box if you want the SimMechanics visualization window to display the machines in your model in a static rendering. Once you select this check box, you can synchronize the display with changes in your model by selecting Update Diagram in the Simulink® Edit menu. To open the static visualization the first time, you must update your model after selecting this check box.
This check box is not selected by default.
Select the Show animation during simulation check box if you want the SimMechanics visualization window to animate your machine as it moves during the simulation. If you select this check box, but not the static rendering, the visualization opens only when you start the simulation.
This check box is not selected by default.
All other visualization controls are located on the SimMechanics visualization window itself. You can access them once the window is open.
This chapter guides you in making the appropriate SimMechanics visualization choices. This section explains why you might want to visualize your machine's and animate its motion.
You can find more on the choice of body shapes in the next section:
The three sections that follow explain the SimMechanics visualization controls:
SimMechanics visualization serves two distinct purposes, static and dynamic. In both cases, you can change your observer viewpoint and navigate through the scene. You can change the body properties of the visualization only by changing the corresponding Body blocks in your model. Changing a body's mass, inertia tensor, and coordinate systems can change its visual rendering.
Static rendering of machines in their initial state, during construction. Either choice is valid:
Open the visualization before or while you build your model. You render each body as you add it to your model.
Having the visualization window open during model building lets you keep track of your machine parts and how they are connected. You can see unphysical or mistaken constructions before you finish the model.
Open the visualization after you finish the model. All the bodies in the model appear together.
Animation of machines while the SimMechanics model is running. Use this feature to watch the model's dynamics in three dimensions and visualize motions and relationships more easily than is possible with Scope blocks alone. The Running Mechanical Models chapter presents the steps for configuring and running SimMechanics models.
You can bypass standard SimMechanics visualization by creating a virtual reality world of your own design to visualize your machine's bodies. With Virtual Reality Toolbox™ software, you can build a custom interface from your model to the virtual world and animate its virtual bodies:
| Visualizing and Animating Machines | Rendering Body Shapes | |
| © 1984-2008- The MathWorks, Inc. - Site Help - Patents - Trademarks - Privacy Policy - Preventing Piracy - RSS |