Product Documentation

Search MATLAB Documentation
R2012a Documentation → SimMechanics
View documentation for other releases	Learn more about SimMechanics

Contents

Index

• Getting Started

• Product Overview

Product Definition

Mechanical Simulation and Physical Modeling

• Related Products

Required Products

Other Related Products

• Running a Demo Model

What the Demo Represents

Viewing a Mechanical Drawing of the Conveyor

What the Demo Illustrates

Opening the Model

Running the Model

Modifying the Model

Visualizing and Animating the Model

• What You Can Do with SimMechanics Software

About SimMechanics Software

Modeling Mechanical Systems

Bodies, Coordinate Systems, Joints, and Constraints

Sensors, Actuators, Friction, and Force Elements

Simulating and Analyzing Mechanical Motion

Visualizing and Animating Models

For More Information

• Learning More

Using the MATLAB Help System for Documentation and Demos

Finding Special SimMechanics Help

• Introducing the SimMechanics Block Libraries

About the SimMechanics Block Library

Accessing the Libraries

Using the Libraries

• Essential Steps to Building and Running a Mechanical Model

About Machine Modeling and Simulation

Essential Steps to Build a Model

Essential Steps to Configure and Run a Model

• Modeling and Simulating a Simple Machine

Modeling the Simple Pendulum

Opening the SimMechanics Block Library

The World Coordinate System and Gravity

Configuring the Ground

Configuring the Body

Configuring the Joint

Adding a Sensor and Starting the Simulation

• Visualizing a Simple Machine

Visualizing and Animating the Simple Pendulum

Starting Visualization

Selecting a Body Geometry

Displaying the Pendulum

Modeling and Visualizing More Complex Machines

• Modeling and Simulating a Closed-Loop Machine

Modeling the Four Bar Mechanism

Viewing a Mechanical Drawing of the Four Bar Mechanism

Counting the Degrees of Freedom

Configuring the Mechanical Environment

Setting Up the Block Diagram

Configuring the Ground and Joints

Configuring the Bodies

Sensing Motion and Running the Model

For More About the Four Bar Mechanism

• Kinematics and Machine Motion State

About Kinematics

Degrees of Freedom

The State of Motion

Home, Initial, and Assembled Configurations

For More Information

• Representations of Body Motion

About Body Motion

Machine Geometry and Motion

Reference Frames and Coordinate Systems

Relating Coordinate Systems in Relative Motion

Observing Body Motion in Different Coordinate Systems

Representing Body Translations and Rotations

• Representations of Body Orientation

About Body Orientation Representations

Axis-Angle Representation

Quaternion Representation

Rotation Matrix Representation

Euler Angle Representation

Converting Rotation Representations

Converting the Angular Velocity

• Orienting a Body and Its Coordinate Systems

About the Body Orientation Examples

Setting Up the Test Body

Rotating the Body and Its CG CS Relative to World

Rotating the Body Relative to Its Center of Gravity

Creating and Rotating Body Coordinate Systems

• User's Guide

• Modeling Mechanical Systems

• Running Mechanical Models

• Analyzing Motion

• Motion, Control, and Real-Time Simulation

• Introducing Visualization and Animation

• Getting Started with the Visualization Window

• Introducing the SimMechanics Visualization Window

About the Visualization Window

Opening and Updating the Visualization Window

Visualization Toolbar and Its Controls

• Controlling Body and Body Component Display

About Body and Body Component Display

Interpreting the Body Display Symbols and Shapes

Changing Body Display Symbols

Changing Body Display Shapes

• Adjusting the Camera View

Setting the Background Color

Interpreting the Camera Projection, Field of View, and Viewpoint

Automatically Sizing the Camera Field of View

Automatically Setting a Camera Viewpoint

Actively Controlling the Camera Viewpoint

Camera Viewpoint and Mouse Controls

• Communicating with the Model from the Visualization Window

Highlighting Bodies, Body Components, and Body Blocks

Updating the Model Diagram

Saving Visualization Settings to the Model

• Controlling Simulation from the Visualization Window

Starting, Pausing, and Stopping the Simulation

Timing the Simulation

• Controlling Animation

About Animation

How Animation Works

Automatically Adapting the Camera View to the Displayed Motion

Changing How the Animation Is Updated

Speeding Up the Animation in Real Time

• Recording Animation

About Recording

How Recording Works

Recording Animations

Compressing Animation Recordings

Controlling the Size of the Recorded Animation

Playing Recordings of Animation

• SimMechanics Visualization Menus and Their Controls

About the Visualization Window Menus

Simulation Menu

• Customizing Visualization and Animation

• Importing Mechanical Models

• Computer-Aided Design Translation

• Release Notes

Getting Started with the Visualization Window

The SimMechanics visualization window allows you to control how you view your model's bodies in both static display and dynamic simulation-based animation. It also allows you to record animations.

Hierarchy of Body, Machine, and Model Visualization Settings

Hierarchy of Body, Machine, and Model Visualization Settings

Introducing the SimMechanics Visualization Window

Introducing the SimMechanics Visualization Window

Related Products & Applications

Get Simulink trial software

Learn more about Simulink through this collection of videos, articles, technical literature and the Getting Started with Simulink Guide.

Get this Simulink Kit

© 1984-2012- The MathWorks, Inc. - Site Help - Patents - Trademarks - Privacy Policy - Preventing Piracy - RSS