does anyone know how to use the animation feature on Inventor 2008? I need some help with placing constraints on some of the robot parts and then animating them.
Derek,
You want to make sure that all of the parts of your robot are properly constrained in the assembly.
There are then a number of ways to do animations:
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You can animate a single constraint using the DRIVE CONSTRAINT option. If other parts depend on the part that moves when you drive the constraint, they will also move. This technique is usually used to view a simple mechanism movement.
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You can create an IPN file that will (usually) animate an explosion of your assembly so you can see all of the parts and how they go together.
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You can use Inventor Studio to animate motion, visibility and other “events” using a timeline that will allow you to show things happening according to a “script” of things that you want to happen over that span of time. Studio allos you to animate multiple events which occur simultaneously or which overlap. Most animated event within Studio rely on the constraints you placed in the assembly however some events can be animated that ignore assembly constraints if that is what you need.
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Inventor Professional also provides a Dynamic Simulation module that would allow you to animate an assembly that took into account friction, gravity, etc… it is likely beyond the scope of what you might want to start with (however there is a tutorial supplied with Inventor that would allow you to explore Dynamic Simulation).
ok thank you so much for the help