Customizing a scale factor or harmonic animation

You can customize the apparent motion of your animated model by choosing between the scale factor range Half cycle and the extended range Full cycle. The extended range is useful, for instance, to visualize a vibration mode obtained by modal analysis. You can also vary the number of frames (separate images) in the animation. A greater number of frames produces a smoother animation.

Related Topics
Scale factor animation
Producing a scale factor animation
Harmonic animation
Producing a harmonic animation
Customizing the underlying plot of an animation
Scaling deformations

Context:

In a scale factor animation Abaqus/CAE divides the scale factor range by the number of frames to compute the animation scale factor values. These values are applied to the deformation scale factors in each coordinate direction and to the field output variable values to produce each image in the animation sequence.

In a harmonic animation Abaqus/CAE divides the angle range by the number of frames to compute the animation angle values. These values are applied to compute the value of the field output variable at that angle and to produce each image in the animation sequence.

  1. Locate the Scale Factor/Harmonic options.

    From the main menu bar, select OptionsAnimation; then click the Scale Factor/Harmonic tab in the dialog box that appears. The Scale Factor/Harmonic options appear.

  2. To control the range, click the Relative Scaling that you want:

    • Full cycle: for scale factor animation (real numbers) this selection corresponds to the range −1 to 1; for harmonic animation (complex numbers having real and imaginary components) this selection corresponds to the range −180° to 180°.

    • Half cycle: for scale factor animation (real numbers) this selection corresponds to the range 0 to 1; for harmonic animation (complex numbers having real and imaginary components) this selection corresponds to the range 0 to 180°.

  3. To choose the number of separate images in your animation, click the Frames arrow.

    The specified number of frames appears in the Frames box.

  4. Click Apply to implement your changes.

    The scale factor or harmonic animation in all animated viewports changes to reflect the relative scaling and the number of frames you have specified.

    Your changes are saved for the duration of the session and will affect all subsequent plots in the harmonic or scale factor animation state.