I ran into a few people at SolidWorks World 2010 in Anaheim last week who all asked me similar questions about the differences between the animation and motion capabilities in the various SolidWorks modules, namely: Animation, Basic Motion and Motion Analysis.
The major difference is in what you can get out of it, so it is good to find out each what each is capable of so that you can determine for yourselves which is the right one to use. A nice feature is that the interface pretty much stays the same, and changing from one type of output to the other might only take changing the solver type (as listed above).
Animation (or Assembly Motion) uses the 3DDCM (3D Dimensional Constraint Manager) from D-Cubed.
The 3DDCM is commonly used to position the parts in an assembly or mechanism. Fast, fully three-dimensional, non-sequential solving and comprehensive geometry, dimension and constraint support enables designers to build, modify and animate the most demanding of assemblies and mechanisms efficiently.
Use Animation to create simple animations that use interpolation to specify point-to-point motion of parts in assemblies.
Basic Motion (or Physical Simulation) uses Ageia PhysX.
Ageia PhysX is a physics solver primarily used in games. It simulates how objects move and react, how they behave. It simulates life-like motion and interaction. With its Ageia PhysX, SolidWorks Physical Simulation focuses on making the simulation look real.
You can use Basic Motion for approximating the effects of motors, springs, collisions, and gravity on assemblies. Basic Motion takes mass into account in calculating motion. Basic Motion computation is relatively fast, so you can use this for creating presentation-worthy animations using physics-based simulations.
Motion Analysis (or SolidWorks Motion) uses the ADAMS solver.
The ADAMS solver can analyze the complex behavior of mechanical assemblies. With this solver, Motion focuses on accurately analyzing the forces, torques, contact forces, power consumption and so on in your mechanism. You can plot any of the resultant kinematic quantities over time (or versus other parameters) in the analysis.
SolidWorks Motion comes in the top level of our design software, SolidWorks Premium, and is also included in both SW Simulation Professional & Simulation Premium. You must first turn on the Add-In before using Motion Analysis.
You can use Motion Analysis to accurately simulate and analyze the motion of an assembly while incorporating the effects of Motion Study elements (including forces, springs, dampers, and friction). A Motion Analysis study combines motion study elements with mates in motion calculations. Consequently motion constraints, material properties, mass, and component contact are included in the SolidWorks Motion kinematic solver calculations. A Motion Analysis study also calculates loads that can be used to define load cases for structural analyses.
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