Hi
Can anyone advise me on how I can get the camera sled to follow the path in the attached file. I am using SW2010 professional. I then want to create a camera animation of the path. I've tried to follow the help files but have had limited success. Could someone have a look at the files and show me what I need to do please.
thank you D
Deepak
I have already done this to some degree. But i need more help with the attached files.
thanks anyway
Hi Deepak
I have attached a PDF of basically what I am trying to do, as you will not see the path sketch if I convert to parasolid. You should be able to sketch something up pretty quickly even if you are not able to open the files. The Camera skid is just a block floating in an assembly with a camera attached. I am trying to get the camera skid to follow a 3D sketch to it's other end, moving in X,Y & Z and parrallel to the top plane, I want the camera to always point in the direction of travel. I hope this is clear enough for you and will look forward to your reply.
Thanks again Dee
You have to create a component, can be a virtual component.
In this virtual component you have to create two points.
In the assembly, use the path mate with this two points and your path.
Set your position camera and the focus camera using your two points.
Move your component along the path with camera enabled.
Alessandro
I understand that but how do i use motion to move automatically from the start point to the end point???
Move the component manually.
If you move the component from 0 sec to 20 sec, the velocity is constant, it's not related to your mouse velocity movement.
Anyway..try...it's the best course.
Convert your path in spline using Fit Spline option (Tools> Spline Tools) and then move your part/sled manually. But don't go all the way in one go. Use steps.
Else use combinations of mates to have the camera animation.
Hi Guys
I have tried everything but this animation is not very stable. I have a path mate and included the options to follow path, I then moved the sled manually and added the keys to each new positions but when I run/calculate the animation it jumps all over the place and is not very free flowing. I did try the spline option as well but with no success. Can someone please try this animation with the files I attached at the start of my discussion and see if they can get the sled to the end of the path in a smooth motion. I have run out ideas now.
Cheers Dee
Not that I really know what I am doing, but....
If you just want to move the camera from location to location in straight lines, which appears to be the case from your files, don't bother with a sled and a path. Just add a keypoint at each time location, and then edit the camera location in the camera properties. You can just drag the camera to the new location.
If you want smooth motion from location to location, you will need a path, and a 3d spline has a decent chance of working. Note that you do not need a seperate part file for your path, it can just be a sketch in a part or assembly. Your sled can be a virtual file in the assembly, and doesn't need any geometry, just attach the camera to the origin. Mate the camera sled origin to the path, and control the travel along the path using the distance along path constraint in the path mate.
Camera sleds and path mates can be cranky, sometimes I have to blow away either the path mate or the path entirely and start over, because I do not know how to fix some of the problems any other way. Edits to the path or the part/assembly can have unpredictable effects in you animation.
Here is a quickie sample that I think is doing the type of movement you are looking for. Changing the interpolation mode to ease in/ease out would smooth it out a bit.
Diarmuid I'm not in front of SW right now but Alessandro should work for you.
Sorry can't open your file because of higher version but look for Creating a Camera Sled in the help files.