httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeZfJ7k8FdM
If you have the kind of product that has a lot of information, you might find yourself wondering how to create a Bill of Material table that can show some of this extra data?
In just over 2 minutes, you’ll learn how!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-n3EE6KQYk
In this video, Tod introduces you to some uses for 3DVIA Composer kinematics, and then walks you through the basics of how to get it up and running.
One of the very good points Tod makes is that you don’t always need to fully define 100% of the kinematics. When you’re building an animated sequence, a combination of kinematics plus transformations can produce a very effective result.
Enjoy!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmqCRYty7Ps
Here is Part 2 of Tod’s introduction to 3DVIA Composer kinematics. Remember that with Composer, the goal is to use kinematics to facilitate the creation of animated procedures.
Enjoy the tutorial.
And we’re always looking for more ideas for future videos. Please let us know what you’d like to see!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhfO_fC6So4
Hi folks, and Happy New Year to everybody.
Tod’s been busy with kinematics again, and has prepared yet another informative video on this topic. He provides a couple of nice tips to help simulate moving parts around, like a robot, where you need to first pick up the piece, move it with the help of kinematics, and then drop it.
Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ke-LrMj8QM
We have a TON of new videos to share with you. I was about to post our next “3DVIA your iPod” video, and quickly eclipse our 100th video, and the title itself struck me… we’ve been doing this for several years, and when we originally started, this was the era of the video iPod. And the way to get the video on your iPod was through iTunes podcast feed.
A lot has changed in the last few years. We’re in the YouTube era, social era… iPhones and iPads, Android, tablets… it’s easier than ever to share videos. We don’t need iTunes video feeds or any other complicated uploading/downloading procedures and syncing. So while I was hoping to soon mark our 100th video “podcast”, it’s time to get current and refresh the name. Plus, I’d like to introduce you to our producer of these videos: Tod.
With that… I’m happy to announce our NEW video series: The TodCast!
Here’s introducing “TodCast #1: Technical Illustration Standards” where you will learn about how 3DVIA Composer supports S1000D, WebCGM, and ATA iSpec2200. Tell us what you think! (Or, tell Tod what you think!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjTeC49Ypdo
So you want to route some wires on your 3DVIA Composer animation, but:
(a) you don’t have 3D models of wires, and (b) you don’t have a way to make parts flexible.
So what to do?
In this latest TodCast, Tod shows an interesting way to use geometry primitives + associative paths to simulate wire routings. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIZDkORY6pY
For those of us in the northern hemisphere — hot enough for ya? Welcome to the dog days of summer! To help keep you cool, Tod has put together a set of tips and tricks that will turn complicated animations into quick and easy work — getting you out of the hot seat, on your way home, and into your hammock in no time!
Tod shows how powerful yet easy it is to mix up and incorporate some advanced stuff: assembly groups, parent/inherited animations, assembly selection mode, grid snapping, primitives, timeline filtering by selected objects… just to name a few.
Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–4VY4BhUNs
Have you ever wanted to make a technical illustration using non-black silhouette outlines for specific parts? It’s incredibly easy and fast to do, as Tod demonstrates in this latest TodCast.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOSqsThzaSY
Welcome to the first TodCast of 2012! We have been busy making fresh content for your enlightenment and enjoyment. (Please feel free to tell us what you’d like to see!)
In this TodCast, Tod walks us through the new multi-camera capability of Version6 R2012x, and shows us how easy it is to create engaging animations.
We’re proud to announce that the first ever 3DVIA Composer User Group meeting was an astounding success!
Braving the cold and snow of the Minnesota winter, a broad mix of CAD engineers, engineering managers, and technical writers gathered in Minneapolis to share ideas and become more productive using 3DVIA Composer.
The day’s speaker roster included 3DVIA’s own Tod Cruikshank (the famed creator of the “TodCast”), who presented a collection of tips and tricks for streamlining content creation in 3DVIA Composer. Also speaking were Earl Hasz from SolidWorks and Mat Sauer of MTS Systems Corp.
It’s good to point out that this event was purely focused on sharing information to help make users more productive – and not trying to sell (software, timeshare, used cars, etc). This allowed the attendees to settle in and focus on the most important stuff, namely learning, networking, and sharing experiences.
I’m also happy to report that the good folks over at SolidWorks are helping to expand the 3DVIA Composer User Group network by supporting it inside the SolidWorks User Group Network. This means that if you’re interested in starting up a 3DVIA Composer User Group in your area, you can jump on the SWUGN website and learn how easy it is. If you’re not a SolidWorks user, rest assured because the user group network is open to ALL users, regardless of what CAD platform you use!
We’ll be sure to keep you informed as the 3DVIA Composer User Groups continue to expand.
When ever you share 3D data outside your organization, you put your designs at risk of being reverse engineered and stolen. This makes protecting intellectual property a major concern for manufacturers and product designers. In our next TodCast, Tod shows how easy it is to protect your 3D designs using a few simple (and patented!) tools in 3DVIA Composer.
Parts aren’t always designed to be rigid. The challenge is that when you design parts to flex, it can be difficult to show. In his latest “TodCast”, our 3DVIA Composer technical guru Tod Cruikshank offers a few handy tips and tricks for using Merge and Explode commands to animate the appearance of part flexibility.
I saw a question on the 3DVIA Composer user forum the other day about modifying environment maps. In Composer an environment map is used more as a reflection map rather than a full imaged based lighting map. Think of it as a virtual sphere that an image is mapped onto and the image is then reflected back in your materials. The reflection will vary depending on many of the attributes in the actual material chosen but by changing the map you can vary your reflections. Since modifying the maps may not be compleatly obvious , I figured that it would make a great idea for a TodCast. With that in mind, here are a few tips and tricks that might help to get just that reflection you are looking for. ~Tod
Over the past few years, we have been showcasing some cool samples and passing along some interesting tips and tricks… and with the posting of TodCast #9, this marks our 100th 3DVIA Composer video in this series!!
Which one is your favorite?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3TpM02kUV8
You can’t do deformations in 3DVIA Composer… or can you?
True you can’t physically deform objects other than scaling but you can get by with quite a bit by faking it.
Recently a customer wanted to simulate a variable belt drive power system in 3DVIA Composer. This episode will give you some tips and tricks to help you do just that. You may even pick up a few other animation techniques and tips while you’re at it.
Enjoy Faking Geometry Deformations
Tod