Cubit Command Line based Animation

Coreform Cubit Journal Files/Scripts
#1

Hi, I am using a journal script to replay meshing steps and create a video from it. Based on the Cubit documentation, I have been able to find commands like zoom, pan and rotate along with animation steps to navigate between different areas of interest in the model. I am having difficulty in the following areas and would appreciate any advice. Thanks.

  1. How can I pause at a certain point for a specified number of steps or seconds? I have tried something like zoom screen 1 anim steps 20, but this does not seem to work.

  2. The same number of steps in different commands (like zoom vs rotate) result in a different length in time and so it involves many trials to hit the desired length. Is there a way to specify the duration in seconds instead?

  3. Lastly, when switching between different zoomed views, e.g. zoom vol 1, zoom vol 2, every new zoom command seems to restart from the default view rather than from the existing view. This results in a slightly jerky transition between steps. Is there a way to overcome this?

Thanks!

#2

Take a look at these pages in the documentation.

  1. You can issue a sleep <duration_in_seconds>. If you are talking during a demo, I find it helpful to use the pause command in the journal file, the journal file will stop at that location until you type resume or toggle the pause button off on the toolbar menu. image

  2. You can control the animation steps but the number of seconds is highly dependent on the number of objects in the scene and you graphics card. We only support a number of animation steps.
    https://coreform.com/cubit_help/cubithelp.htm#t=environment_control%2Frecording_and_playback%2Fcontrolling_playback.htm

  3. I see what you are reporting with the jerky transition. My only suggestion would be to use a combination of pan and rotate instead of zoom. I recognize that is painful.

Here are a couple of other references from the documentation in case you haven’t seen them.
https://coreform.com/cubit_help/cubithelp.htm#t=environment_control%2Fgraphics_window_control%2Fzoom_pan_rotate.htm

https://coreform.com/cubit_help/cubithelp.htm#t=environment_control%2Fgraphics_window_control%2Fgraphics_camera.htm

Let us know if the documentation needs any further clarification.

#3

@karl, thanks for pointing me to the sleep command, that was exactly what I was looking for. The graphics camera commands may come in handy as well. Thanks for your helpful response.