Construction Equipment

There are some parameters that only appear in the element properties window when the selected object is a Content Library Asset.

The segments and height of some vehicles can be changed to meet the specifications of a vehicle. Tower cranes have both a Jib Length and a Crane Height. Depending on the part of the crane selected a different value appears in the Add Segments field.

The Adjust Jib Length value opens the Add Segments tool to change the jib length of the crane. You must have the jib of the crane selected to add segments to the jib.

The Adjust Crane Height value opens the Add Segments tool to change the crane height by adding segments to the tower crane base. You must have the base of the tower crane selected to add segments to the base.

The Number of Segments text box controls the number of segments for the selected object.

The Segment Length text box controls the size of added segments

The Default button resets the number and length of segments for the selected modular component to its default.

The Apply button applies your changes to the number of segments.

The Close button exits the window without changing the number of segments.

The Show Scale Menu parameter opens the Vehicle Size Adjustment window. The Vehicle Size Adjustment tool allows you to specify specific values for the size of your Vehicle.

Use the Length, Width, and Height fields to scale the vehicle in each direction respectively.

The Turning Radius textbox allows you to change the turning radius after the vehicle has been placed.

The Driver parameter allows you to control what driver appears in your Vehicle. Click the Driver column to switch between a male driver, a female driver, or no driver. For construction vehicles the drivers are construction workers in uniform. For Civilian Vehicles the drivers are civilians.

The Company's Logo parameter allows you to select a logo for your construction Vehicle. This will place a 2D Media object.

The Boat Wake button is available for boats. It opens a menu to control and manipulate the wake on the boat.

Displaying the operation radius helps the user visualize the amount of clearance a vehicle has.

Vehicles will either have an adaptive operation radius that changes based on the furthest extremity of the vehicle and updates with the animation or the operation radius will be the turning radius.

The turning radius can be adjusted before a vehicle is placed or with the scale menu in the element properties.

Inner rings can be set to display multiple rings at intermediate radius away from the vehicle center. These rings in addition to the outer ring will display measurements on the line.

The operation radius textbox controls the distance of the intermediate rings.

The Font Size controls the size of the font on the measurements

Cranes have a special operation radius that displays the radius with a cylinder. The Crane operation radius is also adaptive to the animation.

Crane Operation radius can have Arcs. Arc allow the user to control the range of rotation that an operation radius is displaying.

The Arc Begin textbox defines the start of the arc in degrees. By default, this is set to 0 degrees.

The Arc End textbox defines the start of the arc in degrees. By default, this is set to 360 degrees.

Keyframe Animations can be made with construction vehicles using Fuzor’s Keyframe Animation Tool. The Keyframe Animation Tool is located at the bottom of the Element Properties when construction vehicles are selected. Control different animations by selecting different components of the vehicle. For example, to control the rotation of a tower crane jib select the jib of the crane.

All parts with rigged animations appear in the Element Properties window. You can quickly switch between each animation component by selecting these parameters.

Depending on the part of the vehicle you are animating different options appear in the Keyframe Animation tool. Components under Rotation(Fuzor) in the Element Properties have Radial Sliders. Components under Translation(Fuzor) in the Element Properties have Linear Sliders.

The Linear Slider controls an animation that can move along a straight path or extend along a vector.

The Radial Slider controls animations that can rotate or move around an axis

Both the textboxes and Sliders can be used to control the animation and are synchronized. The value in the textbox cannot exceed the Max Val or fall below the Min Val.

Keyframes are displayed in an array. Keyframes can be edited separately to compose the animation. Click on a Keyframe to edit it. The Refit widget will appear allowing you to move the vehicle during the selected frame.

The slider below the array controls the progress through animation timeline. The keyframe closest to the time is selected. Additionally, when a keyframe is selected the slider will change accordingly. The duration of each transition between keyframes is displayed below the associated keyframe. To edit the duration of a particular transition double click the displayed text.

The Grab Object button prompts you to select an object to be grabbed at the current frame.

The Release Object button prompts you to select an object to be released at the current frame.

the Insert button adds a copy of the selected keyframe directly after the selected frame.

the Reset button resets the sequence back to the first frame.

The Add button adds a copy of the last keyframe to the end of the sequence.

The Move Animation button transforms the vehicle in all Keyframes

The Move Object button prompts the user to select a grabbed object to be moved in that animation.

The Loop checkbox toggles whether the animation is looping. The associated radio buttons control the speed of the looping animation.

Removes the current frame.

Plays the animation.

Opens the animation manager.

Resets the animation times to default when then are assigned to tasks.

Understanding the specails tools that are available when creating vehicle animations will help users create animations more acurautely and at a faster pace.

The Toggle Animation Helper checkbox changes whether the ghost image of vehicles appears to show other frames in the animation.

The ghost image shows all previous frames in the animation as semitransparent gestures. This allows you to see how you would affect the animation when moving the entire animation. Additionally, the ghosts can be used to select a particular frame.

The Enable Views checkbox toggles whether the orthographic views are enabled when the vehicle is selected.

The Propagate Changes checkbox toggles whether vehicle animation changes are propagated forward in subsequent frames. This is useful for editing previously created animations.

When animating vehicles driving on uneven surfaces you may have great results with the built in physics system. By default, Fuzor vehicles will adjust its pitch to account for slopes. However, this same system can produce unwanted results, it is best to know how to control the physics system.

The Physics system can be disabled on a frame by frame basis.

Toggles the vehicle physics in the associated frame or during the entire animation.

When the physics of a vehicle is disabled you can use the refit tool to refit the vehicle along all axis or even suspend the vehicle in the air. This is more tedios for simple animations but may yield more realistic results when dealing with very uneven surfaces. Additionally this system is a great way to ensure that a vehicle is always in the same floor of a multilevel building when an animation begins regardless of what levels have been constructed.

Other models can be grabbed and released by Fuzor vehicles from the content library. If an object is grabbed during a keyframe, its position is dependent on the vehicle until a keyframe that is released in. For more information see Vehicle Animations

When the Grab Object button is clicked you must select an object in the 3D View to be grabbed. You can press ESC to cancel this action.

Once grabbed, an object can be moved by selecting the object in the 3D View. multiple grabbed objects can be moved with multi-select.

Once grabbed, an object can be dropped with the Release Object button. When there are multiple grabbed objects, you must select the object you wish to release in the 3D View.

When releasing objects, you are also prompted to select a drop type. To grab or release multiple objects hold the shift key when selecting them.

The Original drop type drops the object back at its original location.

The Current drop type leaves the object where it was placed.

The Custom drop type prompts you to pick a custom drop location.

The Cancel button cancels the operation.

The Auto Grab and Release Enabled checkbox toggles whether animations are automatically generated for grabbed objects. This is only available for specific cranes.

The Choose Animation Options menu appears directly after objects are selected for automatic grab or release. This menu controls how the auto grab animation will be generated.

The Combine Animation checkbox toggles whether additional nodes are created if the animation uses multiple parts of the vehicle. For example, if unchecked a Tower Crane animation will have separate animations for a hook moving horizontally or vertically.

The Duration specifies the amount of time the animation should take. This applies to the time stamps associated with keyframes in the Keyframe Animation Tool.

The Point Grab radio button toggles whether point grab is activated. When activated the grab point is calculated based on the point on the object that was selected rather than the bounding box of the object.

The Multi Track Animation app is located in the Content Tab of the Fuzor App menu. This app works in conjunture with the canonical Sequence Animation App and the Vehicle animation tool. Multitrack animations can be used to bind multiple animations to the same object. These animations can be bound to tasks or triggers allowing for active control over objects in your scene. Vehicle animations can be converted to Multi-Track Animations using the Animation Manager.

Opens the Animation Manager.

The Animation Manger allows you to save your Equipment animations. Rename created animations by double clicking them.

The Save button saves your current animation to the Animation Manager List.

The Apply button applies the selected animation to the current vehicle.

The Delete button removes the selected animation from the List.

The Convert to Multi-Track button converts your vehicle animation to a Multi-Track Vehicle Animation.

Once animations are created they appear in the Multi Track Animations List. For each item in the list there are mulitple vehicle animations that can be edited separately.

Places a vehicle matching the type of the multi-track animation.

Each vehicle animation that is part of the selected multi track mnimation appears in the Tracks list. In order to view the keyframes associated with a particular track, you must select a vehilce of that type.

The Edit button allows the editing of each keyframe in the selected track. You must have a vehicle of the same type selected to edit the track.

The Clone button duplicates the currently selected animation track.

The Import button imports a .fsa or .fva.

The Export button exports Multi Track Vehicle Animation as a .fva.