Sequence Animation

A construction simulation may need to include operations with plants and equipment that are not included in the Fuzor Content Library. This is common, especially when the user its demonstrating the operation of custom machinery. Demonstrating this unique methodology is possible utilizing a Sequence Animation. A Sequence Animation allows the user animate detailed operations with any object loaded into Fuzor.

The Sequence Animation App is located in the Content tab of the Fuzor App Menu. Sequence Animations can be used to make complex animations of any model that has been imported into Fuzor. They can also be bound to tasks to work as part of a Construction Simulation. For more information see Object Assignment.

You can select a sequence animation by clicking on it in the Sequence Animation List, when you do this the Key Frame editor is opened allowing you to edit frame by frame.

The Create button creates a new sequence animation of selected objects.

The Clone button duplicates the sequence animation.

The Import button opens a file browser for you to import a saved animation.

The Create Explosion Diagram button creates an explosion diagram with the selected object. The Explosion Diagram is added as a sequence animation.

The Add Object(s) button adds selected objects to the selected sequence animation.

The Remove Objects(s) button removes selected objects from the selected sequence animation.

The Grab Objects button prompts you to select objects to be temporarily added at the current keyframe

The Release Object button prompts you to select an object to be removed from the animation.

To improve the workflow the Sequence Animation app includes two checkboxes that change the way box select works.

The Restrict Box Select to Animation checkbox ensures that objects selected with box select belong to the animation

The Restrict Box Selected to Nearest Layer toggles whether objects that are behind other objects are selected during box select. This allows you to select encapsulating objects like walls or curtain panels without selecting the contents of the building. The Tolerance determines how precise of a calculation is used to determine what is in the first layer of a selection. A lower tolerance will be more precise but will take longer to compute.

Removes the associated sequence animation.

The key frame editor keeps track of your different key frames within your sequence animation. To edit a selected key frame, move objects with the keyframe selected.

Drag the slider to transition through the all the key frames. Keyframes can be dragged and dropped in the list to rearrange the order. When a Keyframe is selected any objects that are moved within that keyframe are automatically selected. All other objects are deselected unless no objects are moving during the Keyframe. Any Custom Pivots that are created with the Refit Tool are saved to the Keyframe they are created in.

The Insert Key Frame button creates a new keyframe after the selected keyframe.

The Insert Last Key frame button creates a new keyframe at the end of your sequence animation.

The Reverse Playback check box Reverses the order your keyframes are played through.

Plays the sequence animation.

Stops the sequence animation.

The Apply Settings to All Keyframes checkbox toggles whether Smoothing and Acceleration settings are applied to each keyframe in the animation

The Use Smoothing checkbox toggles whether the animation is smoothed between frames

The Use Acceleration checkbox toggles whether the animation is accelerated between frames.

The Export to File button exports the animation as an .fsa

The Convert to Multitrack button converts your sequence animation to a multi-track sequence animation.

The Move Animation button moves the entire object and all keyframes. For a multitrack animation only the keyframes in the selected track are changed.

You can also temporarily add objects to animations to simulate a grab effect and control which frames their position is dependent upon the animation. The position of the grabbed object is dependent on the sequence animation until released.

When you select an object to be released you will be prompted by the Drop location window. Hold shift to grab or release multiple objects.

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 Staging button releases the object in the staging location

The Cancel button cancels the operation

When the Create Explosion Diagram button is used an additional window is opened in the Sequence Animation App that allows the user to control parameters of the explosion Diagram. Explosion Diagrams are designed to demonstrate how objects are related to each other.

Explosion Diagrams offer two general patterns with different settings. Use the associated radio buttons to change between the explosion diagram types.

The 2D Planar Explosion Diagram Type spreads the objects over a plane in 3D space.

The Direction dropdown menu specifies a direction to explode along.

The Distance value applies a translation to all objects in their ending position.

The Spread value controls how far apart objects are in their end position.

The Duration textbox controls the duration of the animation.

The 3D All Directions Explosion Diagram Type spreads the objects out across all 3D axes.

The Interleave and Alternating checkboxes apply different patterns for the orientation of objects when exploded.

The Distance value controls the distance between objects.

The Grouping value controls the Distance between Groups. Grouping is affected by the object's position relative to the Origin of the explosion diagram.

The Edit button changes the origin of the explosion diagram and the resulting animation.

The Explode in One Step checkbox toggles whether the created animation has separate keyframes for the translation of each object in the diagram.

The Show Preview checkbox toggles whether a preview is displayed for the animation.

The Apply button applies the above changes to the animation.

The Reset button resets the Animation and the settings.

The Auto Label button applies 3D Markers to notable objects in your diagram.

The Label Settings button opens the Auto-Label Settings. This window displays a list of Available Parameters that can be used to create the 3D Markers. The Default is Category. The BIM property associated with the selected parameter populates the 3D Marker for the associated object.