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PhilipOakley1-Visitor
1-Visitor
November 4, 2014
Solved

Animating beyond 999 frames

  • November 4, 2014
  • 24 replies
  • 12569 views

Way back in the days of the Collaboratory there was a thread http://communities.ptc.com/message/45030#45030 discussing how to get longer animations beyond 999 (or 9999!).

The main point is that the dialog box is sized in one (microsoft) way and the characters being typed in by some (microsoft) font size. As the versions have come and gone the available space for the ### characters has reduced, limiting the animation length.

Unfortunately the pictures have been lost, so I'm wondering if anyone knows the right settings for changing the screen DPI (if this is what is need) to get a bigger dialog box, and also to change the system font that Mathcad is using (to something smaller) so that I can get at least 9999 (four) digits of animation.

Ideally I'd like to be able to animate at regular display DPI, yet get at least 1100 FRAMES (i.e. enter 4 characters in the dialog box)

I'm using V15M030 on XP (home) and on W7 (work).

Philip

Best answer by Werner_E

None of the tricks and tips provided here worked for me.

As Valery wasn't willing or wasn't able to show us how to use negative values of FRAME in a meaningful way, I had to find out by myself.

Its quite easy as its just a matter of two's complement of 32-bit integers. FRAME seems to be created in 32bit two's complement representation but when it comes to Mathcad interpreting it, it is seen as a normal binary number. That means the the MSB (2^31) is seen as positive and not as negative. So its quite simple to use negative FRAME values - you just have to subtract 2^32 if the number is greater than or equal to 2^31. Due to a lack of binary operations I guess we have to resort to an if function or an if statement.

1.png

Find attached an animation created with FRAME running from -20 to +20.

This means that as long as you don't need more than 1999 frames you have a solution for animations with more than 1000 frames.

24 replies

Werner_E
Werner_E25-Diamond I
25-Diamond I
November 4, 2014

Here is the missing picture which Jean had attached back in 2004.

Not sure if it will help, though.

I am not aware of any trick to get more than 1000 FRAMES but if you have luck, please tell us.

Settings01.gif

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PhilipOakley1-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
November 5, 2014

Thanks for finding the image.

Is there a trick to locating these old ones where the link in the original thread doesn't appear to work?

The image was useful in confirming that my experiments were in the right area (relative to the original post), even if it wasn't sucessful!

Philip

Werner_E
Werner_E25-Diamond I
25-Diamond I
November 5, 2014

Philip Oakley wrote:

Thanks for finding the image.

Is there a trick to locating these old ones where the link in the original thread doesn't appear to work?

None that I would be aware of.

I tried (with mediocre success) to make a back up of the old collab using a free software called HTTrack. It cretates (in theory) a local copy of a full website including all pages and files linked to. The collab was too much for it, though, but at least it was loaded partially and as in the link you provided the filename was visible I had luck and found it in that partial backup.

V
ValeryOchkov24-Ruby IV
24-Ruby IV
November 5, 2014

We can use from -999 to 999 frame's numers. But there is one bug at frame < 0 and we must use the if operator by the frame creating.

Werner_E
Werner_E25-Diamond I
25-Diamond I
November 5, 2014

Valery Ochkov wrote:

We can use from -999 to 999 frame's numers. But there is one bug at frame < 0 and we must use the if operator by the frame creating.

Can you please explain how exactly you would use the negative FRAME values?

As you can see in the attached animation where FRAME is set to run from -20 to +20, FRAME has a constant, high value in the first half of the animation.

How can you use the "negative" FRAME values in a meaningful way?

Z
zhulaojianke1-Visitor
1-Visitor
November 5, 2014

The -20 to 20 FRAME of mine animation works well. And the 20 to -20 is well too. Video Link : 5433

Video Link : 5434

Z
zhulaojianke1-Visitor
1-Visitor
November 5, 2014

Open the Option in the Video, and reduce the compression quality and the "temporary compression ratio" in the config, then I can record 9999 of the FRAME. And I can't input more than four figures in the input box.

2014-11-05_120443.png

2014-11-05_120700.png

Werner_E
Werner_E25-Diamond I
25-Diamond I
November 5, 2014

zhu laojianke wrote:

Open the Option in the Video, and reduce the compression quality and the "temporary compression ratio" in the config, then I can record 9999 of the FRAME. And I can't input more than four figures in the input box.

Unfortunately this does not work for me. And when I look at the compression ratio it always automatically jumps back to 0.75, even if I has set it to 0,1 as adviced by your pictures.

I also tried to change the trick with setting the display foont size to large, but it didn't help either.

Werner_E
Werner_E25-Diamond IAnswer
25-Diamond I
November 6, 2014

None of the tricks and tips provided here worked for me.

As Valery wasn't willing or wasn't able to show us how to use negative values of FRAME in a meaningful way, I had to find out by myself.

Its quite easy as its just a matter of two's complement of 32-bit integers. FRAME seems to be created in 32bit two's complement representation but when it comes to Mathcad interpreting it, it is seen as a normal binary number. That means the the MSB (2^31) is seen as positive and not as negative. So its quite simple to use negative FRAME values - you just have to subtract 2^32 if the number is greater than or equal to 2^31. Due to a lack of binary operations I guess we have to resort to an if function or an if statement.

1.png

Find attached an animation created with FRAME running from -20 to +20.

This means that as long as you don't need more than 1999 frames you have a solution for animations with more than 1000 frames.

P
PhilipOakley1-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
November 7, 2014

Werner, Thanks for the direct image of the formula

FRAME:=if(FRAME>=2^31,FRAME-2^32,FRAME)

for allowing the use of the negative FRAME numbers, and thanks to Vyacheslav and Valery for the original work.

This at least allows me to extend my simulation to 1999 frames (the calculation is doing a performance map, with data being written to file, so the video part is quite compact).

I'll probably use

FRAME:=if(FRAME>=2^31,FRAME-2^32,FRAME) + 999

near the front of the worksheet to do the offset, so the existing part of the worksheet continues to think that FRAME is going from zero upwards (when it gets to those parts of the worksheet)

Obviously, if anyone discovers how to 'adjust' the font/dialog box to allow more characters for the number then that would also be great.

Philip

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ptc-16567211-Visitor
1-Visitor
November 6, 2014

Take a look here:

http://communities.ptc.com/message/28248#28248

http://communities.ptc.com/servlet/JiveServlet/download/28257-2671/-999_999.GIF

Werner_E
Werner_E25-Diamond I
25-Diamond I
November 6, 2014

Vyacheslav Tarasov wrote:

Take a look here:

http://communities.ptc.com/message/28248#28248

http://communities.ptc.com/servlet/JiveServlet/download/28257-2671/-999_999.GIF

Thanks! That was exactly the information which was missing and which I had to find out myself - thats called reinventing the wheel, I guess.

The (possible) reason for that behaviour and the exact limit to look for (2^31) was given in my reply above. Your FR is what my FRAME0 is in the animation I attached.

Nevertheless I still wonder why some other people seem to be able to enter 4 digits in the "from" or "to" fields of the animation doalog box, using the very same version of Mathcad (MC15 M030) I use, too.

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