Screen cast showing animated exploded assembly reassembling itself

Hi William...

I realize this is a rather stale post. To perform this kind of thing directly from Pro/E, you'd need to use Pro/ANIMATE. Even so, this will be a relatively painful endeavor. The output from Pro/ANIMATE isn't very good. You could use Pro/ANIMATE to generate the explode/unexplode motions (and any rotating or zooming, etc) and then screen-capture the results using third party software like CAMTASIA STUDIO or SNAGIT (in video mode). This would give decent results.

You might also be able to take advantage of some of the new animation features in Creo View. There are some very nice explode/unexplode features in the new Creo View (motions for unscrewing fasteners, etc).

BUT... if someone asked me to produce such a video... and do it FAST... I'd do it this way:

1) Generate a series of simplified reps showing the various stages of component assembly. Make one for each "Step" of your process.

2) Generate a series of explode states... one for each simplified rep... exploding the components.

3) Use COMBINED STATES (View Manager>"ALL" tab) to create a new state for each rep/explode. Again, make one combination state for each "Step" using the reps and explode states from the first 2 steps.

4)Go to View>Display Combined States from the top Pro/E menu. This will give you the ability to list the combined states at the bottom of the model window.

5) Place all of your combined states at the bottom of the model window in order. Starting from fully assembled to fully disassembled, cycle through each state by clicking on them using the tabs at the bottom of the screen.

6) Go to View>Display Settings>Model Display and insure Animation while exploding is enabled. For extra effect you can turn on "Follow Expldoe Sequence". If you do this, then your components will explode in the order in which you moved them when you created the explode states in Step 2. If you just want everything to explode simultaneously, leave this setting unchecked.

7) Install the 30-Day trial of Camtasia Studio from Techsmith.com. Use this to record the graphics portion of your Pro/E window (make sure not to grab the area at the bottom of the screen where the combination state buttons are located). Step through each of your combination states. This will slowly explode or reassemble your models in series. Stitch together the video captures and output using the Camtasia Production Tools.

You'll need to invest about an hour reading and watching the Camtasia tutorials. But this process is fast, requires very little special Pro/E work, and looks just as good as spending alot of time working in Pro/ANIMATE.

If you'd like an example, I might be able to make a quick one using this technique.

Now that I've written it, I wish I'd made a video and posted it for everyone!

Good luck!

-Brian