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bobweb1-Visitor
1-Visitor
March 18, 2019
Question

FBX, pivot and animation

  • March 18, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 4273 views

Hello,

I am a beginner using Vuforia Studio and Creo Illustrate, I usually use 3ds Max. So for learning I wanted to create an easy example: Create a box, that opens its lid when clicking on it. Not far in I already bumped against several walls, maybe more experienced people here can give me a hint or two:

- Box and lid are simple polygon objects, the pivot of the lid is placed correctly at the hinge in 3ds Max, I have animated the lid to open, they have Standard materials, no textures

- I used FBX as an export format, default AME settings

- Vuforia Studio imports the geometry and the basic materials, animation is unfortunately ignored (feature request!)

- So I learned the only ways for animation is cumbersome javascript or Creo Illustrate. So I installed Creo and new problems arise: The pivot point of the lid is ignored, it is always at the center. I see the button for changing it manually, but it does not do anything. I could not change the pivot in creo. How does this work? It is quite frustrating when you have 3ds Max at your fingertips and have to animate with Powerpoint... 😉

- I see how Vuforia Studio makes all the technical stuff easier, like building and connecting 2D interfaces, managing markers and such - but is there really no artist-friendly possibility for making it look nice? No lighting, shading, reflection environment etc.? Well, unless you know how to code OpenGL shaders manually, I guess. Or is there something I have missed?

- Well, maybe I am better off learning Unity and use the Vuforia plugin there. Or are there disadvantages as well?

 

Thanks a lot,

Bob

2 replies

S
sdidier17-Peridot
17-Peridot
March 19, 2019

Hello Bob,

 

To answer to you questions :

  • In Creo Illustrate, to change the pivot point, please follow these steps :
    1. In Step Editor panel, click on the Add New Step...
    2. In Animation ribbon, in Orientation, select an orienation who will help your work
    3. In Animation ribbon, in Transform list, select Select CSYS
    4. Click a Component in Figure1 window in 3D
    5. In selection Filter, at the bottom, at right of Creo Illustrate window, select Edges for example
    6. Select an Edge who it will be the axis rotation
    7. In Select CSYS, the Reference: field has been updated
    8. Click the OK button
    9. In sBOM tab, select the Component to rotate
    10. Rotation gnomon has its center on the EdgeCreo Illustrate rotate.png

       

     More details in Help Center at this web page :

     To Transform and Rotate Parts

 

  • You are right Vuforia Studio doesn't have Lights ...etc.. to have a better renderer of 3D Objects. Only coding Shader is possible to improve that.
  • In Unity 3D, you will have to develop some scripts but your will have more flexibility about the rendering pipeline. In Vuforia Studio, it is easier to communicate with ThingWorx Platform and to use IoT Things. 

Best regards,

Samuel

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RolandRaytchev21-Topaz I
21-Topaz I
March 19, 2019

Hi @bobweb ,

the answer of  @sdidier  is very detailed showing the workflow.

But the  simples answer of you question:

- FBX files containing animations will be better to be handled in unity3d directly.  In this case you need for the Augmented application the Vuforia engine:

https://www.vuforia.com/features.html

https://library.vuforia.com/content/vuforia-library/en/articles/Training/vuforia-fusion-article.html

And you need to register on the Vuforia dev portal

https://developer.vuforia.com/

- if you want to use studio you need to use as temporary step the PTC Tool Creo Illustrate where you can load the data  and create your own sequence ( as described in the post @sdidier )

-another option ( I do not think that this is very usable but want just to mention it) is to load the data directly in Studio and to use transformation for some movements but this required some more intensive mathematical calculation of the space transformations .e.g. to have the correct hinge axis for  a rotation in 3d space (when the rotation axis is not the x,y.z coordinate axis). In case that you have only some translation this could be handled easily by script.

 

B
bobweb1-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
March 19, 2019

Thanks a lot for both of your quick and detailed answers @sdidier and @RolandRaytchev . I will have a look at Unity as well and see how far I can get there. Still I would like to know how this works with the pivot. I am surprised that the workflow has nothing to do with the button "Set spin Center". It sounds as if this should do something like this, although it seems to not do anything, at least for me.

I have tried to recreate your workflow, unfortunately I could not do all of it, at point 6/7 nothing happens when I click on the model's edges, it keeps saying "Global" in "Select CSYS" window. I have also tried points and faces, but nothing happens, no matter where I click on the model.

 

Thanks,

Bob

R
RolandRaytchev21-Topaz I
21-Topaz I
March 20, 2019

Hi @bobweb,

 

so tryed in the following picture to explain how to rotate to an edge axis a part or subassembly (here in the example is subassembly):

2019-03-20_11-23-49.gif

1.) You have to define a figure and set it as current. Now you can select the object what you need to rotate

2.) Menu transform 

3.) select free rotation

4.)menu point "Select CSYS"

5.)select e.g. edge which you want to use as hinge

6.) rotate the object in the step

so hope this will make it clear. If not then let me know!

Thanks

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