ABAQUS/CAE User's Manual


33.3.1 Saving animations

You save animations to a file by first playing animations in one or more viewports and then selecting AnimateSave As from the main menu bar.

You can choose to save all or just selected viewports. Viewports that you save can be in any plot state (for example, deformed, X–Y, or animation). For viewports currently in the animation plot state ABAQUS/CAE saves all frames of the animation, starting with the first frame; it does not matter whether the animation is playing at the time you perform the save. If you save multiple viewports containing animations, ABAQUS/CAE saves them all as a single image-based animation. ABAQUS/CAE synchronizes multiple animations on the file by repeating the last frame of any animations that have fewer frames than the others.

To save animations:

  1. Produce one or more time history, scale factor, or harmonic animations. For more information, see “Producing and customizing an object-based animation,” Section 33.2.

  2. From the main menu bar, select AnimateSave As.

    The Save Image Animation dialog box appears.

  3. For AVI or QuickTime format, use the Selection field to choose the viewports to save:

    1. Click the arrow next to the Capture field to save All Viewports (the default) or the Current Viewport.

    2. Toggle Capture viewport decorations to control whether ABAQUS/CAE saves visible viewport decorations.

    For VRML or Compressed VRML format, the saved animation will display the current viewport only and omit viewport decorations.

  4. Use the Settings field to specify the name and format of your animation file:

    1. Click Select to filter and browse file names, or enter the file name of your choice in the File name field. For more information, see “Using file selection dialog boxes,” Section 3.2.10.

    2. From the Format options, select AVI (the default), QuickTime, VRML, or Compressed VRML format for your file. To learn more about these format options, see “Choosing the animation file format,” Section 33.3.2.

  5. For AVI or QuickTime format, use the Frame Rate field to specify the number of frames that display per second in the saved animation. You can specify any positive integer as the frame rate by entering a value in the Rate field or drag the slider to select a frame rate between 1 and 50 frames/second. By default, the frame rate matches the frame rate currently selected on the Player page.

  6. Click Apply to save your animation.

    ABAQUS/CAE captures canvas viewports to a file according to your specifications.