Part VII: Working with Specialized Functionality
You can set the camera angle now, but you should experiment a little first. In the left viewport, you
can zoom the view up to a small window. Zoom to fit or otherwise zoom out until you can see the
sketched spline. A yellow dot connects the lens of the camera to the spline. Drag the yellow dot
around the spline slowly and observe the result in the right window. The image on the right in
Figure 33.12 shows the arrangement of the viewports. As you drag the camera around the path,
watch to make sure that the model stays in the field of view. Sections of the right viewport are
grayed out to represent the visible field of view through the camera.If portions of the model go out of the field of view, or you feel that the camera is too far away or
too close to the model, you can move the camera or change the lens. To move the camera, exit the
camera PropertyManager and edit the 3D sketch.Note
Remember that when editing unconstrained 3D sketches, it is best to do it from orthogonal views. Any points
you drag move in the plane of the screen. The best way to edit the size of the spline is to view it from the Top
view, and drag out individual spline points. n
Once you have exited the camera PropertyManager, to get back to it is not exactly the same as
most other features in SolidWorks. One way is to right-click it and choose Properties. The easiest
way is to simply double-click the camera in the FeatureManager.Using the sled method
If the first method was like filming an object on a turntable, this method is like walking around
with a video camera on your shoulder. The first method attached the camera directly to the path,
but in this method, you attach the camera to a dummy part, sometimes called a sled, and then
move the sled around. The sled should be hidden when the animation is run and left visible for
working purposes.Caution
This functionality may or may not live up to your needs and expectations. You could politely call it “quirky,” but
it can be made to work within its limited range of capability, and works best when you do everything right the
first time without needing edits. One of the cautions in the official SolidWorks documentation on the
MotionManager states not to apply path mates to the sled. This seems odd, especially given this particular appli-
cation looks perfect for the Path mate, but I can vouch that the Path mate does not work well in this application.
The SolidWorks documentation suggests that you use mates with the Use For Positioning Only option, so that
the mate places the part, but is not added to the list of mates. I recommend you apply the mate but suppress it
instead. If you need to put the part back to its original position, you can unsuppress and then resuppress the
mate. The SolidWorks documentation recommends using the Move Component tool with the Along Entity set-
ting, which is essentially the same as just dragging the part, but limiting the drag to a particular axis. n
Take a look at this simple animation using a sled Open the Chapter 33 sled track
assembly.sldasm.Start by creating a new motion study. Right-click the Motion Study 1 tab and select Create New
Motion Study. Do your new work in this new motion study rather than trying to edit the existing
motion study.