1/8 [email protected]WWW.VISUALCOMPONENTS.COM The Visual Components logo 3DCreate, 3DRealize and 3DVideo are trademarks of Visual Components Oy, Inc. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. INTRODUCTION THIS TUTORIAL INTRODUCES NEW DIMENSION AND ANNOTATION TOOLS FOR THE VISUAL COMPONENTS SIMULATION PRODUCT FAMILY. OBJECTIVE TO CREATE A FULLY DIMENSIONED AND ANNOTATED LAYOUT DIMENSIONING Dimensions and Annotations can be set visible or unvisible using the Selection Filter Toolbar located at the right side below the Main toolbar. 1. Add A Dimension Select from the Tools menu > Add Dimensions. The Dimensions tool works with two toolbars. One for selecting the dimension type and another one for controlling the slection points for dimensioning. The dimension settings reading from left to right are: Automatic direction, this option will automaticly choose the longest horizontal or vertical • vector for the dimension. X - this option will place the dimension on the X-plane. • Y - this option will place the dimension on the Y-plane. • Z - this option will place the dimension on the Z-plane. • Horizontal - this option will use the horizontal vector of the selected plane for the dimension. • Vertical - this option will use vertical vector of the selected plane for the dimension. • Diagonal - this option will use a diagonal vector of the selected plane for dimension • RELATED FILES DemoPackage.vcp Description The Demo Package includes several layouts and components for material handling and robotic appliations. This package can be found in the eCat folder “Component packages”. The package can also be downloaded from the tutorials webpage. TUTORIALS| LAYOUT CONFIGURATION | DIMENSIONS AND ANNOTATIONS DIMENSIONS AND ANNOTATIONS Dimension Annotation
the visual components logo 3Dcreate, 3Drealize and 3Dvideo are trademarks of visual components oy, inc. all other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.
introductionthis tutorial introDuces new Dimension anD annotation tools for
the visual components simulation proDuct familY.
objectiveto create a fullY DimensioneD anD annotateD laYout
dimensioninG
Dimensions and annotations can be set visible or unvisible using the selection filter toolbar located at the right side below the main toolbar.
1. Add A dimension
select from the tools menu > add Dimensions.
the Dimensions tool works with two toolbars. one for selecting the dimension type and another one for controlling the slection points for dimensioning.
the dimension settings reading from left to right are:
automatic direction, this option will automaticly choose the longest horizontal or vertical •vector for the dimension.X - this option will place the dimension on the X-plane.•Y - this option will place the dimension on the Y-plane.•Z - this option will place the dimension on the Z-plane.•horizontal - this option will use the horizontal vector of the selected plane for the dimension. •vertical - this option will use vertical vector of the selected plane for the dimension.•Diagonal - this option will use a diagonal vector of the selected plane for dimension•
relAted filesDemopackage.vcp
descriptionthe Demo package includes several layouts and components for material handling and robotic appliations. this package can be found in the ecat folder “component packages”. the package can also be downloaded from the tutorials webpage.
tutorials| laYout configuration | Dimensions anD annotations
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the snap filters toolbar is a movable helper toolbar. You define how the mouse cursor snaps to different objects or points. You can select either one or seveal snap options.
the snap options reading from left to right are:snap on node origin, see the picture below.•snap on node center•snap on point•snap on faces•snap on face centers•snap on coordinate systems•
in the above picture dimensions are set to node origin. the origin is defined when a component is built and it generally means the base point of the node. here the component node origin points of different components are located on the edge and in the middle of components.
2. manipulating individual dimensions
Dimensions are visual components in themselves and the standard tools for manipulating components can be used. individual dimensions can be moved, cut, copied and deleted; however this is not recommended since it erases the ‘connection’ between the measured object and the dimension itself.
You can access Dimensions and annotations settings from ‘view > settings > Dimensions & annotations tab’.
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when a single dimension is selected it is editable from the parameter tab on the left side of the 3Dworld. on the parameter tab you can change the character colour, height and arrow size. You need to left click the dimension again to apply the changes.
Dimensions can be transformed and rotated using toolbar buttons.
usinG dimensions
the following exercises familiarise the user with the dimensioning tools provided.
exercise 1 - Position tracking of a 6-dof robot
1. make sure the simulation world is clear of objects before starting the exercise. this can be done by pressing the ‘new’ button in the main toolbar.
2. load the ‘robot articulated’ component from ‘ecat > my components >Demo components > robotics cell’
3. load the ‘training gripper’ component, and snap it to the robot.
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the layout should look as follows:
4. select ‘tools > add Dimensions’, and select snap on node origin. this will dimension the distance between the origin of the gripper and the origin of the robot. the selections can be any point of the component node, and it will always select the origin of that node.
5. the following step is to add three different dimensions, one in each plane - XYZ, and all going from the origin of the robot to the origin of the gripper. to add a dimension select the plane first, then click the robot origin and then the gripper origin.
the dimensions should look as follows:
6. try moving the robot by interacting with it. it is now possible to track the distance of the origins when the robot moves.
tiP! if you made a worng selection, you are able to cancel the current dimension simply by pressing the ‘esc’ button from the keyboard.
tiP! if the robot is not in the origin of the 3D world, you should reset all dimensions in the translate option.
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exercise 2 - dimension a layout
1. make sure the simulation world is clear of objects before starting the exercise. this can be done by pressing the ‘new’ button in the main toolbar.
2. load the ‘material handling’ layout from ‘ecat > my components > Demo layouts’
3. select ‘add Dimensions’ from the tools menu.
4. in the snap filters toolbar select ‘snap on points’ and ‘snap on faces’. on the Dimension toolbar select ‘automatic’.
5. select the beginning and then the end of each machine to dimension the length of each component in the layout. start by measuring the longest side of the line.
tiP! remember that the second selection for one dimension is also the first selection for the following dimension.
note! Depending on the selections, the dimensions may vary, so try to select the dimensions that make sense to the end-user of the simulation.
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6. add the second row of continuous dimensions perpendicular to the ones created in the previous step.
7. Due to the small size of the text, it is difficult to appreciate the dimensions from a general view of the layout. modify the text height to accomodate the overall view of the system under ‘view’ > ‘settings.
8. You can modify dimensions location with the translate tool to make them more visible. You may change all the X, Y and Z directions or even rotate dimensions. the final view of the system should be similar to the following picture.
tiP! the text height is a global parameter, so if you change one text height all the others change too.
tiP! arrow size can be changed globally from ‘view > settings > Dimensions & annotations tab. You can also modify arrow size individually from the parameter tab
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usinG AnnotAtions
annotations work similarly to dimensions. You can add annotations by selecting ‘tools > add annotations’.
snap filters also work as with Dimensions the options reading from left to right are:
snap on node origins•snap on node centers•snap on points•snap on faces•snap on face centers•snap on coordinate systems•
exercise 1 - Placing Annotations
1. make sure the simulation world is clear of objects before starting the exercise. this can be done by pressing the ‘new’ button in the main toolbar.
2. load the ‘robotics cell’ layout from ‘ecat > my components >Demo layouts’
3. select ‘tools > add annotations’, and place one annotation on the robot’s gripper and name it ‘gripper’. the annotation is added by clicking first to the gripper and then on a place in the 3D-world. enter the name of the annotation in the dialog box.
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5. You can translate and rotate annotations similar to dimensions. on the parameter tab you can also edit the text, color and height fields.
6. when you press the simulation run button the annotation box continues to be associated with the moving component (gripper).
