AutoCAD 2007 is it possible to create an animation of 3D objects

[Mamma Jamma]

Hi guys,
I just had someone in my office ask if there is a way to "animate" a portion of a 3d drawing in plain vanilla AutoCAD 2007 - for example, the motion of a swing-arm or something. He had just discovered the new ease of using fly-through/walk-through capabilities and got all kinds of excited about the possibilities.
I told him that I didn't think so, aside from incrementally rotating the object along it's path, capturing that motion in multiple slides, then creating a slide show.
Now I'm wondering, was I correct in that assumption?
And is there a simple (read "easy" & "cheap") program out there that could do that sort of thing?

[michael.12445]

I don't know about any capabilities that might be built in to AutoCAD 2007, but it should be possible to use a script (or if necessary a LISP program) to generate a sequence of bitmap image files, with the view changed slightly in between each one. (You would probably have to do this by means of plotting to a bitmap file for each view.) Then you could use mplayer/mencoder (http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/news.html) to assemble the image files into an mpeg or other video format. mplayer is free, although it might not be the easiest solution.

I know Sketchup will also create animations of models. I believe it imports DWG files fairly well. Sketchup is not free, but I think it has a free trial period once you install it.

Michael Evans
Togawa Smith Martin Residential, Inc.

[Avatart]

2007 has the 3DFLY command new to its command set, this can output to video. I haven't tried it yet, so I can't comment on the quality.

Another possibility would be to use the ever wonderful NavisWorks. It's not so much "not free" as a complete bank breaker, but it is very, very good.