Customizing camera movement

You can customize two groups of camera options in your model by using the View Options in the Visualization module, as shown in Figure 1.

Related Topics
Understanding camera modes and view options
Creating coordinate systems during postprocessing
Figure 1. The View Options dialog box.

The Mode options are available in all Abaqus/CAE modules except the Sketch module; the Mode options are discussed in Manipulating the view and controlling perspective and are saved only for the current session. The Camera Movement options are available only in the Visualization module. They control the position and movement of the camera with respect to a selected local coordinate system. You can save the settings of the Camera Movement options by selecting FileSave Options from the main menu bar.

To locate the view options, select ViewView Options from the main menu bar. To use the Camera Movement options, you must first toggle on Move camera with CSYS, then select a local coordinate system using one of the following methods:

  • Select a coordinate system from the list provided in the dialog box,

  • Click Create to create a new local coordinate system,

  • Click to pick a local coordinate system from the viewport, or

  • Click Move Camera With Node or use the button in the context bar to create a rectangular coordinate system following a single node.

Note:

To reset the camera to follow the global coordinate system, either toggle off Move camera with CSYS or click the button in the context bar.

You can select from the following camera movement options:

Move camera with CSYS

Select this option to fix the origin of the selected coordinate system in the viewport. If you create an animation or change the ODB frame, Abaqus/CAE moves all objects in the viewport relative to the position of the selected local coordinate system. If the selected local coordinate system is not a moving coordinate system, you will not observe any difference from the default settings that fix the camera to the (stationary) global coordinate system.

If you select Move camera with CSYS, it is recommended that you pause any animation in the current viewport before attempting to manipulate the view.

Follow CSYS rotation

Select this option to fix both the position and the rotation of the local coordinate system in the viewport. All model rotations are transformed so that the model appears to rotate about the selected coordinate system. This option is available only when Move camera with CSYS is toggled on.

Move camera to CSYS

This option is available only when Use movie mode and Move camera with CSYS are toggled on. Use movie mode allows the camera to move into and through the model instead of viewing the model from a distance (for more information, see Camera modes and view terminology). When you apply Move camera to CSYS, the camera moves to the origin of the selected coordinate system. Abaqus/CAE toggles this option off immediately after you click Apply in the View Options dialog box to avoid conflicts with the view manipulation tools, some of which also reposition the camera.

Note: When you apply Move camera to CSYS, Abaqus/CAE may display a blank view in the viewport. The most common cause for this blank view is the Near plane distance setting; apply a smaller Near plane distance to view portions of the model that are close to the camera.

Warning: If you pan, rotate, or magnify the view in the Visualization module, it is recommended that you first pause any animations in the viewport. Since animations and view manipulations both affect the view, their instructions to Abaqus/CAE may conflict with each other and create undesirable results.