bubba

because I don't need all its capabilities and cross-application integration. I have Inkscape (Unix and Mac GNU) which works for me. I creates wonderful .svg file. But, A:M doesn't recognize .svg files - just .ai. Is there another program (preferably under GNU licensing) that will create pseudo-Illustrator files?

I created a simple gear. I made a 360 degree rotation action that takes four seconds to make a complete rotation. When I drop the gear into a choreography things go wonky. The chor only runs for one second instead of four. Here are snap shots of the properties: If I can't get this to work for just one revolution, how will I be able to use it in an extended choreography? Thanks.

Thank you. I deleted the initial bone and re-drew the bone along the axle (axis?). I tried the Rotate manipulator rings but it turned out easier just to change the Z property 90 degrees every second.

I am trying to add an Action to a mechanical gear I made. I created the model and added a bone - starting at the very center of the gear and extending to the edge of one of the teeth. When I try to move the end of the bone 90 degrees the model starts to turn and go off-axis. How can I constrain the model so that it turns (rotates) in only one plane and direction?

I have been working on a practice choreography out of the David Rogers book. I initially set the time to be 5 seconds so that the flower sack action which is one second long, could hop across the screen 5 times. But the range setting for the choreography property keeps changing to 25 seconds. I change it, save the project, re-open it and the setting is back to 25 seconds. A:M 16 beta3

I have experimenting some more and have narrowed down the problem somewhat. I don't think A:M likes spaces in file names. Strange in this day and age. I can now same a Render Animation Preview out to disk, both as a .mov and .tga. However, the content ls all black. And it still won't adhere to the Output settings (VGA resolution) Untitled.mov Here is one .tga The forum won't allow me to upload a .tga. (Anyone know why?)

That is correct I can set the filename and type in "Render to File" but NOT in Render Animation Preview"

I changed the Preferences to Camera and then I went back to the Choreography Window and clicked on the shortcut to Camera1. I went through all the settings and changed them. Here are the Camera Properties But even after that, I still get a dialog box that defaults to untitled.mov and when I click on the ellipses I geet a dialog box that sometimes I can change the information, other times it hangs up the program and I have to Force Quit. I tried the same thing with Render to File with much different results. As you can see the next dialog box had the same settings as the Camera1 Properties. And the result is renderpreview.mov So, I am not sure what to conclude, whether or not there is a problem (bug) with the Render Animation Preview (Save As...) or not.

I have tried to "Save As ..." in the .TGA format, but then I get a another dialog box that basically says "where is the file untitled.mov" Since this is called Render Animation Preview, maybe I am making too much about saving and not enough about the preview part - like when the window opens and the rendering starts, the size of the window is about one fourth of the available real estate.

Yes, I am rendering from the camer1 view. Here is a screen capture of the Rendering settings from the Preferences. I am using the Beta 3 version of 16.0. I do not know how to control the render size.

where do I find stereo or multi-pass setting? This is the only dialog box I get. And when I try to change this to a .tga sequence this happens AM looks for the untitled.mov file. I actually have a screen capture of the entire sequence but it is about 40 MBs

Is this correct. I select Render Animation Preview button in the choreography window and it does it thing for 30 frames (and I can see the camera view in the right-hand pane) then nothing (black pane) Then, when I do a Save As... I get this. renderanimationpreview.mov This can't be right.

I know I can align CP points to a common grid point, but is there an "easy" way to align whole objects. Most vector graphic applications have an Align/Distribute function. Thanks.

You guys are right, I have did move on to another issue. How about I start a new thread. Can you copy/paste your answer there?

I went back through the reference books and found a description of how the "snap to ..." should work. What I read (and found by experimenting) is that when this is turned on an object is moved a distance (in any direction) equal to one grid square. So, if one edge of an object (say the left-hand edge) is on a grid line (either vertical or horizontal), moving the object will make it seem to "snap" to another grid line. But if no edge is on a grid line, then no matter how much the user wishes it, the object will NEVER automatically move to a grid line. Very confusing. It would seem that this could be improved so that the user COULD force an edge to "snap" to a grid line. Using the contextual menu item "Snap to Grid" changes the shape of an object, so that is not an option either.

I finally realized that I had a "bad" model that was "screwing" up the whole program. So I deleted it. Now A:M us back up and running at full speed and I don't seem to have the issue with the grid blanking out the splines. That said, it does it, and did it before, when I move a spline over an alignment marker.

I tried you suggestion and in version 16 beta 2 it only works on the horizontal grid lines, not the vertical. Don't know if this is a bug in version 16 or not - right now the application has slowed to a crawl. I have cleaned cashes, restarted the machine - 2009 MacPro, OSX 10.6.4 - but no help.

Yes, the splines re-appear if the grid is turned off. The "missing" splines are not on any of the zero axises,

But everything was set to feet - does the wizard reduce everything to centimeters?

I have investigated more and have found out that the Duplicator Wizard will work with feet but the relationship between the X coordinate, number of iterations escapes me. The window is set to feet, the box is 1 foot a side and yet it takes 32 "feet" to generate separate boxes.

Sometimes when a spline is directly over a grid line it disappears. I am using the version 16 beta and I am wondering if this is normal behavior, nor not. These really are square objects - a four-sided box.

[quote And don't forget about good 'ol Copy/Paste. I would like to use copy and paste but I can't find an Align function in A:M - like in vector drawing programs. I can align Control Points, but I don't know how to align objects.

Thank you! The change to centimeters did the trick. Should I report the issue I had with feet as a bug?

Sorry, bad link. I don't think the output is correct. I expected a row of individual bricks - just like the one I started with.

Thank you. I tried these steps but I get "garbage." Grid is 1 foot. And this what I get after.