It's not too much work to animate a static object in the standard animation
software that's available.
For example, if you have something like a grayscale map that defines the
deflection of the device just
drop that onto a subdivided plane at t0. It will deform according to the
data in the grayscale map. Choose
your time step and drop another "grayscale" map. Depending on your goal you
should be able to define the
motion with a few grayscale maps allowing for "reasonable" interpolation by
the animation program.
Once it's coded in the animation program you have quite a toolkit for
visualization and interactivity via CD-ROM
DVD, Shockwave 3D , MPEG etc.

                                                                    Steve
----- Original Message -----
From: "bille@npphotonics (Bill Eaton)" 
To: "'General MEMS discussion'" 
Sent: Friday, December 20, 2002 9:04 AM
Subject: RE: [mems-talk] Animation of MEMS models


> > . . . Has anyone bridged-the-gap
> > and found a way of transferring and converting
> > 3D models from CAD package to animation package? . . .
>
> Hmmm. Even if you had the 3D model, wouldn't it be an insane amount of
work
> to take an essentially static 3D model and tell the animation program how
to
> deform it to the resonant shape? Perhaps an FEM package would be easier.
> Many FEM packages (Ansys and CosmosWorks to name a couple) will accept a
3D
> model and will create animations of modal shapes.
>
> Bill Eaton, Ph.D.
> Materials & Analysis Manager
> NP Photonics
> 5706 Corsa Avenue, Suite 100
> Westlake Village, CA  91362
> Voice:  (818) 991-7044 x211
> eFax:   (503) 214-5559
> mailto://bille@npphotonics.com
>
>
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