Hi everyone,
Does anyone have any suggestions for a mechanical hard surface simulator that is comparable to moi in usability and simplicity? I only need movements to be animated.
Thanks

Hi yakas, you mean something like a physics simulator where things will automatically collide into one another?

Or do you want to do "keyframe" animation where you just make objects do basic movement?

- Michael

I would like to visualize mechanical movements such as how a cam will affect other moving parts. I just want to select a part, pick it's axis of rotation and see how it interacts with other parts. Very basic stuff.

Thanks

Hi yakas, I've heard of a program called "Working model 2d" which would probably be good for that, but it's pretty expensive: http://www.design-simulation.com/WM2D/index.php

You might also try this: http://physion.net/index.php or there's a plug-in for SketchUp called sketchyphysics which may be able to help.

I'm not familiar with these tools myself though.

- Michael

Geomagic (Alibre) has Dynamics, which I have not got around to using yet.

- Brian

Hi Yakas,

Very similar to what Michael mentioned (2d Working Model) only this one is free it's called Algodoo http://www.algodoo.com and I think you can import accurate shapes, not sure, you'll have to check it out.

Cheers

Thanks everyone,
Algodoo is perfect! Very simple yet useful.

there is something called dxf2phun, which should convert a dxf file into an algodoo readable.

http://en.sourceforge.jp/projects/dxf2phun/



it's a pretty straight forward, drag&drop application. the output is a script(thyme), which you can paste into algodoo (shortcut F10 in algodoo brings down the console window). i did use it with some older versions of algodoo, but as i can recall, dxf2phun is quite picky regarding the geometry it's been fed. i had more luck with svg2phun

http://www.geocities.jp/int_real_float/svg2phun/SVG2Phun.html

via. uniconverter(ai to svg), as there is no native SVG export option in MOI.

http://sk1project.org/modules.php?name=Products&product=uniconvertor