In this session, we are going to export the TimeLiner simulation. Navisworks has provided quite a selection of setting options to make the visualization more understandable. In the “TimeLiner” window, select the “Tasks” tab. For all the tasks you want to include in the simulations, check “Active.” Then, go to the “Simulate” tab. Click on the “Settings” button to open the “Simulation Settings” dialog box. The settings include “Start/End Dates,” “Interval Size,” “Playback Duration,” “Overlay Text,” “Animation,” and “View.” Let us go through the essential settings. The “Interval Size” is used to determine the interval unit. For examples, the default value is 5%, which means the timeline will be divided into twenty intervals between the start and the end time, so each step proceeds 5% of the overall simulation duration. We may change the interval size to a number in days or weeks, and so on. The “Playback Duration” determines the time needed to play the simulation from the start to the end. Usually, the more the intervals, the longer the playback duration will be. Use the up and down arrow to increase or decrease the duration. We have talked about the “Overlay Text” previously, here we can decide its position on the top or the bottom of the view. We leave other settings as default. Click on the “Play” button to check if the simulation works OK. If it is OK, let us export the simulation as an AVI file. Under the “Output” tab, on the “Visuals” panel, click on the “Animation” tool. In the “Animation Export” dialog box, in the “Source:” drop-down menu, select “TimeLiner Simulation.” Then in the “Renderer” drop-down menu, select either “Viewport” or “Autodesk” as the animation renderer. “Viewport” is used for quickly rendering the simulation, and is ideal for previewing the simulation; “Autodesk” is used to export the simulation with currently selected render style. To see the render style selected, go to the “Render” tab, the “Interactive Trace” panel, and click on the “Ray Trace” drop-down menu. In this example, we select “Viewport” because it is usually used to preview the simulation even if a more realistic simulation will be made later. In the “Output” box, select “Format” as “Windows AVI.” The setting of “Size” is used for assigning the width and height of the exported simulation. In the “Type” drop-down menu, we can select the way to specify the size of the exported simulation. In this example, we select “Use View.” In the “Options” box, “FPS” determines the number of frames per second. The higher the “FPS” is, the smoother the simulation will be, but the more the rendering time is. Usually, 10-15 FPS should be acceptable. After we finish the settings, click on “OK” and browse the folder to save the video. Let us take a look at the simulation. That is all for this session. You are encouraged to try “Autodesk” as the renderer in the “Animation Export” dialog box and use the “Autodesk Rendering” window to work with material libraries, lighting, and environment settings to generate more realistic simulations.
