Resource simulations using 3D paths - Synchro Tutorial

- [Instructor] Continuing now from the previous video, let's expand a bit more on equipment logistics. In this video, we'll focus on creating planned movement of equipment, which in addition to providing a better visual can also simulate path of construction, staging and digital rehearsal, safety analysis, et cetera. You can either continue working in the file from the previous video or open the provided chapter file with the same name under the chapter files folder. Let's review the task foundation excavation. We had previously assigned a growth profile indicating the earthwork being excavated from right to left. Let's import an excavator and simulate it moving through the duration of this task. Go to File, Import, 3D, browse to SYNCHRO 4D Training folder and under models, select an open excavator. Since we are using the default settings, we can simply click on Import. Create a new equipment resource for it. Set the appearance profile as equipment. And assign it to the task foundation excavation. Let's create a 3D path that will define the movement plan and direction. You can find the tool under 3D ribbon. Click on both 3D Paths and 3D Path Properties. Enable snapping so as to create a more accurate path. Now select the command Create 3D Path. As you move the cursor in the 3D window, you will see object surfaces being highlighted as green, indicating a snap point on that particular surface. Double click on the surface towards the right corner of the excavation to create the first starting point or a keyframe of the 3D path. Do another double click on the bottom left corner to define the second keyframe of the path. You can keep adding additional keyframes to further define the path but let's finish it here by right clicking on the mouth. Enter the name as Foundation Excavation and select OK. With this path created, we can now assign it to the excavator. Select the task Foundation Excavation, go to Task Properties, Resources tab, select excavator. In the properties below, go to 3D path and select Foundation Excavation. Now when you drag the focused time marker throughout the duration of this task, you'll notice the excavator moving. Though from it's original imported position, still referencing the direction and length of the assigned 3D path. We can change this behavior through alignment. Change it from original position to on top Z max. This will move the starting position of the excavator to the top of the 3D path. This looks more like what we want but let's further refine the movement through 3D path properties. With both the task and the resource selected, notice the black keyframes at the start and end of the taskbar. These keyframes contain all relevant properties, like position, rotation, time, et cetera. Let's click on Edit 3D Path. You'll notice a manipulator appear in the 3D window. Go to keyframe one using the left and right arrows here and ensure that the focused time marker reflects that as well. Using the red ribbon, rotate the excavator so that it lines up with the 3D path direction. By doing this, you're actually moving the axis of the 3D path keyframe, which in turn affects the resources it's assigned to. Always remember to click on capture keyframe after making any changes to the keyframe. Now, when you move the focus time marker, the excavator starts moving in the correct direction but begins rotating immediately to match the axis of the second keyframe. Since both the keyframe lie on the same path angle, we can copy the rotation from the first keyframe to the second. Go to the first keyframe, right click in this general area and select copy key. Go to keyframe two, right click, paste and select rotation. And see how the excavator movement looks like. Let's add another keyframe to the path to further adjust the movement to match the excavation growth profile. Move the focus time somewhere in between the task duration and click on Capture Keyframe. You should now see a new keyframe added. Using the manipulator, move the keyframe position and click capture keyframe again. On reviewing the updated simulation, the keyframe angle doesn't match the new path direction anymore. Let's update that. Copying this rotation to the rest of the keyframes won't work this time as the path angle changes. Instead of manually changing each rotation, let's go to the keyframe list at the bottom of the 3D path properties. Select the first keyframe row by left clicking on the column number, right click on the highlighted row and click on share directions from the selected row to all keyframes by tangent. Though the axis is now set up correctly, the excavator still starts adapting to the new angle of the next keyframe from the onset. To reduce the rotation time, we can capture yet another keyframe right before the turning point of keyframe two and make the rotation the same as keyframe one. 'Til now, we have been editing the 3D path itself but it's also possible to further edit the equipment's relative position to the keyframes as well. Currently, the keyframe manipulator origin lies at the bounding box center of the excavator at the boom, which is not an ideal pivot point for rotation. We can change the location of the origin by pressing Control on the keyboard and moving it more towards the center of the cab. Capture the keyframe and see how the rotation plays out at keyframe two and three. This feature is ideal for simulating tower cranes where the origin center can be set at the tower frame about which the jib can rotate. You can also move the equipment away from keyframe origin by pressing the Shift key. This is ideally used when you have multiple equipment using the same 3D path as a reference. An example would be using a forklift and another 3D resource that it's carrying or using the same equipment like the excavator but excavating multiple layers of earthworks at a different height. You can hide all the 3D path lines in the 3D view window by going to the 3D View Properties, indicator section and uncheck 3D paths. For more control, you can even create a 3D filter using a criteria to select a 3D path and check on the filter to hide it. This was the last video of the chapter object manipulation and simulations. I would highly encourage you to go through SYNCHRO Academy or tips and tricks videos on SYNCHRO Construction YouTube channel to learn some creative ways of using edit as assigned and 3D path tools for simulating construction logistics in various scenarios. In the next chapter, we'll a few ways of generating shareable outputs of a 4D project, so stay tuned.