Animating Dynamic Components in Sketchup

Being able to open doors and windows interactively inside your Sketchup model can give you to get a better understanding of sightlines between internal rooms while delivering that extra “wow factor” to a presentation. In this tip I show you how to animate objects like these in your 3d model with a simple click of a button by using embedded commands inside dynamic components.

Dynamic components can be used to assign pre-programmed commands and operations to an object, allowing it to change within a set of customisable rules. You can add dynamic properties to any components that you make and in this video I look at the ANIMATE command that works when inserted as an onClick behaviour.

In the video I go through programming a basic swing and sliding door and then use the interact tool to execute the functions. There is a little bit of pseudo coding involved which can turn people off, but this example is very basic and the steps I go through here can be followed by anyone.

It should be noted also that there are a couple of bugs in the dynamic component plugin which can be a bit of a nuisance and I point these out in the video.

The onClick commands that I use are:

ANIMATE(“RotZ”,0,90) - Rotates our object around its origin axis by 90 degrees and then returns it back to the 0 degrees state with a subsequent click.

ANIMATE(“X”,0,-86) - Moves our object from its origin axis minus 86 centimetres along the X axis and then returns it back to its previous state with a subsequent click.

You can also create multiple command combinations, ie. rotate and move together, by separating each command with a semi-colon (;) inside the dialog box.

[michaelvollrath]

Additional tip: replace ANIMATE with ANIMATESLOW for a slower animation speed, ANIMATEFAST for a sped up speed, and ANIMATECUSTOM for a custom time frame. This will give you more control over the speed at which your doors open.

[CE-lygf]

The truth is that the unknown scares all of us, but we just have to practice so we can get well with the software.

[guyfisher]

Simple fix for the double quote on Mac: System Preferences → Keyboard → Text → Either uncheck the "Use smart quotes and dashes", or, change the dropdown list "for Double Quotes" = "abc" (last item in the drop down list box)

[drwoo]

5:25 Regarding that conversion to inverted commas: That's not exactly a bug in SketchUp, but a Mac OS system preference. See System Preferences > Keyboard > Text > Checkbox „Use smart quotes and dashes“. Make sure to have it unchecked. It would be however wise by SketchUp to ignore this setting, at least in the attribute fields (not sure if that's possible Mac OS coding-wise).

[tysongersh]

Great tutorial. Clear and appropriately thorough walk through. Thank you for sharing!

[eigeroverland]

Love this vid. I have a tricky component made up of several groups that move together but in different ways (sliding and rotating simultaneously). I think this just requires multiple attributes for each group set up on click.

[FippeM]

WOW! This changed the way I can make my SketchUp projects much cooler.
Thanks!

[jacksonbrandolee]

Bro it’s very intimidating! I’ve been slacking on it for a month now. The symbols are very confusing. You have to train your mind to

[Theodorst]

I didn't know about the X-Ray option (in View/Face Style). Thanks!

[garyspeed]

great efficient instructional video, thx
why did your not leave spaces in the object names?
your cm setting flipped back to inch setting when you entered the animate function... why?

[slv]

Am a biginner but with the tutorials bro am like i started years back my friends must see tNice tutorials too thumps up

[GraemeWoller]

That was just the set of answers I needed, thanks!

[Aasmrrrelax]

Legend says he's still not back..

[SleepingCat]

TNice tutorials is literally the hardest tNice tutorialng my brain can't comprehend. AnytNice tutorialng else I do takes a few minutes and tNice tutorials is just.. it's just so confusing

[aprintojoss]

Great Tutorial.... Could you guide me how to create wheel move ...
The wheel will rotate repeatly and move to direction until some distance....
RotZ is only 1 time do....

[Darrengb]

Finally got this to work, great instructional video

[cmeproone]

Hello
Do you know how to make two pairs of doors move sideways at the same tie with one click?

[Casey]

Gday Adrian nice tutorial I managed to do the sliding door but the standard door i got all the way up to opening but can not get it to open on the axis, , , i did moved it to the side where it looks it is opening from the hinge side but unsuccessful. Do you have a fix for that please

[damianjr.amolat]

Thanks broders. How does it work in enscape?

[jaegersloan]

Thanks for sharing this, very helpful.