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Deformation Animation

The deformation animation shows how a structure deflects under load by oscillating the mesh between its rest position and its displaced shape. This helps you visualize the mechanism's motion and identify regions of high strain.

Start the animation​

Select a solver result in the sidebar. In the results toolbar (the secondary bar across the top of the viewport), click the Play button. This enables deformation and starts the animation automatically.

If the heatmap is already active but deformation is off, clicking Play turns on deformation and begins playback.

When the animation is playing the Play button switches to a Pause icon. Click it again to pause. Pausing snaps the mesh back to its rest position.

Speed slider​

The speed slider sits to the right of the Play/Pause button, marked by a gauge icon. It controls how fast the mesh oscillates between rest and full displacement.

  • The slider uses a logarithmic scale from 0.1x to 100x.
  • The default speed is 1x.
  • The current speed value is displayed to the right of the slider (for example, 2.5x).

Because the scale is logarithmic, moving the slider a short distance near the left end covers a wide range of slow speeds (0.1x to 1x), while the right side covers faster speeds up to 100x.

Magnification slider​

Below the speed slider is the magnification slider, marked by an expand icon. It controls how much the displacement is visually amplified.

  • The slider uses a logarithmic scale from 0.1x to 100x.
  • The default magnification is 1x (true-to-scale displacement).
  • Increasing magnification exaggerates the deformation so that small displacements become visible.

Both sliders are disabled (grayed out) until a result is selected and active.

The same speed and magnification sliders also appear in the sidebar when a solver result is selected. Both locations control the same underlying state -- adjusting the slider in one place updates the other.

Heatmap interaction​

The deformation animation and the heatmap are independent toggles:

  • Heatmap on, deformation on: The mesh oscillates with displacement colors applied.
  • Heatmap on, deformation off: The mesh stays at rest but shows the color overlay.
  • Heatmap off, deformation on: The mesh animates without color coding.