Animated Display Options

The Animated Display Options Window can be accessed by double-clicking on the Animated Display Object or from the Options Menu.

The top section contains controls for defining the coordinate system. A Symmetric Space means the coordinate system is square, with a 1 cm displacement either up or left that will correspond to the same change. In this case you can specify the range spanning the horizontal dimension and you can specify the minimum of the vertical dimension. The vertical maximum is then determined by the proportions of the animated display object as it is placed on the page, because the scales are the same in both dimensions. You will want a symmetric space if the same kind of quantity, such as position, is driving the point both horizontally and vertically. In contrast, if the point will be driven by different kinds of data, such as time and position, then you will want to use an asymmetric space. In that case, you can set the minimum and maximum coordinates in both directions. If you resize the display, the coordinates will change proportionally.


To define, or animate the point, click on the "Animate Point" button to access the dialog displayed below.

The default settings for the horizontal and vertical components of the point are set to "Fixed Value". In addition to "Fixed Value" you can choose any data column appearing in the pull down menu. If the column you choose contains data that changes with time, the point will be animated. If you chose "Fixed Value" then you must specify a value in the appropriate edit box.

The checkbox "Draw in Video Analysis Movie" is a limited feature enabled only if you have carried out a Video Analysis operation on a movie and have used the "X" and "Y" columns to animate the point. If these conditions are met, then as you replay the movie any vectors that you have defined in "Animated Display" will be drawn on the movie during replay.


The vectors are defined by clicking on one of the "Vector 1", "Vector2" or "Vector3" buttons, which bring up dialog box displayed below. 

The horizontal and vertical components are defined exactly like the components of the point as described above.

In addition, each vector can be assigned a name and a color. You can also set a scaling factor to use for each vector. The scaling is applied to both the horizontal and vertical components so the direction of the vector is not affected. Scaling may be needed to adjust the display of a vector so that it will fit into the range defined for the display space. Data columns defining the vectors may have different units from those used to define the space. If, for example, the range of -10 to10 m has been set to span the animated display, a velocity vector having components on the order of 100 m/s need to be scaled by a factor of 0.02 or so in order to be visible. If the animated object's display space has been set to be asymmetric, additional scaling is applied to the components of a vector so that the vector is not distorted in this space.

A checkbox is also provided to hide a vector. This enables you to define a vector but hide it from the display until you want to see it.


After defining the point and one or more vectors, you can further control the animated display using the "Trace" and "Footprints" settings. These settings are useful only if the point is defined by a data column which varies over time. When the trace option is on, all positions occupied by the point during the course of a "Replay" of the data are connected by line segments thereby producing a history of the positions. The trace simply connects positions of the point. The footprints option draws the point and the vectors attached to it at the intervals set by the user.


Checkboxes are also provided for controlling display of additional information for the vectors. You can turn on the display of the names, the X-Y values, and display X and Y component vectors for the defined vectors. These controls apply to all of the defined vectors, which may generate a cluttered display. In that case, you can elect to hide one or more vectors or perhaps set up multiple animated displays, each showing a single vector.