Aero.VirtualRealityAnimation Class

Namespace: Aero

(To be removed) Visualize aerospace animation using virtual reality animation object

Aero.VirtualRealityAnimation will be removed in a future release.

Description

Aero.VirtualRealityAnimation objects visualize flight data using a virtual reality animation object.

The Aero.VirtualRealityAnimation class is a handle class.

Class Attributes

GetAccess	public
SetAccess	private
Dependent	true
Transient	true
Hidden	true
SetObservable	true
NonCopyable	true

For information on class attributes, see Class Attributes.

Creation

Description

h = Aero.VirtualRealityAnimation constructs a virtual reality animation object. The animation object is returned to h.

Properties

Name — Animation object

'' (default) | character vector | string

Animation object name, specified as a character vector or string.

Attributes:

Transient	true
SetObservable	true

Data Types: char | string

VRWorld — vrworld object

[] (default) | array

vrworld object associated with the animation object, specified as an array.

Attributes:

Transient	true
SetObservable	true

VRWorldFilename — vrworld file name

'' (default) | character vector | string

vrworld file name, specified as a character vector or string.

Attributes:

Transient	true
SetObservable	true

Data Types: char | string

VRWorldOldFilename — Old vrworld file name

{} | array

Old vrworld file name, specified as an array.

Attributes:

Transient	true
SetObservable	true

Data Types: char | string

VRWorldTempFilename — Temporary vrworld file name

'' (default) | character vector | string

Temporary vrworld file name, specified as a character vector or string.

Attributes:

Transient	true
SetObservable	true

Data Types: char | string

VRFigure — vrfigure object

[] (default) | array

vrfigure object associated with the animation object, specified as an array.

Attributes:

Transient	true
SetObservable	true

Nodes — Nodes contained in animation object

{} (default) | array

Nodes contained in animation object, specified as an array.

Attributes:

Transient	true
SetObservable	true

Viewpoints — Viewpoints contained in animation object

{} (default) | array

Viewpoints contained in animation object, specified as an array.

Attributes:

Transient	true
SetObservable	true

TCurrent — Current time

0 (default) | scalar

Current time, specified as a scalar, in seconds.

Time source must be a timeseries or timetable object.

Attributes:

Transient	true
SetObservable	true

Data Types: dobule

ShowSaveWarning — Save warning display setting

1 (default) | 0

Save warning display setting, specified as a 0 or 1.

Attributes:

Transient	true
SetObservable	true

VideoRecord — Enable video recording

'off' (default) | 'on' | 'scheduled'

Enable video recording, specified as:

• 'off'

  Disable video recording.

• 'on'

  Enable video recording.

• 'scheduled'

  Schedule video recording. Use this property with the VideoTStart and VideoTFinal properties.

Attributes:

Transient	true
SetObservable	true

VideoFileName — Video recording file name

'temp' (default) | character vector | string

Video recording file name, specified as a character vector or string.

Attributes:

Transient	true
SetObservable	true

Data Types: char | string

VideoCompression — Video compression file type

'Motion JPEG AVI' (default) | 'Archival' | 'Motion JPEG 2000' | 'MPEG-4' | 'Uncompressed AVI'

Video recording compression file type, specified as:

• 'Motion JPEG AVI'

  Compressed AVI format file using Motion JPEG codec.

• 'Archival'

  Motion JPEG 2000 format file with lossless compression.

• 'Motion JPEG 2000'

  Compressed Motion JPEG 2000 format file.

• 'MPEG-4'

  Compressed MPEG-4 format file with H.264 encoding (Windows^® 7 systems only).

• 'Uncompressed AVI'

  Uncompressed AVI format file with RGB24 video.

For more information on video compression, see VideoWriter.

Attributes:

Transient	true
SetObservable	true

VideoQuality — Video recording quality

'75' (default) | between 0 and 100

Video recording quality, specified as a value between 0 and 100.

Attributes:

Transient	true
SetObservable	true

Data Types: double

VideoTStart — Video recording start time

NaN (default) | value between TStart and TFinal

Video recording start time for scheduled recording, specified as a value between TStart and TFinal.

Attributes:

Transient	true
SetObservable	true

Data Types: double

VideoTFinal — Video recording stop time

NaN (default) | value between TStart and TFinal

Video recording stop time for scheduled recording, specified as a value between TStart and TFinal.

Attributes:

Transient	true
SetObservable	true

Data Types: double

TimeScaling — Time scaling

1 (default) | scalar

Time scaling, specified as a scalar, in seconds.

Attributes:

Transient	true
SetObservable	true

Data Types: double

FramesPerSecond — Frame rate

12 (default) | scalar

Frame rate, specified as a scalar, in frames per second.

Attributes:

Transient	true
SetObservable	true

Data Types: double

TStart — Recording start time

NaN (default) | scalar

Recording start time, specified as a scalar, in seconds.

Time source must be a timeseries or timetable object.

Attributes:

Transient	true
SetObservable	true

Data Types: double

TFinal — Recording stop time

NaN (default) | scalar

Recording stop time, specified as a scalar, in seconds.

Time source must be a timeseries or timetable object.

Attributes:

Transient	true
SetObservable	true

Data Types: double

Methods

Public Methods

addNode	(To be removed) Add existing node to current virtual reality world
addRoute	(To be removed) Add VRML ROUTE statement to virtual reality animation object
delete	(To be removed) Destroy virtual reality animation object
initialize	(To be removed) Create and populate virtual reality animation object
addViewpoint	(To be removed) Add viewpoint for virtual reality animation
nodeInfo	(To be removed) Create list of nodes associated with virtual reality animation object
play	(To be removed) Animate virtual reality world for given position and angle in time series data
removeNode	(To be removed) Remove node from virtual reality animation object
removeViewpoint	(To be removed) Remove viewpoint node from virtual reality animation
saveas	(To be removed) Save virtual reality world associated with virtual reality animation object
updateNodes	(To be removed) Change virtual reality animation node position and orientation as function of time

Examples

Record Virtual Reality Animation Object Simulation

This example shows how to

• Record the simulation of a virtual reality animation object

• Simulate and record flight data

• Create an animation object

h = Aero.VirtualRealityAnimation;

% Control the frame display rate.

h.FramesPerSecond = 10;

% Configure the animation object to set the seconds of animation data per
% second time scaling (TimeScaling) property.

h.TimeScaling = 5;

% The combination of FramesPerSecond and TimeScaling property determine the
% time step of the simulation. These settings result in a time step of
% approximately 0.5 s.
% This code sets the .wrl file to use in the virtual reality animation.

h.VRWorldFilename = 'asttkoff.wrl';

% Load the animation world described in the 'VRWorldFilename' field of the
% animation object.

initialize(h);

% Set simulation timeseries data. takeoffData.mat contains logged simulated
% data. takeoffData is set up as a 'StructureWithTime', which is one of the
% default data formats.

load takeoffData
[~, idxPlane] = find(strcmp('Plane', h.nodeInfo));
h.Nodes{idxPlane}.TimeseriesSource = takeoffData;
h.Nodes{idxPlane}.TimeseriesSourceType = 'StructureWithTime';

% Use the example custom function vranimCustomTransform to correctly line
% up the position and rotation data with the surrounding objects in the
% virtual world. This code sets the coordinate transformation function for
% the virtual reality animation.

h.Nodes{idxPlane}.CoordTransformFcn = @vranimCustomTransform;

% Set up recording properties.

h.VideoRecord = 'on';
h.VideoQuality = 50;
h.VideoCompression = 'Motion JPEG AVI';
h.VideoFilename = 'astMotion_JPEG_VR';

% Play the animation.

play(h);

% Wait for the animation to stop running before modifying the object.

wait(h);

% Verify that a file named astMotion_JPEG_VR.avi was created in the current folder.
% Disable recording to preserve the file.

h.VideoRecord = 'off';

Record Animation for Four Seconds

Simulate flight data for four seconds.

Use the data to create an animation object.

h = Aero.Animation;

Control the frame display rate.

h.FramesPerSecond = 10;

Configure the animation object to set the seconds of animation data per second time-scaling (TimeScaling) property.

h.TimeScaling = 5;

The combination of the FramesPerSecond and TimeScaling properties determines the time step of the simulation (TimeScaling/|FramesPerSecond|). These settings result in a time step of approximately 0.5 s.

Create and load a body for the animation object.

idx1 = createBody(h,'pa24-250_orange.ac','Ac3d');

Load simulated flight trajectory data (simdata).

load simdata;

Set the time series data for the body.

h.Bodies{1}.TimeSeriesSource = simdata;

Create a figure object for the animation object.

show(h);

Set up recording properties.

h.VideoRecord='on';
h.VideoQuality = 50;
h.VideoCompression = 'Motion JPEG AVI';
h.VideoFilename = 'astMotion_JPEG';

Play the animation from TStart to TFinal.

h.TSTart = 1;
h.TFinal = 5;
play(h);

Verify that a file named astMotion_JPEG.avi was created in the current folder. When you rerun the recording, notice that the play time is shorter than that in the previous example when you record for the length of the simulation time.

Wait

Wait for the animation to stop playing before the modifying the object.

wait(h);

Disable recording to preserve the file.

h.VideoRecord = 'off';

Schedule Three Second Recording of Virtual Reality Object Simulation

This example shows how to schedule a three second recording a virtual reality object animation simulation.

% Create an animation object.
h = Aero.VirtualRealityAnimation;

% Control the frame display rate.
h.FramesPerSecond = 10;

% Configure the animation object to set the seconds of animation data per
% second time scaling (TimeScaling) property.
h.TimeScaling = 5;

% The combination of FramesPerSecond and TimeScaling properties determines
% the time step of the simulation. These settings result in a time step of
% approximately 0.5 s.
% This code sets the .wrl file to use in the virtual reality animation.

h.VRWorldFilename = 'asttkoff.wrl';

% Load the animation world described in the 'VRWorldFilename' field of the
% animation object.
h.initialize();

% Set simulation timeseries data. takeoffData.mat contains logged
% simulated data. takeoffData is set up as a 'StructureWithTime', which is
% one of the default data formats.
load takeoffData
[~, idxPlane] = find(strcmp('Plane', h.nodeInfo));
h.Nodes{idxPlane}.TimeseriesSource = takeoffData;
h.Nodes{idxPlane}.TimeseriesSourceType = 'StructureWithTime';

% Use the example custom function vranimCustomTransform to correctly line
% up the position and rotation data with the surrounding objects in the
% virtual world. This code sets the coordinate transformation function for
% the virtual reality animation.
h.Nodes{idxPlane}.CoordTransformFcn = @vranimCustomTransform;

% Set up recording properties.
h.VideoQuality = 50;
h.VideoCompression = 'Motion JPEG AVI';
h.VideoFilename = 'astMotion_JPEG';

% Set up simulation time from TFinal to TStart.
h.TSTart = 1;
h.TFinal = 5;

% Set up to record between two and four seconds of the four second
% simulation.
h.VideoRecord='scheduled';
h.VideoTSTart = 2;
h.VideoTFinal = 4;

% Play the animation.
h.play();

% Wait for the animation to stop running before modifying the object.

h.wait();

% Verify that a file named astMotion_JPEG_VR.avi was created in the
% current folder. When you rerun the recording, notice that the play time
% is faster than when you record for the length of the simulation time.
% Disable recording to preserve the file.
h.VideoRecord = 'off';

Limitations

The Aero.VirtualRealityAnimation object is not supported in MATLAB Online.

Version History

Introduced in R2007b

R2024b: To be removed

Aero.VirtualRealityAnimation will be removed in a future release.