Showing the path taken by an object during training (for example, the bucket of an excavator) can be a valuable training tool. To help level designers with this task, Vortex® Studio offers a simple way to show the path taken by an object.

Object Trace

The Object Trace extension is part of the Animation tools.

As this extension can be put in a Role, it can be assigned to a single Seat in a simulator, typically it is displayed only on the Instructor station. Another way would be to record a trace without being visible (so the trainee is not disturbed with a trace), and show it when the training session is finished.

The Trace Position input is usually connected to the object for which we need a trace.

Recording a trace for a long time requires a lot of memory. It is advisable to only record when necessary and clear the trace when done. Additionally, the Threshold parameter can help to reduce memory consumption if a long trace is required.

Fields Descriptions

Inputs

Field	Description
Visible	Toggle showing the trace. When enabled, any recorded trace or the trace being currently recorded will be visible.
Record	Toggle recording a trace.
Clear	When checked, this will clear any traces and prevent recording.
Color	The color of the trace that is currently recorded. Changing the color will not change the color of existing traces.
Trace Position	The current position to record. This input should usually be connected to the output World Transform of the object your want to trace.

Parameters

Field

Description

Threshold

The segment length in the trace. Having a smaller threshold will give a smoother and more precise trace, but there is a performance cost.

The trace is composed of straight line segment, the length of each segment being given by the Threshold parameter. The Threshold should be proportional to the average speed of the object. For a racing car, 10m is probably sufficient, but for a crane hook, a smaller value is probably needed.

Usage

To create an ObjectTrace, first begin by adding to your scene the mechanism that you will follow and then create an ObjectTrace extension (in Animation tools) and a ConnectionContainer extension (in Basic tools).

The next step is to connect the output World Transform of the object we want to trace to the input Trace Position of the ObjectTrace extension.

Trace is only active when simulating. So start the simulation, enable the Record and the Visible inputs of ObjectTrace, and move the object. You should see the trace.

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