Do you already have your own 2D & 3D files? Then it’s very easy to reuse them in DynaMaker without remodeling them again. If there are parts in your product that remain unchanged regardless of the configuration (“static”), you can reuse your 2D & 3D files in DynaMaker for them, so that you can focus on parametric parts and others in your DynaMaker application. Learn more about this!
Steps to model a conveyor belt with static and DynaMaker parametric assets
As an example, let’s say that you want to build an application that lets you configure your own conveyor system (i.e. each section configurable in length, height, curvature, etc). The conveyor systemt can have e.g. conical rollers in curved sections and continuous belts in the straight sections.
However, you already have some 2D & 3D files and wonder how much you have to do (sometimes again) in DynaMaker. As a first step you would need to identify:
- the static parts that you have already modeled (e.g conical rollers).
- the parametric parts that use static 2D files that you have already modeled (e.g. vertical beams or railing with custom length, etc)
- the parametric parts of the conveyor, those that will be modeled entirely in DynaMaker (e.g. belt, etc).
You should model the parts that are parametric (usually with an easy shape) in DynaMaker. You can upload static assets to the application and simply use them in DynaMaker as any other model.
As a second step, once you have your files ready, you can upload them to your DynaMaker application. We recommend the DXF format for 2D files (e.g. beam profiles), whereas we recommend the STL format for 3D files (e.g. conical roller). Other 3D formats like GLB and GLTF (containing in-built textures) are also acceptable.
Then as the last step, use those models directly in your DynaMaker components. We have beginner-friendly tutorials and examples in our DynaMaker documentation (https://docs.dynamaker.com/how-to-use-static-assets) that makes it easy to learn how to do it.
Is the file size important?
Another factor to take into account is the size of the 3D files. Keep in mind that the visualization and the app performance play an important role for the user experience. So the models you upload to your DynaMaker should be low in size. In the end the 3D visualization is a representation of the actual product, and sometimes accurate or high-resolution models are not needed.
However you might wonder if you can export the whole model using your static assets. That’s also possible to do in DynaMaker. So don’t worry if you are looking to export the resulting model as one single STEP or BIM file, even if you are combining parametric models built in DynaMaker with your static models. It’s all possible and more importantly recommended! In fact if you already have your models in the desired format, you can get those in the exporting process despite using low resolution models (e.g. STL) in your application.
What about the relations already created between static assets?
Unfortunately, when you upload your 2D and 3D files into your DynaMaker application, any relation that they might have between them (e.g. possible connectors, parent definitions, etc) is lost. But don’t worry, you can easily redefine what the entire conveyor system or assembly should contain and even create additional variants or relations controlled with properties.
So what are you waiting for? Give it a try and create your own application with your own static assets. Let DynaMaker save you time modeling so you can focus on the rest!
And don’t forget to take a look at one of the apps that you can do in one of our tutorials (https://docs.dynamaker.com/tutorials-user-interface), that in fact uses static models for the rollers in a conveyor.
Do you want to know more? Contact us and ask us!