Movement Buttons and Properties

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Movement Buttons and Properties

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A Movement button moves one or more points or parameters toward defined destinations.

Creating and Using a Movement Button

To create a Movement button, you must select one or more pairs of objects:

A pair of points must consist of a point to move and a destination point toward which the first point can move.

A pair of values must consist of a value to change (which must be a parameter) and a destination value toward which the parameter can change.

Select one or more such pairs of objects and choose Edit | Action Buttons | Movement to create a Movement button.

Press a Movement button once to start the movement. The button remains pressed until all moving points and parameters reach their destinations. You can press the button a second time, while the button is still down, to stop the movement.

You can also press the Esc key to stop the movement. (You may have to press the Esc key more than once.)

After creating a Movement button, you may want to hide the destination points or values so only the moving points or parameters are visible.

Choose Edit | Properties | Move to set the speed and behavior of the movement.

Move Properties

This Properties panel appears only for Movement action buttons. Use it to determine the speed and behavior of the movement.

The panel appears automatically when you choose Edit | Action Buttons | Movement to create a button. After you’ve created the button, choose Edit | Properties, or choose Properties from the Context menu, to display the panel again to make further adjustments.

 

You can set the movement speed to slow, medium, fast, or instant.

If the destination point or value moves while the Movement button is active, you can decide how the moving point will travel. Choose Follow moving destination to have the moving point or parameter alter direction as the destination point or value moves, always continuing to move toward that destination. Choose Move toward initial destination to have the moving object travel directly to the location or value of the destination at the instant the Movement button was clicked, stopping when it reaches that initial destination.

If the destination is moving, it’s possible that the moving object will never reach the destination and will keep moving forever. You can take advantage of this “perpetual motion” to model kinematic systems.