Animate Robot

The Animate Robot command opens the joint-jog panel for a robot. Each joint has one row of controls. The robot follows in the 3D view.

Open the panel

1. Select the robot in the model tree.

   

2. Click the Animate Robot icon in the toolbar.

   

3. The panel shows one row for each joint. There are two ways to jog: move a slider, or type a value.

   

The joint limits come from the assembly joints. See Set the joint limits below.

Jog with the sliders

Drag a slider to move a joint. Or click the arrow buttons at the two ends of the slider. Each click moves the joint one step. Set the step in the Step box at the bottom. The tooltip of each arrow button shows the joint limit.

Select Flip to invert the jog direction of that joint in the panel.

Type a value

Type a value in the Value column. The joint goes to that value. Units: degrees for revolute joints, millimeters for sliders.

Set the joint limits

The limits are properties of each assembly joint, not of the robot object.

1. In the model tree, expand the robot assembly and open its Joints group. Select the joint.

   

2. In the property editor, open the Limits group and set the limits:

   • Revolute joint: set the Enable Angle Min and Enable Angle Max boxes. Then set Angle Min and Angle Max (degrees).
   • Slider joint: set the Enable Length Min and Enable Length Max boxes. Then set Length Min and Length Max (millimeters).

   

3. Click Reload FPO in the panel. The slider and the arrow tooltips show the new limits. In this example, J1 can go only to -90°.

   

A joint without enabled limits gets the default range: ±180° for a revolute joint, ±500 mm for a slider.

Panel buttons

Control	Function
Step	Jog step size in joint units (° or mm)
Reset	Set all the joints to 0
Reload FPO	Read the robot data again (the stored joint directions and limits) and refresh the panel. The robot does not move
Go Home	Move all joints to the saved home pose
Set Home	Keep the current pose as the home pose
Set Zero	Make the current pose the zero pose ("mastering"). All joints read 0 at this pose. The limits and the home pose are relative to it. The Assembly joint dialog continues to show the raw values

Notes

• The panel writes the joint values to the assembly joints. The assembly solves again. Thus the pose is real, not only visual.
• The panel applies the per-joint direction that the robot keeps. A positive slider movement always turns the joint in the same direction. See Joint Model.
• You can also set the pose through the tool. Add a tool first (Define Tool). Then pull the TCP sphere in the 3D view (Kinematics).
• To control more than one robot, see Multi-Robot Control.