Entity Creation

General workflows to add or edit an entity in Inspire Motion Analyst.

The following sections give a general overview of how to add or edit an entity in Motion Analyst. The steps cover elements that are common to most entities in the guide panel dialog that opens when you click a tool in the Motion ribbon.
Note: When an entity's add or edit workflow has unique steps or important notes, that information is detailed in the entity's individual help page.

Add an Entity

General workflow to add an entity using Motion Analyst tools.

  1. On the Motion ribbon, under Profile, select Analyst.
  2. Select a tool from the Motion ribbon.
    Tip: To find and open a tool, press Ctrl+F. For more information, see Find and Search for Tools.
    The guide panel opens.
    Figure 1. Example of Entity Guide Panel


  3. Optional: To select a Parent system, use the selector. The parent system determines the new entity's position within the model tree hierarchy.
    Selectors
    Many fields in the guide panel require selecting another entity in the model. These selectors generally follow a consistent format, as detailed below.


    Table 1.
    Selector Function Icon Description
    Directly select an entity

    		Click the name of the entity to be selected (e.g., Part, Point, Joint, etc.) and then select a corresponding entity on the model from the model browser or modeling window.

    The number in parentheses indicates how many entities are selected. Most selectors are limited to selecting one entity.
    Advanced selector

    		Opens a dialog to select an entity by label, organized in the model tree.

    You can choose whether to view the model tree of the parent system or the model.
    Reset selection

    		Click to reset entity selections.
  4. Optional: Edit the Label. This is a free text field where you can enter a custom name for the entity.
  5. Optional: Select the Pair check box to create a pair entity. Pair entities help to create models that are symmetric about the Z-X plane of the model. Their properties can also be symmetric about the Z-X plane (in other words, the Y property is mirrored). For more information, see Pairs and Symmetric Modeling in Inspire Motion.
  6. To select a reference (e.g., Origin, Part, Joint, etc.), use the selector for each entity.
    To the left of each reference selector, there is also a Ground icon, which you can click to select the ground as a part or the global origin as a point instead of a specific entity in the model.
  7. After the reference selections are made, create the entity using one of the following methods:
    • Click on the guide panel to create and orient the entity.

      OR

    • Click the button that appears at the mouse location in the modeling window.

      OR

    • Click to create the entity and exit the guide panel selections for this entity.

      OR

    • Click to cancel entity creation and exit the guide panel dialog.
    After the entity has been added to the model, the corresponding entity will automatically be displayed in the browser area.
    Note: By default, variables names of entities in Inspire follow a certain convention. For example, all force entities have a variable name starting with “Force_”. This is the recommended convention to follow when building models in Inspire since it has many advantages in model editing and model manipulation.

Edit an Entity

General workflow to edit an entity using the Motion ribbon tool or Property Editor.

Table 2. Edit methods
To use this method Do this
Motion ribbon tool
  1. Select the entity from the Model Browser or modeling window.
  2. On the Motion ribbon, under Profile, select Analyst.

  3. Select the respective tool from the Motion ribbon.

    The guide panel opens.

  4. To edit the References and other common fields, follow the steps in the Add an Entity section.
Property Editor
  1. Select the entity from the Model Browser or modeling window.
  2. From the View menu, select Property Editor.
The selected entity's properties are listed in the Property Editor and are available for edit. Refer to the entity's individual help page for details on properties.
Model Browser
  1. Double-click the entity in the modeling window or the entity name in the Model Browser.

    The guide panel opens.

  2. To edit the References and other common fields, follow the steps in the Add an Entity section.
Modeling window
Table
  1. Right-click the entity in the modeling window or the entity name in the Model Browser and select Show Table from the context menu.

    The table opens.

  2. Double-click the entity name in the table.

    The guide panel opens.

  3. To edit the References and other common fields, follow the steps in the Add an Entity section.
Note: To start adding a new entity while editing an existing entity in the guide panel, click in the empty space in the modeling window.