Locking and Unlocking Commands

You can lock command values for partially defined mechanisms using the Mechanism Player.

A mechanism is partially defined in the following situations:

  • The mechanism is underconstrained.
  • The mechanism includes interdependent commands.
  • A combination of the previous situations.
For more information, see About the Mechanism Manager.

Before you begin:

A partially defined mechanism - identified by the color-coded status icon - must be ready to be animated, as indicated in the Mechanism Manager.

Related Topics
More about Locking and Unlocking Commands
Animating Mechanisms
About the Mechanism Manager
Diagnosing Computation Incidents

  1. In the Mechanism Player, select the command value you want to lock.

  2. Click to lock the command of your choice.

    The current command value is locked and can no longer be modified. The value assigned to the locked command (target value) is enforced for the kinematics solver; it remains constant during the animation.

  3. Click to unlock the command.

    The command value can be modified.