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How to Import your own Data
see also: Data Transfer, Position List, Acceleration List

If you find that MotionDesigner  cannot provide you with the motion you need for a particular segment, or you just want to use your own data, then you have the option to import your own data into MotionDesigner into any segment.

Follow these steps.

1. It is best to have your data ready in a single column in Microsoft Excel, or equivalent.  
2. You will need at least 5 points in the list.  It is best to have as many steps (see Tools: Settings: Motion: Number Of Steps) as there are in the segment width - say one step per degree or msec.
2. Decide whether your data is a sequence of Position values or a sequence of Acceleration Values.
3. Highlight the data in Excel, and copy it to the Clipboard buffer, using Ctrl+C, or right-click and use copy
4. Within MotionDesigner, open a Motion if not already open, and click (ie select) the segment you want to "host" your data.
5. Using the Segment Type Selector, change the segment to a "Position List" or an "Acceleration List" segment type, as appropriate to your data you want to post. You will notice the segment appearance on the graph will update immediately to be linear 
6. Open the  Tools | Data Transfer dialogue box, or click on the icon in the Tools Toolbar
7. Select the top left cell of the Data Transfer dialogue box and paste the data you have already "copied" to the clipboard in to the cells in the table.
8. Highlight the cells with your mouse by dragging the mouse over the pasted cells with the left button clicked.
9. Use the "Put Data in Selected List Segment" icon so that the data is transferred into the List Segment.


Note the following powerful MotionDesigner features:
  • MotionDesigner will derive the Velocity and Acceleration if you have used a "Position List" segment type.
  • MotionDesigner will derive Velocity and Position if you have used an "Acceleration List" Segment type.
  • You can use the Blend-point Editor to change the blend-point values of the List Segment Types. 
  • MotionDesigner will automatically scale the data you have "put" into the List Segment to match the Blend-point Positions. 
    So you don't have to worry about getting your data scaled in the "Y-direction".
  • MotionDesigner will automatically change the number of data points you have used to equal the number of steps, that were already in the segment.  
    So you don't have to worry about getting the number of points in your data.
  • You can change the Segment Width as per any normal segment type.
  • You can clip the data start or end of your data using the Segment Range controls.
  • You can always recover your original data by getting the list data from the list segment.