Control Entities

Geometric Entities

Physical Entities

Reference Entities

User-Defined Entities

Entity Properties

The attributes of an entity are called properties.  The properties of a point entity are the X coordinate, Y coordinate, and Z coordinate.  Body entities have mass and inertia properties.  A property can be a simple scalar value or it can be a mathematical expression that makes a property a function of other properties in the model.

Entity Pairs

MotionView can store entities as pairs and provides tools for managing symmetry.  Each side of a symmetric model is separately maintained to avoid having to build one half of a model and mirror it to create a full model.  Symmetry is turned on or off using the Symmetric Properties option.

Points panel - Symmetric Properties option

When two entities are stored as a pair, one is called the left entity and the other is called the right entity.  By default, paired entities are symmetric and the left side is the master.  Symmetry can be disabled for any entity pair.  When symmetry is on, only the master side can be edited, and changes to the master side are automatically made to the corresponding entity.