There are many options for controlling the default settings for Visual3D and for controlling the viewing options. The Program Options dialog can be accessed from the Edit Menu item

There are 3 TAB dialogs in the program options property pages.

Default Folders
3D Animation Options
3D View Options

Visual3D has 3 categories of folders.

• Folders that are identified when Visual3D is launched, and which are rarely modified.
• Default folders that are convenient for may pipelines that specify generic folders
• Folders that change dynamically as the pipeline executes.

The Visual3D animation display, pictured below, allows you to visualize the movement of target markers, model segments (if defined), and other time-dependent phenomena such as ground reaction force (GRF) measured by force platforms.

Visual3D’s extensive animation capabilities allow you to choose which of many elements are included in the display. The illustration shows a typical combination: global coordinate system (GCS) axes, force platforms, instantaneous GRF vector and butterfly showing how the GRF evolves through time, target markers, and the instantaneous pose of the model (represented in this case by the major bone structures corresponding to each of the modeled body segments). You can interact with the animation display to zoom, pan, and rotate it to any perspective you choose.

Note that the skeleton (representing the model) is the only part of the animation display pictured above, which will not appear if you have not yet associated the movement trial with a model. If all you do is open one movement trial, you can watch the markers move through space, observe their relationship to the position of any force platforms and the GRF they measure. This alone is a very useful tool for data quality control—if the animation doesn’t look right, your motion-capture data may be invalid.

The 3D Animation Viewer is based on the OpenGL Graphics Library.

Define the sensitivity of the mouse; e.g. the responsiveness of the mouse in the 3D viewer.

The trail of markers, landmarks, or segments (including the length of the trail in frames) can be set explicitly.

Draw Trajectory Trail of Targets

Draw Trajectory Trail of Landmarks

Draw Trajectory Trail of Segments

Draw a trajectory trail that follows the Origin (e.g. Proximal end) of the segments

Draw Trajectory Trail of Model Center of Mass

Note that the trail will only be drawn if the COM is drawn

This property pages contains a number of toggle settings for different view options in the animation window.

3D View Options

Force Platforms

Toggles the visibility of the force platforms

Ground Reaction Force Butterfly

Toggles the visibility of the ground reaction force butterfly.

Ground Reaction Force Vector

Toggles the visibility of the ground reaction force vector.

Ground Reaction Force COP

Toggles the visibility of the ground reaction force Center of Pressure.

Ground Reaction Force Free Moment

Toggles the visibility of the ground reaction force Free Moment.

*Segment Assigned (Custom/Combined)

Displays Assigned Forces.

Force Structures/Projected Forces

Displays Force Structures.

View Assigned Force Segments

Colors all segments that have been assigned to a force.

Lab/Floor

Toggles the visibility of the laboratory and floor.

Lab Axes

Toggles drawing the laboratory coordinate system axes.

Lab Axes in Model Builder

Toggles drawing the laboratory coordinate system axes in Model Builder Mode.

Background Black/White

Draws the 3D animation with either a black or white background.

Targets

Toggles drawing of targets.

Color Targets by Residual

Color Targets by the magnitude of the Residual component.

Landmarks

Toggles drawing of Landmarks.

Joints

Toggles drawing the “Joints” used for the Inverse Dynamics.

Local Targets (in LCS)

Toggles drawing the expected location of the markers as defined by the model.

Model Center of Mass

Toggles drawing the Center of Mass of the Model.

Muscles

Toggles drawing Muscles. Muscles can be drawn as lines or cylinders.

Kinetic Segments

Toggles drawing Kinetic Segments.

Kinematic Only Segments

Toggles drawing Kinematic Only Segments.

Display Segment Colors

Toggles the color of segment based on an assigned signal.

Display Segment Inertial Geometry

Toggles drawing the Segment Geometry.

Segments as Stick Figures

Toggles drawing Kinetic Segments as Stick Figures.

Kinematic Only Segments as Stick Figures

Toggles drawing Kinematic Only Segments as Stick Figures.

Segment Coordinate System Axes

Toggles the visibility of the SCS. Specifies the location to draw the axis as origin or center of mass

It is possible to color a segment model or a muscle object based on a signal value.

Segment Colorization (more…)
A right mouse click in the animation window will cause the following popup to appear. Select Map Segment Color to a Signal Value the following dialog allows the selection of a Visual3D model object and the associated signal In the above dialog the magnitude of the Right Hip Power signal is used to color the Right Thigh Segment. Note that it is important to select the Apply Colorization button after the segment and signal have been selected. The resulting snapshot from the animation shows the colored right thigh.

The motion capture markers are colored based on the TARGET residual value.

Target Colorization (more…)
Residual= 0 ⇒ Red Maximum Residual in the file ⇒ Yellow Minimum Residual in the file ⇒ Green Note that if the TARGETS have been processed, the color of the markers will always be green because the residual has no meaning for a PROCESSED signal. Note that an exception is when the option to Use ProcessTargets for Model/Segment/LinkModeBased Items is unselected because this results in the ORIGINAL signals being used for the animation as well as the computations.