Low cost animation or system wide dynamics?

I am considering switching from doing my 3d design work in AutoCAD or
Inventor to Solidworks. I am also hoping to make use of a program to
generate simulations of the mechanisms we design. Stuff like simple
animatronics, which has multiple actuators and multiple linkages. At
this point, financially our only option is to use the basic version of
Solidworks, and not the Office or any other add-ons that seem to start
at $5,000. So, I am fishing for other add-on's or perhaps just a
better understanding of the capabilities in the basic version of
Solidworks.

The minimum need, is to be able to script the movements of the various
actuators, so that we could see the entire unit operating as an
assembly. Of course, standard animation packages, Maya or 3DS Max do
this stuff, but I find that the task of exporting from the CAD package
to the animation program tends to loose information about the
linkages.

Simply grabbing an object and dragging with the mouse is not
sufficient. I want to say to the program;

"At 7 seconds into the animation, move linear actuator #1 from its
minimum position to 3 inches, and take 1/2" second to do it. At 9
seconds into the animation, rotate servomotor #3 15 degrees in 1
second. etc."

Of course, in addition to this, I would like to get as much dynamic
information as I can and even define the response time of each
actuator for a given load, but I realize I have to give most of this
up. Our local dealer is not familiar with the low end products or even
the details of the basic kinematics in Solidworks.

Is there an ad-on for Solidworks, costing under $1,000 which will give
me some of the capabilities I am looking for?

 

What you _want_ is Cosmos/Motion. It does everything you describe, but

There is also MotionWorks.
http://www.solid-dynamics.com/english/index.html

Not sure what the costs are for that either.

There are full use downloads of any of the above that work for 15 days
(I think).

Hope that helps,

Adam.

 

Thank you all for your recommendations, but the $5,000+ cost seems to
put all the commercial ones out of the picture. But, of course, I
keep reading Solidworks promo literature, which seems to suggest that
the basic program will do everything I want to do.

Of course, I know better than to accept any marketing speak as
anything but bologna. So, I will get a hands-on seminar in 2 weeks, I
guess that is the only way to find out. The Solidworks web site
certainly is not the source for any real information.