Video

lucymarie_mantese

I have seen a few posts with a short video (a few seconds) of demonstrating an OnShape function or technique, for example in this post:  https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/3821/cannot-extrude-remove-due-to-merge-scope

Does OnShape have a function that allows you to capture video?  If not, could you please suggest how this is done?

Thank you.  

robert_morris

Currently you need to use a separate screen capture program to do the recording.
I use a program called Licecap for Windows. I'm sure there is a similar program available on Mac, but I'm not sure what it is.

NeilCooke

@robert_morris it's called Licecap   

grochino

You can download LICEcap for Windows or Mac here: https://www.cockos.com/licecap/
You can capture an animated GIF of your screen, save it to your computer, and then insert it into your forums post or comment as if you were inserting an image.
This is a great tool for explaining any issues you're having or for helping other users solve their problems.

robert_morris

Currently you need to use a separate screen capture program to do the recording.
I use a program called Licecap for Windows. I'm sure there is a similar program available on Mac, but I'm not sure what it is.

NeilCooke

@robert_morris it's called Licecap   

grochino

You can download LICEcap for Windows or Mac here: https://www.cockos.com/licecap/
You can capture an animated GIF of your screen, save it to your computer, and then insert it into your forums post or comment as if you were inserting an image.
This is a great tool for explaining any issues you're having or for helping other users solve their problems.

robert_morris

@NeilCooke, Nice, I guess that's what I get for not looking things up first...
I didn't realize it was cross-platform.

lucymarie_mantese

Thank you for pointing out Licecap and where to download it.  Great that it's free. 

gerald_friedman

Downloaded Licecap and tried it on my mac. Takes a picture through my onshape window of the desktop behind.

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

matthew_stacy

@gerald_friedman , I use the free version of a package called Active Presenter (https://atomisystems.com/activepresenter/ ).  It suits my needs, but like anything, there is a bit of a learning curve. 

I have not used Licecap, but Active Presenter has an option to toggle between webcam and screen capture when recording.

mahir

I use a really simple program on Windows called GifCam. But everyone seems to love Licecap. I'll have to give it a try.

mahir

Tried out LiceCap. I don't like it as much as GifCam. They're both relatively simple, but GifCam has more options and lets you edit your capture after the fact.

steve_shubin

@lucymarie_mantese

I’ll add my two cents

That short video was a GIF

The nice thing about GIF’s is that they are more like pictures than videos, and this forum will let you post pictures directly into it. Hence you can post GIF’s directly into this forum

Now as for videos, you’re not able to post videos directly into the forum. You have to save your video to some other site, and then you will be able to link or create a portal (I guess) to where you posted your video on the Internet. At least that’s the way I think videos work on this forum

As best I understand it — GIF’s do not have sound. Some say there are GIF’s that have sound, but I don’t believe you will be able to post one of those ‘so called GIFs with sound’, directly into this Onshape forum, because I don’t believe it’s a GIF. That’s how I understand it. But if anybody out there can show me otherwise, I’d be happy to see

Long story short, if you want to have some narration to your video, you’re not gonna be making a GIF. Rather, you’re going to be making a video and posting it to some other site and then linking or creating a portal to that site

You never said what platform you were on

For capturing video using Apple products, you could use the programs that are built-in or that come with your device. You could use QuickTime on your Mac or you could use the screen capture app that comes with your iPhone. Both of those are Apple programs. They do a great job of capturing video

Now as to converting the videos made on my Mac and iPhone to GIF, I primarily use a program on my iPhone called GIF Maker - ImgPlay. I have unlocked all the features and it cost me $10 to do that. And to me it was more than worth it. They make this for the iPad also.

I really like this program for GIF’s. It’s super fast to use. It’s easy. It renders or converts to GIF extremely fast.

But, this program will limit your GIFs according to what device you are using. So if you have a newer iPhone, you probably will be able to make longer GIFs than I do with my iPhone that’s a few years old. And of course, there is at least one workaround for making longer GIFs

On some of my GIFs, I add arrows and text, title pages, transitions and what not. Now I could probably do some of this within the GIF program. But I prefer to do these things in a video editor. And for that I use a program on my iPhone called LumaFusion, which is the best video editor that there is that’s mobile - my opinion. Next to Onshape, LumaFusion is my favorite app. Onshape and LumaFusion are both killer apps

But if you just want to quickly make a GIF out of video or a bunch of screenshots, you don’t have to use an editor. 

One reason I use an editor is at times I need to slow down what I’m doing on the iPhone for people to see what’s going on. Because things go by a little bit too fast when you’re tapping on this and tapping on that. An editor allows me to slow down the taps so people can actually see where I am tapping. And that’s important if you’re trying to get your point across

steve_shubin

A tad more about VIDEO for any interested —

Somewhere, I either read, or heard it said, that 51% of a movie is the audio.

It’s been a few years. I don’t know exactly when, but it used to be that you could adjust the volume of your audio recording as it was being laid down on the iPhone

But Apple changed things. Now, there is no way to adjust the audio gain as I’m recording a video, unless I have some outboard piece of equipment. The gain control ON THE FRONT END is automatic for apps nowadays.

This makes it easy to clip the audio going into my iPhone because of this automatic gain control — built into the operating system.

As such, I constantly hear these little TICKS — which drive me batty.

And no matter how far I hold the iPhone away, my booming voice is going to clip, unless I hold it so far away that the audio quality turns to rubbish

I found a solution that works for me WHEN I’M LOOKING FOR HIGHER QUALITY AUDIO. I use something that does not require me to have an outboard BOX (pre-amp) that I have to plug into my iPhone. I use ClipMic digital. It’s not cheap. I think I paid $200 at B & H. But to me, it’s worth it when I want the higher quality

THERE’S NO BOX. It’s just a Lavalier type mic with an alligator clip and a long cord (maybe 6 feet long) with a lightning connector.

I’ve listened to recordings made with a little shotgun mic made by Rode. As far as I’m concerned, that mic does not hack it. Too noisy

The ClipMic digital, which is made by Sennheiser, a very renowned microphone company, comes with its own app (made by Apogee) that works very well for laying down tracks. And it’s easy to bring those tracks into my video editor and sync them up visually.

So if there’s any of you that want to make a better video (remember audio is 51% of it) here’s something to consider. 

I don’t or didn’t get any kind of money or renumeration for saying what I did here. I’m just a user like anybody else

andrew_coen

Hi all! Thanks everyone for the great advice. To be honest, this is the first time I heard  about Licecap app. I have tried this and can assume it works great with Onshape software. I used another tool iSpring Cam ( https://www.ispringsolutions.com/ispring-cam ) before, it was good too, but Licecap had its advantages. So follow my example, try a few to find the best one for you.

andrew_coen

steve_cohen

On a mac, you can just type shift-command-5 to record a .mov file from the screen.  Alternatively, use Quick Time

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208721

This saves in .mov format, so you need to convert if you want something else.