Record

The Record Add-In is a cinematic tool that adds screen capturing and camera-tracking capabilities to RoboDK. Instead of using basic screen-capture software that captures outside window frames and menus.

The Record Add-in can lock onto the 3D view of a RoboDK station directly. It allows users to attach the viewpoint onto moving robot joints and export smooth, clean videos or transparent image sequences of cell simulations.

This Add-in acts as a helpful assistant when creating presentation materials, building engineering portfolios, or saving step-by-step assembly sequences for customer reviews.

You can install the Record Add-in from the RoboDK Online Library of Addins. Another way to do this from RoboDK software itself is by going to Tools ➔ Add-in Manager (or press Shift+A) and Enable the Record Add-in.

After installation, you can find a separate Record menu for the Add-in.

A dedicated toolbar is also available for quick access.

Main Options

The Record Add-in features options that focus on giving users total control over how simulations are recorded, helping to create presentation-ready visuals.

Record Video

This feature captures the live motion of the station and saves it as a standard video file. It strips away all external side panels and toolbars, outputting a clean video containing only the active 3D environment and the station tree.

Record the path simulation by following these steps:

1.Click on the Record Video option present in the Record menu (or press Ctrl+F1) to start recording. An icon is also available in the toolbar for the same. A red dot near the icon represents that the screen is being recorded.

2.Click on the same option again to stop recording. When you do this, a file save window pops up automatically, suggesting a filename with the current date and time, also allowing you to pick exactly where to save the file on disk.

Record Image Sequence

For the Record Image Sequence feature, the Add-in automatically creates two virtual cameras behind the scenes: Snapshot Camera (Black) and Snapshot Camera (White).

By analyzing the difference between two snapshots taken at the exact same instant with contrasting backgrounds, the robot is cleanly separated from the environment without needing a traditional "green screen".

Double clicking on any of the two Snapshot Cameras opens a dialog box with additional parameters including:

1.Focal length (mm): Increase this value to narrow the view and create a telephoto effect, which is perfect for focusing closely on small details from a distance without moving the camera position. Lower this value to create a wide-angle effect to capture large production cells in a single shot.

2.Pixel size (μm): This value defines the physical size of the sensor's individual pixels and directly links to your resolution and field of view. Adjusting this value scales the sharpness and pixel density of the camera sensor to help capture fine object edges cleanly.

3.Field of view (deg): Increase this value to pull the camera back and capture a wide-angle shot of large robot setups; decrease it to zoom in closely on high-detail tasks like micromachining or picking small parts.

4.Working distance (mm): This setting sets the maximum view depth for the virtual camera. Setting this to an exceptionally large value (like the default 99995.0 mm) ensures that no matter how large your production floor is or how far the robot extends its arm into the background, components will never be clipped or cut off from the frame during recording.

5.Fixed sensor size: Keep this checked to lock the frame borders. This ensures that even if you resize the main window, the exported images maintain identical composition for smooth animation compilation.

6.Camera sensor size (Width and Height in pixels): Manually type higher values here if you need high-resolution, sharp images.

7.Allow window resize: Keep this checked if you want the virtual camera to dynamically adapt its baseline to match adjustments made to the main window layout panel.

8.Perspective View: Keep this checked for natural-looking snaps. Uncheck it if you need an Orthographic View (isometric or flat top-down view).

9.View Type: Leave this on "Color" for final presentations. You can toggle it to options like "Grayscale" or "Depth" if you need specialized technical visuals (e.g., mapping sensor distance views).

10.Docked View: Locks the virtual camera's live preview window directly inside the RoboDK user interface layout panel instead of letting it float as a separate pop-up window.

11.Light Parameters (Ambient, Diffuse, Specular): These three parameters change how light bounces off the robot's physical 3D surfaces. Lower the "Specular" light if your robot model has shiny surfaces. Reducing reflections minimizes background color bleeding on the glossy edges, giving you a cleaner, sharper alpha-channel cut-out.

12.Background color: While this is ignored during automated transparent image sequence exports (which force black and white backgrounds), you can change this to a high-contrast color (like solid blue or green) when saving standard, non-transparent snapshots to make the station components pop out clearly from the background sheet.

The two-step snapshot mechanism works in the following way:

1.Snapshot Camera (Black) takes a picture with a black background, and Snapshot Camera (White) immediately takes a matching picture with a white background.

2.The Add-in compares them pixel-by-pixel. If a pixel looks identical in both photos (like a yellow robot arm link), the software recognizes it as a solid object and keeps it. If a pixel changes completely from black to white, it is identified as empty space and converted into 100% transparent space, saving a clean alpha-channel RGBA image sequence (.png).

Attach Camera (3D View)

This utility of the Add-in attaches the main 3D perspective straight onto a moving component in the cell. As a result, the view is glued to the selected item.

If a moving robot link, a welding tool, or a part sliding down a conveyor belt is selected before using the Attach Camera (3D View) option, the camera will ride along with that item.

This creates a first-person view, keeping the tool tip perfectly centered on the screen while the rest of the station environment moves smoothly around it. This eliminates the need to manually pan or rotate the screen while trying to follow a moving robot tool path.

Set Screen Size

This option changes the dimensions of the RoboDK window layout. It can be used to lock the screen proportions into specific, standard sizes (such as 960 x 720 pixels) before hitting record. This guarantees that exported videos maintain a uniform shape, preventing unwanted stretching or cropping.

Settings

The Settings window controls how the tracking camera behaves, the default size of the recording window, and the format of the exported media files.

Camera

When the Keep relative position when attaching the camera option is turned on, the camera preserves the exact current viewing angle and distance. As the object moves or rotates, the camera moves with it as if it is attached to it at that exact offset distance. When turned off, the camera snaps to a strict, pre-set directional view alignment relative to the object.

Input

The Default screen size option hard-locks the pixel resolution width and height of the 3D window for recording. Standardizing this layout ensures the videos look consistent and professional.

Output

The Frame per seconds option controls how many individual picture snapshots the Add-in captures every second. Higher values (like 24 or 30) create smooth, cinematic playback for moving robot arms.

The Format option sets the file format for the recordings. The following formats can be set for the Record Add-in's output:

1..mp4: Uses a standard compression format that balances great visual quality with low file size. This is considered ideal for sharing.

2..avi: Uses an uncompressed format that preserves high geometric clarity. This is preferred for video editing.