Drive Sounds
A Sound component on a node with a Drive makes that drive audible. The sound is generated live in the browser from the drive’s movement, so there are no audio files to import and nothing to download. Speed, stroke and end positions come from the drive itself; the component only chooses what kind of machine it should sound like.
Use it to hear a line: a motor that hums faster and slower, a gripper that closes with a knock, a hydraulic press that relieves pressure. A running line is easier to judge by ear when a drive hangs or an end position is missed.
Properties
Section titled “Properties”| Property | What it does |
|---|---|
| Kind | The type of actuator. Drive sounds like an electric motor, Cylinder like a pneumatic cylinder, Hydraulic like a hydraulic axis. Auto (the default) picks Cylinder when the node also carries a cylinder drive and Drive otherwise. |
| Variant | The character within the kind, shown as Type in the inspector. For Drive: Large, Medium or Small (a large motor sounds deeper). For Cylinder: Hard (stops with a knock and a small bounce) or Cushioned (throttled exhaust before the end, no bounce). Hydraulic has no variants. Auto uses Medium for a drive and Cushioned for a cylinder. |
| Volume | Level of this drive from 0 to 1. Default is 1. Lower it for drives that should stay in the background. |
A variant that does not fit the kind, for example Hard on a Drive, plays as Auto and is listed in the Problems panel. A Sound on a node without a drive stays silent and is listed there as well.
What you hear
Section titled “What you hear”- Motor (Drive): a continuous tone that rises and falls with the visible speed, plus a subtle transient when the drive starts and brakes.
- Pneumatic cylinder: a valve tick at the start, a quiet slide while it moves and one knock when it reaches its end position. A stop in mid-stroke is silent.
- Hydraulic axis: a knock at start and stop, flow noise that follows the speed and, after stopping in an end position, the hiss of the pressure-relief valve. The pump does not idle at standstill.
- Standstill: silence. A drive that does not move makes no sound.
- Speed and pause: everything follows the simulation speed. Pause fades all sounds out within a fraction of a second. A seek or reset is not played as movement.
- Voices: at most 6 continuous sounds play at the same time. The viewer picks the ones nearest to the camera, so a large machine stays readable. Sounds are placed in 3D at the drive and get quieter with distance.
- Variation: each Sound carries a small fixed deviation in pitch and level, so identical axes do not sound identical. It is the same on every start.
Using it in the viewer
Section titled “Using it in the viewer”Sound is off by default. When the scene contains a Sound component, a speaker button appears in the view controls at the bottom right. Click it to switch sound on or off. Hover over it to open the volume slider. Both settings are remembered in the browser.
Browsers only play audio after you have interacted with the page. If sound was switched on in a previous session, it starts with your first click or key press.
In the Editor, the inspector’s Preview button plays one run-up or stroke of the selected drive even while sound is switched off.
- Give drives that run permanently, such as conveyors, a low Volume around 0.1. They then form a quiet background and do not mask the events of the machine.
- Do not add a Sound to a gear follower if its master already has one. The pair moves as one, and a second voice only doubles the level.
- Choose Kind by actuator type, not by size: grippers, lids and lifts as Cylinder (Hard for clamping stops, Cushioned for lifts and swivels), gantry axes and conveyors as Drive, mould closing and press axes as Hydraulic.
Example from a blow-moulding line: the mould closing cylinders are Hydraulic, the grippers and clamps Cylinder / Hard, the lifts and blow-pin units Cylinder / Cushioned, the long gantry axes Drive / Large, the short ones Drive / Medium and the conveyors Drive / Medium at Volume 0.12.