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How to render a moving mechanism as a video with SOMA

Describe a motion in Python and render the animation of a model to video.

Who it is forA product designer or teacher who wants to show how a mechanism or assembly moves.

The problemShowing how a moving assembly works is hard with static renders or screenshots.

The outcomeA video file of the model moving as described in the animation code.

What you need first

  • Windows, Linux, or macOS (Apple Silicon) with a SOMA package downloaded from somacad.app/download or the releases page
  • A CLI agent such as Claude Code, OpenCode, Codex CLI or Gemini CLI, installed and logged in by you
  • About 1 GB of free disk space for the installed app

Steps

  1. Open the model in SOMA and check that the assembly builds.
  2. Ask the agent to describe the motion of the parts in Python.
  3. Play the animation in the SOMA viewer to check the motion.
  4. Run soma render to render the animation to video.

Prompt for your agent

In the SOMA model folder for <model name>, write an animation in Python that moves <part name> through <motion description>, then run `soma render` to produce a video. Report the output file path and confirm the rendered video shows the expected motion.

Caveat. The README does not say which video formats or settings `soma render` supports, so check the output file before sharing it.

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