Prelude | A Quick Start for the Impatient User
Introduction
Thank you for your interest in Virtual CRASH software! You’ll find that Virtual CRASH is an extremely powerful and versatile simulation tool, which can be quickly mastered [1]. This prelude is designed for users (or trial version testers) eager to dive into the Virtual CRASH environment and start manipulating vehicles. You will learn how to select a car from the gallery browser and import it into the scene. You’ll also discover how to set up a simulation and attach a vehicle to an animation path. First, let’s cover a few basic aspects of the user interface.
Virtual CRASH 4
This User’s Guide is intended for Virtual CRASH 4 users. Notice, many of the workflows are the same as those found in Virtual CRASH versions 3, 4, and 5.
Additional Training Content
You can find additional training content online at http://www.vcrashusa.com/academy. There you will find Blog posts, Knowledge Base posts, and training videos all of which are important to learn the numerous features and functions of Virtual CRASH. Users are strongly recommended to review all this content on the academy.
Trial Version Limitations
If you have not yet purchased a license of Virtual CRASH software, you will notice the application launches in “trial” mode. You’ll see “trail version” at the top of the application window. Please note, the trial version of Virtual CRASH is designed to give you a feel for its most important features and functions; as such, many features and functions are disabled. You will not be able to save projects, create videos, modify vehicle parameters, among others. While you can experiment with our “generic” vehicle and human figures (multibodies), changing weights and geometrical input data is not possible.
Self-Paced Training
Another great way to quickly learn Virtual CRASH fundamentals is by enrolling in our Self-Paced Training courses. In our Self-Paced Training you will receive video lectures specifically made for each course, as well as refreshers of content that can be found on the vCRASH Academy. After watching and reading through the course material, you will be given quizzes and class projects. The class projects are graded by our expert instructors. To learn more about Self-Paced Training go to: http://www.vcrashusa.com/self-paced-training.
USB Dongle
For each license of Virtual CRASH that is purchased, your organization will receive a physical USB dongle (“license key”). Note, this is not a hardware storage device, but a “key” to unlock Virtual CRASH software functionality. We require that Virtual CRASH software be installed, locally, on a device where the display and user input devices, used to operate Virtual CRASH, are directly connected. The USB dongle must also be plugged into this same local machine and cannot be used on a remote machine or through a network connection (see EULA). With the trial version launched, once a USB dongle is plugged into the user’s machine, all functionality will be enabled.
The Virtual Tutor
The first thing you should familiarize yourself with in Virtual CRASH is the innovative “Virtual Tutor” feature. The Virtual Tutor will help you understand where to access most of the functions within Virtual CRASH by literally taking over your mouse and showing you! To access the Virtual Tutor help topics, go to the lower portion of the left-side control panel and left-click on “help”.
Now you should see a list of topics from which you can select. Note, the “player speed” option is above the list and can be used to slow down or speed up the lessons.
Next, select your lesson by left-clicking a topic and watch the tutorial.
Select a Vehicle and Place it into the Scene
To place a vehicle into the scene, first left-click on “gallery” in the left-side control panel [2]. This will open the gallery browser. The gallery browser contains a list of all 3D vehicles, 2D vehicle icons, signs, textures, and other types of objects that can be placed within the scene.
The gallery browser is divided into two halves. The upper half allows you to use a hierarchy to search by object type of vehicle make. The lower half shows you which vehicles or other objects fall within the selected category. For example, when the gallery opens, the “medium” category is opened by default. “Medium” indicates the level of vehicle detail is medium to high. Hover your mouse cursor in the area shown in the red box below and use your scroll wheel to scan up or down the list of vehicle makes. Left-click on the desired vehicle make.
Next, place your mouse cursor in the lower half of the gallery browser window. Use your mouse’s scroll wheel to scan up and down the window. You will see images of the available models. If you wish to see all models, without filtering by make, then left-click “medium” in the upper half.
Left-click on the database icon in the upper-right corner of the vehicle graphic, hold the mouse button, drag your cursor into the workspace and release the left button. You should see an instance of the vehicle appear in the workspace. You can create as many instances of the vehicle as needed using this method (cloning vehicles is discussed in other chapters).
Specify Initial Conditions
Now that you have your vehicle imported into the scene, you are now ready to give it some initial speed. First, left-click on the upper tool bar to pull down the drop down menu shown below, and then left-click on “Select, Move And Manipulate.” Left-click on your vehicle and you should see fast control icons appear. These are discussed further in the guide.
Each vehicle in Virtual CRASH has its own local reference frame [3]. The local \(x-\)axis ( \( \hat{x}^{\prime}\) ) can be imagined to extend along the center dividing-line of the vehicle, pointing from rear to front, through the center-of-gravity. The local \(y-\)axis (\(\hat{y}^{\prime}\)) can be imaged to run orthogonal to the \(x-\)axis, directed from passenger side through the driver side, running through the center-of-gravity. The local \(z-\)axis (\(\hat{z}^{\prime}\)) is given by the cross product \( \hat{z}^{\prime} = \hat{x}^{\prime} \times \hat{y}^{\prime} \). With this in mind, right-click on your vehicle, and you should see a fast control menu appear (see below). Here you can specify the initial velocity vector magnitude (v), velocity vector angle with respect to the vehicle’s local \(x-\)axis (vni), velocity vector angle with the local \(x-y\) plane (vnz), the vehicle’s yaw velocity about its local \(z-\)axis (omega-z), and yaw orientation angle with respect to the Earth frame (yaw). These are also controlled using the left-side control panel as will be discovered in later chapters. For now, experiment by left-clicking on the slider controls, hold, and drag your mouse side to side for each of these parameters. You should see your car move and quickly adjust trajectories in real time as you vary your inputs!
Backward compatibility
Virtual CRASH 4 supports vc3 and vcm files created with Virtual CRASH 3; however, Virtual CRASH 4 files cannot be opened with Virtual CRASH 3. To open vc3 files, simply go to Project > Open, locate your vc3 file in the file window, and double left-click on the file name. Note, in some very rare instances, vc3 simulation files involving default-auto model collisions with primitive box objects (made by Create > Standard Primitives 3D > Box) may result in slightly different results when opened in Virtual CRASH 4 due to some enhancements to primitive box objects. When converting to vc4 file format, always confirm your vc3 simulation results are in good agreement when opened in Virtual CRASH 4. If you would like to audit a Virtual CRASH 3 file from another user, it is recommended to use Virtual CRASH 3 for this purpose.
Notes:
[1] When using any physics simulation software tool, it is imperative the user perform all necessary consistency checks to ensure the simulated results are in good agreement with expectations from standard forensic techniques. It is also imperative the user understand the limitations of the simulation tool, as well as understand potential sources of uncertainties in simulated results, including but not limited to, user uncertainties in input parameters as well as those related to object positions and orientations within the simulation environment.
[2] It is recommended to always consult this list first before starting a project to find the best matches for your subject vehicles. Note, it is also recommended that you ensure all vehicle properties, including size, inertial properties, wheel placement, drive axle, etc, are properly set using appropriate values for your subject vehicles. Vehicle properties can be obtained through third-parties such as the Canadian Vehicle Specifications database (http://www.carsp.ca/research/resources/safety-sources/canadian-vehicle-specifications/), Expert Autostats (http://www.4n6xprt.com/), or Lightpoint Scentific (http://lightpointdata.com/).
Tags: Quick start, vni, vnz, omega-z, how to watch tutorial, virtual tutor, make a vehicle, put vehicle in scene, how to create simulation.
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