Responding to the growing demand among engineers to visually
observe the dynamic behavior of the systems they're designing, The MathWorks has released Simulink 3D Animation.
The software, an upgraded version of a product formerly
known as Virtual Reality Toolbox, provides an interface between the MATLAB
environment and Simulink multidomain simulation platform and virtual reality
graphics. As a result, engineers and scientists can dynamically simulate their
mechanical products and control systems in a 3-D virtual reality environment,
giving them a more realistic view of their offering. "Engineers are doing
more and more work virtually in terms of understanding their design, especially
when they're building control systems," says Jason Ghidella, The MathWorks'
senior team lead working with the Simulink line of products. "They're looking
to use simulation upfront to understand the behavior and to try and diagnose
any system integration issues."
Being able to visualize the behavior of a system in a 3-D
world gives engineers a better handle on possible design issues and conflicts
compared with examining mathematical equations or X, Y plots. As a result, The MathWorks competitors,
including Maplesoft,
are adding similar 3-D and animation capabilities to their multi-domain
offerings. "Just looking at an X, Y plot of a response is very difficult,"
Ghidella says. "People like to look at something visual to get a better
understanding. That's what is driving the notion of needing 3-D animation
attached to simulation output."
Simulink 3D Animation offers tools for building, modifying
and viewing virtual reality worlds. Engineers can change position, rotation,
size and other properties of the objects they've created in the virtual world
as part of the exercise in observing the dynamic behavior of their systems. New
in this release is the ability to incorporate 3-D scenes with other graphics
objects, including those created in MATLAB. The software also supports the
import of VRML files created from CAD assemblies that were authored in such
tools as SolidWorks and Pro/ENGINEER.
The new (and not so new) simulation and 3D virtual visulation tools are absolutely amazing. The ability to do comprehensive design work in a virtual environment is such an aid to reducing design time and, perhaps more importantly, reducing errors.
In one case I was involved in a number of years ago, our design people were able to integrate our pcb designs (with all the parts installed) into the actual mechical designs and then do a 'walk around' to look for interference fits, ability to install and remove the various parts, etc. A huge aid to everyone on the design team. And a huge help in cutting down the number of design iterations.
I have used virtual reality systems in Design and I can attest to the fact that they save a lot of time effort and money in the design and construction of various systems.
I spent a few years in submarine design and we used 3-D Simulation and Virtual Reality for the SEAWOLF attack submarine design. Previous ship designs involved a full size mockup of steel, wood and ropes (ropes simulated cables) and the customer would go through the mockup and observe various layouts and arrangements of equipment. For the new design, we eventually replaced the more limited physical mockup with a virtual walk through and simulations.
One goal we had was to dynamically change the size and shapes of a component based on the engineering loads imposed on it. I was tasked with creating a software routine to resize a seawater heat exchanger based on the requirements for the ships' speed. The idea was to be able to resize the engineering plant dynamically to suit various operational scenarios.
I think most engineers and designers realize that for a construction project as big as a ship and one that takes so long to build that the construction has to start before the design is completely finished. Long lead time materials and manufacturing times contribute to make this a very difficult problem in logistics and management.
By applying the 3-D virtual reality early and effectively some of these problems can be resolved sooner and in a more cost effective manner. I can see a point in time when a component manufacturer is required to supply not only the physical hardware but appropriate 3-D models for use in the simulations as well. Eventually we would like to be able to test in a 3-D simulation alternative components and evaluate them for the various characteristics of interest. These might be power consumption, EM radiation interference, physical size, quietness of operation and maintainability.
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