1. INTRODUCING Adams/CHASSIS
SECTION 1
INTRODUCING Adams/CHASSIS

2. INTRODUCING Adams/CHASSIS
In this section, you will get familiarize with the Adams/Chassis interface and understand the product’s relationship to the virtual prototyping process. You will exercise the left and right wheel centers of a front suspension subsystem to their jounce and rebound position, and analyze the effects of static wheel alignment properties.
What does this section contain?
Virtual Prototyping Process
What is Adams/Chassis?
Philosophy of Adams/Chassis
Setting Adams/Chassis Preferences

3. VIRTUAL PROTOTYPING PROCESS
Design
Problem
Cutting time & costs
Increasing quality
Increasing efficiency
Improved Product
Build
Test
Review
Improve
Build a model of your design using:
Bodies
Forces
Contacts
Joints
Motion generators

4. VIRTUAL PROTOTYPING PROCESS
Design
Problem
Cutting time & costs
Increasing quality
Increasing efficiency
Improved Product
Build
Test
Review
Improve
Test your design using:
Measures
Simulations
Animations
Plots
Validate your model by:
Importing test data
Superimposing test data

5. VIRTUAL PROTOTYPING PROCESS
Design
Problem
Cutting time & costs
Increasing quality
Increasing efficiency
Improved Product
Build
Test
Review
Improve
Review your model by adding:
Friction
Flexible Parts
Forcing functions
Control Systems
Iterate your design through variations using:
Parametrics
Design Variables

6. VIRTUAL PROTOTYPING PROCESS
Design
Problem
Cutting time & costs
Increasing quality
Increasing efficiency
Improved Product
Build
Test
Review
Improve
Improve your design using:
DOEs
Optimization
Automate your design using:
Custom menus
Custom dialog boxes
Macros

7. WHAT IS Adams/CHASSIS? Adams/Chassis provides:
A complete analysis environment for automotive virtual prototyping. It does this by providing standard model types, two analysis types, and postprocessing.
A library of subsystem and component modeling techniques, along with a library of standard analysis types.
Adams/Chassis uses the Virtual Prototyping Process to:
Build
Test
Review
Improve
Improve

8. WHAT IS Adams/CHASSIS?
Adams/Chassis runs in conjunction with Adams/Solver and Adams/PostProcesser. This includes:
Preprocessing
Simulation
Postprocessing
Note: Adams/Chassis is not a process, but a tool that fits within the automotive design process. The diagram on the next page shows the Functional Digital Vehicle.

9. WHAT IS Adams/CHASSIS?
Functional Digital Vehicle

10. PHILOSOPHY OF Adams/CHASSIS
Adams/Chassis provides you with an extensive library of proven modeling methods for subsystems and components. We work with the Adams/Chassis users to continuously expand the library of proven modeling methods.
You can examine and modify the following open-source methods:
Pre-processing
Events
Plotting
Reports

11. PHILOSOPHY OF Adams/CHASSIS
Advantages of using Adams/Chassis
Provides a standard approach for vehicle modeling.
Allows you to build complex Adams models while maintaining a minimum set of parameters.
Provides a simple interface to powerful Adams/Solver technology to enhance your model. With Adams/Chassis, you can start analyzing Vehicle Dynamics/Durability immediately.
Integration with other Adams Products
Adams/Chassis is a vertical product, which means that it integrates with other Adams Products. Adams/Chassis simplifies the use of these Adams Products:
Adams/Solver
Adams/View
Adams/PostProcessor
Adams/Insight

12. GETTING TO KNOW Adams/CHASSIS
Adams/Chassis Work Modes
Adams/Chassis is divided into four work modes:
Build
Test
Review
Improve
Build:
The Build mode allows you to edit model data and change system configuration. You can also work on multiple models at once. The Build mode is default for starting Adams/Chassis.
Test:
The Test mode allows you to build and run your model.

13. GETTING TO KNOW Adams/CHASSIS
Adams/Chassis Work Modes (CONT.)
Review:
The Review mode allows you to visualize analysis results using Adams/PostProcessor. You can postprocess the output of standard Adams/Chassis events. Postprocessing has two formats: reports and plots. A majority of standard Adams/Chassis events have either a report, a plot, or both. You can also create an animation of your event.
Improve:
The Improve mode allows you to refine models with Adams/Insight. Here you can use the features from Adams/Insight to create sophisticated experiments for measuring the performance of your model. It also provides a collection of statistical tools for analyzing the results of your experiments so that you can better understand how to refine and improve your model.

14. GETTING TO KNOW Adams/CHASSIS
Getting to know the Toolbars
The toolbars in Adams/Chassis change according to the work mode. Below is the basic toolbar that is available in all work modes.
Toggle toolbar on/off
Build Mode
Test Mode
Review Mode
Improve Mode

15. GETTING TO KNOW Adams/CHASSIS
The following figures show the toolbars that are available in each work mode:
New Model
Load Model
Write Report
Delete Model
Graphical difference
Build Mode Toolbar
Test Mode Toolbar
Build and Run Selected Events
Graphical difference
Run Selected Events
Build Selected Events
Delete Selected Events/ fingerprints
Copy selected events
Save Selected Fingerprint
Load Fingerprint
New Fingerprint

16. GETTING TO KNOW Adams/CHASSIS
The following figures show the toolbars that are available in each work mode:
Review Mode Toolbar
Delete Custom Postprocessing Events
Execute Selected Plots
Graphical Difference
Execute Selected Reports
Execute Selected Animations
Load Custom Postprocessing Event
Improve Mode Toolbar
Graphical Difference
Remove Selected Events from selected Investigation

17. GETTING TO KNOW Adams/CHASSIS
Getting to know the Treeview
The Adams/Chassis treeview changes according to the work mode. The treeview has different features in each work mode. Below are the two basic sections of the treeview:

18. SETTING Adams/CHASSIS PREFERENCES
You can set Adams/Chassis preferences to define the work environment specific to the machine you are using. Before running Adams/Chassis, you must either set up the preferences or load an existing preferences file. Incorrect preference settings can prevent Adams/Chassis from performing even the most basic functions.

19. SETTING Adams/CHASSIS PREFERENCES1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 11 18 13 14 16 15 17

20. SETTING Adams/CHASSIS PREFERENCES
You must consider the following options
Current Working Directory - Directory where all Adams/Solver-related files are created. The default is the directory from which Adams/Chassis was started.
Note: This directory should already exist and have no spaces in its path
Shell Startup Command - A command that launches a new window or shell for displaying messages or launching programs.
Text Editor Command - Program that allows viewing and editing of ASCII files and displays result files.
Graphical Difference Command: A command to launch the graphical differencing tool that allows you to compare two ASCII files. For example: SGI/usr/sbin/gdiff, Windows 3rd party ExamDiff, and others. This tool is useful in understanding how Adams/Chassis works and troubleshooting modeling and customization.
Temporary Files Directory - Directory where scratch files will be written. Directory must already exist and have no spaces in its path.

21. SETTING Adams/CHASSIS PREFERENCES
Matlab Command – Location for Matlab execution files.
Personal .py File Options - Locations where Adams/Chassis will look for customized files. (This will be discussed later in the course.)
Custom Event Options - Locations where optional custom events are found.
Solver Command - A command to use Adams/Solver libraries, and to create a path to custom Adams/Solver libraries.
Default - Select to use the standard Adams/Chassis solver executable that is distributed with the installation. Unless you need to run your own custom executable, you should always use the Default setting.
Other - Select if you have created your own solver subroutines and have created your own custom Adams/Chassis solver executable. The command to include is achassis –custAdams <path to custom executable>.
Animation Tool - A program to use to view animated results.

22. SETTING Adams/CHASSIS PREFERENCES
Solver Preference - Choose which version of Adams/Solver to use:
None - Adams/Chassis selects the solver it feels is best suited to individual full-vehicle events. For Version 2003, this remains Adams/Solver (FORTRAN) for all events.
C++ - Forces Adams/Chassis to use the C++ Solver for all full vehicle events.
FORTRAN - Forces Adams/Chassis to use the Adams/Solver (FORTRAN) for all full-vehicle events.
Plotting Tool - Choose a program used to view plotted results:
PPT - Uses Adams/PostProcessor to view plotted results.
Other - Uses a different plotting tool that reads Adams request (.req) files. You can specify the path to that executable and Adams/Chassis launches the plots from the Review Mode in the specified application.

23. SETTING Adams/CHASSIS PREFERENCES
Use Advance Human Graphics - Replaces each generic block-shaped occupant graphic that is active in the Occupants subsystem with outline graphics of humans. Adams/Chassis adds outline graphics code to the dataset (.adm) file. If you have more than one occupant active in your model, you may notice a slight performance penalty loading and animating your simulation. It is recommended that for general animation purposes that you use the generic occupant graphics.
Create Backup Files - Creates backup copies of changes to your system, subsystem, and component files.
Review Mode animate/plot/report Toggle Default On - Sets the default toggle setting for all available postprocessor utilities to On for every successful simulation in Review mode.
Use Road Graphics - Uses advanced road graphics (available for some full-vehicle events, such as double-lane change) for animation purposes.
Database registration - Allows the paths to several vehicle databases to be identified using short names.

24. SETTING Adams/CHASSIS PREFERENCES
Thread Count- Available for Adams/Solver (C++).
Specify the number of parallel threads that Adams/Solver (C++) uses when performing the simulation. The number of threads, n, must be an integer in the range of 1 to 8. The default value is 1. By executing multiple threads in parallel across multiple processors, Adams/Solver (C++) can reduce the walltime required for a simulation. Typically, the optimal number of threads is between N and 2N, where N is the number of processors (including virtual processors in the case of Pentium processors with HyperThreading enabled).