VI-grade Announces Release of New Version of VI-CarRealTime

19/08/2009

Marburg, August 19th, 2009 – VI-grade GmbH, the leading provider of best-in-class products and services to bridge the gap between real world testing and technical simulation, today announced the release of VI-CarRealTime 12.5, compatible with ADAMS v2005r2, v2008r1 and MDr3.

One of the major highlights of this release is the introduction of predefined events that make it even easier to run the vehicle through the most common maneuvers. With respect to modeling, several vehicle setup enhancements have been introduced to enable an easier adjustment of the parameters during the initial static analysis.

In addition, for the customers that do not use ADAMS/Car to derive their vehicle models, a new vehicle model creation utility has been introduced.

The growing need for electric vehicles and the development of hybrid powertrain concepts lead to the requirement for a complex controller development platform, enabling the combination of detailed vehicle dynamics and detailed powertrain models. This new release makes it possible to easily activate and deactivate powertrain components or replace them with more detailed Matlab/Simulink models. In addition, the interaction with Matlab/Simulink was generally improved, such that live animations are now supported as well.

“The Development of VI-CarRealTime v12.5 has been driven by customers using VI-CarRealTime in conjunction with Adams/Car, by motorsport teams that use VI-CarRealTime as a stand alone tool and by those companies using VI-CarRealTime to design and virtually test innovative products such as electric and hybrid vehicles,” says Diego Minen, Technical Director at VI-grade. “For all these different kinds of customers we introduced new features and capabilities that will make usage of VI-CarRealTime and accessory products even easier and closer to their needs.”

Following is a detailed list of modeling enhancements to be found in the 12.5 version of VI-CarRealTime:

• Added pin height setup
• Improved ride height & cross weight setup
• Implemented optional antirollbar deactivation in setup
• Implemented optional filter to avoid destabilization of model due to high slope damper characteristics
• Implemented possibility to specify reference system for setup angles target (chassis or ground)
• Implemented lap time and beacon user sensor
• Implemented powertrain as separately switchable component
• Enhanced aerodynamic forces force scaling editor
• Enhanced support for VI-SuspensionGen
• Introduced output channel mapping
• Introduced vehicle model creation utility

Following is a detailed list of solver enhancements to be found in the 12.5 version of VI-CarRealTime:

• Improved custom tire integration
• Improved custom solver integration
• Improved custom tire Simulink integration mechanism
• Implemented custom aerodynamic forces

• Introduced Predefined Events:
• Cornering (Constant Radius Cornering, Braking In Turn)
• Open Loop Steering (Impulse Steer, Sine Steer, Swept Steer, Ramp Steer)
• Straight Line (Straight Braking, Straight Acceleration)

Following is a detailed list of MATLAB/Simulink enhancements to be found in the 12.5 version of VI-CarRealTime:

• Auto-updating output channels
• Support for Live Animation
• Enhanced example files library

This release also includes updated versions of VI-Animator, VI-Road, VI-SuspensionGen.

This VI-Animator release includes the following new or enhanced modeling and simulation capabilities:

• Add plot pages
• Define layout
• Save/load plots (plots layout and plot pages are all saved)
• Added engine acceleration and tire squealing audio effects

This VI-Road release includes the following new or enhanced modeling and simulation capabilities:

- New features:

• Import road from telemetry data;
• Import road from GPS data;
• EXTRUSION roads;
• SURFMESH roads (use a mesh software to create the nodes and elements of the road mesh, then see RDF File Format chapter to learn more about these roads in VI-Road);

Added .vsg format export, this format exports more road data channels compared to the .drd format.

- Enhanced features:

• Implemented clothoids for curve calculation in ANALYTIC roads;
• Removed ARM compatible export option;
• Modified Output Step in the Export Panel to Graphic Step: to resample paths use the Smooth tool. The Graphic Step simply set the graphic step for graphic format exports.

This VI-SuspensionGen release includes the following modeling and simulation capabilities:

• Suspension modeling through six suspension templates (double wishbone with pushrod/pullrod, lower upper control arm, multikink, mcpherson, nascar live axle, solid axle)
• Third spring/damper modeling
• Anti roll bar modeling (including u-bar)
• Symmetric/asymmetric switch
• 3d visualization with hardpoints selection
• Multiple models listing
• Input data from GUI and from suspension data file
• Suspension data file saving
• Setup, parallel wheel travel, opposite wheel travel and steering analyses in elasto-kinematic mode
• Output curves plotting
• Output curves file saving

VI-CarRealTime suspension and steering subsystem file saving The VI-CarRealTime 12.5 release is available on VI-grade online download center, accessible to all registered users, at this link.

About VI-grade

VI-grade GmbH is the leading provider of best-in-class software products and services for advanced applications in the field of system level simulation. VI-grade, established in 2005, delivers innovative solutions to streamline the development process from concept to sign-off in the transportation industry,mainly automotive, aerospace, motorcycle, motorsports and railways. With office locations in Germany, Italy, Japan, and the USA, VI-grade is a young and growing company with a highly skilled technical team.

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