I have a few questions related to dynamic simulation...
1) When using the "formula" rule in the input grapher, can I access "parameters"? It does not appear to work. Where "parameters" I am referring to variables found in the "f(x)" menu.
2) Where is the documentation describing the syntax of the "formula" rule in the input grapher? I stumbled upon something like (P[1] Spatial:2) purely by a lucky google search. Clearly white space matters. Is this documented somewhere?
3) Can the "parameters" menu access variables from the dynamic simulation environment?
I notice it auto-populates with a few:
Final time / Simulation Player
Number of images / Simulation Player
Friction / 3D Contact:1
Etc
But it does not appear that I could access something like (V[1] Spatial:2) for instance.
Even adding that as a user parameter, it cannot parse the name. This would be useful for giving more human readable names to these values.
4) I am trying to implement a crude PID loop in a simulation to control a force. I can do the "P" using the "formula" rule in the input grapher, but it is a bit cludgy since the dynamic simulator environment does not seem to be aware of the parameters menu. Therefor I cannot give easy names like "Pgain" and have to use magic numbers directly in the formula. Although it does work.
How would I implement Integral? I would need to define an error variable, and be able to increment it by SetPoint - (P[3] (Spatial:2)) each frame of the simulation. Is this beyond the scope of Dynamic Simulator? Can I do this with the API, if I had the time to learn it?
Are you using the Wasim Youins book to learn DS?
Can you post sample assembly here?
The CADWhisperer YouTube Channel
No I am not using a book.
My questions are not specific to a given assembly. I have attached the test assembly I was working with.
@JOSEPHKOVACH7324 wrote:
But it does not appear that I could access something like (V[1] Spatial:2) for instance.
4) I am trying to implement a crude PID loop in a simulation to control a force.
I hope you stick around here for a while, I've been searching for several years for someone to colaborate with on stuff like this (there doesn't seem to half a dozen users of DS in the world). I like to keep stuff like this in an open forum, but first I would like to run some private stuff by you - please contact me jmather_at_pct_dot_edu (and as an aside for anyone reading this thread - we do have an open faculty position).
I have not tried to do something exactly what you are attempting but V[1] (Spatial:2) is an output resultant of running the simulation. If you go to the Output Grapher you can track this value with a new (user created) curve variable (I named New_Curve, but it could be any desired variable name).
And get the Wasim Younis book (Part 2) Amazon.com - there are a lot of mistakes in the book, but I use them as teaching points. A lot of useful stuff as well.
The CADWhisperer YouTube Channel
Thank you for your post. I'd been interested in the Dynamic Simulation tool but hadn't any time to get acquainted until now. I was playing around with your forces and ran into the same problems you had with using parameters. I was able to define two parameters {x1,x2} = {0,180}deg and apply them to the startin and end points of your ForceZ; however, once entered they became un-related constants. When I changed the value of x2=100deg, there was no change in the ForceZ ending point value. I also could not enter any parameters into the overly-hopeful "Formula" property. I was very suprised and disappointed by this lack of parameterization, since that is the core of the whole program in my opinion. I hope Autodesk (or the forum members) can elaborate on this and improve the documentation. It might help the adoption of the tool to reach a full dozen users
-Andrew