Synthesis Version 3.1.1.0 released!

[Everett.Buck]

Hello Synthesis community! We hope you all had a great kickoff and start to the build season!

We just released the newest version of Synthesis, 3.1.1.0. This newest version has the new 2017 FRC field for Steamworks and a new bullet physics build. We can't wait to see what you all do with the new features and would love to hear any feedback about the update. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I have to applaud Autodesk and the Synthesis development team for making a Windows based robot simulation code that's easy to install and operate.  I've installed and am running Synthesis on a Windows 10 laptop PC by following well-written tutorials provided on the BXD.Autodesk website.  Several 3D worlds were provided with Synthesis 3.1.1.0 including the 2017 Steamworks world.  Several test robots were also provided including dozer.  So far I've been able to install Synthesis, connect Synthesis to the FRC Driver Station, set-up a test robot, and then control the test robot in the 2017 Steamworks 3D world.  I'm just starting to experiment with importing robots into Synthesis from Inventor.

I could use some further assistance for how to set-up and run C++ code with Synthesis.  The current link to the C++ tutorial is under construction ( http://bxd.autodesk.com/?page=tutorialCompileCPP ).

I also tried to follow the instructions provided on the lower right hand corner of the Synthesis open-source documentation page for Fake-WPILib and WPILie ( https://github.com/Autodesk/synthesis/wiki ).  Some of the files described in the open-source documentation tutorials were not in the Synthesis 3.1.1.0 installation such as "lib/EmulatedWPILib.lib".

Does the capability exist to create and compile C++ robot control code for Synthesis 3.1.1.0?  How can I accomplish this?  If the capability to create C++ code for Synthesis is still under development, my work-around would would be to continue using the Synthesis demo code until new C++ capabilities exist. 

[mackinnonbuck]

Thank you for the positive feedback,

We are working to get the C++ tutorials up soon.

Code emulation in Synthesis, while functional, is something the team is trying to improve. Right now, there isn't true code emulation, we've just re-implemented WPILib to communicate with Synthesis instead of an actual robot. That said, your code would still function very closely to how it would on a robot. However, since WPILib is updated each year, our WPILib implementation also has to be updated, which requires continuous maintenance. Right now, the 2015 WPILib implementation is what the "fake" WPILib was based from (what Synthesis uses) . This means that 2017 robot code probably won't run perfectly right out of the box without some modifications.

The BXD team is currently researching a more long-term solution to this problem. One approach to this issue we are currently pursuing is integrating a true roboRIO emulator, which would mean no changes required for Synthesis compatibility.

The wiki is slightly outdated (our apologies), so some files have been renamed since they were written (e.g. EmulatedWPILib.lib is now FakeFPGA.lib).

If you have more questions, feel free to ask.

Best wishes,

- Mackinnon Buck