Connect FlexSim with Omniverse and run simulation

[kevin_fuhrmannKAHRS]

[ FlexSim 24.2.0 ]

I was able to connect FlexSim to Omnivese via Live Session and run a simple animation.

However I was wondering if it is possible to transfer the animation from FlexSim directly to Omniverse to run the animation without a live session? (I have not yet found any option to do so)

[ralf_gruber · Accepted solution]

Kevin,

FlexSim cannot export an "animation" at this point. You can export a static visualization as a USD file using Tools/Omniverse Connector. I put animation in quotes because technically what you see is a running simulation in FlexSim, since simulation and visualization are not separate things in FlexSim.

You can use FlexSim's built in Video Recorder to just capture the animation, but the resulting video cannot be imported to Omniverse. What is the background of your question? Why would you rather import the animation than connect FlexSim in a live session?

[kevin_fuhrmannKAHRS]

Ralf,
in the live session I experienced pretty bad performance and frame rates in Omniverse (i guess its the server latency or internet connection) and some materials were not able to transfer correctly resulting in update conflicts.
Furthermore I was interested in connecting a building model from Revit (static) with a simulation from FlexSim in Omniverse and creating a flypath through the dynamic omniverse model. (In live session mode is no rendering in Omniverse possible)

[ralf_gruber]

Hi Kevin,

I agree on performance. You will have to have a high(est) end graphics card to make it work. Also, have you tried to host the omniverse server on your local machine to reduce server lag? Assuming you can host RevIT on your local machine as well.

Another thought: I believe RevIT can export to FBX, which can be directly loaded into FlexSim, so why not stay within FlexSim? The model will likely be too complex to render it with RTX mode in FlexSim, but worth trying.

[kevin_fuhrmannKAHRS]

Graphic power should not be the problem. The nucleus is local at the moment but I work via remote connection from my laptop.

My intention was to make use of the realistic graphics of omniverse. Working in FlexSim is from a technical standpoint for sure a valid option.

[kevin_fuhrmannKAHRS]

Since you mentioned the export is "not yet" possible, is there a scope of implementing such option in the future?

[ralf_gruber]

I am going to rope in @Parker S to answer that one 🙂

Parker, do you have any plans or even a time line for implementing export of a flexsim animation to a USD file?

[parker_s]

Hi @Kevin and @Ralf.

We have started the development work for exporting animation to USD but we do not have a timeline on when this will be released.

[BenjaminH1]

@Ralf Gruber I would like to echo this.
We have been trying to make use of the USD stage live connection to run the animation inside Omniverse (USD Explorer).
We see is working when doing the demo of maybe 4 objects working together.
But trying to do a live connection when the model is a full production line with +100 objects is not performing/working. Disconnecting from the live connection and the model runs fine again. This is only inside Flexsim (not talking about all the issues on what is exported).

So the performance of Flexsim while running the animation and being live connected to Nucleus is showing frame updates every 2-4sek. I would argue that this makes the USD Stage / live session implementation useless beyond the little demo (so not usable for real work). Am I missing something?

Our Server/Workstation is running Local Nucleus server (workstation edition). Hardware is AMD GENOA 96C and 2x RTX A6000s, so we are not missing any hardware performance.

So can you confirm that USD Stage does not work if used with real bigger models like a production line? If it works, do you then have examples of running a complex model in Flexsim, while live connected and able to see the output in another Omniverse tool connected?

[ralf_gruber]

Hello Benjamin,

We have used it for slightly bigger models, e.g. an automotive welding line with 4 stations and nine robots. This still works very well in a live session. However, a model with roughly 500 conveyors shows the same behavior you are exploring when connecting to a live session.

Furthermore, the current visualization problems with animations of operators and robots have to be solved before it becomes useable in my point of view.