Turn Simulator - drive the vehicle

[eucyblues]

Hi Lars - I passed on the turn simulator to my son who is a user of both Auto Turn and Microstation - I told him I was impressed with the routine and asked him how he found it - he thought it was pretty good but he commented that Auto turn allows an option to specify turn paths 'on the fly' - ie click by click and the vehicle 'follows' so you don't have to pre-draw the turn path - I thought that was a clever approach and thought maybe it wouldn't be too hard to incorporate into your routine - just a thought....in case you are enthusiastically seeking more coding work   

[Lars]

Hi! Yes I've seen that in other software. This isn't possible in CadTools based on the way Cadtools uses AutoCAD (COM-object). To get that type of interface one must use .NET
Perhaps in the future I'll rewrite the Vehicle Turning to .Net, if so it won't be a freeware.

/Lars

[Aussie]

Lars, what an incredible suite of applications you've created. I use an Australian civil design product called 12d which is extremely powerfull and built to suite our style of design.
My main interest with your package is the vehicle turn application. I have used Autoturn in the past and find that yours is a good substitute. I used Autoturn's path generation by dragging the mouse option found that while it looks good it is rather limited in real design.
When designing truck or bus turn paths in tight subdivision layouts I usually design to the wheel path and allow the vehicle body to overhang the road edge kerbing in critical areas. Autoturn separates the wheel path and body paths onto separate layers/colours so it is easy to distinguish what is what when looking at the path results. Can this separation be included in your application? 
Thanks for making your applications available to us designers and for free is truely amazing.

[Lars]

Hi! Thanks for your feedback.

As it is now CadTools doesn't generate sweep path for front wheels. This will be in next update. I'll include your request for different layers in that update. Probably there will be some changes for colors.

/Lars

[jaro_v]

Hi Lars, I use a civil design product (an extension of the Autocad) called Civil 3D - often crashing. I've discovered your program just recently and am eager to see how it can deal with everyday's tasks I usually deal with.
I was amazed with the Turn Simulator, it's really an impressive tool. I tried to emulate what I was designing some several months ago - a construction site access road  with the 180degrees turn and I was getting pretty similar results. Here, I made up my vehicle out of an existing one - type Tow Bar - which accepts also negative values where appropriate: rear wheels of the first segment to the point where next segment is attached. It's great.
My sugestion (for now) would be to incorporate a steerable trailer (there are quite a few of those here in Australia to transport heavy and bulky machinery) having its rear row of wheels turned at the same angle as the front wheel row - only the opposite way. There are intermediate wheels (the count depends on the load they are expected to carry) but they just steer themselves to the same centre of orbit of the front and rear row and hence are unimportant to the modelling of the path. Would be nice to have this option in both types Double Trailer and Tow Bar. I can imagine two additional fields in the Vehicle details dialog box - steerable: Yes/no and the Max wheel turning angle (of the last segment) and that would probably also be the max angle between the last and the second last segment.

[Lars]

Hi!

Hmmmm.... steerable trailer is probably easier said than done. I'll consider that (I've no idea of how to deal with it, need to do some research)

/Lars

[jaro_v]

I aggree, Lars. It is a challenge - not a lot info around to make the research either. I was only able to use very sparse info from the manufacturer and based on it, I constructed an assembly of the truck (prime mover) and the trailer orbitting around a pivot point at certain selected distances - from there I was able to determine the width of the road required. The dwg showing what I just described - I can email to you. The constraint is that the rear wheel axis line of the truck and the trailer's front and rear axes intersect at the pivot point. The trailer itself has 8 or 10 rows of wheels to spread the load, front and rear axes steer themselves at the same angle - the intermediate axesdo the same, pointing into the same pivot point. I was tempted to simulate in Excel, but did not have enough time and the method I used was good enough.

[Lars]

Hi!

Yes, please mail the DWG to me (lars.karlsson@glamsen.se). My experience is that things need to mature in the brain, so every input is valuable.

[aldebaran]

Hi
as i saw to newer version of cadtools disapperared  "Min Turning Radius"
but I think it was very helpfull for fillet radius.
Now if we want to find Min Turning Radius the only option
is test and try.

[jaro_v]

Hi Aldebaran, I am sure that the Min Turning Radius is in the Vehicle Turning Simulation - vehicle properties dialog box, right below the sketch of a vehicel - right hand side. Try to change Max wheel turning angle (seg#1) parameter and the radius will update accordingly. You can see an example in the manual, page 62.

[aldebaran]

Hi Lars
as I saw this was for version 6.16 not for 6.22 . May be there is bug .

                                                           

[Lars]

No there isn no bug Iv'e disabled "Min Turning Radius" label due to misinterpreting.

/Lars