Suspencion Design software

[TransAm2k4]

Hey anyone know where i can get any suspencion design software??

[TransAm2k4]

Forgot to mention that it must be free!!

[rtrey]

Hey TransAm, isn't it a little late to be designing your suspension? Check out Performance Trends' website(http://www.performancetrends.com/). You can download a demo of their Suspension Analyzer software. It's not the greatest thing in the world, but it'll get you started with kinematics. Good luck.

-Trey

[TransAm2k4]

Thanks for the info. It's for 2006 and better late than never. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[alfordda]

MSC ADAMS


http://www.mscsoftware.com/support/university/student_competitions/templates/templates_main.cfm

[D J Yates]

I understand that it's free to US teams in FSAE, but is it possible to get ADAMS/car as UK team entering Formula Student.

I've got a copy of Hyperworks, which is a great pre and post processer, but without an ADAMS solver it seems to be useless. Although, this could just be me as i haven't had time learn how to use the software properly - trying to design the whole suspension in under 6 weeks by yourself is hard enough without using unfamiliar software.

[DJHache]

You could also get by with solidworks and excel. Working motion and Cosmosmotion are usually available to university students, as is Excel.

Plug the equations in a spreadsheet and go from there. Use Solidworks as a simple Kinematics tool to get baseline cambergain rates. Then you can use working model or cosmosmotion for things like ackermann, bump steer and the finer kinematics. You probably can't spend your time learning ADAMS if you've never used it. It'll just give you junk data if it's not well used.

[IsheeM]

It is somewhat unclear from ADAMS' website. Do you already need to have a license of MSC.ADAMS in order to get the free trial of ADAMS/CAR? Or can you have nothing and still get the free trial? We are currently researching vehicle dynamics programs for the '06 car.

Thanks,

[Denny Trimble]

Yeah, you have to have a license of ADAMS already. If your department doesn't have it already, they should http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[IsheeM]

Yeah I was afraid of that. We should have a lot of things that we dont.

[Frank]

ffs,

a CAD package, a spreadsheet, and maybe suspension analyzer (free).

http://www.performancetrends.com/download.htm#sa

matlab for wasting time doing transient stuff (if you got heaps of time to burn)

[Kevin Hayward]

I agree with Frank. First car we used both Excel and ADAMS. Ended up being much easier to get results quickly using excel.

Since then have written a similar program in matlab and just improved it each successive year. However the same program could easily be written in excel.

Its all linked to CAD files as well.

We find that ADAMS is just not a suitable program for what we are after ... its true power is in other applications.

But I guess it all comes down to the priorities in your vehicle design procedure.

Kev
UWA Motorsport

[ben]

Using ADAMS is definitely a sledgehammer to crack a nut if you're just doing suspension kinematics. I'm currently writing my own package in Matlab despite having ADAMS at work. Firstly it helps me understand the problem better and secondly it is quicker than developing an ADAMS model.

Last on the list is getting Matlab to use the kinematics data to write out an ADAMS .tpl or .cmd input deck.

As I've mentioned before, if you can get ADAMS it's worth learning from a graduate employment POV because it's a growth market and there are lots of jobs using it out there.

Finally - yes you can get it free in the UK. You need to phone a guy called Alfred Boulos at MSC in Coventry and ask him nicely.

Ben

[Dave Cook]

Take a look at Susprog3d at http://www.bevenyoung.com.au/suswin.htm

They have a free trail version, I used it several years ago when in FSAE, the programmer is really quick on support and was giving me addtional seats for classmates and friends at $25 a seat after I bought the full seat. It works out to $260 in US$.

In my opinion it was the 'Solidworks' of suspension software. Hopefully some other people who have used it recently could add comments. I found that it did everything I needed without the steep learning curve.

Dave Cook

[Jarrod]

I have been using susprog, and just starting into adams, susprog is a hundred times easier to get into, the information you need is presented right in front of you, you can have a model running in an hour if you have a baseline geometry from CAD. It is not as sophisticated as ADAMS etc, doesn't account for tire deflections, but for the money it does a sensational job. The support is really good, if you send the guy an email, he will answer it inside 24hrs usually.