Kinect Hack Video: CATIA V5 Manipulation

KinectCAD for CATIA V5

I recently stumbled upon one of the coolest Kinect applications I’ve ever seen. The Kinect is Microsoft’s Xbox 360’s latest webcam style peripheral. This new high tech toy permits users to “be the controller” through natural user interface (NUI) by controlling the game with their voice and body movements. Microsoft took it a step further and released the Kinect software development kit (SDK) for Windows 7 allowing developers to write Kinect applications in C++, C#, or Visual Basic .NET. There are numerous “Kinect hacking” videos on YouTube. One such user has now manipulated the Kinect to provide a gesture based movement of CATIA part objects.

How to use Kinect with CATIA V5? Using this new application in development it is now possible to rotate and zoom in or out of your new Kinect 3D CAD model while standing in front of your monitor and using your arms. It gets even better: utilizing Kinect’s built in microphone there is a rudimentary speech recognition function you can use to change the rotation axes. Can you imagine creating every part in CATIA this way (or any other CAD system for that matter)?

Using the SDK V1 software for Kinect, KinectCAD has been created in Visual C# 2010. It may be a slow way to work (at first) but is a brilliant concept nonetheless. Pretty soon we’ll be seeing 3d Kinect models of all our CAD parts. It would be a great way for automakers to perform layout check in conference rooms (and funny to watch  too). Hats off to the creators and I can’t wait to see more. Checkout the Kinect video recording below:

Please note: this program is still in development.  To learn more please visit this site. So, what do you think of KinectCAD? What other applications could you see between Xbox Kinect and CATIA V5? Please leave a comment below!

How to simulate rolling kinematics tutorial

How do you simulate wheels rolling down a hill or track in CATIA? A reader recently asked if I could put together a tutorial for the kinematics rolling simulation that I created. This may not be extremely detailed but should give you a pretty good idea of the steps to take when trying to simulate rolling in CATIA. This was one of the preliminary tests I ran before attempting to simulate my entire roller coaster model. Download the kinematics rolling powerpoint tutorial here.







How to simulate rolling in CATIA DMU kinematics workbench tutorial.ppt download

Robocoaster Model

I constructed a recreation of a Kuka robocoaster in CATIA. I used the car from my cantilevered roller coaster simulations to save time. The track is created using three sketches with laws (one overhead, one side profile, and one for banking). I made this in about a day so please excuse the lack of detail. The purpose was more to show proof of concept that this was possible to create with CATIA.

For the simulation, I used the DMU Kinematics workbench. There are four user input commands to (1) drive the robotic arm down the track (2) horizontal rotation about the z axis (3)vertical rotation of the upper arm (4) rotation of the seats about the upper arm axis. In fact, in one of the video clips there is a fifth command- the rotation of one of the domes on which video would be projected, similar to the Harry Potter ride at Universal Orlando.

Coaster Model Update

Quick update on the cantilevered roller coaster model. I used my VB catscript to quickly and easily create the cross-ties for the upper and lower rails. I also modeled all of the supports and cement footers. Pictured is one of the "side/head knocker" effects where it looks like you are about to run into a post before the cantilevered car serves out of the way in the nick of time. There is also an overview of the layout. Video coming soon!

Cantilevered Roller Coaster V2: Exhibit B

Check out my latest kinematics work.

CATIA Kinematics Tutorial Download

You can now download my CATIA Rolling Simulation in DMU Kinematics Tutorial. Click here!


Kinematics Tutorial.ppt

How to simulate rolling with CATIA DMU Kinematics?

A reader recently asked if I could put together a tutorial for the kinematics rolling simulation that I created. This may not be extremely detailed but should give you a pretty good idea of the steps to take when trying to simulate rolling in CATIA. This was one of the preliminary tests I ran before attempting to simulate my entire roller coaster model.


(Download the rolling in kinematocs tutorial here)

Every time you use kinematics something needs to be fixed, so the rest of the assembly moves in relation to the fixed part. In this case, the track will be fixed. Set the assembly up in assembly design then switch to the DMU Kinematics workbench when you are ready to begin simulating. You can see the constraints I used in the screen shot. It is very important to pay attention to the degrees of freedom of the system. When dealing with large assemblies, I often fully constrain the entire assembly and then go back in later and delete the constraints where I want a part to be able to move, in order to not be confused. 

Here are the joints I used to create the connected wheel rolling kinematics simulation.  To create these constraints, click “Assembly Constraints Conversion” wizard.  Create a new mechanism then click “Auto Create” and it will automatically create joints based on the constraints in the assembly. Next, you need to manually create the roll curve joints between the wheels and the track.

 

In order to create a roll curve joint you must have two curves that are tangent to one another. Here, you can see the sketch on the wheels is tangent to the sketch on the corner of the track. Double click on one of the roll curve joints and toggle the “Length Driven” option. This is your input. After you click ok you should get a message that reads “The machanism can now be simulated” and the degrees of freedom of the system  (DOF) should be zero.

In order to apply gravity to your simulation you need to create a sketch  called a “trace law.” This is essentially a graph of distance which respect to time, with the horizontal axis being time and the vertical axis being distance. A straight line gives a linear relationship, or a constant speed. Change the graph to an exponential curve and you now have acceleration.

Now you should be able to simulate two connected wheels rolling down a hill with gravity. Any questions?

Steel Roller Coaster Modeled in CATIA V5

As you can see from many of my previous posts, I spend quite a bit of time modeling roller coasters in CATIA. Well, it looks like I'm not the only one. Yunus Alapan, a student at Yildiz Technical University in Istanbul, Turkey, recently submitted a few pictures of a roller coaster he created with CATIA V5. I know from experience how hard and time consuming  it is to model a complete roller coaster by yourself, piece by piece. Hopefully, one day we will see some cars running around the track. Good job Yunus!

And since we are on the topic of CAD coasters, check out my latest simulation of the Cantilevered Roller Coaster. This time I show case the “side knocker” effect! More kinematics experimentation on the CRC model with a mismatch of new and old parts.

Cantilevered Coaster Catia Kinematics Trial #5

Steam Train Piston Assembly Kinematics Simulation in CATIA

Check out the train simulation I did in CATIA V5 with the DMU Kinematics workbench! Your assembly literally has to be perfect before you can even begin to attempt kinematic simulations. Which is why I often times assemble a few pieces and then simulate a small portion of whatever it is I am building just to make sure it is working, then I add on a little more and repeat. It takes longer but is easier to diagnosis problems this way. I use an Excel spreadsheet to help me keep track of the number of degrees of freedom of each part that is not fully constrained during assembly. This seems to help me a lot. What are your strategies?

Rolling in CATIA DMU Kinematics Workbench

Rolling tests for my roller coaster kinematics models.

Cantilevered Roller Coaster Kinematics Test