MSC.

ADAMS

Overview

ADAMS/View is a powerful modeling and simulation environment. It enables you to

design, visualize, and improve your mechanical system model prior to building a physical
prototype. Using ADAMS/View you can submit simulations to ADAMS/Solver to
compute the force and motion behavior of your system and to write that information to
output files. The purpose of the following tutorial is to give you a basic understanding of
how this tool works and how it can be used to solve real world problems. The picture
below is a flow chart of the way that ADAMS is intended to be used. i

The basic idea with the flow chart is that one first builds a model (representative of the
one being tested). Then you run a test simulation of the model and validate the computer
result with those taken from an actual test. In a process of refining your model your
computer model will become more and more accurate. After you have fixed your model
you are then able to iterate tests changing parameters and variables to optimize the
model. This saves time in that one can run many simulations that are cheap, accurate, and
can be done quickly.

Additional Training

http://www.engineering-e.com/training/

Knowledge Base

http://support.adams.com/kb/

How to measure geometric propertiesii

Once modeling is complete, you can use the ruler and protractor functions to measure
correct angles and lengths. This can also be done during the modeling process to
check that measurements are exact.

To measure lengths:

1. Select the measure tool from the main toolbox by left clicking on it.
2. Left click on the first location that you would like to start the measurement from.
3. Left click on the second location that will complete your measurement.
4. A graph will appear that will show how the distance varies with time.

To measure angles:

1. Right click on the measure tool in the main toolbox. Left click on the angle

tool .
2. Left click on the tip of the first vector of the angle you would like to measure.
3. Left click on the vertex of the angle.
4. Left click on the tip of the second vector.
5. A graph will appear that will show how the angle you specified varies with time.

How to measure physical characteristics

Characteristics can be plotted for any object created in ADAMS/View.
Characteristics include position, velocity, acceleration, momentum, etc.
1. Right click on the object to be measured, select the part and select Measure
from the toolbar that will appear.
2. The Part Measure window will appear:
3. Verify that the correct part is selected in the Part field. You can also select a
name for this measurement on this window.
4. In the Characteristic field, select the characteristic you would like to measure
for this part.
5. In the Component field you can select which component of the characteristic
you would like to measure (i.e. velocity in x direction only). Select mag if you
would just like the overall magnitude of the characteristic (i.e. acceleration, no
specific component).
6. In the From/At field, select the center of your measurement.
7. Select OK and a graph will appear in the ADAMS/View window, similar in
style to the one below:
Creating Plots from Measurements
ADAMS/View can create full plots from the measurement graphs made. To do this:
1. Right click on the white part of any measurement graph window.
2. Select the plot, then click on Transfer to Full Plot
3. A full-sized plot will appear:

4. Practice clicking at various points on the plot to see the different options you
can change. It is possible to change the maximum and minimum values, the
labels on the axis as well as the title of the plot before printing.
5. You can print from this screen, by selecting the print icon .
6. You can also track the change of the measured variable by selecting the plot
tracking icon . Scan the indepedent variable in x-axis (such as time) and get
the correspoinding value of the measured variable on y-axis as shown below:
i
Samuel Portnoff, Adams Tutorial, Retrieved April 22, 2005,
http://www.me.cmu.edu/academics/courses/NSF_Edu_Proj/Dynamics_Adams/adams_tutor.html
ii
Interpreting Results, Retrieved April 22, 2005, from http://www.me.cmu.edu/undergrad/adams/interpreting_results.htm