Article Number: 57 | VC6 | VC5 | VC4 | VC3 | Post Date: March 1, 2018 | Last Updated: August 17, 2020
Sometimes I like to use “generic” looking vehicles in my preliminary visual aids, but I don’t like the generic hatchback shape. Can I make my own in vcrash?
Yes, creating a generic vehicle can be done very quickly in Virtual CRASH. Once you have your generic vehicle, you can modify the wheel wheels and the overall shape by modifying the positions of the vertices as was demonstrated for wheel wells in the User’s Guide (VC6 | VC5 | VC4 | VC3).
In the video below, we show the typical workflow to create two different types of generic vehicles. The first vehicle is generated using an extrusion of a filled polyshape. The polyshape was based on the profile of a Cadillac CTS, but any vehicle could have been used. After extruding the shape and setting its width, it was rotated to have the proper yaw, pitch, and roll orientation, and then exported as a .vcm file (remember, the .vcm object must have the vehicle aligned with the global x-axis. See this KB post). Once you have a .vcm file, you can just drag and drop the file onto an existing vehicle to directly substitute the vehicle mesh for your own. This type of direct vehicle mesh substitution (drag and drop) is also illustrated in the User's Guide (VC6 | VC5 | VC4 | VC3).
The second method used is simply to create a box, set it as a rigid body, and finally give it axles. This is accomplished in just a few seconds. Because making the car was creating by putting wheels on a primitive box shape, you can change its overall size in the "misc" menu (it will not have a "size" menu). Note, you before converting the box to a rigid body, you can select convert > to mesh. Doing this first will change the box from box object to a mesh object, which will then have the standard size attributes available once converted to a rigid body. Converting to a mesh before converting to a rigid body will also give you access to the box’s polygon faces and vertices.
You can also export the box as a .vcm model and then drag and drop it on a pre-existing vehicle model.
Remember, if you’re going to use a generic vehicle, make sure that your collision model is set to Kudlich-Slibar in the contact menu.
If you’re creating a simulation with your generic vehicles, as always, you need to ensure that all vehicle properties are appropriate for your subject vehicle.
No matter which method you choose, once you create your vehicle, it can then be saved as its own .vc3, .vc4, or .vc5 file to be imported into future cases.
Tags: Generic vehicle, make a boxy vehicle, box vehicle, simple vehicle, vcm file.
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