Equipment and Exercises Documents

Vortex Equipment and Exercises are concepts that are used in the Vortex Console. An equipment is a representation of a real-life hardware that the operator will train for and an exercise is a representation of a training scenario for an equipment. An example of an Equipment could be a Tower Crane, which contains one or several Exercises, such as Learn Basic Commands, Unload a Truck or Placing Concrete Panels.  Equipment and exercises are shown in the Vortex Console. The user can select an Equipment and a corresponding Exercise for simulation. All the Exercises that are related to the same piece of machinery are grouped within the Equipment definition.

In order to show various Equipment and their respective Exercises in the Vortex Console, they must first be created in the Editor as the Vortex document files *.vxequipment and *.vxexercise. The created document files are saved to a specific location so that the Vortex Console can find them and display them. This document describes how the files are created using the Vortex Editor, and their detailed configuration for the Vortex Console.

Console Equipment 

Creating and configuring an Equipment 

In Vortex Console, an equipment is a representation of a simulation vehicle that the user sees on the Vortex Console's Equipment Selection page, after the login screen. In Vortex Editor, an equipment document is created by clicking the associated icon as shown in the editor's home page. The equipment document is saved as a .vxequipment file. It is important to create the equipment files in the correct location. The files are normally put where the simulation content file is located. For more details how to configure the Equipment file location, refer to 3241001549.

The created equipment can be configured for Vortex Console using the following equipment properties. The Renderer Type and Screens Setup are mainly used by the Console Launcher.

Adding and configuring Sub-equipment

The Sub-equipment is optional and can be added to an existing Equipment. In the Vortex Console, the Sub-equipment is a variation that can be selected on the Equipment Selection page before proceeding to the Exercise Selection. For example, in an Excavator, an option could be to have one of several types of bucket. In a Crane, it could be to have one of several crane heights.

The Sub-equipment is composed of two objects: SubEquipmentType and a list of SubEquipment. The SubEquipmentType simply names the category, and lists the options for that SubEquipment. An example of SubEquipmentType is the category Crane Height. It could contain the following SubEquipments: 30m, 50m and 70m.

In the Vortex Editor, once the Equipment is created, in the toolbox, double-click on SubEquipmentType and the type will be added to the current Equipment.

In the property panel, the property Display Name of the added Sub-equipment type can be specified with the proper category name (e.g. Crane Height). The Display Name will be seen in the Vortex Console equipment screen.

The Sub-equipment can then be added to the equipment type by right-clicking the SubEquipmentType in the Explorer View, and select "Add Sub-Equipment".  Several Sub-equipment can be added by repeating this step.  The properties of the added Sub-equipment can be seen in the property panel.

Configuring a sub-equipment requires some knowledge of the scene and mechanism that will be simulated. SubEquipment uses Configurations objects that are defined in the scene or the mechanisms that will be loaded. Simply type in the name of the Configuration objects that need to be activated and those that need to be deactivated. Please see documentation about Configurations.

Equipment and Sub-equipment example in DemoScene content

The excavator equipment (ConsoleExcavatorDemo.vxequipment) has two sub-equipments: Standard Bucket and Narrow Bucket. The sub-equipments are added under the SubEquipmentType Bucket type. 

Both sub-equipment are configured with distinct display name and the preview images. Notice the activated and deactivated configurations are configured for the sub-equipment. In this example, there is a single Configuration in the Excavator mechanism, and when activated it switches the Standard Bucket with the Narrow Bucket. The Standard Bucket sub-equipment makes sure that the Narrow Bucket configuration is deactivated, while the Narrow Bucket sub-equipment makes sure that it is activated.

When the added equipment and sub-equipment are properly configured and the saved file are properly saved to the desired location, that will lead to the following Equipment selection page on the Vortex Console.

Console Exercises

Creating an Exercise List

In Vortex Console, an exercise is a representation of a training scenario of the selected equipment. There can be one or more exercises that are related to the same equipment and the exercises are grouped in an exercise list. Note that the Vortex Console does not show the Exercise List; instead, it shows all exercises of the Exercise Lists that belong to the selected equipment. The Exercise List is a way to give the category of the exercises.

In Vortex Editor, an Exercise List document is created by clicking the associated icon as shown in the Vortex Editor's home page. The Exercise List document is saved as .vxexercise file. Similar to equipment files, It is important to create the exercise files in the specific location. The files are normally put where the equipment files are located. 

Adding Exercises to Exercise List

In Vortex Console, an Exercise is needed to start a simulation. Once the Exercise List document is created, one or more exercises can be added, using either the toolbo, or the contextual menu on the ExerciseList. More than one exercise can be added by repeating this step.  The properties of the added Exercise can be seen in the property panel.

Adding Exercise Lists to an Equipment

An Exercise List does not exist alone without an equipment. Once the exercise lists and their exercises are created, they need to be added to equipment. In the toolbox of the Equipment document, double-click on Exercise List From Files icon, then browse for the exercise list files (.vxexercise).

Configuring Vortex setup (.vxc) for Console Equipment and Exercise files.

The placement of the .vxequipment files and the .vxscene files is essential for Vortex Console to display the equipment and their associated exercises for selection.  The Vortex Console will only find the file(s) if they are placed at the same level as the Assets Base Path. The Assets Base Path is specified inside the Vortex setup file (.vxc) in the Console Module.

For more details on Vortex setup file, refer to Simulator Setup User Guide#Setupdocument