Organizations develop simulation content and build simulators for different reasons:

• A training simulator can help students learn to operate heavy equipment in a classroom. It can also be used as an assessment tool for evaluating operators before letting them on actual equipment. 

• A test simulator can help people who design and manufacture equipment test new models or evaluate the effects of updates to existing models. 

• A demo simulator can let prospective customers test drive a model in a showroom or at a trade show. 

Making your simulator easy to use for the people who will administer and operate it is an important part of development. Vortex Studio lets you customize how users conduct sessions for training, testing, or demonstration on your simulator from beginning to end.

The Vortex Console is a collection of extensions which lets you create a usable interface for controlling all the elements that your end-users need to launch a session on your simulator and receive meaningful feedback about their work. The interface controls access to the system and lets you define which simulation content users can launch and run. It also features tools for reporting and assessment for individual sessions. 

For example, in the following video, a person uses simulated controls on a Console interface to operate an excavator during a simulation session.

The Console interface has several features which can enhance simulation sessions. For example, you can:

• Give system administrators a way to control access to the simulator with pre-configured user roles.

• Access a database for storing user information and session data. 

• Specify which simulation content is available for users to run on the simulator. For example, a person sitting at the simulator can use controls on the user interface to select one of several equipment simulations to run. They can also select from different equipment configurations and then choose a specific scene to run. 

• Visually display measurements for any metrics you defined on a dashboard page while the session is running. 

• Configure reports (based on the metrics you define) which an administrator can generate at the end of each session. 

• Set up rules that the system can use to rate or evaluate each session. (This is especially useful for evaluating students on training simulators.)

• Let users customize the units of measurement displayed during the simulation and in reports. 

• Create a page which displays widgets for monitoring equipment (such as an Load Moment Indicator or Work Monitor) or simulated controls which are not mapped on hardware. 

• Let users change how responsive your simulated equipment is to controls such as joysticks or pedals. 

By adding ready-to-use Console modules, pages, and extensions to your setup file, you can create a interface that lets users conduct meaningful sessions on your simulator.

Prerequisite - Python 3 Installation

The Console requires a Python 3 interpreter and some additional packages to be installed, because the Console uses Python 3 scripts internally for some features.

Install a Python 3 package and specify the Interpreter Directory as described in Integrating Vortex Studio using Python 3.

The following additional packages are needed to support Exercise Report generation (with the versions validated at CM-Labs):

• numpy>=1.19.0

• pymongo==3.11.0

• reportlab==3.5.59

• python-dateutil

• svglib==1.0.1

Basic User Interface Features

If you connect your simulator to a database with the MongoDB module, you can control access to the simulator by creating different user accounts.

Without a database, the page lets users access the system using an anonymous Guest account.

When you specify parameters for the Console Window page, you can add a feature to the Login Page which lets users select the units of measurement the system uses for displaying metric values.

For information about creating an application setup file for a simulator with the Console interface, see Creating the Console Setup File.

Example of Page(s)	Description	Required Modules	Required Page Extensions

Example of Page(s)	Description	Required Modules	Required Page Extensions
Open	Welcome Screen and Login Page	Console Module Vortex Qt Module	Console Window
Open	Console Log Off Page		Console Log Off Page
	Console Exit Page		Console Exit Page
	Unit System Selection		Console Window

Features for Organizing and Displaying Simulation Content

The Console interface lets user select from multiple equipment simulations. When you add the Equipment page to your simulator, you can also let users select from different equipment configurations. Under each type of equipment that you identify, the Console interface groups the simulation scenes that you want users to be able to run on the simulator. In the context of the Console interface, scenes are referred to as Exercises.

When you connect the simulator to a database, the Exercise Selection page also lets you select specific users to associate with the simulation session.

For information about adding pages for selecting simulation content to run, see: Configuring Pages for Selecting Simulation Content to Run.

Features for Displaying Custom Content

With the Vortex Qt Module, you can add pages with custom controls. for more information, see Creating User Interfaces (UI).

Features for Managing Users and Accounts

You can add several pages with features for managing users and accounts. All pages for managing user accounts rely on a connection to a database, which you can configure using the Mongo DB Module.

For information about managing users, see: Managing Accounts and Users

For information about installing and configuring a connection to the database, see: Legacy Student Database - Setup

Features for Metrics and Reporting

The system records values for any metrics you configured for your mechanism and scene. You can add pages that let you monitor metrics in real-time during the simulation and generate reports.

Monitoring and Debugging Features

You can add pages with features for monitoring system performance and managing the database for the person who will administer your simulator system. These pages are not available to everyday users of the simulator. They exist under a page category called Debug which can only be accessed by pressing CTRL+D.

Choosing the Best Implementation for Your Needs

Depending on who will use your simulator, you can implement the Console user interface in different ways, and add features which will enhance their experience. Typically, the Console interface is used for training and classroom environments, but you can use its features to support testing or demonstration simulators. 

The following table describes possible implementations: