What is Vortex Studio?

Owned by Marc Lievin
Mar 14, 2024
3 min read

Vortex® Studio is a platform to create and deploy real-time, interactive simulations of mechanical systems.

Vortex Studio is the basis of CMLabs’ industry-leading equipment simulators and comprises two packages :

  • Vortex Create : visually build real-time mechanical machines and verification scenarios.

  • Vortex Activate : integrate and deploy content created in systems ranging from desktop to many-screen custom simulators.

Why use Vortex Studio?

  • Build visually complex, high-fidelity, and real-time mechanical systems without coding.

  • Benefit from physics modules improved over 2 decades of research and development, off-road vehicles, cables, and earth-moving.

  • Leverage integration plugins with major game engines, Unity and Unreal.

  • Use simulation deployment tools successfully used in commercial environments.

What Can You Do with Vortex Studio?

Create High Fidelity Digital Twins without coding

Imagine creating in minutes high-fidelity digital twins or parts of mechanical equipment that require specific real-time simulation capabilities, in particular, off-road vehicles, cables, and earth-moving investigations :

  • Use virtual models for accelerating automation design.

  • Vehicle engineering for off-highway vehicles

  • Synthetic data generation for training AI models

  • Mission planning and optimization for critical operations

Add Simulated Mechanisms to Unity, Unreal Engine, or other platform.

The Vortex Editor can produce simulated mechanical systems that can be exported and integrated with Unity, Unreal Engine, and other engines. These mechanisms and vehicles may be easily connected to game logic, inputs, and outputs and can move naturally in the virtual environment.

Build Training Simulators

Using Vortex Activate, simulators can run any Vortex content, including all the simulations available in the Vortex simulator product lines, as well as any custom content created with Vortex Create.

Create Marketing Simulators

Vortex Studio can be used to create marketing simulators to bring exposure for your products at trade shows, or to demonstrate product capabilities offsite.

Perform Human in the Loop Testing

Vortex Studio can be used to do human-in-the-loop testing for vehicles and supports full off-road simulation capabilities.

Vortex Create Key Features

  • Visual Editor allows to build visually high-fidelity real-time mechanical systems.

  • High-fidelity physics engine with a number of extension modules including :

    • Rigid Body

    • Vehicle, Tire, and Track Models

    • Cables

    • Earth-Moving

  • Allows users to simply extend the core functionalities using Python 3 scripting.

  • Verification test suite in Python providing tools for quality assurance and maintenance of simulations.

  • Automate Content Creation using Python scripting.

  • Supports export to Unity and Epic Unreal platforms.

  • Out-of-the-box integration with Simulink for control system design.

  • Supports integration with ROS2 for building robotics applications.

  • Modular architecture, with mechanical configuration and attachments, allows users to scale their productivity by efficiently building and testing variations of their models.

  • Vortex Studio Debugger offers an interface where mechanical engineers can remotely connect to a simulation and debug the dynamics simulation of Vortex Studio.

Vortex Activate Key Features

  • Vortex Studio Director is a desktop-based application that provides an interface for creating, configuring, launching, and monitoring distributed simulations. 

  • Vortex Studio Launcher offers a common interface to any simulation content installed on the same computer or simulator to start a simulation using a specific simulation exercise.

  • Hardware integration of CANopen device, OPC UA/DA and motion platform (D-Box),

  • Distributed simulation on multiple processes and multiple computers, as well as multiple displays.

  • Additional tools come ready to use for packaging and deployment.

See Features and Capabilities Overview.

Vortex Studio Applications

Vortex Studio products include different applications for creating and distributing simulation content.

Vortex Studio Editor

The Vortex Studio Editor is a desktop-based editing application designed for creating real-time simulations of mechanical models.

It also has features that let you configure and design a user interface for your simulators.

See Vortex Studio Editor.

Vortex Studio Player

The Vortex Studio Player is designed to load and play the simulations that you create with Vortex Studio Editor.

See Vortex Studio Player.

Vortex Studio Director

The Vortex Studio Director manages the installation, deployment, and monitoring of distributed simulators across a local network.

It is the main interface from which integrators can manage simulators.

See Vortex Studio Director.

Vortex Studio Debugger

The Vortex Studio Debugger offers an interface where mechanical engineers can remotely connect to a simulation and debug the dynamics simulation of Vortex Studio.

The debugger application can connect to any simulation embedding a Vortex Application, including Unity and Unreal.

See https://vortexstudio.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VSD2402/pages/3486814854

Vortex Studio Launcher

The Vortex Studio Launcher offers a common interface to any simulation content installed on the same computer or simulator to start a simulation using a specific simulation scene.

The launcher application aggregates content of different versions and can call an application embedding a Vortex Studio application, such as a Unity executable.

See https://vortexstudio.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VSD2402/pages/3486811975

Where to Next?

For tutorials, see:

Further reading in the user guides: