Maritime Tutorial 2 : Creating a Vessel Mechanism
This page contains information about our legacy OpenGL renderer. If you follow this tutorial while using our new Vulkan renderer, the graphics options and visualization won't be equivalent.
However, the configuration and behavior of the dynamics extensions remain the same.
In this training pack, we will go over key concepts and guidelines to get you started with nautical simulations in Vortex® Studio.
This module focuses on using Vortex Studio to create a working vessel mechanism to be used in the offshore scene created in Module 1.
Prerequisites
You need to have Vortex® Studio and the Vortex Studio Demo Scenes installed to be able to follow all steps in this tutorial.
1. Creating a New Mechanism and Importing Graphics
Click on the top-left button in Vortex Studio Editor interface (the button with 3 horizontal bars) to go to the Home Page.
Click on Mechanism to create a new mechanism file.
Change the name of the Mechanism to Vessel in the Explorer window.
Click on the Graphics section of the Toolbox and double-click on Galleries from Files...
Navigate to the ...\Vortex Studio Content <VERSION>\Demo Scenes\Equipment\Normand_Kraken\Graphic directory, select NormandKraken_Normand_Kraken.vxgraphicgallery and click on Open.
Use the middle-mouse button and scroll wheel to look around the 3D model. You will notice that the bottom of the hull is aligned with the grid.
Go to the Basics section of the Toolbox and double-click on Empty Assembly.
Save your new mechanism file in your working directory.
Building the Vessel Assembly and Parts
In the Explorer, expand the Gallery node and click on the top graphic node of the Normand Kraken graphic gallery (Normand_Kraken).
Right-click on the node and select the Create Part In Assembly menu item. You will see a new part appear under the Assembly section of the mechanism.
Save the mechanism file
Double-click on the Assembly to edit that specific element.
Right-click on the Normand_Kraken part and select the Create Best-Fit Geometry > Convex Mesh... menu option.
Set the Excluded Graphic Nodes fields to LARS_Base_DOF|LARS_Base_Outer_Hydraulic_Cylinder_DOF.
Leave the other options with their default values in the Create Convex Mesh dialog and click on OK to create a collision volume for the vessel, excluding the LARS crane attached on its right side.
Click on the Eye icon next to the newly created Convex Mesh to hide it.
In the Toolbox, double-click on Box in the Collision Geometries section.
Use the movement and scale tools to size the box to cover the deck of the vessel and have the top of the box line up with the deck surface. This box will be used to be able to place objects on the ship deck.
Set the Material of the box to Ground.
Use the Ctrl-D key combination to make a copy of the existing box, then resize it to cover one of the two elevated decks at the front of the vessel.
Use Ctrl-D once again to make a copy of smaller box and move it to cover the second elevated deck.
Save the Vessel mechanism.
Rename the convex mesh to Buoyancy.
Click on the top Part node in the Explorer window.
Click on the Geometries tab in the Properties dialog.
Make sure that only Collision is checked for the boxes, while Buoyancy and Drag are checked for the Buoyancy convex mesh geometry.
While still selecting the top-level Part, go to the Parameters tab and set the Mass to 5,500,000.00 kg.
Push the button to automatically Compute the Inertia and COM.
Right click on eye icon next to Part in Explorer tree and select Inertia.
Use the inertia movement, rotation and scale controls at the top of the 3D view to tilt the inertia to be horizontal and scale the tensor to be larger than the vessel.
Select the Box convex meshes one by one and make sure that they are set to be Enabled. Also make sure that Buoyancy Enabled and Drag Enabled are not checked.
Select the Buoyancy convex mesh and check the Buoyancy Enabled and Drag Enabled checkboxes.
Set the Center of Buoyancy to 0.0, 0.0, 5.0.
Set the Displaced Volume to 23,000.00 m3.
Set the Drag Coefficient to 2.0, 2.0, 40.0.
Save the assembly and mechanism.
Adding the Vessel to the Scene
Go back to the scene editing tab and add your new Vessel mechanism as seen in Part 1 of the Maritime tutorial. You should be able to select the Vessel from your list of Opened Resources if the file is still open in the Editor.
Run the simulation.
Save your scene and switch back to the vessel mechanism tab.
Press the Shift-G key combination on your keyboard to hide the collision geometries from the 3D view.
Go to the Marine section of the Toolbox and double-click on Imposter to add an importer object.
Select the Imposter object in the Explorer window.
Click the directional movement button at the top of the 3D view to activate the object movement mode.
Move the Imposter object up above the vessel to see it.
Set the scale of the Imposter object to 65.0, 21.0, 4.0 in its local transform.
Set the position of the Imposter object to -18.5, 0.0, 9.8 in its local transform.
Go to the Basics section of the Toolbox and double-click on Connection Container.
Select the Imposter object in the Explorer window.
Drag-and-drop the Parent Transform input property of the object to the Connections Editor.
Select the Normand_Kraken part in the Explorer Window.
Drag-and-drop the World Transform output property of the objects to the Connections Editor.
Draw a link between the two circles to join them.
Save the mechanism.
Run the simulation and confirm that no water gets on the ship deck.
Adding a Thruster
Now that the vessel floats, we will now make it move with the help of a thruster.
Go back to the Vessel mechanism tab in the Vortex Studio Editor.
Double-click on the vessel's Assembly to edit it.
Use the Shift-G key combination to hide collision volumes. You can also hide the Inertia volume by right-clicking on the eye next to the Normand_Kraken part and unchecking the Inertia option.
Right-click on the Normand_Kraken part in the Explorer window and select Insert Attachment Point.
Rename the new attachment point to Thruster AP.
Set the Local Transform for the new attachment point to -51.0, 0.0, 2.1.
Save the assembly.
Go back to the vessel mechanism tab of the editor.
Go to the Marine section of the Toolbox and double-click on Thruster.
Select the Thruster in the Explorer window.
In the Parameters section, click on the button with three vertical dots at the end of the Thruster Force Vector field, then press the Browse button (...) in the sub-menu that opens.
Expand the Assembly and Part in the Explorer window to select the Thruster AP attachment point created earlier.
Click on the three vertical dots button at the end of the Part field, then press the Browse button and pick the Normand_Kraken part under the Assembly.
Click on the Browse button (...) at the end of the RPM to Thrust Mapping CSV File field and navigate to the ...\Vortex Studio Content <VERSION>\Demo Scenes\Equipment\Normand_Kraken\Dynamic\Design directory, then pick the Vessel_RPM2Thrust.csv file and click on Open.
Set the Current RPM Input property to 1,500.00.
Save your mechanism.
Go back to the scene and Run the simulation.