Simcenter Testing Solutions Simcenter Testlab Neo: Operational Data Animation

Direct YouTube playlist: https://youtu.be/DaEqnQ69Wpg



Want to use Simcenter Testlab (formerly LMS Test.Lab) to animate operational data in Simcenter Testlab Neo to get operating deflection shapes (ODS)?  If so, this is possible from revision 2206 released in June, 2022. 



This article will show how to animate steady state (constant speed) data.  Another article will show animating runup / rundown data.

Here is how to do it:
1. Where to find Operational Data Animation in Simcenter Testlab Neo?
2. Getting the Animation Task ready to Animate
3. Single Point Animation - Procedure
4. Band Animation - Procedure
5. Creating and Saving a List of Single Operating Points
6. Creating and Saving a List of Double Operating Points

1.  Where to find Operational Data Animation in Simcenter Testlab Neo ?

To use Operational Data Animation in Simcenter Testlab Neo, either start Simcenter Testlab Desktop Neo (or any Neo application) and turn on the Operational Data Animation add-in (see Figure 1) or start as a standalone application from the Testlab Neo Structures Analysis folder (see Figure 2).  After starting the application or turning on the add-in, an Animation task will now be available.  The Operational Data Animation add-in requires 28 tokens.  For more information on tokens, see Simcenter Testlab Tokens: What are they, and how do they work? 

 

• Turn on the add-in or start the standalone application.

 

2.    Getting the Animation Task Ready to Animate

 

• Add the data you wish to animate to the Input Basket (Section 1 here) as shown in Figure 3. 
• Move to the Animation task and select the Input Basket as shown in Figure 4.  

• Select the ‘ODS FRF’ Pivot Table view and select one of the references as shown in Figure 5.  The FRFs are displayed in a DOF vs Reference DOF id view. The first column, with the FRF from the first reference DOF ID, is included together with all available response Point IDs.  The display will preview the included data. In particular, the Envelope is displayed by default. The Envelope will be computed only for the curves actually included, so the FRFs related to the second reference DOFs are not used in the calculation.  If you select another column of data in the pivot table then its Envelope would be shown.
• Turn on Preview and Sum and then select a few items in column 1 of the pivot table (Reference in the X direction) as shown in Figure 5.   The Envelope, the Sum and the selected pivot table items should show in the ODS Data Display.  The Envelope and Sum are only calculated for the column of data being used.  You can only select 1 column of data at a time to be used on the Animation worksheet.
   

Figure 5 - Selecting the Data to View on the Animation Task.
 

• Select the box on the header of the second reference DOF (Y direction here). The FRFs from the second column will now be included and those from the first excluded.  The Data Display will reflect the new operation and the Envelope and Sum function are recalculated.

 

3.  Single Point Animation - Procedure
 

• Collect the data in the pivot table as shown in Step 2 above.  
• The desired column is selected, and the data are pre-processed to ensure they are consistent.
• A single-point ODS cursor is added on the display, in the middle of the X axis
• The x position of the cursor is annotated in a display in the state control bar
• By default, the state control bar is in not-animating state
• Change interactively the position of the cursor. The x position in the state control bar is automatically updated once the cursors is released.
• Manually modify the x position of the cursor by manually entering the value in the state control bar. Once the desired operating point has been identified, start the animation with the dedicated state control button. 
• Start the Animation by clicking Play in the State Control panel as shown in Figure 6 (lower left corner).

• The display will show the animation of the point extracted from the selected data at the selected operating point. The animated values shall reflect also the preprocessing applied (so not necessarily the raw data)
• Now, move the ODS cursor in the FB display. The animation will still display the “old” operating point until the cursor is released
• Specify a new operating point manually in the state control by typing in a frequency (or speed). The animation of the new point will be displayed when you press the enter button or when you click somewhere else.
• Use the dedicated arrows in the state control, to move the current cursor to the next or previous frequency (or rpm) line in the data.
• Right click in the Active Geometry Display to change any of the animation settings in the display and verify the result.   Coloring, arrows, nodal lines, etc. can be added and under Animation Settings, the speed and Expansion settings can be changed.
• Change tasks and come back (Go to the Desktop task and return to Animation as an example), all data and cursor settings will stick (remain the same), but the animation state will be on stop and will need to be restarted.

4.  Band Animation - Procedure

• Select the input data for the animation as shown in Step 2 above. The pre-processing ensures the data are ready to be animated.
• In the ODS Processing panel, change the Cursor type from Single to Double as shown in Figure 7. This enables the band processing option and will replace the single ODS cursor by a double cursor in the ODS Data Display.  Move the left cursor to change the operating point first position and the second cursor to change the width.

• The left and right value of the cursor are shown in the state control bar, which will now show two boxes instead of one
• Once satisfied with the selection of the band of interest, push the animate button in the state control bar.
• By default, the max amplitude for each DOF in the selected band will be animated.
• Switch Band Processing from Maximum to RMS as shown in Figure 7. The displayed animation will change accordingly by showing, for each DOF, the RMS value in the selected band. Switch Band Processing back to Maximum.
• Move interactively any of the two cursors in the display. The calculation will be triggered, and the animation refreshed once the cursor is released.
• Similarly, modify manually the values in the state control bar. The new values will be applied, and the calculation will be triggered
• Move the ODS band to the next or previous sample available using the arrows in the State Control Bar (lower left corner). This will move both the first and second cursor by one sample.

5.  Creating and Saving a List of Single Operating Points
 

• Select single cursor animation instead of double cursor.
• Manually move the cursor to a point of interest.  One suggestion is to select a curve in the display, right click on the cursor and select Move to Next Local Maximum (if that is greyed out you have not selected a curve!)
• Add the current operating point to the list via the Add Operating Point button as shown in Figure 8. An entry with the corresponding frequency value is created in the list of operating points.  An annotation cursor is also added in the 2D display at the selected location as shown in Figure 9.

• Now, move the cursor to an operating point with higher frequency and add the position to the list. A second entry is now available, and the cursor is added to the display.
• Enter a frequency lower than the one specified at point 4) and push the “Add” button. A new entry in the list will be added before the other two.
• Repeat for all Operating Points as shown in Figure 9.

• Start the animation via the Play button on in the State Control Panel (if the animation has not been started previously).
• Now, select the first entry in the Operating Points list. The corresponding point is animated.
• Now select a different point or move the selection down with the arrows in the State Control panel as shown in Figure 10. The currently selected point is animated and the ODS animation cursor in the 2D display will move to the corresponding line.

• Now enter a name for the processing and push the Save ODS Mode Set button as shown in Figure 11.  The default Processing name is ODSProcessing but can be changed as shown in Figure 9.  An ODS Processing will be created in the active section, containing the ODS Mode Set with the selected ODS shapes. Each shape is identified by its frequency.
• Save the project

• Remove all the operating points via the X on the right side of each one or via the Removes all the operating points button (3rd button shown in Figure 11).  The operating table should now be empty.

Figure 11 - Operating Points:  Adding, Removing, Loading and Saving.

All the processing so far was done on the first (or possibly the second reference).  We will now switch to the other reference and analyze those results to see if there are any differences.

• With the Input Basket selected, turn on the column associated with the other reference channel.
• Investigate its operating points by moving the cursor around
• Add some operating points and save to another ODSModeSet.
• Remove all operating points when done.

• Find an ODS mode set in the active project, section and ODSProcessing Analysis as shown in Figure 12.
• Load the operating points from the selected ODS Mode Set via the 4th button "Load operating points" shown in Figure 11.  This button is not active until an ODSModeSet is selected.   You can now animate these operating points as before.
   

Figure 12 - Selecting an ODS ModeSet and loading its operating points.

 

• Remove all the operating points before the next section.

6.  Creating and Saving a List of Double Operating Points

 

Rather than using a Single X cursor, we will now use the Double X cursor to add the operating points.

• Switch the Cursor type from Single to Double as shown in Figure 7.  
• Position it around the first peak, for example, between 325 and 375 Hz. 
• Set the band processing to Maximum. The corresponding animation is displayed. 
  Add this double cursor operating point to the list. An entry with the “Double” annotation, the first and second frequency, is now available. 
• Now add a new double cursor around the 2nd peak using the Add command in the table.  The new operating point is added with start and end values (510-520 Hz?).
• Set the cursor type back to Single.  This will now go back to single point animation
• Move the operating point cursor to the fist peak (351 Hz?) and add the operating point to the list. The entry is added to the list between the two previous entries and annotated with a different color. A corresponding cursor is also added.
• Repeat for the second peak (516Hz?).  This is also added in the list of operating points via frequency.
• Save the ODS Mode Set.  
• Use the State Control panel to go to the Next or Previous operating point as shown in Figure 10.  Can you scroll through all 4 operating points?  If the Cursor type is set to single, you can increment to the single points.  If the Cursor type is set to Double, you can scroll through the double operating points.  
• Go to the Desktop, View Data task.   Have a look at the last ODS Mode set saved.  If the Pivot View is in List view you can see the list of ODS Modes saved.  As you click through the ODS Modes they will be automatically previewed as shown in Figure 13.

 

 

 

• Go back to Animation task and make sure the Input Basket is selected.

• Set the Cursor type to Single if it is not.
• Click the Add operating points at peaks button (second button shown in Figure 11 or 13).
• Enter the start and end frequencies, the maximum number of peaks, etc.  You can leave the Amplitude threshold and Gate as default for now.  It will automatically find the peaks, populate the operating data table and add the cursors to the ODS Data Display as shown in Figure 14.
• Scroll through these operating points animating each one
• Save the ODS Mode Set if you wish.

So far we have only animated the FRF data and this project also has crosspowers and autopowers in that can be animated as well.

• Change the ODS Pivot view to ODS Function Class.  This will show columns for each function class and we see Coherence, CSD (Crosspower), FRF and PSD (Autopower)as shown in Figure 15.
• Use the Y axis unit to turn off all units except g^2/Hz which are the Autopower PSD units  and press OK as shown in Figure 15.
• Select the PSD column and animate.  Note that autopowers have no phase and all points will move in the same direction together - they are supported but perhaps are not the best function to animate.
• Now change the Y axis unit filter in the pivot table to be (gN)/Hz, select the CSD column and Animate the Crosspower data.  Do you get an error?  If so, it is because we have 2 crosspowers at each response location. 

• Switch to the ODS Crosspower pivot view
• Animate each column of data.

Figure 15 - Changing ODS pivot view and filtering he pivot table.
 

Similarly, there are ODS pivot table views for several commonly used functions and you can edit and save new ones to manage these views as shown in Figure 16.  For steady state data the following functions are supported:  Sound Intensity, Spectrums, Autopwers, FRFs, Third Octave and via ODS Function Class perhaps more!
 

Alternatively, you can find the data on the Desktop, View task and filter it there before adding it to the Input Basket.

For Run Up / Run Down data we can animate Waterfalls, Waterfall Reference, Order Sections, ODS Map Cuts (one slice in time or speed of a waterfall), ODS Frequency Section and perhaps more!  Run Up Data will be shown in another Siemens Simcenter community article with a different data set.

Figure 16 - ODS Views.

This article showed how to animate steady state data as 2D curves.  If you'd like to animate waterfall data from a run up / down test or the Overall levels, order sections, frequency sections and map cuts from that runup / run down test please see this additional article:  Animating waterfall or runup / rundown operational data using Simcenter Testlab Neo for ODS

Questions? Email kevin.grenier@siemens.com or contact Siemens Support Center.

 

• Index of Testing Knowledge Articles
• Simcenter Testlab Neo Introduction
• How do I use Geometry Creation in Simcenter Testlab Neo to create a new geometry or import and reduce a geometry from CAD or CAE?
• Simcenter Testlab Neo Displays
• Simcenter Testlab Neo Ribbon Tips
• Simcenter Testlab Neo: Pivot Table
• Simcenter Testlab Neo Process Designer
• Simcenter Testlab Neo Audio Replay
• Multiple Segment Processing with Simcenter Testlab Neo
• Syncing Video in Simcenter Testlab Neo
• Simcenter Testlab Neo: Reporting
• Simcenter Testlab Neo: Strain Life Method
• Simcenter Testlab Neo: Mean Stress Corrections
• Using Simcenter Tecware Processes in Simcenter Testlab Neo
• Simcenter Testlab Neo: Modulation Metrics
• Simcenter Testlab Neo: Articulation Index
• Simcenter Testlab Neo: Calculating Signal Rise Rate
• Accessing Simcenter Amesim Models in Simcenter Testlab Neo
• Simcenter Testlab Neo and Functional Mock-Up Interface
• Simcenter Testlab Neo Advanced Tips Seminar
• Simcenter Testlab Neo YouTube Playlist