nVIZ Ergonomics Plugin Documentation

VersionInstallationErgonomics Plugin for VREDErgonomics Frontend
2023Installation GuideUser ManualUser Manual
2022Installation GuideUser ManualUser Manual
2021Installation GuideUser ManualUser Manual

2023.0 Date 27 February 2023

  • New: Added tracking configurations Ford CAVE and Ford HMD
  • New: Major rework to accomodate different ergonomics data structures from different AOEM
  • New: ErgoServer – Added Ford vehicle data import
  • New: ErgoServer – Extended ergo data to include 3 seating rows with 3 seats per row
  • New: ErgoServer – Extended ergo data to include LHD and RHD vehicles
  • New: CNC Controller – Added ball of foot point
  • New: CNC Controller – Added CNC seating buck EFSC_220805
  • New: CNC Controller – Added CNC seating buck EFSC_220806
  • New: CNC Controller – Import of vehicle data from Excel with ErgoServer
  • New: CNC Controller – Write file with seating buck position data with every “move to position” to users AppData directory for VR-Tools callibration
  • New: VRED Plugin – Supports VRED Professional Release 2023.2.
  • New: VRED Plugin – Extended data sructure to align with CNC controller update
  • New: Frontend – layout for vehicles with 9 seats and 5 mirrors and LHD/RHD
  • Change: Protics tracking configuration to ART DTrack3

Release 2022.8 Date: 28 October 2022

  • New: VRED Plugin – For customer key word Mercedes_AMG: load VRPN config files in background with vehicle selection
  • Fix: CNC Controller – Stroke for center console Tx

Release 2022.7 Date: 29 September 2022

  • New: VRED Plugin – Supports VRED Professional Release 2023.1.
  • New: CNC Controller – Support of D-Box Haptic Technology by standalone “nVIZ_DBox_Test.exe” supplied in the installation directory.
  • New: CNC Controller – “dbxLive64.dll” for APP_KEY = “MBenzDevSim”, APP_BUILD = 1000.
  • New: CNC Controller – D-Box testing file from IPG CarMaker in directory VehilceSimData: “CarMakerTestRun00.txt”.
  • New: VRED Plugin – Updates VRED view port when copying reference points from one vehicle to another.
  • New: VRED Plugin – Updates VRED view port when copying adjustment ranges from one vehicle to another.
  • New: VRED Plugin – Added check for children of steering column rig node.
  • New: VRED Plugin – Graphics display for seat and steering adjustment maps for CNC seating buck.
  • Fix: VRED Plugin – Copy user data to User/AppData from Python plug-in.
  • Fix: VRED Plugin – Catch and eliminate duplicate driver names.
  • Fix: VRED Plugin – Removed offset in view point when seat adjustment not equal zero and then switching from head tracking to view point simulation.
  • Fix: VRED Plugin – Catch error if users aborts driver export file/directory dialog.
  • Fix: Frontend – Update driver combo box when driver reverts back to last tracked driver.
  • Change: VRED Plugin – Automatically removing non-ascii characters from driver file names.

Release 2022.6 Date: 10 July 2022

  • New: CNC Seating Buck – added center console module

Release 2022.5 Date: 04 May 2022

  • New: VRED Plugin – Supports VRED Professional Release 2023.0.
  • New: VRED Plugin – Tab “Reference Points” added steering reference point.
  • New: VRED Plugin – Exposed the pause time for establishing the connection to the CNC controller on the Options tab.
  • New: VRED Plugin – Exposed the timer for updating the steering angle on the Options tab.
  • Rework: CNC Controller – Paired actuators synchronization check during homing based on moving state.
  • Fix: Frontend: nVIZ_Bridge installation path for multi-revision support.

Release 2022.4 Date: 07 April 2022

  • New: Installer – Added an option to skip the copying of Autodesk VRED files (e.g. for users of Unity).

Release 2022.3 Date: 23 March 2022

  • Fix: Changed the method to get Username for temporary files directory paths.

Release 2022.2 Date: 16 March 2022

  • New: CNC Seating Buck – Performance optimization for Festo actuators – reading parameters changed from SDO to PDO.
  • New: CNC Seating Buck – Steering wheel rotation pivot point and rotation axis automatically set based on ergo data from Excel.
  • Fix: CNC Seating Buck – GUI colores disruption.

Release 2022.1 Date: 01 March 2022

  • New: Multi-revisions support for nVIZ Ergonomics plugin.
  • New: Automatic configurations for the target customer and target VRED version in the installer.

Release 2022.0 Date: 25 February 2022

  • New: Supports VRED 2022.3
  • New: CNC Seating Buck – Added reset steering angle button in advanced options to set the current position to zero.
  • New: CNC Seating Buck – Added invert steering angle check-box to invert the sign of the angle reported by SICK encoder.
  • New: CNC Seating Buck – Performance optimizations
  • New: CNC Seating Buck – Added help button
  • New: CNC Seating Buck – Option to cancel the enable command from confirmation dialog box.
  • New: Multi-revisions support for nVIZ Ergonomics software.
  • New: Automatic configurations for the target client and target VRED version in the installer.
  • Fix: CNC Seating Buck status table missing headers

Release 2021.4 Date: 09 December 2021

  • New: CNC seating buck – Support Sick encoder to get the physical steering angle and feed it to VRED scene.
  • New: CNC seating buck – Traffic light for CNC seating buck communication.
  • New: Options Tab – Option to check or uncheck steering angle encoder.
  • New: Refresh scene with “Rename Scene Graph Nodes” function.
  • Changed: Unity Plugin – Includes steering angle value from the physical encoder if hardware is added otherwise always 0.

Release 2021.3 Date: 17 November 2021

  • New: New tab “Vehicle Rigs” to check and edit vehicle nodes in scene graph
  • New: Vehicle Rigs tab – “Rename Scene Graph Nodes” function
  • New: Drivers tab – “Add Driver” function
  • New: Drivers tab – “Rename Driver” function
  • New: Drivers tab – “Delete Driver” function
  • New: Drivers tab – “Duplicate Driver” function
  • New: Drivers tab – “Get Adjustments From Vehicle” function
  • New: Frontend – “Settings” page with multiple functions for render settings
  • New: Frontend – “Get Adjustments From Vehicle …” function
  • New: Frontend – “Refresh” function

Release 2021.2 Date: September 2021

  • New: Supports VRED Professional Release 2022.1 and 2022.2
  • New: CNC seating buck offsets in vehicle csys.
  • New: CNC seating buck adjustments in local csys.
  • New: Individual driver profiles added to CNC seating buck.
  • New: Tracking system option “ProticsVR”.
  • New: Display vectors SRP->Tracker1 and SRP->Tracker2
  • New: Config file entries for Tracker1_X/Y/Z and Tracker2_X/Y/Z
  • New: Tracking system option set according to customer keyword by Excel data import.
  • New: Aditional debug options.
  • New: CNC seating buck controller reports diagnostic messages and has “Acknowledge” option.
  • New: CNC seating buck controller has an option to move the seating buck to transport position.
  • New: CNC seating buck controller also reports STO on the GUI in the status.
  • New: CNC seating buck controller starts the servers and connection automatically when launched from VRED.
  • Changed: Driver seat up/down adjustment follows the vector calculated from the seat operations map rear (max. vehX) corner points.
  • Changed: Move to position directly, without having to move to K0, after releasing and reactivating safety switch.
  • Changed: CNC paired cylinders check has different tolerance values for normal operation as compared to homing run.
  • Changed: Start menu entry for CNC controller GUI is changed to “CNC Seating Buck Controller”
  • Changed: Minimum distance check is ignored during homing run. USER NEEDS TO MAKE SURE SAFETY DURING HOMING RUN.
  • Changed: VRED CNC seating buck GUI hides static display LED.
  • Changed: CNC seating buck controller has some minor modifications in the GUI.
  • Fix: Cylinders going into error state after multiple stop/start commands.
  • Fix: Healpoint offset for AMG Excel import.

Release 2021.1 Date: 24 July 2021

  • New: CNC seating buck communication switched to EtherCat protocol.
  • New: Added extra safety validations to CNC seating buck communication.
  • New: CNC seating buck controller application has a GUI for easy testing and status reporting.
  • New: Installer creates desktop shortcut and start menu items for CNC Controller application.
  • Changed: Updated AMG naming convention for excel import.
  • Changed: Added Steering Pivot Point for AMG naming convention for excel import.
  • Changed: Updated Unity DLL to allow operations in more secured manner.
  • Fix: Steering Ty calculations modified and tested.
  • Fix: Steering translation and rotation received from CNC seating buck applied to VRED scene.

Release 2021.0 Date: 27 April 2021

  • NB: The CNC Seating Buck executable is excluded from this release – available on request only
  • New: Supports VRED Professional Release 2021.3
  • New: Additional tab in GUI for notes which are stored with the project file
  • New: Additional line in Excel reader config file to define the path used for temporary files created by the plugin
  • New: Additional line in Excel reader config file to define the CNC Seating Buck being enable true or false
  • New: Frontend variant sets names are sorted identical to VRED GUI
  • Fix: Frontend variant sets names with multiple blanks

Release 2020.5 Date: 04. December 2020

  • New: Supports VRED Professional Release 2021.2
  • New: Additional tracking option “ART DTrack HMD” supports ART tracking with VIVE HMD
  • New: Import viewpoints from Excel file
  • New: Excel import supports *.xlsm
  • New: “Reset Camera” function for tracking option “ART with HMD”
  • New: Camera transformation defaults on options tab for “Reset Camera” function
  • New: Export All Drivers – writes all drivers from scene to individual xml files; file name = driver name
  • New: Driver file import checks names of existing drivers in scene and will not import duplicates (warnings issued)
  • New: Import driver files with vehicles not matching the vehicles in the scene:
    if no. vehicles in driver file > no. vehicles in scene => import is truncated
    if no. vehicles in driver file < no. vehicles in scene => driver data for missing vehicles is added with all K0 positions
    if vehicle name in driver file != vehicle name in scene => driver data for this vehicle is overwritten with vehicle name from scene and all K0 positions
  • New: Option in config file to define Viewpoint Y-Coordinate default
  • New: Catch NullPtr error messages from display timer if nodes are not in scene
  • New: Config file entry for setting viewpoint Y-Coordinate default
  • New: Frontend: reworked layout for variant sets display
  • New: Option “Auto-Disable Tracking” = > Slider for adjustments pressed will deactivate VRPN tracking, slider released will activate VRPN tracking
  • New: Viewpoint “Headtracking” cannot be deleted
  • New: Added node “nVIZErgoHMDViewPoint” to Daimler vehicle rig
  • Changed: Suppressed error messages when ergo data is loaded with empty VRED scene
  • Changed: Data check for more readable error messages and more flexibility on scene graph nodes
  • Changed: Viewpoint Y-Coordinate default is now “Take from head tracking”
  • Changed: No error message when windows file selector dialog is canceled

Release 2020.4 Date: 24 September 2020

  • New: Supports VRED Professional Revision 2021.1.
  • New: Supports OpenVR tracking for VRED 2021 and 2021.1.
  • New: GUI widgets shown/hidden according to selected tracking system.
  • New: CNC Seating Buck GUI with feedback from electric actuators (status, referencing, forces).
  • New: CNC Seating Buck reference to vehicle design CSYS.
  • New: CNC Seating Buck positions in vehicle design CSYS.
  • New: Customer keywords “Daimler”, “Toyota”.
  • New: Customer specific config files for Excel import.
  • New: Customer specific vehicle rig files.
  • New: Customer specific logo – pixmap in left bottom corner.
  • New Line Edit “Environment Transformation Node”.
  • New: Vehicle transformation from Design CSYS to CarMaker FR1 is applied to Environment Transformation Node.
  • New: Added 3 columns to Excel import for vehicle position in CarMaker Fr1 reference system.
  • New: Frontend – config file for the step size of adjustment items.
  • Change: Data serialization changed from marshal to pickle.
  • Change: “New Driver” => “Initial Driver (K0)”.
  • Change: ComboBox Viewpoint y-Coordinate: “Take from view point data” => “Take from view points” / “Take from last tracking position” = > “Take from head tracking”
  • Change: Frontend switch driver combo-box on main screen.
  • Change: Frontend driver dialog box has the add driver option only.
  • Change: Frontend add driver => auto-close dialog.
  • Change: Frontend variant sets containers changed from combo-box to list.
  • Change: On “Import Ergo Data”, previous project data is cleared from the GUI only if a valid file is selected. It avoids accidental loss of data.
  • Fix: View point calculation includes rotation matrix of seating buck target for non-axis-parallel alignment of seating buck in CAVE.
  • Fix: TypeError: ‘float’ object does not support item assignment.
  • Fix: Updated the error reporting with user-understandable print outs.
  • Fix: Error on opening project files with number of drivers higher than the current number of drivers.
  • Fix: Frontend – scaling on iPadPro.
  • Fix: Frontend – performance.
  • Fix: File – Canceled file open dialog will not clear current data.

Release 2020.3 Date: 08 June 2020

  • New: Supports VRED Professional Revision 2021
  • Change: Driver data now part of project’s data structure; XML-files no longer required but still availbale for export and import
  • Change: Removed Driver > Save – is obsolete
  • Change: Driver > Save As… now creates a new driver in the project data structure, does not write an XML-driver-file; use File > Export Driver to write XML-file
  • Change: In the XML-driver-files, changed the adjustment positions data from node transformation values to GUI input values
  • Change: Adjustment items positions now made specific to driver and independent of vehicle
  • Change: Adjustment items ranges now made specific to vehicle and independent of driver
  • Change: Toggling vehicles will now set all adustment items to the active driver’s adjustment items positions in the selected vehicle
  • Change: Changed “Copy Adjustment Settings” to “Copy Adjustment Ranges” and moved the function to the Adjustment Items GUI Tab
  • Change: Changed “Reset Adjustment” options to “This Item” and “All Items”
  • Fix: Combo box style sheet on options tab

Release 2020.2 Date: 17 March 2020

  • New: Daimler design HTML frontend for tablet
  • New: Extended Excel import for sheet with adjustment items data
  • New: Function in main menu to connect/disconnect nVIZ Computer Numerical Controlled Seating Buck
  • New: Radio buttons on “Ergonomics Review” tab to toggle between GUI elements for static/CNC Seating Buck
  • New: GUI Controls for CNC Seating Buck
  • New: Driver data “Save” and “Save As” buttons – exports driver data to xml files
  • New: Customer specific default vehicle rigs according to “NAMING-CONVENTION” keyword in config file loaded from C:\Program Files\nVIZ\Ergonomics\UserData\VehicleRigs
  • Fix: Radio buttons on “Ergonomics Review” tab now toggling correctly
  • Fix: Select driver now sets adjustment items spin boxes values correctly
  • Fix: Eliminated view offset when toggling “Seat Reference Point Tracking”
  • Fix: Copy of seat reference points now by value instead of by reference

Release 2020.1 Date: 31 January 2020

  • New: Supports VRED 2020.3
  • New: File > Save
  • New: Import of multiple driver files
  • New: Export driver adds driver to combo box
  • New: Added spin box to set the eye seperation
  • New: Selected driver continously gets updated to adjustments and eye separation
  • New: Radio buttons for different reset adjustment options
  • New: Beta version of Ergonomics Front-end for remote control.
  • Fix: Spinboxes for adjustment ranges limited to max./min. values
  • Fix: Adjustment item pivot method made specific to item and vehicle

Release 2020.0 Date: 17 December 2019

  • New: Supports VRED 2020.2 and VRED 2020.3
  • New: HTML front end to manage an ergo review from a tablet (based on NodeJS)
  • New: Eyeseparation for cluster module per driver added to driver XML file
  • Fix: Steering wheel reset when switching adjustment item combo box or main tabs

Release 2019.3 Date: 19 November 2019

  • New: Excel import supports Excel’s filter options
  • New: Option to set view point y-coord. to y-viewpoint or to y-tracking
  • New: Combo box “Drivers” – each imported driver file is added to the combo box. Selection of the combo box applies all parameters from driver file.
  • New: Main menu > File > Clear Drivers
  • Fix: Continuous seat adjustment while switching cart node tracking on/off

Release 2019.2 Date: 02 November 2019

  • New: Main menu in ergo widget (File and Help)
  • New: Generic x-offset from design CSYS to CarMaker FR1 applied to all vehicles
  • New: If cart node tracking is disabled, seat adjustments are applied to parent of active camera
  • New: Driver data export to xml file
  • New: Driver data import from xml file
  • Fix: Reset steering column adjustment added tx=0 for child[0] (=steering wheel)
  • Change: Moved file “open”, “save” and “read ergo data” to main menu
  • Change: Moved help to main menu

Release 2019.1 Date: 11 July 2019

  • First Official Release of nVIZ Ergonomics Plugin for VRED Professional