FORUMS - COASTERFORCE
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Which Programs Do REAL Rollercoaster Companys Use?
- Thread starter choluby
- Start date
Basically nothing you'll get your hands on as an enthusiast.
They'll use custom made software which may be similar to NL, but will tell them far more information about stresses and strains on the track, supports and train. It may have some sort of simulator built in, but I don't know. I would have thought it would be similar software to the Finite Element Modelling software (most) engineers/unis use, but it may well be set up specifically for them.
They'll use custom made software which may be similar to NL, but will tell them far more information about stresses and strains on the track, supports and train. It may have some sort of simulator built in, but I don't know. I would have thought it would be similar software to the Finite Element Modelling software (most) engineers/unis use, but it may well be set up specifically for them.
SaiyanHajime
CF Legend
For the engineering companies that design and build, t'll be custom made software like Hixee said, but many professional attraction designers use NoLimits.
^That being said, NoLimits is mostly only used to illustrate how the coaster is going to look. The actual design drawings are made in some sort of other, advanced and expensive program. Well, outside China at least...
I guess there are programs in the AutoCAD family that could do the job. Though, those are probably heavily modified to suit the needs of the manufacturer. The programs that Hixee mentioned are also pretty likely.
I guess there are programs in the AutoCAD family that could do the job. Though, those are probably heavily modified to suit the needs of the manufacturer. The programs that Hixee mentioned are also pretty likely.
SaiyanHajime
CF Legend
^ Yeah I agree. I think of NoLimits as being a good and fairly accurate way to get down an idea quickly. It's a way of visualising and playing around with concept.
^I'd agree with that. It's the step between napkin-sketches and a proper design. Anyone with any CAD experience can knock something together in NL fairly quickly. It's good for showing off concepts/new elements, just isn't suited for proper designing.
jayjay
Giga Poster
Sounds right so far. I'd add that some companies (e.g. the one I worked for this summer) write their own computer programs that can cope with very specific scenarios. I don't know whether any coaster design companies would go that far or whether they can simply use existing structural analysis software though. Just throwing it out there.
^I think it would depend on the expertise/money that the company had to throw at something like that. I've only ever seen custom software in companies like Rolls Royce (I've physically used theirs), Airbus and QinetiQ (only heard about theirs). Basically massive worldwide multi-million (or even billion) pound companies. I don't know if any of the coaster companies would need anything so specialist compared to what's already out there. They might write their own plug-ins I guess, there are guys at Uni who've written plug-ins for the CFD and FEM packages themselves.
Treeis
Mega Poster
Taken from the Nolimits wikipedia page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NoLimits
SaiyanHajime
CF Legend
The point is "designing" can mean anything from really early sketches to the finished product.
I have no doubt that at, say ...Vekoma, they use No Limits occasionally to quickly mock something up. But I highly doubt it's used for any serious stuff... Or, I hope not anyway.
Someone told me that Intamin definitely have their own software, because they'd seen it in use at Intamin. I'm sure they said it was pretty crappy looking though.
I have no doubt that at, say ...Vekoma, they use No Limits occasionally to quickly mock something up. But I highly doubt it's used for any serious stuff... Or, I hope not anyway.
Someone told me that Intamin definitely have their own software, because they'd seen it in use at Intamin. I'm sure they said it was pretty crappy looking though.
^Intamin might have their own stuff because it could be used by the 'transportation' side of the company. Intamin don't just make rides, so I could see them having the money/expertise to make something for themselves.
Crappy looking is an interesting phrase though. CFD and FEM software packages don't tend to look very artistic and often look old fashioned. I think it's one of those situations where less is more and the analysis behind the models is so large that they just don't have time for 'good' graphics.
Crappy looking is an interesting phrase though. CFD and FEM software packages don't tend to look very artistic and often look old fashioned. I think it's one of those situations where less is more and the analysis behind the models is so large that they just don't have time for 'good' graphics.
^I suspect it doesn't actually matter. I mean, I'm no programming expert, but I don't think there are that many advantages/disadvantages of any language that would mean one is more likely to be used than another. That's my thoughts after having done a module in coding using MATLAB, Java and (a phenomenally small amount of) C. I thought MATLAB was the easiest as you write it nearly as you would on paper, but it doesn't lend itself to control systems, more data handling. I hated Java because we where only doing stuff that was much easier in MATLAB.
Maybe one of the coding guys on here will know more about the relative advantages/disadvantages of using these languages in real life? Good question Marc, I'd like to know this too!
Maybe one of the coding guys on here will know more about the relative advantages/disadvantages of using these languages in real life? Good question Marc, I'd like to know this too!
jayjay
Giga Poster
I'm not any more knowledgeable than you Hixee (probably less, only in 2nd year), but anyway...
I've done Perl, which wouldn't be used for this. It's mostly used for text processing, not technical applications. C++ is a very fast language that I believe is very popular in physical simulations. It's harder to write because you have to tell the computer how to do things in a very detailed way, but for the same reason, it produces programmes that run extremely quickly. C++ is also good for 3d graphics too. Still, I'm not a computer scientist, so maybe somebody could shed more light.
I've done Perl, which wouldn't be used for this. It's mostly used for text processing, not technical applications. C++ is a very fast language that I believe is very popular in physical simulations. It's harder to write because you have to tell the computer how to do things in a very detailed way, but for the same reason, it produces programmes that run extremely quickly. C++ is also good for 3d graphics too. Still, I'm not a computer scientist, so maybe somebody could shed more light.
In terms of control systems, they'll use whatever really.
The Alton Towers "Your Day" system was run entirely using Microsoft Excel and Visual Basic macros. It's whatever they find easiest to get somebody to code in to talk to the hard systems.
We know Intamin use a windows platform, but Java, VB, C++, C#, or any code be used as the actual coding backend to the system. You'll probably find that different coasters have different control programs coded in different languages. When Apocalypse was built for instance, Intamin may have had C+ coders in house that wrote the software. When Baco was produced, the C+ coder had moved on and a Java coder (with C+ experience) replaced the old programmer and while maintaining old code, wrote everything new using Java instead. Or they have a standard they stick to for years and are writing everything in CoBOL
The Alton Towers "Your Day" system was run entirely using Microsoft Excel and Visual Basic macros. It's whatever they find easiest to get somebody to code in to talk to the hard systems.
We know Intamin use a windows platform, but Java, VB, C++, C#, or any code be used as the actual coding backend to the system. You'll probably find that different coasters have different control programs coded in different languages. When Apocalypse was built for instance, Intamin may have had C+ coders in house that wrote the software. When Baco was produced, the C+ coder had moved on and a Java coder (with C+ experience) replaced the old programmer and while maintaining old code, wrote everything new using Java instead. Or they have a standard they stick to for years and are writing everything in CoBOL