Overview
If you are an expert user or site manager, you can customize your template-based product to your company's needs and preferences. You can extend your template-based product by adding new functionality, modifying standard functionality, or tailoring its appearance to fit the needs of your work environment. Customizing your template-based product lets you create a familiar environment in which users can work. Learn about
Setting User Access.
Note: | You cannot customize all dialog boxes and tools. For example, you cannot customize the Plugin Manager or the Information window. The Dialog-Box Builder's Dialog Box -> Open menu provides access to those dialog boxes, containers, and toolbars that you can customize. |
You can typically modify your template-based product in three main areas. These require different levels of understanding, ranging from the Adams macro language, Standard Developer Kit (Adams SDK), through FORTRAN and C solver routines, as described next.
■Customizing the interface - Involves creating or modifying interface objects, such as macros, dialog boxes, menus, and windows. This uses Adams command language to modify the look and feel of the interface. It can be used to automate recurring tasks, using the scripting language, but has limitations in terms of speed and would not be used to generate computationally complex objects (1000 parts located and oriented to generate a chain). For these tasks, you would use an Adams View library written in C.
Note: | You save interface objects and macros in custom binaries. |
■Creating a custom Adams View library - Takes advantage of user-written subroutines and functions to automate highly repetitive and computationally complex tasks in an efficient manner, using C. Using functions delivered in the SDK, you can quickly generate and manipulate Adams elements.
■Creating a custom Adams Solver library - Create user-written subroutines and functions to extend the functionality of your template-based product in terms of the solver. You save them in custom libraries for later use.
Note: | For Adams Driveline - Because of the plugin structure of Adams Driveline, you cannot create a custom version. You can, however, create a custom Adams Car version, adding your own custom elements, analyses, and so on, and then load in the standard Adams Driveline plugin. |
Once you have finalized your customization of your template-based product, you can store your customized dialog boxes, macros (binary files), Adams View and Adams Solver libraries in a site directory, for use by all users, or in a private directory for personal use. You can extend this hierarchy to support multiple operating systems from one installation.
Select an entry on the left to learn how to efficiently customize the environment of your product.