Configuring Adams > Setting Preferences > Windows Preferences

Windows Preferences

Adams Solver Pausing

You can set the variable MDI_PAUSE to set a pause after Adams Solver starts running in interactive mode. The default setting is 0 for no pause.

To activate the pause:

1. From the Start menu, navigate to Windows System, and then select Control Panel.

2. From the Control Panel folder, click System, and then under Related settings select Advanced system setting.

3. In the Advanced tab, select Environment Variables.

4. Enter the variable MDI_PAUSE and set it to 1.

5. Select OK.

Adams Environment

To set preferences:

1. From the Start menu, point to Programs, point to Adams x (where x is the release number), and then select Settings & License.

The Adams registry editor appears.

2. Set the options, as necessary.

3. Select OK.

Licensing

Parameter:	Description:
licenseFile	The full path to the MSC License file, or the port and server name. Right mouse button for the file browser menu.
licenseRetry	Enter the number of times an Adams product attempts to check out a license. The interval is 60 seconds and cannot be changed.

Note:

The MDI_ADAMS_RETRY environment variable is not valid anymore. Please use the licenseRetry feature above.

Help Preferences

Parameter:	Description:
docsDirectory	Directory that contains your Adams Online Help files.

Shared Graphics

Parameter:	Description:
Graphics_Picture	Only select Null for the OpenGL graphics driver.
Double_Buffering	Selecting "enabled" smooths the display of animations.
OpenGL_Software_Assisted	Sets the Native OpenGL mode to use software emulation of overlay planes. This should be used for graphics cards which do not fully support hardware accelerated Native OpenGL. Overlay planes are used for the: ■Rubber band box drawn for selection or zoom. ■Temporary geometry (arrows) displayed when creating joints. ■Temporary geometry when sketching curves, extrusions, and revolutions. ■Object names when in selection mode. Software assistance simply means that Adams View draws the overlay plane geometry instead of relying on the hardware. Native OpenGL with software assistance is slower because the screen refresh rate for the overlay plane will be affected by the other geometry in the view.
Overlay_Backgrounds	Controls whether or not a background is added to pop-up text such as names of modeling elements and position coordinates. Because some graphics cards do not fully support OpenGL overlay planes, you may not be able to see pop-up text in Adams applications. Select disabled if you cannot see pop-up text during when trying to select modeling elements. The default is enabled.
Hardcopy_Resolution	Specifies the resolution for shaded images written to a postscript file, in Dots Per Inch (DPI). The higher the DPI number the greater the resolution. Hardcopy Resolution does not affect wireframe images, such as xy plots. The default setting is 300 dots per inch (DPI). We do not recommend that you use a resolution lower than 75 or higher than 600 DPI. Note also that larger values produce larger postscript files, and will likely increase processing time for the printer.

Shared Preferences

Parameter:	Description:
startInWorkingDirectory	Enables or disables Adams from changing to the workingDirectory. Defaults to disabled.
workingDirectory	Specifics the working directory Adams changes to when “startInWorkingDirectory” is enabled.
minSpaceMB	Enter the amount of disk storage space (MB) available to the working directory below which certain file writing functions of Adams will not start. Specific actions which this will influence: ■Adams Solver execution
maxBackups	Enter the maximum number of backups Adams should generate for file operations (0 for no backups). Adams will create backups with the following name pattern: <original filename>.yy-mm-dd.HHMMSS
numSolverJobs	Enter the number of parallel Solver jobs to launch when submitting multi-runs. At present, the following multi-run analysis types support this setting: ■Adams Car ACF Runner ■Adams Car Event Browser (background and acf run options) ■Adams Car Dynamic KnC split analysis ■Adams Insight (background mode)
autoSave	Automatically saves database (.bin) at autoSaveInterval (minutes). If the session terminates unexpectedly this recovery file will be made available at the next launch of the software. Note: For large databases the auto-save can temporarily halt interactive work. Choosing “Model” will auto-save only the model(s) in the session and may reduce the duration of these interruptions. “Full” will save the entire database including analysis results which may increase the duration of these interruptions.
autoSaveInterval	Specify the number of minutes between which autoSave recovery files are written.
autoSaveLocation	Specify the location at which Adams stores recovery files generated when automatically saving session.

AView Preferences

Parameter:	Description:
memSize	Select the Adams Solver (F77) memory model size from the list of choices. You can also define a custom memory model as explained in Setting Custom Memory Model Size on Windows. The Memory Model Sizes table shows the variable and array sizes for the memory options and explains each variable and array.
searchPath	Use this to specify a custom Adams View path file.
textEditor	Specify a text editor. Select the standard Windows Notepad editor, or enter another editor in the Other text box (for example, vi.exe). Note that if you enter the name of another editor, it must be found by the PATH environment variable in Windows.
fileCaching	Controls how caching is performed for flex bodies. Enable to cache flex bodies on disk and decrease memory footprint during animation runs.

ASolver Preferences

Parameter:	Description:
memSize	Select the Adams Solver (F77) memory model size from the list of choices. You can also define a custom memory model as explained in Setting Custom Memory Model Size on Windows. The Memory Model Sizes table shows the variable and array sizes for the memory options and explains each variable and array.
solverSelection	CXX selects the standard commercial Adams Solver. F77 selects the older technology Fortran based Adams Solver. CXX is the default if (none) is selected.
numThreads	Enter the default number of parallel threads that you want Adams Solver to run with (CXX only).

Adams Car Preferences

The following preferences can be set for Adams Car, in addition to the preferences shown in the Template-Based Product Preferences table below.

Parameter:	Description:
windowTop	Specifies the location of the main Adams Car window at startup. Positive values indicate the number of pixels from the top of the screen. Negative values indicate the upper location of the window as a percentage of the screen size. For example, windowTop = 0 specifies that the main window will be located at the top of the screen.
windowLeft	Specifies the location of the main Adams Car window at startup. Positive values indicate the number of pixels from the left of the screen. Negative values indicate the horizontal location of the window as a percentage of the screen size. For example, windowLeft = 0 specifies that the main window will be located at the left of the screen.
windowHeight	Specifies the default window height. Positive values indicate the height in pixels. Negative values indicate the height as a percentage of screen size. For example, windowHeight = 100 specifies that the main window will use all of the available screen height.
windowWidth	Specifies the default window width. Positive values indicate the width in pixels. Negative values indicate the width as a percentage of screen size. For example, windowWidth = 100 specifies that the main window will use all of the available screen width.

Template-Based Product Preferences

The template-based products have a private set of preferences, shown in the table below, and a shared set with Adams Solver and Adams View.

Parameter:	Description:
siteDir	Specifies the location of the site repository in which you have created user libraries or binary files. For more information, see User Library Overview and Binary Files.
privateDir	Specifies the location of your private repository. For more information, see the online help for your template-based product.
privateCfg	Specifies the name and location of your private configuration file. For more information, see the online help for your template-based product.

Search Paths

At installation, Adams products, including Adams Car, Adams Driveline, and Adams View, create a default aview.pth file. It is in the aview subdirectory, beneath the installation directory, install_dir.

The aview.pth file allows you to specify search paths for the different types of files that can be opened in Adams View. This is useful for files that are shared with other users, and are not in your current working directory. Below is an example of an aview.pth file:

.bin c:/install_dir/aview/

.adm c:/install_dir/datasets/

.cmd c:/aview/cmd_files/

.dat c:/adams/test_data/

.gra c:/staff/my_home_dir/adams/output/

.req c:/staff/my_home_dir/adams/output/

.res c:/staff/my_home_dir/adams/output/

.igs c:/staff/my_home_dir/adams/iges_files/

.dct c:/usr/install_dir/aview/

Each line in the file specifies a search path for a specific file extension. The first line in the example file above specifies a search path for files with an extension of .bin. You can have multiple paths for each extension by adding another line with the same file extensions and an alternate path. Remember that each line must begin with a file extension.

Any file extension can be put in the Adams View path file. Therefore, you do not have to name your files with the standard Adams Solver and Adams View extension. Use the following conventions to add a file extension to the path file:

■Begin each line in column one with the desired file extension.

■Begin each file extension with a . (period).

■Separate the extension and search path for the extension with space. You can use a single space, tab, or a combination of these.

■Complete each search path, starting from the root (/) of the file system.

■End each search path with a trailing / (forward slash).

■Ensure that each line is less than 255 characters in length.

If you want to make the changes to the Adams View path file affect all Adams View users, edit the default aview.pth file mentioned above.