Most visualisation systems operate independent from the simulation, which means that additional effort goes into the separate generation of the scene.
For this reason, we use a different approach for the visualisation of multibody systems: The visualisation control is fully integrated into the object oriented simulation language Modelica. External visualisation software, developed at the institute, displays the scene defined by the Modelica model.
The simulation communicates via UDP with an external visualisation system based on the open source graphics engine called OpenSceneGraph. Every basic multibody element supported by the Modelica 3.0 standard is displayable, as well as common CAD data formats. Additionally, the visualisation of energy flows (useful especially for hybrid drive vehicles) and hydraulic systems is supported.
Another scope of application is the visualisation of flexible bodies and surfaces, integrated in the Modelica_FlexibleBody library. Deformations of given CAD models are calculated and displayed according to the deformation of selected control nodes.