simengine3D

simengine3D is a general purpose 3-dimensional physics simulation engine written entirely in python. I created it in grad school while taking "ME 751: Advanced Computational Multibody Dynamics." Instead of deriving the governing differential equations of a system by hand, simengine3D allows a user to compose an arbitrary mechanical system in 3D space by defining rigid bodies (inerital properties and dimensions), and joints that connect bodies (ball joints, pin joints, etc.). The user can then apply external loads to the system (springs, dampers, control actuators) and simulate the time evolution of the system (recording reaction torques/forces and system kinematics along the way)

Endorsement

At the end of the course, Dr. Dan Negrut (the professor for the class) had this to say about the code:

Installation

To install, fork this repository and then clone it locally to your machine. Then:

1. (Optional) Create a virtual environment before installing using your tool of choice
2. Navigate terminal to folder containing pyproject.toml file and then:
   • For general usage: pip install .
   • If you wish to edit source code: pip install -e .

How to Use

You will almost always start using simengine3D by creating a a System object. After instantiating a System, you can begin to add RigidBody objects to the system and then define joints between the bodies. The easiest way to get started with simengine3D is to look at the examples in the examples folder.

Contributing

Notation

A combination of CamelCase and underscore notation is used throughout the code.

CamelCase is used for class names only.

Underscores are used for methods and attributes.