AutoTrack is a vehicle

swept path analysis Sweep or swept may refer to: Cleaning * Sweep, the action of using a brush to clean * Chimney sweep, a worker who clears ash and soot from chimneys * Street sweeper, a person's occupation, or a machine that cleans streets * Swept quartz, a clean ...

software program used for analysing the movements of steered and wheeled vehicles including

cars A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as t ...

truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...

trams A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines ...

and other more specialist vehicles such as

fork lift In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from la, furca 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods eit ...

trucks,

wheelchairs A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebra ...

and access platforms. AutoTrack was the world's first

software program, originally being jointly developed by TRL (the UK's

Transport Research Laboratory TRL Limited, trading as TRL (formerly Transport Research Laboratory) is an independent private company offering a transport consultancy and research service to the public and private sector. Originally established in 1933 by the UK Government a ...

) and British engineering consultants, Travers Morgan (acquired by Symonds in 1995 who are now part of Capita Symonds, in the form of TRACK. The term track refers to the tracking of a vehicle's simulated movements in relation to geometry, based upon vehicle dimensions,

chassis A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of an artificial object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpart ...

and

steering Steering is a system of components, linkages, and other parts that allows a driver to control the direction of the vehicle. Introduction The most conventional steering arrangement allows a driver to turn the front wheels of a vehicle using ...

specification. AutoTrack has many similarities and performs the same function as the alternative swept path analysis program AutoTURN, which is developed by Transoft Solutions, Inc.. AutoTrack is generally used by transportation engineers, architects and planners for the analysis and design of

highways A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access ...

intersection In mathematics, the intersection of two or more objects is another object consisting of everything that is contained in all of the objects simultaneously. For example, in Euclidean geometry, when two lines in a plane are not parallel, their i ...

buildings A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and funct ...

and other facilities to check that provision has been made for the space and

geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...

required to manoeuvre specified design

vehicles A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), wate ...

. A design vehicle may be a real vehicle modelled within the software's computer environment but will often be a virtual vehicle that does not exist in real life, rather being indicative of the type and configuration of vehicle that the final design is expected to accommodate. Design vehicles are commonly specified by the relevant governing body that also controls the specification for which the design must conform. The AutoTrack range is divided into modules that service the

Road A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

Rail Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' ( ...

and

Airports An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

industries and operates within several different

CAD Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve co ...

systems such as

AutoCAD AutoCAD is a commercial computer-aided design (CAD) and drafting software application. Developed and marketed by Autodesk, AutoCAD was first released in December 1982 as a desktop app running on microcomputers with internal graphics controllers. ...

Autodesk Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that makes software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquartered ...

Microstation MicroStation is a CAD software platform for two- and three-dimensional design and drafting, developed and sold by Bentley Systems and used in the architectural and engineering industries. It generates 2D/3D vector graphics objects and elements and ...

Bentley Systems Bentley Systems, Incorporated is an American-based software development company that develops, manufactures, licenses, sells and supports computer software and services for the design, construction, and operation of infrastructure. The company' ...

Bricscad BricsCAD is a software application for computer-aided design (CAD), developed by Bricsys nv. The company was founded in 2002 by Erik de Keyser, a longtime CAD entrepreneur. In 2011 Bricsys acquired the intellectual property rights from LedasRalph ...

by Bricsys (a former member of the IntelliCAD Technology Consortium) and standalone in

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. When the software was first developed it initially ran as a

DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...

-based application and when it was ported to operate within

, it was given the name AutoTrack. The software, initially developed for consulting purposes, was sold commercially and following the demise of the original company, a management buy out pre-empted the incorporation of Savoy Computing Services Ltd. in 1996. Two of the surviving directors of Savoy Computing were involved with the original development of TRACK. In August, 2013

acquired the technology assets of Savoy Computing Services Ltd, including the AutoTrack technology.Autodesk expands Infrastructure portfolio
/ref> Autodesk subsequently released Autodesk Vehicle Tracking, which directly superseded AutoTrack in November, 2013. At this point Savoy Computing Services ceased trading and the AutoTrack software product is since no longer supported.

Brief history of AutoTrack

* 1988 – AutoTrack introduced "lock to lock" time as a critical factor used in the calculation of manoeuvrability of steered vehicles * 1991 – AutoTrack archived all design data within the "parent"

drawing * 1992 – AutoTrack introduced modelling of

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

and light rail vehicle movements * 1997 – First swept path program to calculate effective

axle An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, bearing ...

positions from vehicle dimensions * 1999 – AutoTrack introduced AutoDrive (a mouse point and click system that calculates possible movements from one vehicle position to the next) * 1999 – Grip editing was introduced to enable the editing of vehicle paths instead of their deletion * 2002 – Recording of scaled animations containing multiple vehicles was introduced, with a

movie A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

file being able to be recorded from within the program * 2004 – A standalone version that operated in

was introduced for engineers without

systems * 2007 – AutoTrack became the first

64-bit In computer architecture, 64-bit Integer (computer science), integers, memory addresses, or other Data (computing), data units are those that are 64 bits wide. Also, 64-bit central processing unit, CPUs and arithmetic logic unit, ALUs are those ...

software program * 2013 – AutoTrack acquired by

References

External links

{{externallinks, date=November 2015
The Freight Trade AssociationThe American Association of State Highway and Transportation OfficialsThe Transportation Research Board
Automotive software Transportation engineering Engineering concepts

Brief history of AutoTrack

See also

References

External links