Circuit simulations are nothing new but taking a legacy static schematic diagram and transforming it into a circuit simulation without coding it is novel. Converting such schematics to S1000D wiring modules proved to provide advantages for such an ambition. Many S1000D wiring solutions simply animate a switch or relay and colorize a wire to convey the continuation of the circuit. Other approaches do a redrawing of a schematic circuit and use flash or HTML5 graphics to do limited circuit simulations. What isn't happening is an actual simulation of a circuit's operation, such as reflecting voltage and current.
Too often tech pub departments renege on building true to life simulations because of the overwhelming number of scenarios involved. This due to the lack of experience of the illustrators to program such simulations and the costs to hire experienced programmers to do the job as well. What I will describe is a technique using the S1000D wiring modules, and Atlas Dynamics' modeling engine, to do accurate circuit simulations without having to code scenarios or redraw schematics in a simulation engine! The S1000D wiring modules are used by the Atlas modeling engine to generate the connectivity relationships across all components. Meta data that described voltages, signals and threshold limits were collected from various OEM sources as well as the S1000D wiring modules. Component voltage and current behaviors were derived by the modeling engine evaluating ground paths and determining which elements of a circuit drew current. Because the modeling engine uses a dependency cascading approach rather than a literal scenario description to model components and their states the simulation can produce just about all scenarios when anyone or more components fail, including shorts on the fly. All components in the simulation operate asynchronously and the effects of each component cascades down its circuit paths, where each component is only aware of the components its connected to. The simulation can also allow for intermittent faults. The S1000D wiring module is pivotal in allowing the modeling engine to autonomously build the simulation since grounds, connectivity and component types are described. Native schematic simulations are excellent for training since an instructor can inject faults on the fly. It also can prove to be a invaluable troubleshooting tool to test fault scenarios. Note, that if the circuit changes the modeling engine adapts autonomously. This simulation capability is just another good reason to implement an S1000D IEWD solution. Look to Altas Dynamics as the leader in S1000D wiring solutions.