Other SMAC programs

©McHenry Software, Inc.,  

The following are other versions of the SMAC program.

• ED-SMAC, the Engineering Dynamics version of SMAC
• WinSMAC, a Windows based version of SMAC by ARSoftware.
• msmacFX - msmacFX is no longer available as part of Visual Statement's programs.
• msmacRT - msmacRT is no longer available. Please see our information page on msmacRT.

Please also see the SMAC Frequently Asked Questions Page.

Before considering the purchase and use of any collision reconstruction software you should obtain complete information on any and all programs available. For that reason you will find our web sites and technical reports include many links and references to other collision reconstruction programs. Your choice should be an informed decision based on knowledge of the state-of-the-art of collision reconstruction software.

msmacFX

McHenry Software worked with VisualStatement to provide an entry level version of SMAC, the msmacFX program.  it is no longer avaiable from Visual Statement. Please let us know if you have any questions.

ED-SMAC

The EDSMAC program is a PC version of the original NHTSA SMAC program and has been in existence for a number of years. Unfortunately for users, the authors of EDSMAC have either not attempted or been unable to refine any part of the original 20+ year old SMAC program except for minor cosmetic changes to the underlying code and a few enhancements to the DOS-based user interface. 

 

In the past 7 or so years the activity at Engineering Dynamics appears to have been directed at their Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) Highway Vehicle Environment (HVE) which appears to have appealing advancements in the user interface.

Recently (in 2001), EDC began marketing a Windows based version of their HVE. All users who invested in the SGI version of HVE are were provided the Windows version (apparently support for the SGI version will soon end) An unfortunate decision by EDC is that they did not create any way to use files from the SGI version with the current Windows versions (generally software vendors have an import or conversion routine to allow the use of files from previous versions with the new version). This effectively makes the SGI version of HVE, and any work performed on the SGI version, immediately obsolete.

Some observations on the HVE version of EDSMAC:

• EDSMAC - Continuing to utilize the 20+ year original code for SMAC (which they converted to Basic for the DOS version and now is in C for the SGI HVE environment. See our papers "SMAC-87" (SAE 88-0227, and "SMAC-97" (SAE 97-0947). Since December 1997, in apparent recognition of the limitations of the SGI platform for their HVE, Engineering Dynamics announced the availability of the HVE-2D, a Windows interface to their various programs. The entry level for is $2900 ($1950 for HVE-2D & EDSMAC and $950 for their vehicle specs database).
• EDSMAC4 - EDC claims "more realistic modeling of actual vehicle structural behavior" based on "an A, B stiffness model"?! The "A,B stiffness model" is a "virtual" model equating residual crush to dissipated kinetic energy. The "A,B stiffness model" is not a dynamic model. EDC also mentions that their new model requires a "threshold force to be applied before deformation begins". How is there a force with no deformation? There may be a force without leaving any residual deformation, but there is dynamic deformation. For additional information on EDSMAC4 please see our recent  TOPTEC presentation. Please also see our paper Effects of Restitution in the Application of Crush Coefficients, SAE Paper 97-0960 for proposed refinements to the CRASH and SMAC collision models.

• For additional information on HVE please also see 3-D or NOT 3-D, That is the Question!

WinSMAC

The Spring 1996 ARSoftware NOTES newsletter included an announcement for WinSMAC which they stated is an "improved Windows version of the SMAC algorithm that was originally developed for the NHTSA". They further announced that it will be available for $769 by summer 1996. ARSoftware distributes the SLAM program which is a derivative of the CRASH program. The SLAM program, developed by Gordon Bigg, PhD PE, contains the CRASH linear-momentum based solution procedure for collision reconstruction while adding some interesting error analysis techniques. The preliminary announcement of WinSMAC raises some interesting questions: What, if any, changes have they made to the underlying SMAC code to "improve" the program (is it only related to the Windows interface?) and what compiler do they use to generate the executable? (16-bit or 32-bit? Note that a 16-bit compilation will seriously degrade the performance of the program). We will post any additional information as it becomes available.

m-smac

The original intent in the creation of the original SMAC program was for a 'uniform interpretation of evidence'. The SMAC/m-smac programs are analogous to simulating a full scale test: setup the vehicles, environment and test conditions, and then run the vehicles into each other and view the results.

To highlight some the advantages of the m-smac/m-edit programs:

• The Win32 program and interface run in any version of Windows.
• The m-smac program is maintained exclusively in Fortran and compiled with Pentium specific optimizers for maximum performance on your Pentium PC's.
• The graphical user interface (GUI) m-edit is written in Visual Basic and C++.
• Our major emphasis on software development for the past 20 years has been research and development on the underlying collision reconstruction simulation code. Please see the list of some other enhancements highlighted in the m-smac announcement. We plan on continuing to spend the majority of our effort on advancement of the science of collision reconstruction.
• The m-edit GUI user interface and graphics are state-of-the art Windows programs and can easily be used in conjunction with other Windows based programs for additional analysis and presentation.
• After the initial setup of the m-smac program the vehicles are simulated like a full-scale collision. The user must make the initial assumptions and then let the collision take place. The only manipulation of inputs is in vehicle and scene setup, impact configuration and speeds.
• User options within m-smac which can mimic and therefore produce the same results as the original NHTSA SMAC program as well as an option in m-smac to mimic and therefore produce the same results as the EDSMAC program.
• Please also see the SMAC features comparison table.