Features
Based on an advanced software architecture, SOFA allows users to:
- Create complex and evolving simulations by combining new algorithms with existing algorithms
- Modify most parameters of the simulation (deformable behavior, surface representation, solver, constraints, collision algorithm, ...) by simply editing a XML file
- Build complex models from simpler ones using a scene graph description
- Efficiently simulate the dynamics of interacting objects using abstract equation solvers
- Reuse and easily compare a variety of available methods
- Transparently parallelize complex computations using semantics based on data dependencies
- Use new generations of GPUs through the CUDA API to greatly improve computation times
Scene graph
A key aspect of SOFA is the use of a scene graph to organize and process the elements of a simulation while clearly separating the computation tasks from their possibly parallel scheduling. The description of a SOFA simulation can easily be done in an XML file. For even more flexibility, a Python plugin allows scripting simulations using the Python language. Basically, a SOFA scene-graph is composed with:
- Nodes: used to categorise the components and keep the XML file clean (mechanical node, collision node, visual node, ...)
- Components: main elements used to build a scene (solver component, forcefield component, rendering component, ...)
- Data: everything that components have to deal with (forces, velocities, positions, ratios, ...)
Plugins
To extend its capacities and provide more features, SOFA is bundled with a lot of plugins:
- Drivers for VR / haptic / simulation devices (Geomagic®, ARTTrack™, Novint® Falcon™…)
- Visualization and simulation of medical images
- Python scripting
- Parallelization:
- Multithreading
- GPU computing using the CUDA API
