Suspension Analyzer versions

v2.4 [May 10, 2011]
- Added several new types of Rear Suspensions (Fig A 6.14A), including:
- Torque Tube Live Axle Fig A 6.14
- Torque Arm Live Axle Fig A 6.15
- Trailing Arm and Semi Trailing Arm Independent Fig A 6.16
- 5 Link Independent Fig A 6.17
- 'Decoupled' Live Axle (bird cage) Fig A 6.18
- Added 'Four Link' features. These features lets you enter all holes for all 4 link brackets and see all possible combinations, and how each combination will affect anti-squat and roll steer. If you are working with a 4 Link type of rear suspension, and are displaying it in 'Side View', and new menu option of '4 Link' will appear for you to click on. Also, for each 4 link mounting hole, the type of input is specified as 'Input (clc)', where the '(clc)' means if you right click on it, it will ask which side (left or right) bracket you want to specify for entering in several possible mounting holes.
- Added 'Virtual Scales' features, but clicking on the 'Adjust' drop down menu. Fig A 6.20 This feature has 3 different methods of adjusting corner weights:
- Turning 'Jacking Screws', which changes the preload on the suspension springs on the 4 corners of the vehicle and
typically affects Cross Weight only.
- Changing Tire Size, which changes the preload on the suspension springs on the 4 corners of the vehicle and typically
affects Cross Weight only.
- Changing Ballast, by adding weight to or removing weight from a certain location of the car, or by moving weight from
it's current location to some new location.
Note, 'Virtual Scales' is only available if you are working with both a front and rear suspension on a vehicle.
Refined the method of entering data into the measurements 'Grid'. Now it is not so critical to press after each new
input.
- Program is now more Vista and Windows 7 compatible, and better able to handle latest versions of Adobe Acrobat.
- Fixed some Watts Link bugs and now you can have the Watts link pivot mounted on either the axle or the frame of the car. The
- Watts Link Wizard calculation screen is now easier to get to and suggested by the program to fix Watts Link math errors.
- Added 3rd option for rear suspension springs, to be able to put spring on the upper arm. For the 'Decoupled' Live Axle (bird cage suspension type, you can also specify the springs are on the bird cage bracket.
- Program now highlights the appropriate cell in the spreadsheet when you click on a point in the layout drawing. Fig A 6.23
- Added a 'View' button on layout drawing so you can quickly change some Preference settings which affect the layout drawing.
Some of the new Preferences we’ve added which can be changed at the View button include:
- Added 'Bigger' Preference so you can select to make the layout drawing bigger on higher resolution screens.
- Added Preference to allow only 1 side to be drawn in side view (helps avoid confusion).
Now all versions have the Ball Joint Wizard for more accurately calculating the location of the center of rotation of the ball joint.
- Made several changes to graphing to allow for you to press the arrow keys on the keyboard to move graphs around and to not
run into limits where zooming and shifting would run into limits.
- Program now automatically checks for old versions 1.1 and 2.0 of Suspension Analyzer on your computer for importing files.
The File, then Import... feature now looks for old versions 1.1 and 2.0 of Suspension Analyzer on your computer for importing
files.
When choosing different types of suspensions, the program now better checks for valid types of springs which can be chosen,
especially for solid axle rear suspensions. For example, torsion bars, and springs to upper arms can not be used on 3 link.
- Added a Preference so user can enter in dimensions as low as -100 inches. This allows for components normally on one side of the car's centerline to actually be mounted on the other side of the car. For example, normally the LEFT lower A arm mount on the frame is mounted to the LEFT of the car's centerline. If you set this preference, you can now mount it, say, -20 inches, so it's actually attached to the frame 20 inches to the RIGHT of the car's centerline.
- Added a Preference to be able to display 'Jacking Component at CG' in the results. This shows the vertical jacking component of the force vector at the location 'of the Center of Gravity. As this component increases, there is more jacking 'force on the vehicle from that particular tire. This is very much related 'to Roll Center Height.