Create a degree 1 curve representing the impact zone of a pedestrian’s head with a set of surfaces that form the hood of a car.

By knowing where the head of a pedestrian impacts the hood of a car during a collision, the design can be modified to reduce collisions with stiff under-structures, improving the ability of pedestrians to survive collisions with vehicles. This is now required by automotive safety guidelines in several countries.

This impact curve produced by the Pedestrian Protection tool has construction history and updates when the input values (such as pedestrian height) or target surfaces are modified.

Generate an impact curve

1. Choose Evaluate > Pedestrian Protection ❒.
2. Select the surfaces that define the front of the vehicle.

   The surfaces turn purple.

   A manipulator appears 100 mm in front of the selected surfaces.

   NoteSurfaces that were already picked prior to accessing the tool are included in the selection.

   

3. Adjust the parameters (Pedestrian Height, Impact Zone and Ground Height) through the control window or by dragging one of the manipulator arrowheads.
   NoteThe manipulators move in 10-unit increments. You can also enter a more precise value through the keyboard.
4. Click the Evaluate button (either in the control window or at the bottom of the active view window) or press the space bar.

   The impact curve is calculated and drawn. An annotation is attached to the curve showing the corresponding pedestrian height.

   

5. Modify the Pedestrian Height, Impact Zone or Ground Height through the control window, or by dragging one of the manipulator arrowheads.
6. Add or remove surfaces from the selection by clicking on them.
   NoteIn the default configuration, the toggles the selection. See Additive Selection mode for more details on the Selection Options.
7. Click the Evaluate button again.

   The impact curve and its annotation update.

After exiting the tool, you can still edit the impact curve’s parameters by choosing Object Edit > Query Edit and selecting the impact curve, or by selecting the impact curve first then re-entering the Pedestrian Protection tool.

Since the impact curve has construction history, modifying the input surfaces (for example by pulling CVs) causes the curve to update.

Click Undo All to remove the impact curve and start again.