Set up the Automotive module

How it starts

There is no switch. The environment runs by itself in a trusted workspace that holds automotive work, searched three folder levels deep (build output, dependencies and hidden folders are skipped):

• DBC, LDF, ARXML, A2L, CDD, ODX or PDX files;
• bus traces: .asc, .blf, .mf4, PEAK .trc, .candump and candump .log;
• Ethernet captures: .pcap, .pcapng;
• a CANoe project: venvironment.yaml, .vsysvar, CAPL .can and .cin, CANoe .cfg.

Extensions other formats share are confirmed by their first bytes: an .asc must start like a Vector ASC trace, an .ldf must declare LIN_description_file;, a .trc must start like a PEAK TRC trace, a .log like a candump log, captures must carry the pcap or pcapng signature. ReqIF files alone do not start it. The environment looks again when folders change or such a file appears, and stops when the last automotive file is deleted.

In Restricted Mode nothing automotive runs and the workspace is not searched, because the module opens CAN interfaces and runs your Python and seed-key commands. Revoking trust stops every feature. A workspace without automotive work is unchanged, apart from the colouring of DBC, LDF and CAPL files.

The former setting neuralInverse.automotive.enabled is no longer used and is removed from settings files automatically.

Entry points

The Get Started with Automotive Networks walkthrough beside the CAN Database view, with the Diagnostics panel below.

Traces open in the CAN Trace editor and captures in the Ethernet Trace editor by default. DBC files open as text, with the CAN Database view one click away.

Requirements

The Connect LIN Channel picker reporting that a vendor library is not installed and offering a new virtual LIN bus.

No administrator rights are needed by the module itself; this has not been checked on a managed machine.

Settings

Library and interpreter paths are machine scoped and restricted in untrusted workspaces. Leave a path empty to find the installed library.

Bus monitor, LIN, Ethernet, SOME/IP and DLT settings are listed in Reference.

Verify your CAN interface

Run this once on each machine and interface family. It takes about 10 seconds.

1. Open a folder with any .dbc and trust it.
2. Set the library path if the library is not where its installer puts it.
3. Run Verify CAN Interface and pick Vector XL Driver Library, PEAK PCAN-Basic or Kvaser CANlib. A missing library is reported with the download to install or the setting to set.
4. Pick two channels on the same bus. For Vector and Kvaser, the driver's virtual channels are preselected, so no hardware is needed. For PEAK, or a hardware check, use two channels joined by a terminated cable with nothing else on it.
5. Pick the bit rates, confirm for hardware channels that only those two channels are on the cable, and choose where to save the report.

The kit transmits about 2,500 test frames, a cyclic frame and error frames: never run it on a vehicle network or with an ECU connected. Verify LIN Interface does the same for LIN, on two LIN channels joined by a powered cable (the vendors' virtual channels carry no LIN). Send the report to your Neural Inverse contact: it is what moves an interface from kit shipped to verified.

Kits for the OEM seed-key library, CANoe4SW Server Edition, test variants and traceability, compiled test designs, DaVinci Configurator and a VCI's D-PDU API are also available from your Neural Inverse contact.

Smoke test without hardware