In CarMaker one must distinguish the design configuration of the vehicle from the equilibrium configurations (static equilibrium and start-off configuration). Parameters for the vehicle configuration are given in the design configuration and are saved in the vehicle infofile. The expression design configuration does not only refer to geometric quantities, but includes all other design parameters (masses, spring-stiffnesses, ...) as specified by the car manufacturer. Please be aware that a design configuration usually is not a configuration of static equilibrium!

By pressing the start button and after initialization a special procedure called "mq-equilibrium" is run to find the start-off configuration. This means, at start the vehicle is in equilibrium state respecting all internal and external forces/torques including Aerodynamics, VehicleLoads and TrimLoads (no acceleration, but non-zero velocities, in general). In between there is also an equilibrium configuration called static equlibrium. However, at this stage no additional charges (trimloads, vehicle loads) are added to the system.

Figure: Finding steady-state for the vehicle model

The consequence of this distinction is simply observable by comparing the z-coordinate of the center of gravity of your vehicle (Car.tz) to the parameter value Body.pos of the vehicle infofile at start of the simulation.