rotational/angular/folding force?

I hope this diagram expresses my question/request reasonably clearly:

The second workaround performs a bit better, but still falls into the problem situation if the other forces in the simulation are strong enough.

Does anyone have any clever suggestions for how to achieve this with the existing forces? If not, consider this a feature request - it seems to me it could work in a similar way to the bending force, with three input points.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Fred Becquelin on June 24, 2011 at 2:59am

Hi Andrew,

I'd like to give it a try, can you post your files?

However I have a feeling this could be solved with these famous spring fail inputs. I don't know why Daniel didn't implement it yet, it doesn't look like a big deal.

Cheers

Fred.

Permalink Reply by Andrew Heumann on June 24, 2011 at 1:19pm

Hey Fred - thanks for your interest! I'd like to post the files but they're related to a project I'm doing for work, so I don't feel comfortable posting them publicly. Send me a private message with your email and I'll happily let you take a look!

Permalink Reply by Daniel Piker on June 27, 2011 at 3:32am

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the clear description. I don't think this will be possible with the currently available components, because a plane would need to be specified for the rotation in order to measure and react to reflex angles.

I am working on some new forces based on rotation about an axis defined by 2 points.

- Driveshaft/Vortex filament : This will accelerate a single point about the axis

- Hinge/Servomotor : This will provide control over the angle (measured about the axis) between 2 points.

This will also include the option of Cutoffs, to work similarly to those for springs, and you could use this to limit the angle to a certain range, as you describe. It should also be useful for adding bending stiffness to meshes with a non-flat rest state.

and Fred - Thanks for reminding me about the spring breaking. I will still try and implement this. The intention with that is that if a spring extends or compresses beyond a certain limit, it will permanently stop working (unlike with cutoffs, where it only stops working while it is overextended).

Permalink Reply by Andrew Heumann on June 27, 2011 at 11:04am

Daniel - awesome, those will be fantastic additions. And always happy to beta-test.... :)

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