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ninjacore
02-18-2003, 01:24 PM
Hi. i'm making a tank! the thing is i want the bestest 3D tank tracks in the world. I've modelled a single track piece so far, and is an editable mesh.

what i want to do is make another 40-50 copies of this and constrain them all to a tank track shaped spline i have created.

I tried using a path deform modifier, but that just made a polygon mess. i tried adding a path constraint through the motion panel, but it stretches parts of my tracks.

another thing to mention is, does it matter if i attach all these objects through edit mesh or simply add them to a group of objects?

so, how can i get my tracks to all stay the same size, and move AROUND the spline in a nice fashion?

:airguitar
drucifer67
05-19-2005, 02:21 PM
I used the path deform modifier...but in order to do that, you first have to duplicate (or array) the track link (how many links you'll need is going to require heavy guesstimation) and then attach the links to make one object.

Once you have your array made, you can path-deform it to a spline that follows the shape you want to end up with... at this point, you'll probably find you have too many links or too few. It's guesswork, as far as I can tell, although there's probably some way to painstakingly measure the distance and divide it by the size of the link or something. Truth is, I just guessed and guessed again until i got it right, with a lot of UNDO UNDO UNDO in the process.
Conny
05-19-2005, 02:38 PM
Try the TrainMaker script:
http://hem.spray.se/conny.klasson/TrainMaker_1_50.ms
It works like an animted version of the Spacing tool.
It will not deform the track pieces in any way.

You could also try ChainMaker do a search at www.scriptspot.com
It will sclae your track pieces to fit the path.

Conny
jason-slab
05-19-2005, 03:01 PM
hey hi

i wrote a tut a little while back on simple tank track automation
click the link below, it's under the tut section!!

hope this helps u a little

|jason
scrimski
05-20-2005, 01:17 AM
He jason|slab,

your tutorial looks interesting, I'll give that a try.
jason-slab
05-20-2005, 07:11 AM
cool, let me know how it goes,
and if it's easy to understand

|j
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