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sdyer23
02-27-2009, 09:35 PM
Hey guys,

I am working on a mechanical rig of an electric shovel, and I am having some troubles with it. Ideally what I want the shovel to do is that when the dipper bucket moves up and down and forward and back, the cables attached to it move with it, giving it a sense of realism. Now I am using Max Design 2009 x64 and so far my "good enough" solution is that I have the cable connectors set with a LookAt constraint to look at the cable pulley, and then I wire a stretch parameter on the cable itself to a dummy object do that the cable will move up and down. I say this is good enough because I can get an okay solution, but it still requires a lot of manipulation to get right and sometimes the LookAt Constraint gets wonkey and breaks on me.

I have included a reference image of the shovel in question, I cannot include any working files as they are proprietary. I hope that the reference image will prove fruitful in illustrating what I would like this piece of equipment to do when I animate it. THanks in advance

SD
dunkelzahn
03-02-2009, 12:37 PM
Max´s Tube objects offer you the possibility of parenting the ends to dummys, which in turn can be parented/grouped to your shovel parts.

Used properly this can be a quick and dirty way to produce some cables connected to moving parts.

BTW: Your image hasn´t been linked yet, so I have no idea how your model would look like, so these are my 2 cent of advice ;)
sdyer23
03-02-2009, 04:51 PM
dunkelzahn;

Thanks so much for the first blush advice. Now for this tube object, If I parent the ends to dummies and in turn parent those to my Shovel parts, is there then a way to control the cables "Stretchiness" As in when the dipper basket goes up and down to simulate the cables rolling up and down to match the dipper basket?

If the images doesn't attach eventually, here is a web link for the image.

http://www.reliability.com.au/index.asp?pgid=129

The shovel in question is the second image from the top. If you or any one else has any advice for this rigging solution, I would be happy to hear it. :-) THanks again!

SD
dunkelzahn
03-03-2009, 04:21 PM
Sorry, I just checked, it´s called a Hose object and yes there is the possibility of controlling the tension of your top and bottom area as well as the cables stretching with your your start and end points (i.e. dummies). I checked with your image and it should work, however it´s not really a dynamic thing more of a quick and dirty workaround. I´d propose hiding the ends of your tubes inside the wheel where your cable run over. Otherwise you´d need a third bended hose connecting your start and end hose.

Another solution would be mean creating a spline with some sort of collision system so your cable doesn´t crash through the wheel

I´d stick with the hoses though ;)

Have fun

Chris
sdyer23
03-03-2009, 07:23 PM
Chris,

Thanks again for the help. The hoses are working really well and since the purpose of these animations I'm making with the shovels are purely for visualizations, this is all we'll need as the equipment is simple a means to an end. Thanks again!

SD
dunkelzahn
03-04-2009, 08:26 AM
Glad I could help :)
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