Hi all,
Rhino + Grasshopper user here. I know almost nothing about Blender, but the physics seem really useful for my current project. I have a chain bracelet with irregular shaped links, and I need to “inflate” cylinder inside it to see the max. inner diameter it will accommodate (with each link being a rigid body). I have the chain setup to slip onto a tapered cone, which is an interesting start, but a proper cylinder would be better.
I’m happy to investigate this myself, but hoping someone could give me some key vocabulary to help me on my journey.
Looking forward to learning Blender (finally)!
dh
Hi Declan,
I think having a normal rigid body cylinder could be enough for your need if you assign it a shapekey that scales the cylinder outwards. By this you would also be fairly precise in reading the diameter.
Be aware that if you want really precise numbers and not just a rough estimation you definetly need to switch to fusion or sth more fitting for this task.
If i can elaborate on anything or questions arise feel free to ask🙂
Happy Blending
Thank you very much @Geospinelsulfid . Part of the challenge is working within the software ecosystem my company allows, so I doubt Fusion is on the menu. We do have solidworks, and I’ve requested an eval license for SW Simulation, which I assume would be a little more accurate than Blender.
That said, I will look at the shapekey idea. Will that automatically stop increasing cyl diameter when it encounters some threshold of resistance from the chain? Or will it blow apart the chain?
Thanks again,
dh
This would be a purely visual approach to the solution since the the shape itself acts as a collision object but does not interact with the slider to change the diameter at all. So you would adjust the diameter by hand and "“just see” at which point the chain is under full tension. At which point you could then measure the diameter.
Its really good for fast rough estimates but you wont get anything really precise out of blender