dform questions

Ikyoto

is there a way to get primatives in DAZ to deform in plce so I can make specigic melting things that aren't flat?  I need to make a bunch of wires.

RGcincy

what do you want the wires to do? drape between two points or drape over a figure or prop?

Ikyoto

person holding one end while the rest goes back to the head of the andriod... who look really confused

RGcincy

You can use dForce. As a test, create a 3 foot long, 1 inch diameter primitive cylinder with 8 sides and 30 segments. Add a dynamic dForce modifier and a dForce weight node (to keep the ends in place). Use the weight node brush to paint 0 influence on the ends of each cylinder. Set the simulation surface parameter Contraction-Expansion Ratio to 105% and run the simulation. You'll find the cylinder will drape while remaining circular. See image.

See here for a discussion on cylinder rigidity and here for how to add weight map.

Kitsumo

RGcincy said:

You can use dForce. As a test, create a 3 foot long, 1 inch diameter primitive cylinder with 8 sides and 30 segments. Add a dynamic dForce modifier and a dForce weight node (to keep the ends in place). Use the weight node brush to paint 0 influence on the ends of each cylinder. Set the simulation surface parameter Contraction-Expansion Ratio to 105% and run the simulation. You'll find the cylinder will drape while remaining circular. See image.

See here for a discussion on cylinder rigidity and here for how to add weight map.

That is brilliant. I was wondering if this would work for making power cords and cables but I never got around to trying it. The normal method of rigging and posing takes forever to get a cable to drape naturally on the floor.

Off topic question: What causes objects to fly away? When I want to test an object for dforceability™, I create a primitive plane as the floor, load the item and convert it to Dynamic Surface. I don't change anything else, just simulate and see if it can fall to the floor without exploding, but then it just flies away. There are no wind nodes or anything. Any idea why?

RGcincy

It's a mystery to me why some objects flay away like that. Typically it means there needs to be a change to the simulation surface parameters. Changing Bend Stiffness to 0.2 is the first thing to try and helps any mesh which has 1 or more trigons.

Ikyoto

RGcincy said:

You can use dForce. As a test, create a 3 foot long, 1 inch diameter primitive cylinder with 8 sides and 30 segments. Add a dynamic dForce modifier and a dForce weight node (to keep the ends in place). Use the weight node brush to paint 0 influence on the ends of each cylinder. Set the simulation surface parameter Contraction-Expansion Ratio to 105% and run the simulation. You'll find the cylinder will drape while remaining circular. See image.

See here for a discussion on cylinder rigidity and here for how to add weight map.

Essentially how I ended up.  Thanks.