The Mysterious Dynamic Surface Add-On

Quasar

Praxis said:

melissastjames said:

...but I seriouslly cannot find any useful documentation on what in the frack the Add-On is, what it does, or what it's for...and especially not how it's in any way applied/used. 

...

melissastjames said:

How would it work ...  

I've never seen someone actually use it. 

See the "dForce Add-On Modifier" section in the "Subject Index" (the 2nd post) in https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/208141/how-to-use-dforce-creating-a-blanket-draping-clothes-on-furniture-and-much-more-commercial/p1

 

These are not videos, but they are some example scenes you can download and interactively experiment with (with some summary instructions that are admittedly less than "Tutorial" grade):

A simple bouncing ball NB: Requires DAZ Studio v4.11.0.236 or later

Various bouncing stuff NB: Requires DAZ Studio v4.12.0.47 or later

 

melissastjames said:

So if I'm reading correctly, there needs to be two separate figures to add the dynamics to...one, a shirt for example, would be the dynamic object, and then there would be buttons or a clip or whatever that would be the add-on. So you couldn't use this on a piece of clothing that was all one mesh, like a shirt with buttons that were all one piece. I think that's what I'm trying to get at. 

In my (limited) experience, a dForce Add-On Structure can be used only to link selected Vertices of a single mesh - I have not got it to work linking 2 separate meshes together.  This script lets you link pairs of Vertices of a mesh: http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/referenceguide/scripting/api_reference/samples/geometry/generate_polyline_dynamic_surface_addon/start

 

It seems that the purpose of an Add-On is to provide some 3D structure to dForce simulations which would otherwise be limited to mostly-2D "cloth-like" effects.

The Add-On consists of Vertices linked by Polylines: A  Polyline is a line that links 2 Vertices.  Potentially, the line could consist of multiple segments, but I have used and encountered only single-segment lines, i.e. like the Edges of a mesh, but the Add-On mesh has no Facets, just these lines, each of which acts like a spring in the dForce simulation.  Unlike a normal dForce Dynamic Surface, an Add-On has no automatically-generated Shear or Bending springs - only the springs you specify via Polylines.

The Add-On interacts with the Dynamic Surface mesh by having some of its Vertices co-incident with relevant Vertices of the Dynamic Surface:  Studio automatically "welds" the Add-On to the Dynamic Surface at those  points, causing the Add-On Polyline springs to affect the dynamics of the Surface.

Enuff "lexical" stuff...

 

This script works good for making links. Thanks for that. It's cool how it adds each new link to the add-on, but is there a way to delete a link in the add-on? I created a bunch of links in one and accidentally created a link I don't want. It would be a pain if I have to delete the add-on and start over.

Praxis

Quasar said:

... is there a way to delete a link in the add-on? I created a bunch of links in one and accidentally created a link I don't want. It would be a pain if I have to delete the add-on and start over.

There probably are ways, but no simple ready-to-use way that I know of:

It should be possible using DAZ Script - DzFacetMesh has a removePolyline(int) function, which could be used in a modified copy of the script that creates the polylines.

Alternatively, you could Export the mesh to a .obj file, edit the line out of that using a text editor, and re-Import it.

Or maybe someone knows how to do it using theGeometry Editor?...

 

hansolocambo

Excellent tutorial on the subject here : 

Doc Acme

Thanks for that find.

RikGG

Mada said:

I used it for the necklace as well to stop the tube from collapsing during dforce
https://www.daz3d.com/dforce-necklace-merchant-resource

 

Hi Mada, I bought that to try and work out how you'd done it! Thanks for this explanation.