WorldViz User Forum - chain mesh collisions

Hi!

I have a chain link ( a plane, with transparent texturing ). I am trying to make a complete chain out of links programatically.

This works fine, however, when I try to simulate the chain hanging and swaying (by attaching one end to a joint, and setting "Collide Mesh"), vizard locks up completely.

I don't want the chain to bend at each link, just at the point from which it is hanging (the chain is supposed to be under high load, so lots of flopping around would be unrealistic).

I assume vizard locks up because the chainlink meshes technically intersect one another. Is there a way to apply gravity to an object WITHOUT giving it a collide() command?

Code follows:

Code:

import viz

import math

# distance is meters

# mass is in kilograms

# gravity is 9.81 m/s



viz.go()





viz.phys.enable()

viz.phys.setGravity([0, -9.81, 0])



viz.startlayer(viz.LINE_STRIP)

viz.vertexcolor([1,1,1])

viz.vertex([0,0,0])

viz.vertex([0,0,4])

viz.endlayer()



def create_axes(length, parent):

        viz.startlayer(viz.LINE_STRIP)

        viz.vertexcolor([0,0,1])

        viz.vertex([0,0,0])

        viz.vertex([0,0,length])

        viz.vertexcolor([0,1,0])

        viz.vertex([0,0,0])

        viz.vertex([0,length,0])

        viz.vertexcolor([1,0,0])

        viz.vertex([0,0,0])

        viz.vertex([length,0,0])

        object = viz.endlayer()

        if(parent != 0):

                object.parent(parent)

        return object



def create_chain(length):

        link_count = length / 0.1 + 1

        a = 0

        head = 0

        plink = 0

        while(a < link_count):

                if(head == 0):

                        head = viz.add('data\\chainlinks.IVE')

                        head.setScale([0.0142,0.0142,0.0142])

                        head.collideMesh()

                        plink = head

                        

                else:

                        link = viz.add('data\\chainlinks.IVE')

                        link.collideMesh()

                        link.parent(plink)

                        link.setPosition([0,0,7])

                        link.setEuler([0,0,90])

                        plink = link

                        

                a=a+1

        

        return head

        

        

chain = create_chain(4.0)

#chain.setEuler([0,90,0])

chain.setPosition([0,4,0])



joint = viz.phys.addBallJoint(chain, None, pos = [0,4,0])



create_axes(100, chain)

create_axes(1, 0)



viz.MainView.setPosition([5,2,5])

viz.MainView.lookat([0,2,0])