Page 1097 - Kitab3DsMax

Chapter 43: Simulating Physics-Based Motion with reactor
In reactor, the simulation identifies the various objects by the type of collection that it is part of. reactor has
five types of collections: Rigid Body, Cloth, Soft Body, Rope, and Deforming Mesh, as described in Table 43.1.
TABLE 43.1
Toolbar Button
Description
Name
Rigid bodies resist a force.
Rigid Body collection reactor Collections
Cloth collection Cloth objects flow and bend to all forces.
Soft Body collection Soft bodies flex when they come in contact with a force.
Rope collection Rope objects support tension but not compression.
Deforming Mesh collection Meshes can be deformed by forces.

Rigid bodies are objects that keep their shape when pushed; soft bodies deform when pushed. Cloth and rope
are intuitive, and deformable meshes are any object with keyed animation, including bones and skin systems.

Note
Remember that cloth, rope, and soft body objects are only as flexible as the number of segments that make up the
object. For example, a rope made from a spline with three vertices bends only in the middle. n
All objects that are included in one of these collections behave with similar properties. To include a collec-
tion in the scene, select the Animation ➪ reactor ➪ Create Objects menu or click one of the collection but-
tons in the reactor toolbar and then click in the active viewport to add the collection icon. Figure 43.3
shows the gizmos for each of these collections.

FIGURE 43.3
The gizmo icons for each of the collections

Collection gizmos in the scene are not rendered and appear red when first created. When selected, the
gizmo appears white; when an object has been added to the collections, it appears blue. This makes it easy
to see which collections are empty.
After a collection is added to the scene, you can use its Pick button in the Properties rollout to select a single
object to the collection. The cursor changes into crosshairs when it is over an object that can be added to the

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