Page 1111 - Kitab3DsMax

Chapter 43: Simulating Physics-Based Motion with reactor
TABLE 43.4
Name
Description
Toolbar Button
Constraint Solver
Contains all active constraints used in the scene
Rag Doll Constraint
Causes a model to act as a human figure
Hinge Constraint reactor Constraints
Allows angular rotation like a hinge
Point-Point Constraint Links two points together; good for rope ends
Prismatic Constraint Used to constrain the motion of two rigid bodies to a single axis
with no rotation
Car-Wheel Constraint Causes a car to move linearly as a wheel object is rotated
Point-Path Constraint Limits a point to move only along a path

When a constraint’s Child is first selected, the Constraint’s icon is positioned at the pivot point of the child
object. If you look in the Modifier Stack for the Constraint object, you’ll find subobject modes for Child
Space and Parent Space. If you select these subobject modes, you can change the position of the constraint’s
child and parent objects.

Using a Constraint Solver
In order to use most constraints, you need to add a Constraint Solver to the scene. Then you can use the
Modify panel to add Constraints to the list to be solved. The Constraint Solver needs to know about any
Rigid Body Collections that are attached to any Constraints in the scene. To identify all the Constraints that
are part of the Constraint Solver, click the Highlight button.
Tip
If the simulation includes any constraints that the Constraint Solver doesn’t know about, the Constraint Solver
icon appears red in the viewports. n

Rag Doll constraint
The Rag Doll constraint defines all the joint limits common in a human figure. It can be used to animate a
lifeless body colliding with various rigid body objects. Using the Rag Doll constraint, you can manually
define how the body joints can twist, rotate, and move.
These joints are fairly common for human bodies. Autodesk has created a script to create a human body
proxy that creates a rag doll with the correct constraints already defined. The script is named rctRag-
dollScript.ms. It can be found in the scripts directory where 3ds Max is installed.

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