Create rigid bodies

You can create a passive or active rigid body from an object or hierarchy of objects. To have multiple objects react as one rigid body, you must create a rigid body from a hierarchy of objects. By default, Maya automatically makes an object an active rigid body when you connect it to a field.

To create a rigid body from a single object

Select the object.
Do one of the following:
- Select Soft/Rigid Bodies > Create Active Rigid Body.
- Select Soft/Rigid Bodies > Create Passive Rigid Body.
A rigid body is created with default settings. See Edit attributes of a rigid body.

To create a rigid body from several objects

Group the NURBS or polygonal objects under a parent node.
For instance, select the objects and select Edit > Group.
Select the group node.
Do one of the following:
- Select Soft/Rigid Bodies > Create Active Rigid Body.
- Select Soft/Rigid Bodies > Create Passive Rigid Body.
A single rigid body is created for the group with default settings. See Edit attributes of a rigid body.

To turn off automatic creation of rigid bodies

Select Window > Settings/Preferences > Preferences.
Click Dynamics in the Categories list.
Turn off Auto Create Rigid Body.

To delete a rigid body

Select the rigid body (or parent group node).
Select Edit > Delete by Type > Rigid Bodies.

To delete all rigid bodies in a scene

Select Edit > Delete All by Type > Rigid Bodies.

Create rigid bodies from trimmed surfaces

If you’ve trimmed a NURBS surface and made it a rigid body, unwanted collisions might occur on the trimmed part. To prevent this, you can either convert the NURBS surface to polygons or delete the construction history before making it a rigid body. For information on how to convert NURBS to polygons, see the Polygonal Modeling guide.

Create rigid bodies from objects with deformer, skin or flexor

If you create a rigid body from an object that has a deformer, skin, or flexor applied to it, Maya applies the rigid body to the original, undeformed object that is hidden when you apply the deformer. When the rigid body collides, it might seem to do so at the wrong time or wrong part of its surface.

For example, suppose you animate an active rigid body sphere bulging from a lattice deformation. The bulging area penetrates rather than collides with a nearby passive rigid body cube. You won’t see a collision until the original, undeformed part of the sphere moves against the cube.