Lesson setup

You can create rigid bodies from NURBS surfaces and polygonal surfaces. In the following steps, you create some polygonal surfaces to be used for the rigid bodies.

To create polygonal objects for the rigid body simulation

1. Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the lessons.
2. In the Time Slider, set the start frame to 1 and end frame to 200.
3. Select Create > Polygon Primitives > Cube >.
4. In the Polygon Cube Options window, select Edit > Reset Settings, and then set the following options and click Create:
   • Width : 2
   • Height: 4
   • Depth: 0.25
   • Axis: Z
5. With the polygon still selected, select Edit > Duplicate Special >.
6. In the Duplicate Special Options window, select Edit > Reset Settings. Set the following options and then click Duplicate Special:
   • Translate: 0 3 0
   • Number of copies: 5

   This creates five copies of the polygon, each one placed 3 units above the lower one.

   

To position the objects for the rigid body simulation

1. Position the objects as shown in the side view in the following illustration. To position the planks precisely, select each plank individually and use the Channel Box to enter the appropriate value from this list:
   • pCube1 - Translate Z: 0
   • pCube2 - Translate Z: 2
   • pCube3 - Translate Z: 0
   • pCube4 - Translate Z: 2
   • pCube5 - Translate Z: -1
   • pCube6 - Translate Z: 1