9
Rigid Body Basics 717
Plane (page 2–764)
Motor (page 2–765)
Toy Car (page 2–766)
Fracture (page 2–770)
Storing and Accessing Collisions (page 2–774)
To find out how to simulate objects that change
their shape over time, see Deformable Bodies (page
2–777).
Rigid Body Basics
You can make a ri g id b ody from any geometry in
your scene. A r igid body can be a single object, or
it can comprise several objects grouped together,
known as a compound r igid body (page 2–722).If
you desig nate an object whose geometr y changes
over time as a rigid body, the simulation uses its
geometry at the start frame.
reactor lets you assign the physical properties that
each bo dy will have in the simulation, such as
mass, friction, and whether the body can collide
with other rigid bodies. You can specify a proxy
geometry for a rigid body, which allows reactor to
treat the rigid body as an easier-to-simulate shape
for the purpose of the simulation. You can also
specify how your rig id body should be displayed
when previewing the simulation.
Anobjectissimulatedasarigidbodyafteryou
have added it to a Rigid Body Collection (page
2–723);youcanedititsrigidbodyproperties
before or after you do this.
This section tells you how to:
Edit rigid body properties (page 2–717),including
• physical properties (page 2–718)
• simulation geometry (page 2–719)
• display propert ies (page 2–722)
Rigid Body Properties
Utilitypanel>reactor>Properties
Menubar>reactor>OpenPropertyEditor
reactor toolbar > Open Propert y Editor button
You assign physical properties, simulation
geometry, and displa y properties to a rigid body
using the Rigid Body Proper ties rollout or dialog .
Theinterfaceconsistsofthreerolloutsorsections,
each of which is described in detail in this topic.
Procedures
To edit the propert ies of a rigid body:
1.
Select the appropriate object in the scene.
2. Open the Properties rollout or dialog. If the
item you have selected cannot become a rigid
body (for example, if it is a helper object such
as a Rigid Body Collection), or if you have no
object selected, the dialog still displays when
you choose this option, but its controls are
unavailable until you select a valid object.
3. Use the settings to specify the required
properties, as described in the following
sections.