Shaping a minifig chain in LDCad

[Jaco van der Molen]

Hi all,

Finally I got into LDcad and learning quick.

Now I found this really nice model of a jeep by Larry Lars:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/
I made it digital exclusively with LDCad.
Then I made it with bricks, which was most fun because I had my own building instructions and parts list to find all bricks needed :-)
I made some minor adjustments and decided to ad a little chain at the front. See picture.

   

Now I want that chain made in LDCad. I've been trying a few things, but cannot get it right. See chain.mpd.
Can someone assist?
What I'd really like is it to be symetric like the real thing...

Thanks.

[Philippe Hurbain]

Honestly, I don't think using the flex system for a 5 links chain is a good idea: there are about the same number of parameters to control (coordinates/orientation/stiffness of path points), and flex part has its own will (Bezier behaviour) difficult to control finely. So I simply used chain links and positionned them individually to build the chain. To do so I used a lot the definition of new origin/orientation ('o' key), and modification of part rotation origin.

[Philippe Hurbain]

Otherwise, you have two windscreens in your model, one in "windscreen" subpart (placed backwards) and one in main model...

[Jaco van der Molen]

Honestly, I don't think using the flex system for a 5 links chain is a good idea: there are about the same number of parameters to control (coordinates/orientation/stiffness of path points), and flex part has its own will (Bezier behaviour) difficult to control finely. So I simply used chain links and positionned them individually to build the chain. To do so I used a lot the definition of new origin/orientation ('o' key), and modification of part rotation origin.

Ah, I see! Thanks so much. I should try to redo that my self.

[Jaco van der Molen]

Otherwise, you have two windscreens in your model, one in "windscreen" subpart (placed backwards) and one in main model...

Ah, that is because I thought I'd replaced the windscreen without the pattern with the patterned one. Thanks for pointing that out.
I did so using the nested edit.

[Philippe Hurbain]

(misplaced in thread, deleted)

[Philippe Hurbain]

Doing this kind of thing in nested mode is error prone: insertion occur in model listed in model "insert into" (top right mode select window, when in nested mode). This defaults to main model, so when you try to change a part which is in a submodel, it gets inserted in main one (and for some reason is not removed from submodel). You have either to do the change in the submodel, or, in nested mode, click on "insert into" field and select the submodel you want to modify. As said, not utterly clear, and for sure error prone.

[Roland Melkert]

This defaults to main model, so when you try to change a part which is in a submodel, it gets inserted in main one (and for some reason is not removed from submodel).

This sounds like a bug, I'll investigate. I assume you're using the double click replacement method here?

[Roland Melkert]

Honestly, I don't think using the flex system for a 5 links chain is a good idea: there are about the same number of parameters to control (coordinates/orientation/stiffness of path points), and flex part has its own will (Bezier behaviour) difficult to control finely. So I simply used chain links and positionned them individually to build the chain. To do so I used a lot the definition of new origin/orientation ('o' key), and modification of part rotation origin.

Philo is right about this, at this length it is probably easier to manually place the links.

When using the template you can also tweak its skin parameters somewhat to help fill it out better at short distances.

[Philippe Hurbain]

Yes, that's what I tried...

[Roland Melkert]

I can't replicate this are you sure a selection was active? Without an active selection a bin cell dbl click will insert a new part at the working pos using the cur ins dst.

[Philippe Hurbain]

Mmhhh... Maybe I was fooled by the duplicated part in Jaco's model - indeed it works fine, sorry!

[Jaco van der Molen]

I will retry to retrace my steps and see too what happens.

[Jaco van der Molen]

Here is the complete file!
I will make full instructions with LPub3D.