Tank tracks are stuck and all ground wheels are steering

[tylermcneill]

Hi everyone!

I'm pretty new to craft animation tools and (not very wise maybe... ) wanted to try and build a tank rigging with the help of "crawler tracks" and "crawler ext", which is probably the most complex thing to do in CA.

My problem is, that everything seems to be working ok....the wheels are turning, they react to the ground mesh, but the tracks seem to be stuck.
It looks like they are jammed or something. Another weird thing is, that all my ground wheels are reacting to my steering, which looks pretty weird on a normal tank.

Maybe I parented something in the wrong order. (I'm using 3dsmax by the way)

Can anyone give me some clues, what to do, please?


tm

[Patrik Martin]

It is hard to understand what you mean by stuck. Are they stuck to the ground and are twitching? My guess is that you have to small space between the tracks and the boogie wheels.

The second problem you are experiencing is that you need to go in to the configuration of each ExtraWheel and check the "Fixate Wheel"-box.

[tylermcneill]

Thank you, Patrik!

(I can't believe I didn't see this "Fixate Wheel"-checkbox. )

You were right with the "boogie wheels" too. The tracks seem to be free now, although it seems, that they are too loose now. They seem to slip over the wheels and bounce up and down on the support wheels.

I tried to adjust the flaccidity-settings, but it does not seem to work.

The length is calculated automatically. Could it be something else?

[Patrik Martin]

You were right with the "boogie wheels" too. The tracks seem to be free now, although it seems, that they are too loose now. They seem to slip over the wheels and bounce up and down on the support wheels.

I tried to adjust the flaccidity-settings, but it does not seem to work.

The length is calculated automatically. Could it be something else?

The length it self is not possible to change but you are able to set the space between the steps or the amount of steps. The best way to tighten up the tracks are to use a lot of support wheels the control steps from bouncing off.

[tylermcneill]

Hi Patrick and thank you again!

So far it looks pretty ok. I rendered my viewport to show you the result so far. I think it's easier when you see it for yourself.

https://rapidshare.com/files/460209083/test-tracks.mov

The front wheel keeps penetrating the tracks and in the back the tracks still seem wiggly.


Can you help me with that?

Regards,

tyler

[Patrik Martin]

Yes this is unfortunately one of the weaknesses of the CrawlerTracks. I would in this case place support wheels underneath the track to "dig" it upp from the ground.

[PanzerGeneral]

Hello
By using Craft Director Studio, I am trying to create an animation of German tanks. In the process of work, I got a nasty problem. Using the tool Craft CrawlerTracks, one of the wheels falls under the plane. All arrows of gravity, I join the plane, as shown in the tutorial on your site. All ExtraWheel and Crawler Extended roll on the plane as it is necessary. But one wheel is not to be move up or down, falls under the plane. I am attaching a link to a screenshot. The fact that in a real tank, if the wheel is supported on the ground, it pushes up the tank. But in my model, it falls under the plane. Tell me, maybe there is some way to solve this problem.

Sorry for my English, I do not know very well the language of this using the Google translator. For this reason, I do not quite understand this manual. Here is the link to the screenshot
http://depositfiles.com/files/1bhtx0o6w

Sorry if i did something wrong.