[help]_ new to SP

jeff hammond

I think what you're trying to do is faster done by eyeballing.

i don't know.. it's pretty much impossible for me to get those three pieces lined up correctly by eyeballing.. i can probably get it closer than in the skp i uploaded but realistically, i'd like to get the curved one balanced on the other two & a third point below the actual ground plane..
think of these things as big slabs of concrete that are going to be precast then set up like this (well, because that's what they will be ).. i'd rather figure out the proper placement on a computer instead of onsite with a huge crane and tons of concrete.

thanks for that wacov.. i'll have some time a little later tonight to mess around with this stuff.. i'll try out what you're saying.

[fwiw, i thought i'd be able to just set the two cylinders in place and a sub-ground plane then drop the pringle on top of it all.. then keep messing around with the drop position of the pringle until it looks good. the pringle would be level prior to the drop and not pre-tilted as in the skp]

Wacov

No problem. If you want the cylinders static, just go into 'state' in the SP context menu, and check 'static'.

jeff hammond

ha, awesome.. worked perfectly.

[miguel, i think you may have thought i wanted them overlapping as shown in the skp i posted when in fact that's what i was hoping to avoid.. wacov's set up steps + adding a solid floor for my subsurface plane worked well without needing to change any of the geometry.]

i think i'm addicted now
thanks for the help!

Ecuadorian

Add this to my Duh! list.

jeff hammond

ok, well one for my duh list..

how can i get out of sketchy physics? after i push play and it does it's thing, i can't get out of it without the shapes moving back to their original position. i'm stuck at the point where i have the hand that can drag(throw ) everything around.

jeff hammond

or is it just a matter of pausing then saving? that works fine if i do a 'save as'
is that how people do it?

Ecuadorian

I do either of these:

Pause and save as a copy
Select what you want, cut and paste in place.

jeff hammond

yeah, i want to do your second option.
problem is, i can't select anything.. if i try to change tools or push the space bar for select, everything resets.. the only thing i can do from normal SU after starting the simulation is orbit (even after pausing).. everything else resets the simulation..
so that's not how it works for you?

Ecuadorian

There's a key combination to select everything: Ctrl+A. Try the OSX equivalent.

jeff hammond

ah, ok.. that works (⌘A)
thanks