Tank Tracks

[twharvey]

I've been working on an SU/SP model of a military bomb disposal robot called the Dragon Runner. This machine comes in several configurations, two of which are the wheeled and tracked versions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY9pQ2mUSJM
I've cracked the wheeled one and have made progress on the tracked one. I've spent hours on this forum and looked at a lot of working examples of tracked vehicles in the 3DWH. After all this, I have one problem and one question:

Problem - The model currently has one Slider control for each track so that it can be steered and the drive joints are motors. It seems to work just fine going in a straight line, but when I try to turn it, the left track gradually comes off the drive wheels. I can’t figure out why this is happening. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Question – Ultimately I’d like to control the tracks with the Lefty and Righty keys so that the model starts out stopped and can be driven and steered from the keyboard.
Thanks for any help,
Tom

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=eb44b2ad6f12cc68720db6663e814a6b

[mptak]

Have you tried constructing each subpiece of the track as a box or complex hull? (I see they are now set to ignore). This seems to work well when trying to make chains for things like suspension bridges. My first attempt was promising but I blew the scale so its back to some more individual joint connections...ugggghhh. Cool model.

[twharvey]

Hi mptak,

It's the hidden geometry in the track elements that is set to Box. These are the parts that are in contact with the floor.