Ah, okay, that's what I was afraid of with motors. I thought that might've been the case, but I wanted to confirm that. Easiest thing it sounds like then is to get SketchyPhysics to output velocity data into a text file, and then probably load it into Excel later and have it do some calculations. At least Excel I've been using for longer, so I know a bit better.

For the record, I'm trying to help design a project to be used with middle school students. We don't expect them to be able to script or come up with their own formulas, so a lot of that is what I'm working on now.

One more thing though, what does the output of getVelocity use for its "time" component? Is that movement v. physics iterations, or visible frames, or something else?

Edit: (Because I have one more question now.)

On an aside, is there a particular method for calling the (integer) frame number to use as part of a script? The articles about scripting here seemed to suggest calling it directly as if it was a variable, but I seem to be having problems doing that.

If I understand what you're asking, you just need the ability to move the panels around without taking either the whole cabinet or just one face with it, yes? If so, the simplest thing it would seem to me (depending on how complex you've made this yet) is to select all of the component lines and faces on each panel, right-click, and "Make Group." Then you can move and rotate each element as if it were a solid object, rather than a collection of lines and faces. (If that makes sense.) You would need to be careful that you select all of the elements of each panel, and none of any other panel when you make your group, though.

Well, I suppose this is good a place as any for a first post. I will freely admit, I'm rather a novice at scripting in Sketchyphysics, and I do plan to pick up more of that on my own. But I'm wondering specifically about Sketchyphysics' ability to output data. In particular, velocity and the energy spent by a motor--not kinetic energy per se, but more in terms of total energy consumption. I am aware of a bit of script that outputs velocity, that I've used before, though for some reason it spits back 5 different values at a time. And energy I don't know, period.

Secondly, as this is for a project that I'm creating, I was wondering if the data over time could be output automatically to a text file. Preferably even an Excel file, but anything would be better than nothing.

Lastly, this may be a bit silly, but what exactly is the relationship between "framerate" under Plugins > Sketchy Physics > Physics Settings, and the actual frame rate that the program uses? I'd like to be able to take measurements relative to time, so I need to figure out how that works.

Thank you.