you rock Taylor thanks for the help.

after talking with camokid i am re approaching my tank to better suit the wheels. i did not model correctly and my hull was being seen as only a box thus pushing my wheels the wrong way.

in doing this i also chopped off the side skirt with a plane, outlined it and deleted my sloppy geometry and rebuilt a simpler version.

Great bomber btw! Reminds me of my Falcon 4.0 days.

What is this meshing? Im going to look it up.

Thanks camokid Im going to send you the file to your email when I get home in about 5 hours I hope thats okay.

I think I understand what your saying. I did make these holes for my torsion arms. Last night I tried to seal them up but had the same issue. Im going to look at the example your provided as well. Although I have not heard of meshing but it sounds interesting.

I really appreciate all the help.

Ugh Im getting stuck in the mud. My double hinges are turning inward.

I dont know what Im doing wrong and the tank is way to big already without the turret and gun. Oh well i guess this is good practice.

I would have provided the model in a zip but its so big.

@camokid - i followed your advice almost exactly thank you for suggesting that.

you know I believe i made a mistake. i put the origin of axes for the main group (my hull) at center hull bottom but.. i shouldve put it at ground level instead i put it at hull. now when the armor drops the wheels sort of hang.

duh! Now what. I cant explode without everything falling apart.

Any chance the selection cut tool will mess with my joints. I want to cut away the side skirts before attaching the joints so i can see a little better.

ok camokid i read your advice and i think i will do it that way

this is a pic of where i am right now, the hull and turret are hidden and i cut the wall off inside the armor plate. attachment tests are coming up

groan...

Thank you kindly.

Do joints export? Like to 3DS for example?

I am going to try and add 5 off these arm and wheel assemblies per side. I have made a component out of the interior wall and arm sockets for the 5 wheel and bar assemblies.

But Im curious what would be the best way to proceed? These are my thoughts
1.) make the previously mentioned wall and socket component a group
2.) bring in the physics copied (now saved component) arm n wheel assembly with joints
3.) explode the arm and wheel assembly component then physic copy the 2 a total of 4 times
4.) explode again both and redo the joints

THEN..and here where i think my problem is

Then I want to somehow bring that wheel well now with the torsion arms and wheels (assuming it works) and attach it to slot in my tank hull proper.

How do I bring it there as a component and then explode the hell out everything all over again and reattach? Or should i bring into the tank hull scene as a model and then intersect the wheel well now with wheels with the tank hull proper?

does this make sense what i just said?

woo-HOOO!!! I got it working!

I just started over. I mustve had something funky going on in my setup hobbnob your were right.

When i deleted all the joints, exploded the tire and the bar and then regrouped them both, then added new joints like you explained and another joint for the wheel and viola - suspension.

man.. i was like a mad sceintist there for a while trying to figure it out

Hey wait a second - was something scaled? lol im such a newb its horrible

i notice when i right click on the hinges hobbnob left "reset scale" is available.

nope i didnt use the scale tool. as soon as i add the second hinge where the bar connects to the chassis - the tire flys off now.

i exploded the arm, which was in two components, and regrouped it as hobbnob did.

i cant seem to add the second hinge without things falling apart.

Man ive looked over your fix and tried to make like-for-like changes to the left side only, on my original, and when i play it just collapses on the left at the double hinge with the wheel up in the air.

Sighs.

Ahh im trying to compare versions in the outliner to see what i did wrong - very interesting

Wow you did it! Thanks my friend this is awesome. I never wouldve figured this out on my own.

How come the two hinges dont cancel themselves out?

okay heres my test dolly with the torsion arms and bogie wheels. also a ramp with some minor obstacles.

btw hobbnob thanks for taking the time to reply. im not familiar with the 'physics copy function" is that a plugin?

test tank suspension 7-15.skp

Thank you for your reply. I cant post the model yet Im at work. The issue is gnawing at me however.

I downloaded your helicopter blade - very well done - thank you. I had no idea you could attach more that one joint to an object. I see it rotate when i press play and bend. How did you make the blade in so many components? Ctrl+Move and then intersect each one? What was the process on that.

But i digress.. I will post the model when i get home in 4 hours.

Heres a vid prior to "everything falling apart" with just two hinges.

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Hi All

I am making a tank suspension and I have a independant torsion arm test Im working on.

My issue is I want to make the bogie wheels respond to the ground objects. Now I have a hinge where the torsion arm connects to the hull. And a hinge where the wheels connect to the bottom of the torsion arm. Everything is good.

What i was thinking about doing was adding some hidden geometry, adding a spring joint and connecting that to the torsion arm so that if a wheel met an object it would be brought back to its origin via the spring.

This is where my problem lies. As you cannot nest groups with joints because the wheels keep falling off. How can I achieve my desired result?

This image is my test trolley with torsion arms and bogie wheels attached at the rear. I just want the arms to bounce and come back when the run over an obstacle.