@robint said:

when I try to input say accel or a controller name , it accpts them but doesnt do anything - no slider in the run panel

To get a slider, you need to use the format "slider("<slider_name>")". In your case it will be "slider("accel")".

If it is a variable that you want to put in, then you must first set the variable to some number, because sometimes the variable will be ignored if it isn't set as something. I THINK this happens because when dealing with joints, a number is required, and because a variable usually assumes "null" as it's value at first (null means nothing), the joint doesn't use it. Setting the variable is known as "initializing" the variable. Remember this because there will be some errors describing an uninitialized variable.

Hope this helps,
Chris

Joints are pretty finicky - As far as I know we've been trying to get rid of these for a long time. You can't copy them, you can't hookup two objects to a controlled joint, nor can you explode them. When you are dealing with joints, don't do anything to them and chances are everything will work.

I suggest starting from the beginning, or putting new joints in.

-Chris

Sketchyphysics does have a time bar - but it does not display the actual time that we are used, as in minutes, seconds, etc. It uses frames. Each frame is basically a set of data derived from calculations. You can see this feature on the lower left corner when a simulation is running.

It might be possible to convert the frames into what we are familiar with. But that would require some calculations I am not at the moment familiar with. You can search through the Sketchup ruby code index for time functions and such, and see what you can do from there. Assuming you are familiar with coding in ruby.

-Chris

Hey Chris:
I am having problems with the Linear Damping on objects. Some C++ Sketchup script is terminating Sketchup after a number of frames whenever I have it running. It has something to do with Runtime. Do you know what might be happening? Thanks in advance, Chris
EDIT: It only happens when I set Linear Damping before altering gravity.

I think you can modify the ratio on both joints. They both have ratio inputs, so try the examples I made

Maybe the time taken is proportional to the amount of entities in the group? It's intuitive that it would; you have to move everything in a group, and the simplest object would need to move 4 faces, 6 lines, 4 vertices, and all those connections(something on the order of 20 in all, which is at least 20 clock cycles). So I'm guessing that points would be somewhat more efficient in rendering and moving. But we really can't bypass the transfer.

Well, I was hoping that relieving sketchup from having to render lots of meshes and things like that would save some time between frames. Rendering does take up quite a few clock cycles. I do understand that the physics engine does take a while, so maybe a separate engine dedicated to light(one that doesn't have all the variables needed for masses) would be suitable. If I become one of those scripting gods I'll look into it .

It might help if you try 0.2:0.1 or 20:10; I believe that someone else had the same problem and that solved it.

What happened? Something common with me. I got bored. But then I got interested with it again. It usually happens. But I'm happy to say that I will be back for a long time.

Anyway, let's keep this less personal and more sketchyphysics(Although I am scared about what I've missed )

What I have been itching to see would be a "space-mode", where objects are relieved of the universal gravitational force, resistance, etc, kinda like space. I have also always wanted an accurate gravity system(not just fall down to the infinite plane, objects actually attracted to a others), such that you can simulate orbits, and stuff like that(I like astrophysics). It would be nice, and I would like to help build something like that(I know my astrophysics).

I also would like to see points in lieu of meshes'n'objects so you can simulate light and other high-component-density-particle simulations.

This sounds great. It is becoming more FPS-friendly, which I like. I am excited, but my absence dummed me up and I don't know half about scripting than I used to know. It definitely will be troublesome learning it all over again...