Does anyone know how to get a hinge constraint to reverse direction?  The objective is to have a door open, remain open for a few seconds and then close,  the open part is easily configured with a hinge constraint and some initial velocity.   It is the closing part that is a nightmare.

I've tried flipping the hinge 180 degrees; no effect other than to reverse to direction of the opening.  Tried using negative velocity, same result.  Tried copying the physics on the timeline and reversing the copied segment,  No effect.
Very frustrating!

Thanks for the response but the goal is to have iClone perform the animation.  I could easily create the animation in Maya and 3DX it into iClone.  I know how to create the animation but I'd like iClone to be able to perform the same animation.
It seems that A is equal to B but B is not equal to A

I am learning to use the constraints myself so I'm no expert
Here is a couple of tutorials that may help but as far as I know the hinge should go both ways depending on which way another physics object pushes it.
Early in the first tutorial it talks about the limitations settings for the hinge. Is that the problem. Are the limitations set to something like 0 and 90 degrees making it go only 1 way?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpirvDh7Me8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3mljeACWWQ

Edit
You may be able to use the force setting on the hinge to have the door automatically close itself.

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For example
Here is masons foot operating a pedal for a kick drum I am working on.
Masons foot pushes the pedal down which rotates the stick that beats the drum
When mason lifts his foot back up the force setting on the hinge of the pedal rotates the pedal back up with masons foot.

That pedal action is similar to someone pushing the door open and the door closing automatically after they have gone through


i7-3770 3.4GHz CPU 16 GB Ram   
GeForce GTX1080 TI 11GB
Windows 10 Pro 64bit

That looks like the action / reaction I'm trying to create.

Do you mind sharing the specifics of you generated that action?

This raised my interest so I quickly threw a door animation together to see if it would work.
Doesn't keep the door open for a few seconds but I'm thinking you could use an invisible physics object to hold the door open and animate it so it moves out of the way a couple of seconds later




i7-3770 3.4GHz CPU 16 GB Ram   
GeForce GTX1080 TI 11GB
Windows 10 Pro 64bit

I can see the effect works and is what I need.  What are the dynamics settings?

Hi Bybry,

Perhaps the easiest way is to simply change the physics setting of the door from Dynamic (assumed original setting) to Frozen when the door reaches the fully open position, then advance the time line ahead two seconds and then change the setting back to Dynamic.

Regards,
Mark

Hmmmm. That sounds interesting markab

The settngs i used were very simple and depends on which way the door opens
I used min -160 max 0 for the rotation limits

The force i set to 0.5 to close the door slowly

I also change the bounce amount and there is also a resistance setting in there somewhere
Im at work at the moment and cant remember everything exactly but i think the primary 2 are the 2 i mentioned first

i7-3770 3.4GHz CPU 16 GB Ram   
GeForce GTX1080 TI 11GB
Windows 10 Pro 64bit

Sorry, no knowing about the iClone physics, but I do know doors -- to open a door all the way (so as in Real Life) the angle of rotation needs to be 180 degrees, or thereabout.  And to rotate the other way, the same.  So using -160 to 0 is only half a rotation (my gut tells me you need to set it for -160 to +160 but I haven't played with this at all).

If I'm out of line just ignore me.

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Mike "ex-genius" Kelley