So, I'm SURE someone out there can help with my... unique... issue. See, I need to attach a spiderbot to helicopter blades via a chain to make it fly. I've linked them all together, but when I try to make it work, all the links go flying everywhere. Also, trying to look at any of it with the viewpoint dropdown ("face", "top", etc) results in seeing gray everywhere and nothing else. I have to work tonight (and worked on THIS all night last night), so I'm going to bed now, and hope that someone has been able to help me by the time I get home from work tomorrow morning. Thank you all for your continued help. I really appreciate you all!

Here are some screen shots to help explain:


This is what it looks like right now, before I hit "play". The end of the chain and the box on it are both supposed to be 3-D, not flat. The blade, which should be attached at the other end, is under the spiderbot.


This is what it does when I hit "play". The shadow near the back is the box. I have no idea where it goes when it flies off. or why.

Here is the constraint list:

Thank you again!

maybe try posting a video of it so we can see what's happening ?   I do know that sometimes when running in realtime preview,  the physics doesn't look like what it will render,  it usually rounds off the math to make the load lighter on the pc to render everything else,  resulting in stuff going all over the place .... which is why we have an option to playback in realtime,  or by frame -   the "by frame" play option was added to help minimize the chaotic real time physics math (  you only see the best results by either simulating or rendering )

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I'm not entirely sure I understand the topology of your model from the pictures, but I'll take a stab at it.  Are you taking some spinning helicopter blades, and underneath it's spin "axis" there is a chain attached, that is then attached to the spiderbot.  So when the helicopter blades fly up, it lifts the bot with it via the chain?

If I had to do this, I don't think I would use the wallet chain.  Or any physically modeled chain in fact.  In my limited experience with iClone physics, constraints between objects like ropes and chains seem to easily break.  It almost feels like they are held by magnets rather than metal, so when it's yanked too hard and hits it's kinematic threshold, so to speak, it breaks and everything flies off all over the place.  And I haven't figured out if there's a way to make that link stronger.

I would instead model a bunch of chain links in something like Blender (there are a ton of tutorials on making a chain) so it is a rigid object like a bar, and import it as an OBJ.  Then I'd "Attach" the blades to this chain bar then to the spiderbot.  That's assuming that your animation will have the chain in perfect tension at all times.  If you're trying to model the chain to look like it has slack in it at some point, I honestly don't know what I'd do.  My initial thought would be to animate a chain as an image layer or billboard and trick things that way, which would be hard, but still easier than modeling chain physics in iClone to me.

THANK YOU!

(I'm at work and couldn't wait. LOL!)

Wouldn't I have to render a video of it happening in order to post it? It's so fast, and I don't know if you can render in slow-mo. Sorry... I'm still new to so much of this. :-/

That said, I'll look at it in frame-by-frame in the morning, but I'm not sure it'll tell me anything more than I know. I'll try though!

I can totally do that, considering the spiderbot is the creation of a character of mine so I can make it work however I want it to. I just thought a chain would be the coolest (it's post-apocalyptic). Though... I've never used Blender, and while I can figure it out (like I have CC and iClone so far) by looking things up and trying them myself, I haven't been able to find ANYTHING on how to export from iClone to Blender, only the other way around. Please tell me I don't have to make everything AGAIN in Blender? (I know I can make the chain in Blender and export it to iClone, but I have seen that Blender is also good for smoothing animations, so I was hoping I could use it for that too, since I had to download it and all.)

Thank you SO much!!!!

There has been a discussions about this in the past (I think it was for a rope), but the search function of this forum is so bad that you can't search for ROPE without getting pROPErty..

Someone like Rampa or 4u2ges may be able to help out, if they see this. I know for the rope they had to go into Blender to create something.

For some reason chains are problematic: I have had dangling earrings flying around. It may be that the old Bullet physics engine is better suited (it is still there in iClone 7).

I'm no expert at all, so I can't contribute much more...

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I think a chain would definitely be cool for a post-apocalyptic scene, I totally get you on that!

I would highly recommend learning Blender if you're using iClone.  I am definitely not an expert on all the ins and outs of it, but know enough to essentially kitbash or modify my entire library of props and clothes.  Learning how to do that will infinitely expand your model collection.  I've used it to add parts to vehicles, modify clothing like turning pants into shorts or adding wrinkles.  The methods to import and export models between iClone and Blender are pretty easy once you get the hang of it.  

If you go down that route, I'd start with something really simple.  Like create a cylindrical bar in Blender, export it over to iClone and connect your helicopter blades with the spiderbot.  You'll organically learn all sorts of techniques in Blender to create more complex parts, like chains.  You don't have to export your stuff from iClone to Blender for now.  Just create this chain part in Blender for now, and bring it into iClone and connect it to everything else in that environment.

I was asking for the video mainly to get a better view of what exactly you are trying to achieve.

as for the thing flying off on it's own,  just right click the moving prop and "remove animation"   -  if that doesn't work,  then make sure it's not attached to something else that's moving and make sure you didn't give the prop zero gravity by accident in the physics section.    also be aware that there are 2 modes of physics in iclone,  you can find those physx vs bullet option in the "project preferences" panel. -  you can only use one at a time though..

For your fluid chain motion,  there are a variety of ways you could possibly achieve that,  the one "I think" you chose is probably the least efficient -  being all the math put into calculating the collision of each link.  also a reason I wanted to see an animation -  to see how your computer was reacting to the approach you took.

try not to be literal in what you are trying to achieve -  it's the difference between making a hot scene that tells your story vs it becoming a science project to make the chain look as realistic as possible ....I found myself in that trap in the past....where the challenge of making a detail look convincing in a specific way took precedent over telling a story. So i looked for other ways to achieve any given shot -  As a result I learned many new different techniques ...some in fact that look better than what I was originally aiming for.

Now I said that to cross-over into the next point,  there's more than one way to achieve a goal.....maybe try to treat an entire chain like one prop,  such as grab a tube and give it a png chain texture -  then try using a softcloth approach so it functions as a rope -  but looks like a chain.  There are other approaches such as putting bones on the single prop chain ...and either adding a spring effect ....or animating it manually -  it's all an illusion ....and there are more than one way to pull off illusions -  even with post production in a video editor....  Point being before this shot becomes a science project,  take a moment to consider a variety of approaches -  it will help you become more familiar with the software's capabilities, and help you discover new techniques in the process as well. 

watching George lucas, star wars behind the scenes youtube video and alfred hitchcock who also did a lot of revolutionary unorthodox techniques,  inspired me to think this way -  they created many unusual techniques to compensate for what computers couldn't do at the time.  

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I'll have a chain tutorial up soon. It is actually much easier than you would think!

Here is good way to make a chain.