Point to Deformable Surface (PTDSF)

The point to deformable surface joint constrains a fixed point on a body to slide along a surface that passes through the origins of a specified set of markers. These markers may belong to different bodies. As the markers move in space, the surface is calculated at every time step using CUBIC spline interpolation through the marker origins. Hence, the surface deforms as the markers move about.

In order to completely specify a point to deformable surface joint, the following entities must be created first:
  • One deformable surface (created using the Deformable Surface panel).
  • One body and one point (to be used as part of the point to deformable surface joint definition).

  1. If the Advanced Joint panel is not currently displayed, select the desired advanced joint by clicking on it in the Project Browser or in the modeling window.
    The Advanced Joint panel is automatically displayed.
  2. From the Connectivity tab, click the Body collector and select the body that is to slide on the deformable surface of this joint from the modeling window, or double-click the Body collector to open the Model Tree (from which the desired body can be selected).
  3. Click the Point collector and select the point of the PTDSF joint from the modeling window (or pick the point from the Model Tree).
  4. Click the DeformableSurface collector and select the surface that is to be used for the joint from the modeling window (or pick the surface from the Model Tree).