Rigid Body

Use the Rigid Body command to assign physics to a component so you can develop active simulations. Assign a rigid body to a component so it responds to forces like gravity and it can be coupled with downstream commands to develop equipment, design controls, and change physics attributes during a simulation.

Assign a rigid body to a component to enable mass properties, inertia parameters, velocity parameters, a color assignment, a shape property, and a tag form.

Runtime properties monitored/controlled

You can create a rigid body to monitor or control the following physical runtime properties during a simulation:

• Position and orientation, defined by the position of the selected components
• Translational and angular velocity
• Mass and inertia

Use the Runtime Inspector, operations, and signals to monitor and control the simulation based on runtime parameter values.

Example

You can add a rigid body to the Runtime Inspector to monitor the forces applied to a package as it moves through a conveyor system.

Empty rigid bodies

You can create an empty rigid body without geometry as a placeholder to expedite downstream developments, such as joints, collision bodies, and parameter testing, which you can assign to the rigid body later.

Downstream uses

Use downstream commands to build upon a component with a rigid body assignment to do the following:

• Assign a shape property to detect and differentiate between other objects with a vision camera during a simulation.
• Transfer test values and detailed geometry to empty rigid bodies.
• Change the physics properties, such as mass and inertia.
• Display properties.
• Exchange rigid bodies during simulations.

Visibility control

You can select rigid bodies in the graphics window and change their visibility from the Physics Navigator by clicking Show or Hide in the Visibility cell of the selected rigid body. This is helpful when you want to hide rigid bodies to increase the visibility of the specific components of an assembly before or during a simulation.

Where do I find it?

Application	Mechatronics Concept Designer