Transport Surface

Use the Transport Surface command to create a surface that moves components, such as conveyor belts. You can create the following types of transport surfaces: Conveyor, From Rollers, and Multiple Tracks.

Styles

You can create different styles of transport surfaces, including:

• Straight
• Nonplanar
• Curved

You can apply a transport surface to multiple faces so that you do not have to create multiple transport surfaces.

Motion types

If you want to control how a transport surface moves rigid bodies on the plane, use the Motion Type list. You can:

• Design a transport surface using curves to determine the motion of objects on the transport surface using the Guideline motion type.
• Design a solid transport surface with circular segments using the Circle motion type.
• Design a transport surface with a combination of both linear and curved segment types using the Combined Straight and Circle motion type.

Create curves to define a conveyor path.

Collision behavior

Apply a single collision body to the transport surface to ensure consistent and accurate motion.

Example: You can apply a collision body to the inferred shape of a roller system.

Building complex conveyor systems

To create complex conveyor systems, you can:

• Create a straight or curved transport surface and apply the appropriate physics to the objects that contact it.

  Example: For a curved conveyor, use a normal vector and a center point to define the initial physics for objects that contact it.

• Create a transport surface with a Circle motion type, and then enter an angular or linear velocity to assign a velocity to a nonlinear segment of a conveyor system.

• Use a start point and speed vector to apply a transport surface to nonplanar faces so you can create conveyor systems with slopes.

• Connect actuators and operations to add control logic driving the transport surface speed during a simulation.