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Activity Forums Maxon Cinema 4D Can you parent a null object to a polygon if the object is not editable?

  • Can you parent a null object to a polygon if the object is not editable?

    Posted by Ryan Brant on December 11, 2018 at 5:26 pm

    hi everyone.

    Ok, so I’ve been racking my brain at this for some time now. Its probably easier if I break it down into segments…

    – I have a sweep object in my project that’s made up from a circle and formula. I did this to create a spring.

    – I adjust the Y(t) properties to expand & compress the spring. (highlighted in the image below)

    I should mention I did this for a compression spring and had no issues but now I need to create a tension spring i.e the two hooks on the end.

    So I need the two hooks to stay with the two ends of the spring as I change the formula.

    What I thought of doing was to adding a null object into the scene and making it a child of the two polygon faces (caps) at each end of the spring, then parenting the null object to the hooks. Then I realised the only way I can parent the polygons is to make the object editable, but if I was to make the object editable then I can no longer use the formula to expand and compress the spring.

    so basically I would like to know if it is possible to parent the spring object ends to the hooks, without losing the ability to change the formulas.

    Hope this makes sense

    Thank you in advance!!

    Ryan Brant replied 7 years, 7 months ago 2 Members · 2 Replies
  • 2 Replies
  • Emir Bojorquez

    December 12, 2018 at 8:48 pm

    You could try something like this, using clones

    Make sure to put the cloner object at the bottom of object manager to make it work correctly.

    12945_springexample.c4d.zip

    This is based on this tutorial :

    https://vimeo.com/286439026

    Good Luck

    Imagination is the best tool…

  • Ryan Brant

    December 14, 2018 at 12:03 pm

    Emir Bojorquez, thank you so much. This has been a great help!! I would of never of thought of using the cloner tool. I have been racking my brain about this one for a while, so I cannot thank you enough!

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