Hanging Rope 1.2 creates a realistic representation of a rope of a specified length that hangs between two points. The result is a spline that can be used in a NURBS or with Splineattach. The rope can either be static or animated.

• Now compatible with the XL and SE 5.2 upgrade
• Undo-capatibilities added

The first step is to create a 2 empty objects, and place them in the scene as desired. They will act as the start and end points of the rope.

Now select Hanging Rope from your object plugin menu. You will be presented with this dialog:

Length:
The desired length of the rope spline. If the points are quite a distance apart (when the distance between them is more than the entered length), the rope will become a straight line.
Splinepoints:
The number of points used to create the rope spline. The default works fine in most cases.
Startpoint:
The name of the object which is used for the rope's starting point, ("P1" is the default name)
Endpoint:
The name of the object which is used for the rope's ending point, ("P2" is the default name)
Ropename:
The name of the resulting helix. If there already is an object named like this you are presented with a dialog. Pressing "yes" uses/replaces the object, "no" appends a number to your name and "cancel" aborts the operation.
Align point:
A 3rd point used for controlling the rope's direction of hang, ("P3" is the default name). See below...
Use alignpoint...:
"1" will activate the align point.
"0" will cause the align point to be ignored.
...but hang down:
"1" will cause the rope to hang equally between the endpoints.
"0" will cause the rope to swing in any direction, based on the relative position of the align point to the start point.

Fill in the dialog values and click "ok". A rope object will appear in both the object manager...

...and the scene.

Animated Hanging Rope adds the ability to animate the end points (as well as the align point) and the length. Create endpoints for the rope as above. Choose "Hanging Rope 1.2" from Function->New Track menu. This will add an Hanging Rope track to the spline object. Next, create a sequence for the track. Add a keyframe, and the Hanging Rope dialog will appear (same options as above):

You can leave all the fields at the default except for length - which is the only animated parameter. Adjust it if desired. Go ahead and create position keyframes for the start and end objects. The rope will follow the end points, and animate in shape as expected.

Frame 0	Frame 14	Frame 30

In addition, you can use a third point to influence the direction the rope hangs. Create a third point, and position it somewhere between the start and end points. This third point will act as the Align Point. Open the animated rope keyframe, and input "1" for "Use alignpoint".

The alignpoint controls the direction that is "down". The direction is calculated by dragging a line from P1 to P3. If you disable the alignpoint option it is the same as placing P3 exactly under P1 and leave it there. The line from P1 to P3 will be parallell to the Y-axis, so the rope hangs straight down.

If you enable "Use alignpoint..." you can adjust the "down direction" by moving the alignpoint away from the "exactly below P1" we spoke of above. You can see how it affects the rope in the pictures below.

Use Alignpoint = 1, Hang Down = 0 Notice the direction of hanging moves in all directions towards the highlighted alignpoint.
Front View, Frame 0	Front View, Frame 15	Front View, Frame 30
TopView, Frame 0	Top View, Frame 15	Top View, Frame 30

Use Alignpoint = 1, Hang Down = 1 Notice the rope "sways" forwards and backwards, but does not move sideways.
Front View, Frame 0	Front View, Frame 15	Front View, Frame 30
TopView, Frame 0	Top View, Frame 15	Top View, Frame 30

Be sure to check out the enclosed example scenes; they will also give you an idea on the capabilities of Hanging Rope 1.2. I hope you will find it to be a useful plug-in. If you have any suggestions (or problems) with the plug-in, please don't hesitate to contact me!

Hanging Rope ©1998, Mikael Sterner