Customizing the Cable's Appearance

Owned by Marc Lievin
Jul 24, 2023
2 min read

This procedure explains how to customize the appearance of a cable system.

  1. From the Explorer, click the Graphics property icon under Cable Systems folder.

    The properties now appear in the Properties Panel.

  2. Configure the following inputs:
    • Visible: If enabled, makes the cable visible to the user. Even if the cable is not visible, it will be part of the simulation if active.
    • Cast Shadow: If enabled, the cable casts shadows on other objects in the simulation.
    • Receive Shadow: If enabled, shadows from other objects will be visible on the cable.
    • Graphic Material: Graphics material used for rendering the cable (standard Graphics presets, such as strained steel, chain, etc.).

  3. You can customize how the cable shape is drawn by modifying the following:

    • Technique: Kind of shape to extrude along the sections of the cable (Cylinder for regular steel cable, Strap for belt type cable or 2D tank tracks, Cross for 2D chains, Line for rope, Mesh for 3D chains or tracks).
    • Interpolation: Turn on interpolation, and then use Subdivision per section to smooth the cable between cable sections, thereby producing better curves.

  4. Modifying the remaining parameters:

    Note The available fields depend on the technique selected above.

    • Number of Sides: Number of sides when the extrusion technique is by cylinder.
    • Radius: The radius is used when displaying the cable. This value can be different from the dynamics radius used by the collision object or the dynamics properties.
    • Roundness: Roundness ratio (using 1.0 produces equal size all around).
    • Graphics Geometry: Specifies the desired graphics geometry to represent the cable.
    • Texture Repeat Length: Number of times the texture is repeated along the length of the cable.
    • Texture Repeat Width: Number of times the texture is repeated along the width of the cable.
    • Alternate Mesh Rotation: Selecting this option rotates each alternating spline section 90° (useful for creating a chain made of links).
    • Subdivision Per Section: Number of subdivisions used to enhance the smoothness between each spline section. Used when interpolation is enabled.
    • Mesh Overlap: Specifies the amount of a spline section that extends over the next section (in meters).