I’m having trouble getting my rope objects to “reactor” to collisions. It’s probably pilot error; my first time trying to use reactor for a real project.
I have several ropes-- initially straight-- that have end vertices constrained to rigid (unyielding) bodies. The rigid bodies are animated. The ropes do remain constrained, and follow, stretch, wobble, and in general produce interesting motion, but they pass through each other and the rigid bodies.
Am i missing something basic? (probably...)

thanks,
jeff

Max/Composite 2012 (subscription)
Win7-64pro, Intel i7-hex on SuperMicro mobo, 12 GB RAM
nVidia Quadro 5000, render farmette on BB2012

Hard to say exactly without seeing the scene, but the really quick answer is they shouldn’t pass through each other.

Try bumping up the substeps/key in the simulation. If your ropes are moving fairly fast they may passing each other before reactor has a chance to know they should hit. With rope it’s not uncommon that I bump it up to 20 or 30 or more (I think default is 10)

SJ

Thanks, Steve.
I tried raising the steps, and it did help on a few collisions. Tweaked some keyframes of the attached objects, and have a much better solution. I know physical simulations can be fussy.

regards,
jeff

Max/Composite 2012 (subscription)
Win7-64pro, Intel i7-hex on SuperMicro mobo, 12 GB RAM
nVidia Quadro 5000, render farmette on BB2012

Wow, I know this thread is old but I am having a similar problem. My ropes see/react to my ridged bodies fine at first but after a short time they start to fall through the “RBs” I am aware of the scale issues and am looking for settings for the RB or the rope that will make the rope stay on top of the RBs?

3ds Max 9 thru 2013
Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit OS SP1
Dual Intel® Xeon® 6 core X5650 @ 2.67GHz CPU 36GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro 4000
450GB HDD (x3) and 2TB HDD

3ds Max 2012 Certified Professional Models to Motion

Those ropes can be problematic. Two things to avoid interpenetrations, one is to increase the collision tolerance, though this can cause a visble gap, if the gap is becomming a problem use a smaller mesh for the sim and attach the render mesh to it. The other is the answer already given, up the Substeps, take it up as far as it needs to go. It will be slower, but it will be better.

I noticed the “substeps” last night and let it run while I slept so I know it added time but I have no idea how much. Yes that did help a LOT. I will learn that today when I change the other things you suggested how much time it adds to the simulation process. If the rope “interpenetrates” anything in the scene will it hurt all the other RBs that it collides with or just the one it penetrates. I have spheres that control the ends of the rope and to get the look of the rope end correct, I made it “at” the end of the rope.

One more thing…I have a moving RB that is effecting a rope but only at the RBs original location. I have tried many things to try to fix it even recreating it from scratch. Any ideas on this one?

3ds Max 9 thru 2013
Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit OS SP1
Dual Intel® Xeon® 6 core X5650 @ 2.67GHz CPU 36GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro 4000
450GB HDD (x3) and 2TB HDD

3ds Max 2012 Certified Professional Models to Motion