[ODE] train

[nlin at nlin.net]

On Wed, Sep 17, 2003 at 03:21:44PM -0700, jnilson_99 at yahoo.com wrote:
> i'm trying to create a train simulation.
> 
> my only problem is how to get the box cars to follow
> the train track?
> 
> in other words, how to get each car to react to the
> acceleration/velocity of the underlying track.

You could create a new "point-to-curve" constraint type which constrains
a point on the car to lie on a given curve (see ODE's separate documentation
on creating new joints).

For information on doing this, you can refer to Bart Barenbrug's
PhD thesis, "Designing a class library for interactive simulation of
rigid body dynamics", available at

http://www.win.tue.nl/dynamo/publications/bartbthesis.pdf

Of particular interest would be section 4.1.3, "the point-to-curve
constraint", and section 5.5, which is a roller-coaster example.

-Norman