3DS Max Gear Rigging with Wire Parameters

jjrakman

In 3DS Max I am attempting to rig some gears with Wire parameters.

When I wire two gears, I can get them working fine. But when I attempt to link up the third gear, the third and second work well with one another, but then the first runs rotates in the same direction as the second rather than rotating in the reverse direction. Also, the speed at which the first gear rotates changes and I can't seem to adjust it.

I fear I may have rigged them in the wrong order. Would anyone know how to go into the wire parameters and delete them for all the gears so I can start from scratch?

When I right click on a gear and go into the wire parameters, it just seems to want to add another parameter. I can't seem to figure out how to get to the original parameter I set up so I can delete it.

Any help would be greatly appreciate.

Thanks in advance!

poopipe

it's a bit weird but it goes a little like this...

open the paramter wiring dialog from the animation menu
select the object you're interested in
click the refresh or search button (whichever works) and it'll find it for you in the list.
do the same with the other object

if you look in the parameter wiring dialog the parameters will be coloured (red probably) - select them both (they should turn green at this point) and hit disconnect to disconnect them .

That said, you probably just need to put a "-" in front of the expression for the one you want to reverse

monster

I poopipe said will take you to the Wire Parameter and allow you to modify the expression.

You may find this useful. I have a script that removes all the wire parameters from the selected objects. After you run the script look in the MaxScript listener for a "report" on what was disconnected.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2904948/Tools/RemoveAllWireParametersFromSelection.ms

sogun

Thank You! I had to enclose your script into
(
)

Then 3dsmax 2009 threw no more error messages.

monster

Thanks, I updated the script for anyone else that downloads it.