Maya

Description Section

This is a series of scripts to set up and rig a Vehicle using Utility nodes instead of any expressions.

Installation

Just install scripts in any Maya script path and install Icon and Image files in MayPrefsIcons directory

Usage Section

Type DVY_Vehicle Rigger in command line or middle mouse drag it to a shelf. There is an Icon file (DVY_Vehicle.xpm) supplied to use with the Shelf Button.

The vehicle can be setup to "autospin" the wheels by moving the vehicle in the X and Z planes. Rotation of the rig in the Y Plane will automatically set wheel rotation to compensate of vehicle moving in the opposite direction after rotation.

Also addition spin can be added or blended on top to simulate wheelspin etc. Also each wheel can be switched on or off, also each wheel can be set to stop or rotate in reverse at any time.

Vehicle rig also sets up steering for front (and rear) with independant steering for both front and rear steer with different ratios for both if required. Also front and rear can be switched off or even reversed to simulate the type of steering seen on high performance cars.

The rig also sets up fully independant and controllable suspension for each wheel. The vehicle will tilt and swivel based on position of wheel ground locators. If these are constrained to a ground plane then suspension will automatically operate.

Scripts allow +/- rotation of the whole vehicle without rotating the main control rigs. Also added additional controls for independent control of each wheels suspension and now able to vary speed and rotion direction of each wheel individually.

Installation:- Scripts now in a zip file. If previous version installed then use uninstaller from previous download to uninstall Script pack. It will work by just installing the new version over the top of previous but will leave a lot of unused files behind i.e. old help files and images.

Detailed usage :-

There are 4 "Rig Contollers"

Rig_ControllerN_1 :-
Controls movement and rotation of main vehicle. Also houses attributes for setting range of suspension travel using attribute Piston Range. Also there are also individual range settings for each wheel which limit travel for each wheel independently of the main vehicle, which will still control all wheels within limits set for each wheel.

Steering_ControllerN_1
Controls steering for Front and Rear Wheels. The front steering is active by default, to activate Rear steering set "Rr Steer" to On. Setting the "Fr Steer Ratio" and "Rr Steer Ratios" to a negative value will reverse direction of rotation. Set "Fr Steer to Off will set vehicle to have rerar steering. The ratio can be set anywhere between -1 and 1, this will reduce effect of rotation to simulat the Rear wheel steer you now see on some high performance cars.

Tilt_ControllerN_1
This will tilt the whole vehicle without rotating the main rig controls. The Vehicle can be rotaed +/- 90 degress in both X and Z Axis and suspension, steering wheel rotation etc still function correctly.

Bank_ControllerN_1
This will tilt the Chassis group as reguired. Also each indiviual Wheel can be moved up and down by moving each wheel Group Ground Locator to simulate ground variations.

Floor Control

There is an option to set up an automatic wheel control for each wheel by setting up a Geometry Constaint to a "Ground Plane". This has an autot ON/OFF setup which releases the wheels once car leaves the ground a distance greater than suspension travel.

Script allows the setup of multiple axles for both front and rear wheel groups. I have included some extra Maya scene files with pre-setup versions of multi axle vehicles to show the idea. Each extra axle set must follow same naming convention as first axle i.e LfFr_Wheel_GrpN_1 and extra wheels are LfFr_Wheel_GrpN_2 etc.

Also there is an option to set up rig to a motion path which will allow full rig control when attached to a motion path.

Installation example (for Maya 8.0):

1. Install scripts in the Maya Script directory
E:Documents and SettingsDavveyMy DocumentsMaya8.0scripts

2. Install all icons (xpm files) in
E:Documents and SettingsDavveyMy DocumentsMaya8.0prefsicons

1. Install PDF Help File in a Maya Documents directory
E:Documents and SettingsDavveyMy DocumentsMayaDocumentation