Hi, I hope someone can help here as I'm having problems trying to figure out the best way to have the legs to my spaceship extend. It's a 3 legged version. Leg 3, that is at the rear, works fine, because it follows the x,y,z axis'. However Legs 1 and 2 are set at 36 degrees either side. So when I go to extend using the relevant trans dials or rotational dials the legs don't go where I want them to, which is to follow the length of the leg, with the Upper leg part rotating downwards. I tried two versions of the mesh, the first was made with the legs already in situ, this didn't work, so I made Legs 1 and 2 to sit at 90 degrees, thinking I could then position them using the joint properties, I still had problems. Has anybody had any similar problems or know of a fix for this, I would be very appreciative, thanks. Cheers Steve

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Did you use the Align button when forming the joints?  
I've noticed a similar but not identical problem when building
things like a steering wheel or a suspension.  After getting
the red cross and green cross in place, hit Align, and the
crosses will line up along the actual axis of the extender.
When that is done, the extension will move properly regardless
of the angle of the original joint.   

Alternatively, you may need to introduce an extra joint
between the existing base of the leg and the body of the ship.
Consider the extra joint to be a sort of turntable that
carries the leg.   (A short cylinder pointing up and down.)
You would install the turntable in zero yrot for all three legs, 
rotate it 36 degrees for the side legs, then simply hide it 
from the user.

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PS: Or leave the joint visible and usable, and pretend it's an added degree
of flexibility enabling the ship to land on different surfaces!

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if you have the Daz PC Martian Tripod, look at it's rigging.. Noggin helped me with it, so it was rigged properly, and it has the same type of movement.

Way too many people take way too many things way too seriously.

geep has a piston tutorial (linked in this forum) that might help.

Thanks ockham and Gareee.
I'm having a go at adding an extra joint between the body and first leg joint, so I'll see how this works

• Steve

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Just wanted to let you know that I did add an extra joint in between the hull and the leg and called it pivot. This then rotates the leg into position; and I can now extend the legs along their length at an angle to the body of 36 degrees. Thanks to ockham for this suggestion, it really does work. Now to add those morphforms to get them all extending at the same time!
Cheers everyone who posted
Steve

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