I have run up against a problem - how to make a hinge constraint for objects inside packed prims.
I know how to use all the standard glue and constraint networks and how to break them via sopsolvers etc, but I cannot find any way to set up a hinge so that two of my packed prims can hinge together nicely.
I do not want to revert to non packed DOPs, as I like all the new features and advantages Packed Prims is now providing me.

The constraint network DOP's help card has an example file for setting up hinges

Hey - thanks for the heads up - didnt occur to me that the docs would sneak in a new example for packed prims
I managed to get it working myself, but this helped a lot since i set it up with the more complex conetwist constraint.
For anyone reading this the trick to make your packed primitive obey the actual point locations is to make the name attributes literally ‘objectname’/'packedprim name'
eg: object/packedname_02
allowing the constraint t opinpoint the actual packed prim which is buried inside a DOP rbd object name visible in the details pane.

Just a note - either the ‘name’ or ‘dop_object/name’ syntax can be used, but prefixing with the DOP object name is a good idea - this is what the shelf tools try to do, as it avoids any ambiguity if there are multiple RBD Packed Objects where packed primitives have the same names (and can save you a lot of debugging later on)

I see that - thanks again for the tip - i'm adopting this now as standard - the packed objects have a name, and my constraint networks have the dop objects name prefixed to make a more specific name inside dops for the constraints.

Im now hitting issues with trying to constrain to animated geo.

An object that comes out from Dops, and brought into a Dopnetwork again, as a packed static OR packed static animating - works:
ie: a constraint network can attach this object to another and we can see it moving.

However anything else i supply to Dops , ie: anything not coming out from a dop network, will not work - that is to say - the constraint is created and i can see it at the start frame, but the object does not move. Not as static, static animated or static deforming…

What is Dops doing/ supplying to the geometry, that allows it to move in another dopnetwork as a static object? Is there some kind of invisible transform matrix going on here - i dont see it in any of the attributes or intrinsics.?


Cheers.