Is cloth generator the best way to simulate catenary models?

When a cable is hung only tension forces will be developed in the cable. Inverting the structural form obtained will yield a new structure that is exactly analogous to the cable structure except that compression rather than tension forces are developed. Theoretically, the shape found could be constructed of simply stacked elements that are non rigidly connected and the resultant structure would be stable.

The resultant form is a catenary model.

Need your advices.

THanks!

rachel

Hello,

first thing that comes to my mind would be the Wire Solver, i don't have any experience using it but i've seen work done with it and they are pretty awesome. Hope these helps.

http://www.vimeo.com/9227567 [vimeo.com]

http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini11.0/nodes/dop/wiresolver [sidefx.com]

eitht.

This may or may not help:
http://forums.odforce.net/index.php?/topic/1322-challenge-helical-cable/ [forums.odforce.net]

As stated the wire solver is easiest if you want to simulate this. You can also use the formula for a catenary curve but the math gets more involved if the two end points are at different heights.

See the attached file.

Hi,

thanks for all input, i've got it.

Rachel