Im kind of new to Houdini, so im not sure of the “best” and most efficient way to do things. The dops part of my project involves a load of bouncy balls bouncing down a flight of stairs. Now ive managed to create balls and stairs efficiently, but im stuck on 1 last thing. I need to contain the balls within an open toped box (like a cardboard box). I cant seem to get the balls to stay in the box. Im having something crash into the box, it fall over, then the balls bounce down the stairs. I was wondering if anyone could have a look at what ive done so far and see if you could help
The balls aren't staying in the box because the SDF (collision volume) for the box is non-existent. I'm surprised you missed this, because you've got your other collision volumes set up properly. Anyway, to fix it, you need to turn off Laser Scan, set the Divisions to 20 20 20, turn on Fix Signs and Force Bounds, and turn off Invert Sign. Then you get a volume that the balls will rest inside of.
The other thing I noticed about this simulation is that, given what you are doing, the groundplane object is completely pointless. I would delete it.
I tried this before, and I didnt use it because a, it slowed the simulation down by about a factor of 10 or more, and, it didnt work. Just tried it again with the settings you mentioned and the balls still go through the side fo the box.
Hmmm, I don't understand why you got that result. Here's what I mean, with the rest of the simulation stripped out for clarity. Tell me if you don't get a sensible result with this - then maybe we have to look at the version you are running or something.