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[Roygee]

A while back I saw a reference to making twisted rope (if I remember correctly it was making two cylinders twist around each other) on one of the forums, but have searched them all and can't locate it.  Anyone know how to do this, or know where to find a reference?

[Kubajzz]

Well, here is how I would do:

1. Make two (or more) cylinders close to each other, use "convert to mesh" and "join solids" comands so you'll get one mesh consisting of two cylinders... and then use twist modifier; the only problem is that the twist modifier has limit of 360 degrees, so you would have to use it many times...

2. Use a spring plugin (I think you will vind it in the "scripts" section...); if you make two springs and play with "diameter", "offset" and "spread" parameters, you can gat a very nice result;
If you need just a simple ilusion of twisted rope, you can also use one spring with "offset" 0 and "sides" 3...

[Roygee]

Thanks Kubajzz - I already tried method 1, didn't work, the cylinders only twist along their own length without intertwining.  I'll give your no 2 suggestion a shot -  Thanks for the hint.

[RudySchneider]

1.  Make a long cylinder, with say 40 latitudinal segments, and convert to mesh.
2.  Copy it twice and place the three cylinders "near" the origin, and placed so that they appear to be roughly 120 degrees rotated when viewing edge-on.
3.  Select all three cylinders and click Build > Join Solids.
4.  Surround the new solid with a twist modifier.
5.  Bind the modifier to the object, double-click on it and type in a rotation angle of 360 degrees.
6.  Click Build > Modifier > Effect Modifier...
7.  Voila:

[Kubajzz]

Oh yes, I guess I didn't explain the "method 1" good enough... Look at Rudy's image and explanation, I think it's perfect..

Anyway, when I tried this, the result was much better when I used the spring plugin... Good luck

[bobg]

It sounds like your first attempt didn't provide enough segments in the cylinder and that's why it failed. If you are planning on a significant length of rope, The segmentation required is going to quickly get your poly count over the top. A better solution would be to create two polygon strips laid parallel along their length  and crossed into a `+' when viewed on end. Texture map the strip with a rope image and an alpha transparency.

[Roygee]

Thanks guys - this is exactly what I saw before - this time I've saved it!  I almost got it with the spring method, but it looked more like Tarzan's jungle vine than a rope - in an effort to save on polys, I only used two cylinders and that came very close.  Got a very good example off the net, from one of those pay sites and knew if it could be done, Anim8or could do it

[minnie]

SO how do you load a script?  I'd like to use the spring plug in.  I went to the website and saved the spring script as a text file on my computer (with .a8s extension and I configured Anim8or to look at the appropriate folder), but I can't figure out how to get it to work?  I read the manual and I still don't understand how to get it to run. 

[sciwizeh]

the spring plugin adds a primitive to the object edit area if you have anim8or configured properly it should be there, you should go to File>Configure and make sure preload scripts is checked

here is an image of my object mode with all shape plugins highlighted, and the spring plugin highlighted further

[machineman9]

You could also, to save polys and maybe a bit of time, just texture it to look twisted. Adding a bumpmap of the 'twist' could make it look quite realistic and save on polys.

[Roygee]

Yeah, I've tried both methods and they work - not great for me yet, but with some practice and patience it will come right - thanks for the advice