Create Contacts

The Contacts panel allows you to specify the attributes of a contact force between two bodies. Each body is represented by a set of graphics entities. The graphics entities could be a point, a set of curves, or the outer surfaces of the bodies depending on the type of contact that is chosen.

From the Model Browser, select the system to which the contact is to be added.
Right-click on a system in the Model Browser and select Add > Force Entity > Contact from the context menu.
OR

Right-click on a contact folder in the Model Browser and select Add Contact from the context menu.

OR

From the Model ribbon, click the Contacts icon.

The Add Contact dialog is displayed.

Choose a contact type from the drop-down menu.

Option	Description
3D Rigid to Rigid Contact	Use this type of contact to capture contact forces between rigid bodies moving relative to each other in a 3D frame.
2D Rigid to Rigid Contact	Use this type of contact to capture contact forces between rigid bodies moving relative to each other in a 2D plane.
Point to Deformable Surface Contact	Use this type of contact to capture contact forces between a deformable surface and a sphere of radius (r), where the sphere belongs to a second body. Flexbody to flexbody or flexbody to rigid body contact can be modeled by creating many of these entities where the set of spheres represent a discretization of the second body’s outer surface.

Specify a label for the contact.
Specify a variable name for the contact.
By default, variables names of entities in MotionView follow a certain convention. For example, all contact entities have a variable name starting with “con_”. This is the recommended convention to follow when building models in MotionView since it has many advantages in model editing and model manipulation.
Click OK to close the window or Apply to continue creating entities.
Once a contact entity has been added to the model, the panel for the contact will automatically be displayed in the panel area.