Add Wire

The Add Wire menu can be used to add wires with different physical properties, and attach objects together.

Warning

After a wire is added to the simulation, its nodes cannot be further re-positioned. Very small positional adjustments can be made by temporarily disabling physics, but this is strongly discouraged as it can have unintended consequences and break a scene.

Add Wire Menu

1. In the left-hand menu, click the Edit Scenery button .

2. Click the Add Wire button .

Adding a Wire

Before adding a wire, the wire type property must be selected from the available presets:

Below are the available wire type options:

Wire type	Mass density	Mass per meters	Visual type
Cable	7800	15.3152641862502	CABLE
Chain	1965	3.85826847768997	CHAIN
PSVHose	800	1.5707963267949	PSVHOSE
Wiresling	7800	15.3152641862502	WIRESLING
DiverUmbilical	1025	2.01258279370596	DIVERUMBILICAL
ROVUmbilical	1025	2.01258279370596	ROVUMBILICAL
Fiber	1025	2.01258279370596	FIBER
HPMEFiber	1000	1.96349540849362	HPMEFIBER

Note

Toggle the button to dynamically visualize the tension of a wire by applying a gradient texture to the wire. Tension gradient will show as a translucent tube around a wire. Tension visualization can also be toggled On/Off in the Input ports in the Properties Panel.

After a wire type has been selected, click to continue to the Wire Node menu. In the next menu, click and you get presented with 2 options:

To create a wire in Sandbox, 2 endpoints are needed. To create a basic wire between 2 points, use 2 AttachableConnectors . If the wire needs to be pulled in or out from an end node, then use a combination of AttachableConnectors and StandardSourceSinkWinch .

Adding and Connecting Nodes

1. Left-click on a node ( or ), then drag it out to the scene and place it on intended object.

2. Click and drag the second node ( or ) to the intended object for the end point.

3. A node’s position can be adjusted by clicking on the blue ghost node and using the gizmos to move it in the desired direction. Pressing the Del key on the keyboard will delete a selected node.

4. When nodes are positioned to intended locations, click to connect the 2 nodes and create the wire.

Note

Left-clicking in the scene after the first node has been added to the scene and before clicking will delete the node(s).

Wires From Existing Nodes

Wires can also be created by using existing nodes and a wire node can connect to multiple wires. To create a wire from two existing existing nodes, follow these steps:

1. Select a cable type and select from the Add wire menu .

2. Left-click on an existing node.

3. Press and hold down the Shift key on the keyboard.

4. Left-click on the second node so that a total of 2 nodes are selected. A wire will appear between the selected nodes.

5. Click in the Wire Node menu to create the wire between the nodes.

Wire Collision

By default, wire collision is disabled and wires will not react to other objects in a scene. To enable collision on a wire, first select the wire by left-clicking on the white ball located in the middle of the wire. The settings for the wire is now displayed in the Properties Panel. Expand Input Ports to find the Collision enabled toggle button. Set the Collision enabled toggle button to “On” position to enable wire collision. Toggle to “Off” position to disable wire collision.

Wire Diameter

A wire’s diameter can be adjusted to make its representation more realistic when operating with large dimensions. The wire’s Diameter value can be set in the Output ports. It can be set using the following units:

Unit	Unit non-abbreviated	Default
m	Meter	Yes
NM	Nano Meter
mm	Millimeter

Wire Visual Type

A wire’s visual type can be set by typing in one of the visual types listed in the table above into the Visual type port in the Input Ports.

Other Wire Settings

Type	Setting	Value	Default	Description
Toggle button	Visualize tension	Off/On	Off	Enable to visualize the tension in the wire
Toggle button	Wind enabled	Off/On	Off	Enable to to make wire affected by wind.

Deleting Wires

To delete a wire, simply right-click on the wire node located at the middle of the wire (white ball) and select from the context menu. A wire can also be deleted by selecting the wire node and pressing the Del key on the keyboard. Before a wire is deleted, you must confirm by selecting Delete from the prompt:

Note

Deleting a wire does not delete the wire or winch nodes. To completely remove a wire you must also delete the associated nodes. There is however no harm leaving unconnected nodes in a scene.

Using Winches

In order to operate a winch, the corresponding WinchActor must be selected. Please make sure that the checkbox in the Constraints is checked so that the winch node is visible. A winch node is visualized as a blue box. This box can be re-sized by holding the V key while scrolling the middle mouse button .

Winch actor node is represented by a blue box.

Once a winch actor is selected by left-clicking the blue winch node, the settings are displayed in the Properties Panel.

Paying In and Out

A winch is controlled from the Properties Panel’s Input Ports. This is also where all aspects of a winch can be controlled or adjusted. There are 2 ways of paying in or out wire on a winch: Commanded speed and Commanded speed %. Use the Speed mode setting to change between the two modes.

Speed mode Value	Speed Mode	Default
0	Commanded Speed	Yes
1	Commanded Speed %

Commanded speed

The default value for Commanded speed is 0, which means neither paying in nor out wire. A negative value will pay in wire, while a positive value will pay out wire. The Max value property is ignored in this mode.

Available units for Commanded speed are:

Unit	Unit non-abbreviated	Default
m/s	Meter per second	Yes
kn	Knots
km/h	Kilometer per hour

Max speed

The Max speed value specifies the maximum speed that the winch can operate given the chosen unit. This value is only applicable for the Commanded speed % property.

Available units for Max speed are:

Unit	Unit non-abbreviated	Default
m/s	Meter per second	Yes
kn	Knots
km/h	Kilometer per hour

Commanded speed %

The default value for Commanded speed % is 0. Make sure that the Speed mode is set to 1 in order to utilize this speed mode. The Commanded speed % value is relative to the Max value property value.

Available units for Commanded speed % are:

Unit	Details	Range	Default
%	Specify a percentage	0-100	Yes
0-1	Specify a decimal	0-1

Commanded max in force

The Commanded max in force property specifies the maximum force in which the winch operates. This value can be entered by using the following units:

Unit	Unit non-abbreviated	Default
N	Newton	Yes
kN	KiloNewton
ton	Metric ton

Commanded max out force

The Commanded max out force property specifies the maximum resistance in which the winch operates. This value can be entered by using the following units:

Unit	Unit non-abbreviated	Default
N	Newton	Yes
kN	KiloNewton
ton	Metric ton