Slidenodes and Rails

Slidenodes are nodes that move along predefined rails. Common applications include steering racks and some suspension components like macpherson struts.

Slidenodes

Slidenodes need to have a node and rail already created to work, as they refer to both. Keep in mind that the node needs to be precisely aligned with the rail, otherwise you might experience issues as the node aligns itself on spawn.

"slidenodes": [ 
     ["id:", "railName", "attached", "fixToRail", "tolerance", "spring", "strength", "capStrength"],
 
     ["nodename", "Rail1", true, true, 0, 10000000, 100000000, 345435],
],

Required Arguments

id:

name

string

type

The name of the node you want attached to the rail

This should match a node that has been defined in the nodes section

railName

name

string

type

The name of the rail that this slidenode will be attached to

Attached

name

boolean

type

true

default

Specifies if the slidenode will initially be attached to the rail or not.

fixToRail

name

boolean

type

true

default

Moves the slidenode to be on the rail (or if tolerance is defined, it moves it close to the rail).

tolerance

name

number

type

Distance from the rail (m) before rail forces are applied to the node.

spring

name

number

type

Force that holds the node to the rail (N/m).

strength

name

number

type

Force at which the node will separate from the rail (N).

capStrength

name

number

type

The strenght of the caps (N).

Caps are the start and end nodes of the rail. If capped=false, the slidenode will slide out of the rail when it reaches the end and detach from it. If capped=true, then it will stop there held by the capStrength force.

Rails

Rails are the tracks for slidenodes. They consist of one or multiple sections that are defined using nodes.

A rail can consist of multiple segments, and those segments do not have to be in a straight line.

"rails": {
      "Rail1":{"links:":["node1", "node2", "node3", "node4"], "looped":false, "capped":true}
},

Required Arguments

RailName

name

string

type

The name of the rail

links:

name

table

type

List of nodes that will form the rail. This list should be at least two nodes.

"links:":["node1", "node2"],

"links:":["node1", "node2", "node3", "node4"],

looped

name

boolean

type

false

default

If your rail is a complete circuit, change it to true and it will allow the node to continue circuiting without stopping.

capped

name

boolean

type

If the rail has caps, or blockers at the end of it to keep the node from sliding off.

Simple Example

A typical example of rail and slidenode usage is the steering rack.

"rails": {
    "steeringrack":{
        "links:":["fh6r", "fh6l"], "broken:":[], "looped":false, "capped":true,
    },
},
"slidenodes": [
    ["id:", "railName", "attached", "fixToRail", "tolerance", "spring", "strength", "capStrength"],
    ["st1r", "steeringrack", true, true, 0.0, 18001000, "FLT_MAX", "FLT_MAX"],
    ["st1l", "steeringrack", true, true, 0.0, 18001000, "FLT_MAX", "FLT_MAX"],
],