Cineversity

I need to transfer/install several wires from one connection to another on a circuit board, and have had a tough time getting anything to work reliably except for key-framing spline points manually.  I have tried using an IK tag in a spline, the IK Spline tag (briefly) and the IK tag on joints.  The wires become very difficult to control and I have trouble controlling the angle of the wire end.  I don’t deal much with rigging - am I not getting how to use IK properly, or perhaps there is a better approach than IK?  The example file shows a relatively small wire movement, but there are much longer movements needed as well.

As part of the same project, I need to unplug and transfer a ribbon cable from one circuit board position to another. I have looked at manually animating a spline sweep, but what do you think?

Example files attached.

Hi sean72,

Please have a look at the files below, if that works for you. The cable/wire is based on Nulls which are “translated” via Tracer and a Sweep object. (Note that I have aligned the Tip axis with its direction). The Nulls (yellow) are then all zero’d out under the tip and put in place. I used three of them to have the wire stable at that point. The three red Nulls are just static. The green Null can be animated if needed; For simplicity, I didn’t.

The tip is the only animated part here. The Settings in the Tracer (e.g., interpolation) are certainly important to get the appearance you are after.

Scene file:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/4DQFGSR9GjBIlJzzDI8F4PQaVI23khPu0uHX1fInjz5

The flat cable needs certainly a Rail, as you used it, but where is the new position for the connector? Since I don’t know, I can share only a static file.
Think of the spline here as left side and the rail as right side from that flat cable.

The animation would work in a similar way, a group of nulls to stabilize the connector, then perhaps groups of three nulls to define parts between, and the end as the start. The rail was produced here by child-nulls of the Nulls itself, and the Tracer.main and Tracer.raid provide the needed data for the Sweep object. Rail direction and scale (Sweep object) defines the flat wire

Scene file:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/Dm2BhyXOSfeciZGAUQz20NeDPlNXxplp6xPLTcBAEIb

All the best

P.S.: Here is another example for the flat cable. It has for the connectors and start and end null and for “details” the mid part. Each of these three elements (start/mid/end) has a group of nulls, each with a child (for the rail).

You might first set up the start point, then the end and accordingly to that the mid part. If that looks good after some adjustments of the mid part perhaps), animate the end to the alternative connection. (I have animated mostly in1, pull move, push in2). Then adjust the mid part again. Note that you could have several mid parts, depend on the set up of your scene. (mid1, mod2, mod3, etc.)

Scene file:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/UFkdNVfWnc2COMK4giL43wMGn4f2wf8KJ9KasqytXe1

All the best

Edit: here are two more files, since I go offline in a few hours. The file _22 is a more mechanical version, and file _23 has a forward kinematic in it.
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/X18kgZIkDLh3YE3115ZQmIM7hJ1DvJrD2brh0Lfyz9s
As a side note, there is always the idea to use just a Spline and animate this via PoseMorph/ Edit.

Thank you!  I will look at the files now - I noticed after posting that you would be away for a break soon, and I appreciate your effort to help before then.

You’re welcome, sean72!

I’ll be back online in a few days, let me know if my simplified versions worked for you.
I created groups for the flat cable, as that allows for the best control of the tighter bends…

All the best

Just realized I didn’t reply yet.  It definitely helped, thank you. I had been trying to maintain the exact length of the wires, but this worked just fine.

Thanks a lot, sean72, for the feedback!

Let me know if there is any other question!

Cheers