Setting grouped objects as restrictor paths

[Peter_Kent]

Hello All,

What I am wanting to do is select a set of grouped animations and set that as a restrictor path.

It seems that I can only select single individual objects at paths. This has meant that I have become better at drawing complicated objects (like houses and cars) without lifting the pen. Yet it would be easier if I could create my picture by grouping annotations and shapes and then set the grouped object as a restrictor path.

Peter

[davidlloyd]

Hi Peter

You could group the objects and then snapshot them. The snapshot is then a single object.
I've played at setting an rectangle as a path and found the object follows 3 sides of it. Is this the idea you're trying to create? Flipchart attached.

[Peter_Kent]

Sorry David for being a pain, but this is not what I was after.

You know the flipchart that I put up that showed how you could extract the motion of an object around a 2D shape into its motion along the horizontal access and vertical access. At the moment in this activity I am restricted to 2D object that can be drawn with a single pen stroke.

I am wanting to use this principle to explore relationships between two 'things', like supply and demand in economics, distance and time in simple mechanics, and many others.

I can show these relationships in simple situations (see flipchart), because I can draw simple lines, but not in more complicated situations, because I can only represent complex relationships by drawing complex lines (which are groups of simple lines).

I hope this make sense. Try looking at the attached flipchart if I have not explained myself well.

Peter

[davidlloyd]

Hello Peter
You're not a pain at all. I enjoy having my brain stretched.:D

I've had a little play and at the moment can't cure the problem with the blue bar. But the complex line I may have solved. I used the Point to Point Pen Modifier Tool to draw a more complex line which the dollar can follow. Hoever I found that if I tried to move the blue bar, when the dollar cam to a near vertical part of the complex line, it would stick.

I'll keep playing with it to see what I can sort out.

[davidlloyd]

Sorry forgot to upload the revised flipchart!

[Peter_Kent]

Hi David,

That was a good step forward that you have suggested. I am going to be a pain, sorry stretch your brain. I want my complex line to include a curved and straight bit so that I can show an inverse square relationship.

Also, with the objects sticking. I had noticed that and I have an idea to use that. Note only does it stick, it also jumps. I have whipped up a quick flipchart (that once prettied up) could be used to demonstrate quantum states (ie how electrons move from orbital shell to orbital shell.

Cheers

Peter

[davidlloyd]

Hi Peter
This is getting a little technical for me. I've no idea what an inverse relationship line would look like. I did try to create a line rather like population growth - an exponential curve flattening out - but I couldn't get a satisfactory line using the tools within Activstudio.
As the issue is around needing a continuous line, then it might be possible if the line can be drawn in some other software and transferred over to Activstudio. So I've come to a halt.
I've attached a flipchart with grouped movement along curved lines.

[Peter_Kent]

Thanks David,

By the way, on my last post 'pain' was typed using the 'strikethrough' formatting. Another case of attempted humor being lost in translation.


Anyway. I think I have found a way to add a range of curved lines to our set of easy to create restrictor paths.

What you can do is to draw a circle or an oval, squeeze it, stretch it and rotate it as required. Then place items on the line that are set as 'blockers' . In this way the object that you have set to move along a the oval will be further restricted to the arc that is between the two blocker objects. To neaten it up, all that is required is to hide the parts of the line are not being used.

Cheers

Peter