Module avian3d::dynamics::solver::joints

Joints are a way to connect entities in a way that restricts their movement relative to each other. They act as constraints that restrict different Degrees Of Freedom depending on the joint type.

Degrees Of Freedom (DOF)

In 3D, entities can normally translate and rotate along the X, Y and Z axes. Therefore, they have 3 translational DOF and 3 rotational DOF, which is a total of 6 DOF.

Joints reduce the number of DOF that entities have. For example, revolute joints only allow rotation around one axis.

Below is a table containing the joints that are currently implemented.

Joint	Allowed 2D DOF	Allowed 3D DOF
FixedJoint	None	None
DistanceJoint	1 Translation, 1 Rotation	2 Translations, 3 Rotations
PrismaticJoint	1 Translation	1 Translation
RevoluteJoint	1 Rotation	1 Rotation
SphericalJoint	1 Rotation	3 Rotations

Using joints

In Avian, joints are modeled as components. You can create a joint by simply spawning an entity and adding the joint component you want, giving the connected entities as arguments to the new method.

use avian3d::prelude::*;
use bevy::prelude::*;
fn setup(mut commands: Commands) {
    let entity1 = commands.spawn(RigidBody::Dynamic).id();
    let entity2 = commands.spawn(RigidBody::Dynamic).id();
     
    // Connect the bodies with a fixed joint
    commands.spawn(FixedJoint::new(entity1, entity2));
}

Stiffness

You can control the stiffness of a joint with the with_compliance method. Compliance refers to the inverse of stiffness, so using a compliance of 0 corresponds to infinite stiffness.

Attachment positions

By default, joints are connected to the centers of entities, but attachment positions can be used to change this.

You can use with_local_anchor_1 and with_local_anchor_2 to set the attachment positions on the first and second entity respectively.

Damping

You can configure the linear and angular damping caused by joints using the with_linear_velocity_damping and with_angular_velocity_damping methods. Increasing the damping values will cause the velocities of the connected entities to decrease faster.

Other configuration

Different joints may have different configuration options. Many joints allow you to change the axis of allowed translation or rotation, and they may have distance or angle limits along these axes.

Take a look at the documentation and methods of each joint to see all of the configuration options.

Custom joints

Joints are constraints that implement Joint and XpbdConstraint.

The process of creating a joint is essentially the same as creating a constraint, except you should also implement the Joint trait’s methods. The trait has some useful helper methods like align_position and align_orientation to reduce some common boilerplate.

Many joints also have joint limits. You can use DistanceLimit and AngleLimit to help store these limits and to compute the current distance from the specified limits.

See the code implementations of the implemented joints to get a better idea of how to create joints.

Structs

• AngleLimit
  A limit that indicates that angles should be between alpha and beta.
• DistanceJoint
  A distance joint keeps the attached bodies at a certain distance from each other while while allowing rotation around all axes.
• DistanceLimit
  A limit that indicates that the distance between two points should be between min and max.
• FixedJoint
  A fixed joint prevents any relative movement of the attached bodies.
• PrismaticJoint
  A prismatic joint prevents relative movement of the attached bodies, except for translation along one free_axis.
• RevoluteJoint
  A revolute joint prevents relative movement of the attached bodies, except for rotation around one aligned_axis.
• SphericalJoint
  A spherical joint prevents relative translation of the attached bodies while allowing rotation around all axes.

Traits

• Joint
  A trait for joints.