When you select the Rigid Body option under Type on the left half of the Connector form, you have a choice of two sub-types of rigid bodies. Choose this option using the Type drop-down menu in the Rigid Body section at the right half of the dialog.
The appearance of the Connectors dialog differs slightly between the two rigid body types. Specifically, in the Connector Element section, the names of the selection boxes change (Dependent Entities and Independent Vertex/Point, for the Rigid type; Entities to Average and Reference Vertex/Point for the Interpolation type).
Connector dialog, Rigid Body, Type = Rigid:
Connector dialog, Rigid Body, Type = Interpolation:
Care must be used when defining Rigid (RBE2) and Interpolation rigid elements (RBE3). Careless creation can cause fatal errors.
When using
RBE2 elements, the
Dependent entities will move exactly how the
Independent entities move. When using
RBE3 elements, the displacement of the reference nodes is the weighted average of the displacement of the
Entities to Average.
Rigid Body Connector Examples: