How to wrap the rope around the drum

Question

You have to wind the wire rope on the left at number 1 and then wind it again at number 2, is there a way to draw a curve and follow it?

have you tried with a Curve modifier for your rope? (also please avoid "help me" and "I'm going crazy") — moonboots, Commented Feb 3, 2022 at 9:17
sorry, i'm don't speak english, so i missed here's rule. i never do that words — Maldodook, Commented Feb 3, 2022 at 9:21
There is a tutorial for rigging a drawbridge here. Unfortunately the instructor is explaining the technique in English with a heavy French accent which you might find difficult to understand. — John Eason, Commented Feb 3, 2022 at 9:30
The drawbridge toot fails to fix the chain to the spool (the coil slides along it) Check out one of the answers here — Robin Betts, Commented Feb 3, 2022 at 12:43

Chris · Accepted Answer · 2022-02-03 13:02:52Z

2

add cylinder

R X 90

make sure your add-on is enabled

Shift A -> Curve -> Curve Spirals -> Archimedian

change settings like this:

Tab -> edit mode

select this vertex

E Z 8

Tab

Shift A -> Mesh -> Cylinder

Tab -> CTRL R

Tab

select Curve

CTRL A -> Location

select cylinder, add modifier:

enter 50 in z location, keyframe location on frame 1

enter 30 in z location , keyframe location at frame 50

result:

answered Feb 3, 2022 at 12:50

Chris

1

1

$\begingroup$ Here I go, supplementing one of your answers again. I hope you don't mind. I'd written mine, when yours turned up and did the job. :) $\endgroup$
– Robin Betts ♦
Commented Feb 4, 2022 at 9:02
1

$\begingroup$ thank you!! of course i don't mind $\endgroup$
– Chris
Commented Feb 4, 2022 at 9:10

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Robin Betts · Accepted Answer · 2022-02-04 09:24:04Z

A couple of notes to add to @Chris's very comprehensive answer.

If this is a friction drive, the animation of the cable is simple. It's just a translation of the cable along its deformation axis, down a static curve, by which it is deformed.
The curve can be constructed to existing spools, by E extruding the ends of a Curve Spirals > Archimedean curve, taking the thickness of the cable into account:

The distance the rope has to be translated per revolution of the large spool with a spiral diameter of D is strictly sqrt((D*pi)^2 + h^2), where h is the height per wind of the spiral. But if h is small, D*pi will probably do.
The rate at which the small spool with diameter d must rotate is D/d times the rate at which the large spool rotates.

If you need the animation to loop...

There are some added constraints, if you don't want miles of rope.

The pattern on the rope must match at the beginning and end of the temporal loop. In the example below, the loop is at a 180⁰ turn of the large spool. Perhaps the easiest way to achieve the match is to make the cable an array of elements, each one of which has a length of D*pi (or, strictly, again, the expression above) and ensure a match between the ends of the elements, successfully merged by the Array modifier.
So there is no jump in the animation of the small spool, its visible features must loop at the same time as those of the large spool. Most simply, d can divide D by a whole number.

2 Answers 2