Winding or unwinding flexible materials

Physics
1

Hello,

I have a question regarding the capabilities of ProtoTwin.

From what I understand, the software is primarily focused on rigid body simulation. However, in industrial automation projects we sometimes need to simulate processes involving winding or unwinding flexible materials, for example:

  • plastic film

  • rope or cord

  • cable

  • web materials on rolls

In such cases the diameter of the roll changes over time, and the material is continuously unwound or wound onto another reel.

Is it possible in ProtoTwin to simulate something like this, even in a simplified way? For example:

  • a roll whose diameter changes dynamically

  • material being transferred between two spools

  • basic tension or length tracking

Or would this require some workaround (e.g., scaling geometry, scripted behavior, or custom components)?

If anyone has experience modeling similar processes in ProtoTwin, I would really appreciate any suggestions or examples.

Thanks in advance.

2

ProtoTwin cannot currently simulate flexible/soft bodies. It is possible to simulate things like rope, or robot dress packs, using a chain of physics joints. However, this is computationally expensive and I’d recommend to avoid doing so when connecting to a physical PLC, where you need the simulation to run in realtime.

The best approach is going to depend on what you’re trying to simulate. You can certainly use scripting to model things like the diameter of a roll decreasing. This would generally just involve changing the scale of the entity or graphics scale of the graphics component. The AI assistant in the script editor can probably help with this.

For cases where you have material travelling between two spools, you could discretize/split the material into small segments and then animate the segments. ProtoTwin includes some scripted types for modelling curves (lines, arcs, composite curves, etc). It should be possible to move the segments along the curve using scripting.

If you can provide some information about exactly what you’re trying to simulate, I may be able to provide more specific guidance.