How to Make Conveyor Belts
Introduction
A conveyor belt is an object that pulls other objects along on top of it. They are often used in assembly lines in factories, in airports to carry luggage, or in grocery store checkout aisles. This tutorial will teach you how to build a working conveyor belt, a rushing river, and a rotating whirlpool - all using either the Velocity or the RotVelocity properties of a brick.
Create The Brick
Edit your place using GoodBlox Studio. You will need the additional features available from GoodBlox Studio to build the conveyor belt. If you are in Edit mode, click the menu on the top left called Tools to open up the GoodBlox Studio features.
From the menu, click Insert and select Object. From the pop up window, select Part - which will insert a brick into your place. Click the Zoom Extents button on the top button bar if you cannot find the new brick. This will center your screen on the brick.
Select the brick using the Resize button, and stretch it out to the size you want the conveyor belt to be. While the brick is selected, change the brick property called "TopSurface" to "Smooth" - so that the items being moved will not get stuck on the belt. If you don't have the Property window open, click View from the menu bar, and select Properties to open it.
You can change the color of the brick to your choice.
The last change is to set the Anchored property of the brick to checked. In the Property Window, find the property Anchored and check it.
Turn the Conveyor Belt On
The Velocity property of a brick describes the speed and direction of an object. It has 3 values - one for each x, y and z axis. These values refer to the directions of the workspace - not of your brick.
To change the velocity property, select the brick and open the Properties window. Click the [+] sign to expand the Velocity property and show the values for each axis. The x value will move the bricks along the x-axis of the workspace. The y value will try to move the bricks vertically along the y axis. The z value will move it along the z-axis of the workspace. Since it is hard to tell which is the x-axis and which is the z-axis, try entering a value of 5 on the x-axis - and test the brick in Play Solo mode by clicking Tools > Test > Play Solo. You can add a value to more than one axis which will change the angle of the motion. Negative numbers apply the same amount of force as positive numbers, but in the opposite direction.
For this example, set the x value of the Velocity property to 5.
Making a Flowing River
Rivers are simply colored conveyor belts - which have a transparent brick above the conveyor belt to make it look like water.
To make a river, follow the steps described above for how to create a Conveyor belt. Then continue with these steps to make it act like a rushing river.
- Change the BrickColor property of the conveyor belt to Bright blue.
- Make sure that brick is solid; it has the Transparency property set to 0.
- Copy and paste the conveyor belt brick, and make sure they are right on top of each other.
- Change the CanCollide property of the top brick to unchecked, so that players will be able to walk through this top brick.
- Change the Transparency property to 0.5 - so it looks like water you can see through.
- Make sure the Anchored box is checked on this piece, too.
- Set the Velocity property to 0 for all the axes of this top brick. Only the bottom brick will move objects. All objects that land on top of the 'water' brick will sink down to the conveyor brick.
- Finally, group the bottom and top together.
Now we have to test it. Go to Tools > Test > Play Solo. You should get another window where you're playing solo. Go to your river, and step on it. If it isn't flowing the right way, then go back to studio and set the Velocity value to a different axis (either x or z axes.) Test it again to make sure the water is flowing in the right direction.
Making a Whirlpool
Instead of using the Velocity property to move items in one direction, you can use the RotVelocity property to make the conveyor belt move objects around in a circle.
Follow the steps describing how to create a conveyor belt and 'Making a Flowing River'. Then complete these steps:
- Remove the values from the Velocity property.
- Expand the RotVelocity property to show the values for the 3 axis.
- Add a 5 to the x-axis property, and a 5 to the z-axis property.
- Add walls around the river - to keep the pieces inside.
- Test the whirlpool in Play Solo mode. Bricks that are placed on the river will begin to move in a circular fashion.
Tips
- If the brick is not anchored, it will not move the objects on top of it.
