MultiCollide is a 2D & 3D rigid body impact simulator. Arrange shapes in a scene to set up collisions. Each shape can be moved around, resized, and given initial values for properties such as velocity and angular velocity. Upon clicking 'Run', all shapes will begin animating according to their preset values. When shapes collide with one another, their impact is modelled according to this paper by Yan-Bin Jia and Feifei Wang. Graphs visualizing the impulse accumulation and the sliding contact velocity curve will be generated once the impact outcome is computed.
The main functionality of MultiCollide is complete, but there are still bugs to be fixed and improvements to be made. If you encounter an issue that is not listed below, or have a suggestion for the interface, please email me at jstimes@iastate.edu
Begin by choosing some shapes from the 'Add Shape' dropdown in the top-left of the interface. Depending on what option is selected under 'Settings', 2D or 3D shape options will appear. You can orient each shape by clicking and dragging it. The selected cursor state determines how it is updated. The cursor state can be selected at the bottom of the left side of the screen. In addition to the cursor state, you may also select a camera control. This determines how the view of the scene is changed when you click and drag the scene background (without clicking a shape).Scrolling when a shape is selected (expressed by the green surface color) will also update it. Scrolling when the mouse is within the scene (blue background) will always zoom the camera (note that scrolling with a mouse wheel causes large jumps).
The shapes can also be configured by directly setting the values in the 'Scene Shapes' panel on the right. Some values that can't be set with the mouse can be configured here, such as coefficients of restitution and friction.