This tutorial will go over the creation and useage of the basic joint types. For clarity we will skip the inclusion of models and just use primitives.

The first thing I have done is created a chain of 3 flat box primitives. I used the snap to grid function to help. The snap to grid controls can be found in the Edit tab, and they are the two sliders shown below:

The first setting is in cm and will affect the use of the Move tool, and also the Scale tool. The second slider affects rotation, and is in degrees.

I used a snap to grid setting of 5cm, this allowed me to scale them down to exactly 5cm in thickness.

I then made each of the three an actor, by selecting each in turn and pressing the shortcut key 'Enter'. If I were to press the test button now, I would simply have 3 flat boxes that fall to the floor.

 

Now to create a joint. The important thing is to make sure you have the Actor selection filter set to on. I then select 2 of the boxes (as actors rather than as primitives, remember there's a difference) and press the create hinge button

in the joints tab, shown below. A hinge is now created, linking the 2 boxes.

 

The dark blue bar represents the hinge joint, the light blue lines show the connected actors.

Now the hinge is in the totally wrong place, we want it between the 2 actors, we want to position it and rotate it to the position shown below. You need the joint filter selected in order to be able to select joints.

You can also create a joint without 2 actors selected, and it will be created unconnected, as shown below.

A joint must be connected to at least 1 actor to do anything. If a joint only has one connection then it will constrain the actor to the world / level.

In order to connect a joint to actors, or to change the actors it is connected to, we use the change actor buttons:

Select the joint, then click one of these buttons. When you hover the mouse over an actor it will go blue:

Click to select that actor and it will be connected.

Do the same for actor 1 and 2, then position and orient the joint appropriately.

 

I have placed some static actors in the level to show the result:

 

Experiment with the other joint types. For specifics on how they work it is best to be familiar with the documentation of your physics engine. Also bear in mind there are some differences between engines, and some joint types may not be available - check the engine differences page for this.