There are two main components in a model; springs and masses. That is what makes all the models. In this tutorial you will know the difference between each, how they play an important role in models, and various other things. You will also learn how masses and springs work with the dynamics of sodaconstructor and muscles combined.

I will point out right now that muscles and circles are different things. People get confused because they take the same shape the and accidently delete what was though to be a mass but instead a muscle and mess up their whole model. The picture to the right shows the above components; mass and spring. I will explain and go more into detail later in the tutorial.

Springs are used in every model; no doubt about it. Why if there were no springs - the only tools we've have would be small masses and fixed masses. Thats no fun. Springs can be easily constructed by clicking from one place to another. You will see a small masses popup and a light blue line directing where your spring should be if you click again. If you do you will see another mass connected to a line. If all done correctly; which I hope you do, you should see two small circles attacted to a straight line.

The picture to the right contains springs and a mass. I will explain more about masses later in this tutorial. As far as springs go there is something important about them. A spring's length is deteremined, when you first construct it. When you move the mass of a spring, you are merely moving it. While you can edit the spring's length in construct mode, you will bounce back to its original size when you press Run. Many users do not know this and get frustrated with their models not working the way they want it to.

Springs and muscles will surely be involved in more than half of the models constructed. Here is your first step of learning of how they work. Each spring and muscle is worked through the wave bar (often called the sine bar). When you place the bars in the wave bar in it while in motion the muscle will start to move. To the right contains springs and muscles at work. What happenes is that a muscle is active in the wave bar and that makes the spring expand and contrast to a slow speed. You can change the speed of its motion using the Settings. You can learn more about the sodaconstructor II settings here.

Now, anyone can make muslces in springs but it takes a great constructor to make them work efficiently. When you look at models in the zoo or models made by great constructors such as warptera, Kevino, mono, and Lectvay. You will see a lot of muscles place in them and often placed evenly spaced out. Don't let the muscles in springs scare you as it may look a bit complicated when really its simple. When parts of muscles work together you can get an exoctic behavior such as leg motion or any other thing which will create your models.

The applet to the left looks a lot like one of daintywalker's legs. They are two joined muscles to make sideways motion. You can tell that the two muscles in the wave bar have quite a distance from each other. The muscle bars are completely out of phase. This means when one muscle is at its biggest, the other is at is smallest. That won't make your model walker rather sway from side to side. Probably causing its fall after a few seconds of lurching. I am sure there are no models that sway from side to side to move; don't do this.

Now the applet to the right looks more stable. As you can see in the wave bar the muscle bars are half the distance from their previous position. The muscles half out of phase. This results in a circuler motion. If you put as a leg it will form a half-circle which is how you see daintywalker moving. Now you may be thinking, what the heck is was just a circle motion a second ago? Well you see that is real life physics. While the motion is completed the force won't make the leg go in circles. It pushes off the ground resulting in a half-circle because no leg is strong enough to push through the floor of display. That is why you see half-circle motions. This is great for light weight walkers and other kinds. Just try different methods and who knows what you may come up with!

Masses are the prime source of making models. They accelerate when force is applied to them. It links springs together. Masses can be used in different ways such as Art, spelling words out (zero-gravity), roller-coaster testees, and most important nodes to springs. To the right you have your regular masses. Play around with it. Drag it across and you will see that it bounces down to the ground and has physics to a real life ball if it were kicked around in a closed room. That is because a mass, when moving, has kinetic energy. The enviroment (display) absorbs some of the energy when the mass is in motion through the air or bounces of surfaces. When being thrown through the air it loses energy over time and it slows down finally resting to a stop. Same thing with colliding to surfaces although it may be quicker. Friction with the air makes the ball bounce and then stop instead of bouncing forever.

There are however other kinds of masses in this sodaplay universe. Fixed masses are displayed as squares. Once played in display they do not move unless you drag them somewhere else. Fixed masses have various uses; hanging things, writing letters, grid and guidelines, roller-coasters, and other cool things too. Fixed masses shouldn't be used to make models as it will not go anywhere. Another option for fixed masses is the option to have solid lines. This is useful for rollercoasters. They were made back in sodaconstructor I were friction was worked different than it is now. They were a means for base of chuts for the balls to go through as in a rollercoaster you'd see with many twists and turns. Now in sodaconstructor II, the friction has been changed and you can't really get a ball to slide down solid fixed springs.

While this may seem like a long read, this is only the basics of springs and masses. I hope by now you now what springs, masses, and fixed masses are. You should also know how springs and muscle work together to create a decent model. This tutorial is to help the newbies at sodaconstructor. A note to every constructor, while it may seem complicated to work with springs and masses, you'll soon get the hang of it. Not everyone becomes good at it over one night. Practice, create, and disect. Learn how the muscle system works and you'll be good to go.

Written by: JavaScript_Freek