How to Make Conveyor Belts

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Tutorials

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 Roblox Studio. You will need the additional features available from Roblox 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 Roblox 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.

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.

Final Step - Anchor It

The final step is to highlight the conveyor belt brick in the Roblox Editor. In its properties, there should be a checkbox labeled, 'Anchored'. Place a check here to lock it in place. Now that it's locked in place, it applies its velocity to whatever touches it.

Rivers

Rivers are simply colored conveyor belts.

• If you can't see the properties window in Roblox Studio, go to View->Properties.
• Insert > Object > Part. This will insert a brick into your map.
• Resize that brick to what ever size you want.
• Change the BrickColor to Bright blue.
• Make sure the Anchored box is checked.
• Make sure that brick is solid (i.e., a Transparency of 0). (Bricks added to the map are solid by default).
• Copy and paste this same brick, but uncheck the CanCollide box (i.e., set the value to false).
• Make sure the Anchored box is checked on this piece, too.
• If you want earthen sidebanks to the river, then add them.

Making it a Flowing River

Now we'll look at how to make it work! Select the bottom river piece (The solid one) and look in properties. Find the velocity property, and press the + sign. Now, you should see three values. X, Y, and Z. Now, set the X value of the property to 100. 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 rotate it. Test it again to make sure.

See also

Cartesian Coordinate System