Functionality
Welds an element of a Smart Magnet Rig to its parent.
There are two modes of welding: Soft and Hard. (v.6.6+)
Soft welding: When a child element is soft-welded to its parent, it always moves in Hard Rotation when the parent is rotated with KineFlex. Soft welding is uni-directional – the child can be rotated independently of the parent.
Hard welding: When a child element is hard-welded, the child will follow the parent as in Soft welding, but also the parent will follow the child. Hard welding is bi-directional.
Welding and un-welding
To weld an element, select Symbol instance(s), which are part of a Smart Magnet Rig, on Stage and click on the Element Welder button 
in the SMR Helpers panel. Choose Hard or Soft welding in the dialog that pops up.
To un-weld a welded element, select it on the Stage and click on the Element Welder button in the SMR Helpers panel and choose Remove in the Element Welder dialog that pops up.
Snapping of welded elements
Smart Magnet Joint detects welded elements and can also adjust their rotation to match that of the parent.
If the welded element is in position over the Magnet Target, pressing the ‘ key will restore rotation in relation to the parent at the time of welding.
If the welded element is moved away from the Magnet Target, pressing ‘ will snap it into position. A second press of ‘ will restore rotation in relation to the parent at the time of welding.
Suggested use
All situations where Soft Rotation with KineFlex is undesirable.
Hard welding an element to its parent allows to have movable parts ‘sandwiched’ between front and back parts of the same object. For example, the back part of a sleeve or skirt, where the front part is the parent and the back is a welded child. Another example could be a turtle shell.
Also: Hard welding various elbow and knee patches in rigs with outlines.
A different usage scenario could be the large ears of a rabbit, soft-welded to the head. When the head is rotated with KineFlex, the ears always move in Hard Rotation, but as children can still be rotated individually.
Where does it work?
Selected Symbol instance(s) on Stage (to weld or un-weld)
Notes
Element Welder only works with Smart Magnet Rigs
Welded elements can be seen, when a node representation of the rig is loaded in the Smart Magnet Rig panel
Video demonstrations
All our videos are 1080p. If for some reason full HD is not available here, try watching them on YouTube.
