Easy Tracks in Blender

 

There's an add-on for Blender called BagaPie, which adds a whole lot of functionality in various arenas (scattering etc.). The one that is most useful for me, as a WWII tank modeller designing for 3d printing, is its Array On An Object feature.

All I have to do is create an object the shape of the track run, and create one track link.

I put the track link at some point on the surface I want to array it along, shift-click the track-run profile shape, and hit J to invoke the Bagapie  menu and select Array On An Object.

Then it's just a case of adjusting the spacing and number of iterations, and bingo! A track run. Then I just hide the profile object.

Now, all this could have been achieved in native Blender by arraying along a curve object. But that inevitably involves faffing about with object origins and rotation, and often introduces distortion into the iterations going around curves. The Bagapie version is just simpler and easier.

The only thing this method doesn't do (as far as I know) is automatically count the number of iterations required to go completely around the profile, and it doesn't adjust the scaling of the link object for a seamless start/stop connection. However, in the small scale I'm modelling in (1:100) I can usually live with an overlap of the first and last iterations — I just put it somewhere inconspicuous.

Because it's all non-destructive and updated in real time, I can modify the profile object and/or the track link object after the fact, and have everything update automatically. 

This is (or will be) a set of running gear for a Panzer III, which will be useful for any number of WWII German vehicles.