Revolute Joints in box2d

Question

I have been trying to follow the tutorial here to construct a revolving joint; essentially, an arm. I need the arm, a rectangle, to be pinned to a point on a square and revolve around it. When force is applied I expect the two shapes to behave as one, pinned together while the arm flies around the box like a ragdoll.

Unfortunately, this is not working at all. The arm is joined at first, then when I apply force the two shapes separate and behave in strange ways that I cannot explain. Its almost as though the anchors were in some wonky positions.

I'm using jbox2d and a lot of the code from this tutorial also.

(I have set the initial anchors to the centres just to see if it will work) (There are some strange conversions because I am using openGl)

Here's the gist:

    public class New_char
    {
    Vec2             torso_pos,    arm_pos;
    Body             torso,        arm;
    PolygonShape     torso_shape,  arm_shape;
    BodyDef          torso_def,    arm_def;
    FixtureDef       torso_fix,    arm_fix;

    RevoluteJointDef torsoArmDef; 
    RevoluteJoint    torsoArmJoint; 

    //float[] torSize = {0.5f, 0.5f}, armSize={0.75f, 0.10f};


    public New_char(World world, float[] pos)
    {
        //this.torso_pos = new Vec2(pos[0], pos[1]) ;   this.arm_pos = new Vec2(pos[0]+10,pos[1]+10);   
        //out.println(this.arm_pos+" thepos "+this.torso_pos);

        this.torso_def = new BodyDef()            ;  this.arm_def = new BodyDef();
        torso_def.type = BodyType.DYNAMIC         ;  arm_def.type = BodyType.DYNAMIC;
        torso_def.position.set(320 / 30 / 2, 240 / 30 / 2)    ;  arm_def.position.set(320 / 30 / 2, 240 / 30 / 2);

        this.torso_shape = new PolygonShape()     ;  this.arm_shape = new PolygonShape();
        this.torso_shape.setAsBox(0.50f, 0.50f)   ;  this.arm_shape.setAsBox(0.75f, 0.10f);

        this.torso_fix = new FixtureDef()         ;  this.arm_fix = new FixtureDef();
        this.torso_fix.density = 0.1f             ;  this.arm_fix.density = 0.5f;
        this.torso_fix.shape = this.torso_shape   ;  this.arm_fix.shape = this.arm_shape;

        this.torso = world.createBody(this.torso_def) ;  this.arm = world.createBody(this.arm_def);
        this.torso.createFixture(this.torso_fix)      ;  this.arm.createFixture(this.arm_fix);

        this.torsoArmDef = new RevoluteJointDef();
        this.torsoArmDef.bodyA = this.torso ; this.torsoArmDef.bodyB = this.arm;
        this.torsoArmDef.collideConnected = false;
        this.torsoArmDef.localAnchorA.set(this.torso.getWorldCenter());
        //Vec2 armpin = new Vec2(1f, 1f);
        this.torsoArmDef.localAnchorB.set(this.arm.getWorldCenter());
        this.torsoArmJoint = (RevoluteJoint)world.createJoint(this.torsoArmDef);

Answer 1

The problem was getWorldCenter (which was recommended in every tutorial I found)

The solution is getLocalCenter:

    this.torsoArmDef.localAnchorA.set(this.torso.getLocalCenter());
    this.torsoArmDef.localAnchorB.set(this.arm.getLocalCenter());

It now rotates magically!