"Scaler" gadget to change an object's scale while leaving other forces free to change its translation and orientation
If I want to change the translation of an object while leaving other forces free to change the other components of its transform, the movers and rotators family of gadgets offers a selection of movers to do what I want.
And if I want to change the orientation of an object while leaving other forces free to change the other components of its transform, that same movers and rotators family of gadgets offers a selection of rotators to do what I want.
But what about scale? Nope, I'm out of luck. Only an Action Recorder or a Keyframe can change an object's scale, and when one of those gadgets touches a component of a transform, it seizes control of all of the other components - I can change the scale of an object, but other forces won't be free to change its translation or orientation.
It would be nice if we had a "Scaler" gadget in the movers and rotators family. This would have tweaks to control the rate at which it changes the scale of its affected object, and it would have no effect on the translation or orientation - those components of the transform would be free to be modified by other forces e.g. connectors, other gadgets in the movers and rotators family, or physics collisions.
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You can still scale something inside a group. Then the group can be movable and continue to be affected by rotators etc., while the object inside the group has its transform set relative to the group. So, it works fine. Just beware that scaling the sculpt used for the physics sim can mess with how physics works and so make it respond strangely.
Unfortunately, I think this weirdness would still happen if they had some gadget or setting for it, as it would still mess with physics. But this is something for you to try out, at least.
One method I've used in the past is to have an invisible, collidable object in the group that doesn't change scale that is used for the physics sim. Then the visual non-collidable object can change scale with a keyframe all it likes and not mess up the physics sim.
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