Shear across Springs

[JohnKGH]

Hey guys,

Thanks so much for the previous help. I've googled this question to no avail. Presently, I have 4 nodes in order (node 1, node2, node3, node4) with axial Spring2 elements connecting node1 to node2, a rigid body connection connecting node2 to node3 and another axial spring2 element connecting node3 to node4.

It looks like this:

node1->spring2 element->node2->rigid body->node3->spring2 element

How do I transfer shear across the rigid body connection and the Spring2 elements?

One thought would be to create overlapping nodes at node1 and node4 and apply Spring2 elements in the 3 direction with a stiffness. But would this stiffness transfer past the rigid body connection?

Thanks so much for any help.