you could also use cut polygon (if your using poly's)
and as a gravity field to add mass then the plane that the object shatters on could be made resistent
uhm....forgot the name for the tool/process
(not at my PC at the MO....
so ill post you a screen shot with all the tools selected in red
ok?
MY MAYA SYSTEM
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1.7 Ghz Intel Pentium
3.0 GB of RAM DDR 333
128 MB NVIDIA Ti 4600
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I know it's not a realy great system
but it gets the job done....