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[Forager]

Mission_bug, how is your Lysander progressing?

[Mission_bug]

Mission_bug, how is your Lysander progressing?

Hello Forager, for the moment the 3D work has stalled as other projects have been taking what time I have available.

My energies have been directed at trying my hand at java and seeing how that side of things is done so that hopefully I will be able to bring the whole thing together at some time in the not too distant future.

The model itself still needs some work doing inside the fuselage to at least have it looking reasonable from the exterior, also, all the internal structure will need to be created for the wings, fin and tailplane, so still a way to go yet.

Wishing you all the very best, Pete.

[tomoose]

Mission_bug;
how's the Lysander coming?  I noticed in one of your early screenshots that the cowling was visible from the outside but was transparent on the inside.  How did you resolve that because I'm having similar difficulties with a couple of my upcoming static objects?
thanks,

[Dreamk]

Clone your object, flip its polygons, reduce by about 1% its size (on the 3 axis), and you have solved the problem of "transparent inside"

[Mission_bug]

Mission_bug;
how's the Lysander coming?  I noticed in one of your early screenshots that the cowling was visible from the outside but was transparent on the inside.  How did you resolve that because I'm having similar difficulties with a couple of my upcoming static objects?
thanks,

Hello tomoose, sadly the project has stalled, I need to finish the interiors of both cockpits and add the internal ribs etc to the wings and tailplane assemblies.

I am toying with just leaving the build as is and going through the process of naming all the parts as needed for the extraction and then trying my hand at doing the skin mapping and texture.  Getting started again though is a major obstacle.

As for the cowling, I am sorry to say it is that long since I did it that details as to how I cured the invisibility issue are burried deep somewhere in my head, how to retrieve the info is the question.

It looks to be two seperate rings, however, both are the one object:





I think when I created it I started with the outer diameter and then created a chamfer that was pushed back along the inside, I may then have cut off the ends to make the item as it is now.

Something about backface culling springs to mind, having it selected or not though I could not say.

Clone your object, flip its polygons, reduce by about 1% its size (on the 3 axis), and you have solved the problem of "transparent inside"

It is entirely possible I did as Dreamk suggests here, he is one of the most prolific creators of aircraft here, so I would go with whatever
he may suggest, he will have forgotten more about 3d work than I am ever likely to know.

Wishing you all the very best, Pete.

 

[tomoose]

Ack.  I do the clone, invert normals thing I was just wondering if there was another technique.
Thanks anyway.

[Hawkman]

Ack.  I do the clone, invert normals thing I was just wondering if there was another technique.
Thanks anyway.

Make your cowling object, then apply a Shell modifyer.

Doing as DreamK suggests is probably the best method & will save polygons, however it isn't necessary to reduce the size of the clone as he says.

Hawkers

[Vitamine!]

Mission_bug, keep it up! It is really awesome!!

[Mission_bug]

Mission_bug, keep it up! It is really awesome!!

Thank you Vitamine, I am glad you like it.


I had a go at extracting the fuselage and adding it into another mod, did not quite work as I intended, it was back to front and I could not
see the colour externally. ???



I eventually got it the right way around by revolving the model, trouble is my drawings are now the wrong way about.



I attempted this some time ago but had the parts as objects and all seemed ok then, not sure what I did in the 3d since
to cause things to be the wrong way. 

Not a good omen for the rest of it, the parts will probably be upside down, back to front and inside out.


I cured the visibility issue by flipping the normals, strange though I would have thought the texture would have
been ok on the outer surface and the inner one would have been see through:



Looks like I have much to do still as well as a lot to learn.


Wishing you all the very best, Pete.

[just champi]

Hi, Pete,
just in case you find it helpful, there is something you can do when you need to rotate a whole object made of many parts, or a bunch of them or the whole scene (or a set of plans). That is, if you don't mind to remake the hierarchy, if you have one.

-Just create a point helper and place it at the center of the scene (0,0,0)

-unhide all the objects you need to rotate (usually you can go with "unhide all" if it's the whole scene) and select all of them.

-unselect only the point helper you made and use select and link tool to link all objects to the point helper.

-select rotate tool and change "reference coordinate system" to "World", also change "use center" flyout to show "use transform coordinate center".

-now rotate the point helper the amount of degrees you need. (you can use "Snap angle" to make it easy)

All objects linked will follow and rotate the same amount.
Be sure to delete the point helper when you are done and restore the hierarchy of the parts if you previously have one.
This also works for  moving or scaling.

I've had to do this for all the scenes when I shifted to Maraz exporter and 3dsMax 2012, as I was following modelling bible convention of building models along the Y axe.
At least for me, and I recommend it, is much better building along the X axe instead, and make things a lot easier as you will have the same orientation in your scene as in IL-2 once exported (Maraz).

Probably you already know, but be sure to reset Xform before exporting, from time to time you will see some part turning outside out in your scene after that, (that black color in the fuselage in your screenshots is a good hint) so you will need to flip the normals before export, as you have done already.
For some other more tricky parts, usually the ones that has been linked to another one wich has been scaled, you also will need to reset their scale. You will find a button for that, inside the pivot tab.
Their size will be gigantic or very tiny once exported and if you look to the attaching section in the him.file, you will see their matrix definition starting with some odd numbers.
Glad you keep with it, and congratulations! being able to see your previously non existent meshes in the sim, is maybe a small step, but tastes like a great victory...

[Mission_bug]

Hello Jose, thank you very much for the info, your help is always greatly appreciated.

Essentially I think I spun it around much as you say, I do not have a hierarchy yet but selected all the components from the drop down menu and then used the rotate button at the top on the menu to move them around.  The model is already orientated around a central point so all should be ok I think.

Just the drawings I now need to move also.

The fuselage is the only part so far named in accordance with all the tutorials, CF_D0, I take it if I name them all as they should be that will create the hierarchy you talk about, is there a way then to actually have the exporter create that for you so it can be used in the sim or do you create it manually by using a existing one?

I have not joined many parts together yet, only really the roll bars, the rest I was going to do when I finish the 3d, not sure if that is the best way though.  Maybe I now need to combine some of the assemblies into major structures rather than have pieces everywhere.

I still have not really grasped the X-form thing, I have used it but until I start pulling parts out like the fuselage I suppose I will not know if it was done correctly.

I think you mentioned the flipping of the normals in another post, having to do that for all the parts is really going to be a pain.

I have been doing a few projects in the sim lately that has meant I needed to open up MSH files and import and export, I was really surprised at just how complex each of the meshes are, it feels like there are hundreds of elements to every file.  It makes me wonder how anyone manages to finish these things.

Anyway, now I have actually opened up the project again hopefully I will now add to it on a regular basis, once you stop it is very difficult to get going again.


Wishing you all the very best, Pete.

[Mission_bug]

Hello guys, just thought i would let you know I have picked this project up again.


A little more added detail for the cockpit interior frame:




Added a few more parts to the Hurricane test bed.  Got the wings and the engine cowling on, however there is a problem with
the prop rotation thingy: ???




For some reason with one of the wings seems like it has one side invisible, must be a normals flipping issue I guess.


A second go did not improve things either, guess I need some lessons.





Wishing you all the very best, Pete.