I am new to aircraft design work and seem to be stumbling over th making of aluminum. I have searched the web and all tutorials and can find nothing on this subject. Any help would be appreciated. I use fsds aaanimator and fs2002. Thanks in advance, JP

IF you're looking to do the relfective "metal" textures as are done with the default aircraft and gmax-3rd party, the current version of FSDS does not support the reflective textures. Basically, these are materials added to the part when making the part, and the textures' alpha level determines the opcity/reflectivity.You can approximate the metal effect on FSDS textures, but it's not "real" reflectivity. FSDS V.2 should add this capability.Hope this helps

Felix. Thanks for the answer, however is there a tutorial on the making of aluminum textures? I still can't find one. Also can you recommend some books on 3D drawings to make some more aircraft models. JP

I'd suggest the tutorials at http://www.aluminumcloud.comThere are also applicable tutorials at Freeflight Design Shop:http://www.freeflightdesign.comAs for "books" on where to get 3-views (I assume you menat 3Views rather than 3d)Check the Resources Section at FFDS for a good selection of sites and books.