Have any of you guys tried exporting your aircraft with the version of MakeMDL that came with the MS MakeMDL SDK (8.00.020403.01). When I use that version, my aircraft becomes invisible.On the other hand, when I use the one that came with the FS2002 Pro CD (8.00.010912.01), I have no problems - BUT - whenever I export a part with a name and/or material such as light_strobe, MakeMDL complains that it can't find itself and the export to MDL fails.Can anyone shed some light on this? I need to create a strobe in GMax so that I can link it to the flexing wing.:) Melvin Rafiwww.meljet.com

I do not have the answer but I share your problem. I have seen the exact same thing with the latest makemdl, I assume the latest version requires additional or new steps that I am not aware of. For now I have gone back to the original version from FS2K2 Pro.Any insight on this would be greatly appreciated.Sarnac

The issue is the Units conversion automatically goes to Metric. Your aircraft is now so large, you probably do not see it above you. In FS, go to View mode, set distance to 2000 feet and you may see a 500' long landing gear.You will need to go through the units conversion procedure. See Gmax Help, and go to the FFDS forum archives for some nicely detailed procedures from those of us who have been through it.Milton

Thanks a lot. I managed to change my GMax units to meters. Now I can export perfectly fine and I can see the plane. But even though my plane is no longer the size of a continent, it still is four runways wide - whoops!How do I fix this? I guess I could scale it down with the scale button. But I've had experiences where doing that messed stuff up.Do you have any advice?Thanks!:) Melvinwww.meljet.com

Melvin,Many folks have been through this but mine converted fine.There are very detailed instructions over at FFDS from designers who worked out the details. Sorry I do not have them off the top of my head. :-)Milton

>Thanks a lot. I managed to change my GMax units to meters. >Now I can export perfectly fine and I can see the plane. But >even though my plane is no longer the size of a continent, >it still is four runways wide - whoops! >>How do I fix this? I guess I could scale it down with the >scale button. But I've had experiences where doing that >messed stuff up. >>Do you have any advice? There is an excellent tutorial on scaling here:http://www.oregon-coast.net/FS2002/2k2main.htmIt's a good thing too, since I have to rescale everything exported from Rhino, even though it is supposed to be exact! :)

Thanks a lot. I followed the tutorial but the same message still appears: Node has a scale applied. Remove before exporting.Some animations are also messed up.:) Melvinwww.meljet.com

>Thanks a lot. I followed the tutorial but the same message >still appears: Node has a scale applied. Remove >before exporting. >>Some animations are also messed up. I suppose that is a good argument for scaling first and saving a new .gmax file, before doing animation and lighting??? :)

This is quite a common problem that people come across, and I think the solution is missing from the tutorial linked to unless I missed it.Briefly, applying a transformation to a top level object is a bad thing - you can get away with it most of the time but not with scaling as MakeMDL will halt with the error you mention. The reason behind this is the stacks in gMax and where the transformations are applied in the stack - if you want details on this you'll find them in the help files.Here's how to get out of it though - if you've already applied a scale to your object go to the hierarchy tab, select the effected object(s) and then click on 'Reset Scale'. Your object will look the same but the scale will now be baked into the object and so won't cause an error on export.To avoid the situation altogether you need to use a special modifier called the 'XForm' modifier. Apply the modifier and then open out its rollout and select the gizmo. Apply your transformations to that and MakeMDL will stop complaining. Although strictly speaking a little naughty, I tend to apply a scale directly and then click on reset transform unless I think I might want to make alterations in the future as its quicker and neater. The one time I use the XForm always for everything (not just scales, but also movement and rotation) is when creating a loft, if you find your loft is in a funny position or is mis-shapen when you create it then it's almost certainly as a result of applying transformations to a top level object.One last thing on the topic in case it's relevant, if you use the 'interior' and 'exterior' groups method for creating your VC and exterior views the occasionally a little error will pop up saying the same thing as you mention here - even without any scales having been applied. When you look into it you'll see the error log saying something like '1.000000001' for the scale. To get rid of this you'll need to select the groups and open up a track view. You'll see some scale keys have appeared out of the blue. Delete these and the error will go away.Have funFinn

Thanks a lot for the help!:) Melvinwww.meljet.com