fusalage

[Guest]

hi all,just starting tinkering with gmax and was wondering the different methods used for forming the ,say, fusalage for a 737.im sure theres a few choices in doing this, and i would appreciate reading any of your favorite methods.would you :- make a sphere for the nose ordo the whole thing with a cylinder orweld sections together?regards,jim.

[Guest]

>im sure theres a few choices in doing this, and i would >appreciate reading any of your favorite methods. >>would you :- >>make a sphere for the nose or >do the whole thing with a cylinder or >weld sections together? Wow! What a loaded question! :)There are many techniques that could be used, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. I've used 'stick construction,' shaped tubes, etc. but I'm going to try another technique that comes to mind.One of my goals is to have a fuselage that has 'thickness,' so that the interior views will be more 3 dimensional, and is not simply a planar surface with the normals reversed. One common technique is to simply create an outer 'shell,' clone it and flip the normals so that the 'interior' is an exact duplicate of the 'exterior.' Unfortunately, this technique will not show 'thickness' where windows and doors are 'cut.'Using a 'tube' will give the 'thickness' set when you create the 'tube,' but has the huge disadvantage of forcing you to work with two vertices at the same time (outer and inner) whenever you 'shape' the fuselage.My current thinking (untested as of now), is to create the fuselage out of a cylinder, because it has no 'inner' vertices to worry about. Once the final 'shaping' is done, and you are going to make no further changes, clone the finished part, apply an appropriate uniform reduction scale, and use boolean 'cut' to remove the inner volume of the fuselage, leaving the part with a uniform 'thickness' to the walls... :)It sounds as though this might be an easier way, but as I said, I've not had time to test it yet... :)

[Guest]

Hi Jim,If you have artistic talent, use the tube and deform by pulling and pushing vertex to achieve the desired contours.If you are talentless like me, you may find it easier to work from cross sections and the loft/sweep function. After some work I am now able to build a GA fuselage from firewall to top tip of the rudder as one one part. No way could "I" have done this pulling and pushing vertex points.http://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3dfb5e7311631cde.jpgHere you can see the results. Notice how smooth the reflections are. Like buying a used car, look down the side for wrinkles/dents/flaws/. Notice the "mouse" in the rear part of the snake? I will delete/change the "out of place" xsectionhttp://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3dfa0b802a7629ae.jpgEach to his own. Do look at the sweep/loft functions in detail.Good luck,BobThe FAQs for the TB20Gt are loacted here http://mtco.com/~rsam/FAQs.htmWe R rsam@mtco.comHelp us make it better!http://mtco.com/~rsam/fartslogo.jpg11/23/02

[Guest]

thanx to both for replying,and yes bob, im one of the talentless ones, and this loft/sweep method will get further attention from me!cheers, jim.

[Guest]

Hi there Father Bill one thing I have tried is to loft surfaces togather(similar to working with NURBS surfaces but it's a pain to dowith polygonal objects) but it does work. Dan

[Guest]

Gee Bob I should have read your post first!! Dan.

[Guest]

Hey BobI'm also kinda new in designing a/c. I have tried to do some loft/sweeping in GMAX but i can't found out how. I get the funniest shapes when i do it.Can you tell me how you get such a brilliant result?The newbieStudy