FSDS2 Help please

[Guest]

Hi AllI am sure that you guys are tired or repeating the same things over and over. I have a question that has probably been asked before, but im going to ask it again.The thing is I am trying to design my first Bizjet using FSDS and havtried many different methods of getting the nose and windscreen tolook correct. I am pulling my hair out.I have looked for a tutorial on how to do windscreens but cant findone.I start with a tube and add cross sections as needed to get the outside shape looking right but then the problem is how to add or in this case remove the unwanted polys to create the windscrren. because all the polys are sloping downwards. and if you look at the side view what is needed is a horizontal cutout. If any of this makes sense...I know all of you are too busy to create a tutorial but was hoping you would be kind enough to give me a couple of pointers.ThanxGareth Knowles

[Guest Dee Waldron]

There are lots of different technique's for doing what you want. Here's how I do it (basically...).Using single polygons (add them one at a time), build yourself a windshield frame part. It can be very simple flat poly's pieced together to form the basic shape of your windshield. Drag it into the correct position on your fuselage. Now select the fuselage part, go to Poly mode and select all of the fuselage poly's that are under the windshield part and delete them (recommend you delete them one at a time in case you delete the wrong one, you can do a "Undo").Now, you can bring in 3 sided poly's to join to the fuselage, snap the points to the windshield part, filling in all the open space you made from deleting the fuselage poly's.That will get you started! Have fun. :-) Dee Waldron (HJG)

[Guest]

Thanks DeeHave a look at the HS 125 im working on and maybe you can help me once again...I have copied and pasted the fuse and named it fuse.inside and then i selected all poly and flipped them so they are facing inwards. I then added seats etc. This is still in the same model and not the VC.If i remove the windscreen that i have painted out of a light transparent blue I can see the inside with my seats.But with thw indscreen in place the entire interior is invisible and i can see through to the ground.I am really stuck.... Thanks for all your help.Gareth

[John_Cillis 2,406]

"Cut" the windscreen from your project, then "paste" it back in so it is the last part listed in your parts list. Then compile the model, making sure you don't check the "sort" box. Transparent parts must be the last in the parts list.Also, when testing this in FS, you may need to load another aircraft or two prior to reviewing the results in FS. I've noted if I update FSDS 2 models while FS is running, sometimes the changes don't show even if I reload the model. FS seems to "buffer" model files, or it could even be a disk caching issue where the cached file is pulled from memory. -John

[Guest Dee Waldron]

John has answered your question about transparent parts perfectly correct. I would even go so far as to suggest that after you are completly finished with your model, pull down the Parts menu and select "Create parts merge list". Specify a filename and a location to collect all the parts and click OK. Then exit FSDS and open that new text file in Windows Notepad. Now you can see the exact assy order of your model. It starts at the top and goes straight down the list. You can new edit the list, by "cut&pasting" the parts into a more efficient assy list. I put all of the Reference parts at the top, followed by the major assy parts (fuselage, wings, engine), then the control surfaces, followed by conditional parts like landing gear, etc. Interior parts go almost at the bottom and finally very last is all of the transparent parts. Save the file and open up FSDS again. Pull down File menu and select Merge project. In the pull down list select text files and click okay. FSDS will reassemble your model now in the order you wrote in the text file.If you have a VC, you'll need to do it seperately.Hope that helps. :) Dee Waldron (HJG)

[Guest]

Excellent...It worked like a charm. Thanks to all.One more question though... When you create referance parts and fsds adds them to the aircraft.cfg file will those entries overide the air file entries.Because i set the contact points and the bottom of the gear but my aircraft hovers about half a foot off the ground.Any ideas?Gareth

[Guest Dee Waldron]

The Aircraft.cfg file always overrides the AIR file, so it doesn't matter what it written inside the AIR file with regards to your contact points (unless: you are trying to produce a new Aircraft.cfg file for the first time, then it uses (some of...) the AIR file entries to write the new cfg file.). You can go inside the Aircraft.cfg file and edit the contact point height manually using any text editor (Windows Notepad). Or you can reposition your ref parts in FSDS2 and reproduce the model again (g).Dee Waldron (HJG)