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Guest Alexander_EFG

Starting gmax or what else?

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Guest OnkelWolle

Hi all,I'm new here and I'm going to start a new aircraft project. At first, there is the choice of tools by which I mean a program to generate the 3d model. I tried gmax from the FS2004 cd. I solved the gmax tutorial ("p38") and at the moment I'm doing well with the "Stupid Idiots Gmax Tutorial". Now I'm at the point of wondering, wheter I should go on with gmax or switch to another program.What I noticed very soon, was that there doesn't seem to be a good possibility to make changes of parameters you made at the very beginning (provided you use "convert" operations). As I'm working with CAD programs such as SolidWorks, I'm used to this [possiblity to make these changes]. In the case of gmax I think of a huge amount of details that may all have gone, when I realize faults too late and simply use the "save _very_ often and reload" technique. The other possibility I can think of would be simply not to convert the model. Is this possible with regards to system crashing (I read that some machines dont like too much modifiers) and so on?Next thing I'm wondering about is compatibility. Will there be a next generation of gmax for the next generation of msfs? I simply might want to improve my model later on istead of building it completely new. I can't import mdl files in gmax (or can I?), can I do so in other programs? Can I import gmax files in other common modelling programs? I know that an aircraft needs a lot of time, maybe years... and I dont want it to be a wooden glider that breaks once and then you have to build a new one.Next thing is about hierarchy somehow. Can you build single parts (or assemblies) in gmax and link them together in another (assembly) gmax file? By the word "link" I understand that the assembly changes, when I change the part, as it's common in CAD.Well, that's a lot of stuff now, I would be glad to hear from you.Cheers, Onkel Wolle

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Guest Alexander_EFG

Hi,Unless you have 7500 USD to spend for a 3D Max (GMAX's bigger brother) license I would stick to the freeware GMAX. As far as I'm concerned so far GMAX is the way to go. You've got everything you need to create the models and the support for this tool and modelling techniques is massive!This tool has been chosen by MS as "the" 3D modelling tool for FS so it is very unlikely that MS will discard it any time soon.As for reverting to previous models: a good balance between "safe a lot" and a good modifier stack would be a wise choice. True, too much modifiers can easily crash you system, but it also depends on the settings of the modifier. E.g. In 3DS there's a modifier called Mesh Smooth. One can make a low poly model and beef it up by using this modifier in order to smoothen the mesh and round the corners and stuff. This way, a 500 poly model can easily become a 500.000 poly model. If your system can't handle this then it will crash with only one modifier in the stack...Linking, to my knowledge, is done within one GMAX file only. This is usefull for animations. Rather than animate every single part individually you can link e.g. the gear parts together. Animate the parent motion first and then animate the child parts. The child parts follow the parent movement per definition and can have their own movement. Very usefull.Quite some write up. Hope this helps...

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