GMAX plot complication

[N2056 33]

So I spent a large chunk of the day working on my pilot figure with fair success. When I went to the sim to check out my work I discovered that now I cannot click on anything in the VC! It all worked fine last night, and I got no errors when exporting today. The animations work fine when I use the keyboard. Any ideas?Robert

[N2056 33]

Well, I "evicted" the pilot and everything started working again. The odd thing is that I lost both the GMAX and "gauge" animations.Some day my ship will come in.........today is not that dayRobert

[n4gix 4,947]

>Well, I "evicted" the pilot and everything started working>again. The odd thing is that I lost both the GMAX and "gauge">animations.>>Some day my ship will come in.........today is not that dayYour eyepoint is set accurately, so when you had the "pilot" in the model, your eyepoint was "inside" the pilot's head!The solution is to only have the pilot in the exterior model. Do not place him/her in the interior model at all.Any polygon that appears between your eyepoint and a "click spot" will be disabled, since the polygon is interfering... ;)

[N2056 33]

I use the "auto interior" feature in makemdl when I export. How do I keep the pilot out of the interior? BTW,thanks for the info. I doubt I would have ever figured that out myself!Robert

[n4gix 4,947]

>I use the "auto interior" feature in makemdl when I export.>How do I keep the pilot out of the interior? >>BTW,thanks for the info. I doubt I would have ever figured>that out myself!Don't use the "auto interior" feature...Create an exterior node (small cube 0.1mm x 0.1mm x 0.1mm centered on 0,0,0 will do fine).Clone the exterior node and name it interior.LINK all top-level parts to the exterior node.Clone all the parts of the exterior model except the pilot! and then LINK the top level of the cloned parts to the interior node.Export and compile as usual. MM will detect that you have an interior and will disable the auto-interior mode."Auto-Interior" is a cool feature that I use frequently during development, but for the final product I prefer to use only selected, and optimized parts for the interior model. After all, can you SEE the bottom of the fuselage or wings, or the landing gear from the pilot's seat? ;)

[N2056 33]

Uhhhh...well no, I lost those x-ray glasses I got out of the back of Mechanics Illustrated a long time ago Not sure what a top-level part is. I'm looking in the 'select objects' menu. I have some grouped objects at the top, and a list of all parts below that.Side question - is it possible to see the plane cast shadows on itself? Ex- canopy frame in the vcRobert

[n4gix 4,947]

>Not sure what a top-level part is. I'm looking in the 'select>objects' menu. I have some grouped objects at the top, and a>list of all parts below that.Ugh! "Grouped objects..." I wish folks would forget about the "Group" function, as eventually you WILL have to "ungroup" for one reason or another... and then WHAM! you'll likely as not introduce an "OBED Scaling Error" into your model...The SDK calls for models to be "assembled" using the node hierarchy system, with the top node being "exterior" and "interior" (possibly a "shadow" if you want to create a simpler model for ground shadow use).This scheme means that you can highly organize the model's parts into logical collections (normally I would say "groups," but that might be confusing!). Here is a sample "hierarchical tree:"exterior <= dummy node...fuselage......show_pilot <=dummy node to control appearance!........pilot_body...........(rest of pilot's parts)......vert_stab..........rudder <= linked to rudder for convenience!.............trimtab_rudder <= trimtab linked to rudder, so follows animation!...wing_port......l_aileron......l_flap...wing_starboard......r_aileron......r_flapetc.interior <= dummy node...fuselage......vert_stab..........rudder <= linked to rudder for convenience!.............trimtab_rudder <= trimtab linked to rudder, so follows animation!...wing_port......l_aileron......l_flap...wing_starboard......r_aileron......r_flapetc.>Side question - is it possible to see the plane cast shadows>on itself? Ex- canopy frame in the vcNot in FS9. Probably in the next version... ;)HINT: for additional XML "tricks" you can use in the GMax model, see the forums at http://freeflightdesign.com

[N2056 33]

I successfully ungrouped what I had with a successful export at the end. Now I have to get to work on the tree structure...I will not group parts for convenience...I will not group parts for convenience...I will not group parts for convenience...I will not group parts for convenience...I will not group parts for convenience...I will not group parts for convenience...I will not group parts for convenience...I will not group parts for convenience...I will not group parts for convenience...I will not group parts for convenienceI really appreciate your time helping me sort this out.Robert

[n4gix 4,947]

>I successfully ungrouped what I had with a successful export>at the end. Now I have to get to work on the tree>structure...Just for the sake of completeness, I'll add the following observations:1) If none of the parts being "Grouped" are animated, then the risk of an OBED Scaling error is likely nil. However, my personal preference is to observe 100% risk avoidance.2) If by chance you should ever encounter an OBED Scaling Error, the only known solution is to Select each part in your model individually, and Reset Scale. Even then, it is not always successful.