Hi fellow simmers,Could anybody explain why I keep losing the FSTools button on the top of the tool bar. This keeps happening and in the past I had to remove and reload the FSX SDK update1 and this is getting to be a pain. I am about ready to upload my project Global Express as it is and see if anyone can complete this project. Any volunteers??GMAX is a powerful tool but very frustrating,Thanks for any help. I can provide a screen shot of the project.Regards,Richie35

Richie,For some reason GMax will not always load the bootstrap.ms script.All you need to do is click on MAXScriptRun Script, browse to the ..startup folder and choose bootstrap.ms, then click on Open.If that doesn't load the FSTools menu, then try it again.If that doesn't work, then choose FSToolsMenu.ms from the scripts folder.There is absolutely no need for you to reinstall the SDK SP1 just for this... ;)

Hi Bill,Thanks for your quick response. I will try that but you can see how frustrating it can get. Also this is about the main gear and c gear tires. Do I need separate items for each still and blurred or can I use the animation manager for both instances?I am also having a hard time seeing the lightning strips I have attached to the radome. The only time I see them is when I select them. I want to use the bump method instead but that is so confusing that I have given up on that idea. any suggestions?Regards,Richie

You will need seperate objects for each of the three wheels:_still_slow_blurredAs for "bump mapping," keep the faith and keep trying. It's not really that difficult, but you do need the right tools to accomplish the task:Photoshop v8.0 (or newer)nVidea "normal" plugin

Hi Bill,Thanks for your response. The last answer worked and I now get the FSTools returned.Is there a cheaper version of Photoshop to accopmplish the task? I have Paintshop Pro X and I have tried to load the nVidea "normal" plugin to work with it but a get a protection error. The message I read said it can be done and quoted to load required dll's but did not spectify which ones and I do not know who the author is. Will GIMP work? The is message claiming it will but I am no expert only a new novice (70 years old).Thanks again for the advice.Regards,Rich

Bill,Additional questions about the tire rotation. The Animation Tags only list still and blurred for C, R and L tires. yet the N1 and props list all three you referred to. The last question is about the tire rotation which is listed as 0 - 100 so obviously the right tires will rotate in a clockwise direction when moving forward and the left will rotate couterclockwise moving forward. What is setting if the aircraft is being pushed back or in reverse thrust or reverse pitch in the case of propeller aircraft? My tires have a large poly count being designed from a cylinder and adding six additional tires for fast would give a total of 18 tires.As you can see I am still plugging my way through the design stages. I am trying to get this aircraft as close to the spec's as possible. I have a copy the the TC for FAA and JAR.There a few things that I am guessing at like flap settings which I am setting at 0, 5, 8, 20 and 30. This was interpeted from the cockpit photos on Airliners.net site.I did build an earlier version of this aircraft in FSDSv3 for FS2004 but had a problem with the texturing of the paint so I did not release it.But it flys like a charm with the ranges within the published specs.Even had tinted windows but on converting to FSX I had to make them completely transparent because FSX does not recognize transparent materials.I will keep plodding along and hope to finish the job in the near future.Regards,Richie

Sorry, for wheels it is indeed only two versions needed *:-* For smoothly rotating wheels in FSX create two complete revolutions inbetween keyframes 0 and 100: e.g. 0-25, 90

The Nvidea plugin does work with Gimp. That is how I've been creating my bump maps. It's a bit convoluted, but it works. Let me know if you need help getting it to work for you.Robert

Bill & Robert,Thank you both for your replies. Bill, I have been able to get the rotation on the main gear tires to works correctly in GMAX but when I try to do the same thing on the nose gear tires, they work up until I link them to the c_wheel_axle. This item is attached to a C_wheel_ring which is only animated for the nose wheel steering, which I set at the 50 100 150 200 using 90 degree clockwise rotation at each point. The axle is strickly for the strut compression (101-200). After linking the tires to the axle, they are fine at the 0 and 180 degree points but get oval shaped at the 90 and 270 points. I believe it has something to do with the pivot points which I have set and reset to no avail. Where should the rotation pivot points be set? at the 0 frame (gear retracted) or 100 (gear extended)?Thanks again for your responses,Regards,Richie

Hi Bill,I am glad to report that the landing gear and tire situation is resolved and working correctly in GMAX. I had to unlink all the parts for the nose gear and reset all the Pivot points,the relink everything and now it is fine. I have done loaded the GIMP files and will use them later after all the basic design work is completed and then I can continue on the paint kit development.If I have any questions, I will post them. I sincerely thank you for you help and understanding in the resolution of problems so I may deliver a good product to the flight sim community.Regards,Richie35