Creation of amphibious water ramp - lift

[maddz]

Hi all

I want to create lifting platform that wll raise a seaplane from the water, like so :

quick mock-up in SKU

The platform will sit below the water, the plane floats in, lowers landing gear, the platform raises lifting the plane out the water allowing taxing onto dry land.

Is this possible to have the platform below the water line then raise above, lifting the aircraft?

What would be the best programe to use to create the model and animations?... I've made airports with ADE but never created my own models, so this is a new learning curve to take on, so the easier the better.

Thanks
Luke

 

[speedy70]

Hi Luke
You do know that you can beach an amphibian and then lower the gear, which will raise the aircraft, and taxi out of the water.
At places like the Orbx Bar harbour there are ramps for amphibians to taxi up the ramp and out of the water and onto the main airport.

Cheers Chris

 

[maddz]

Hi Luke
You do know that you can beach an amphibian and then lower the gear, which will raise the aircraft, and taxi out of the water.
At places like the Orbx Bar harbour there are ramps for amphibians to taxi up the ramp and out of the water and onto the main airport.

Cheers Chris

Hello Chris,

Sure im aware of that, but im looking for something a little more graceful, and if it could work i think would be cool

This is something i want for my ''Private airstrip'', whitch is located on denny island in chew valley lake (UK).

I dont have orbx im affraid.

Luke

 

[maddz]

Can anyone tell me if this is possible? Will the platform sit below the water line when it's down? And also, if it will, will it lift the plane (need to be a hardened surface?) out the water or Just go through it?

I dont one want to spend a long time learning how to use a programme ( what's best for this? 3ds, gmax, fsds....etc...animation of ramp up/down) only to to find it was a flawed idea from the getgo.



any help would be greatfully received

Thanks
Luke

 

[maddz]

i'll just give this a little bump

 

[Wizard]

I'll give you my 2 pennies worth. Yes, it should work below the waterline - even in FSX there were a couple of feet below the water. I Used FSDS for my FSX models - though I dunno if it works with P3D v4. My guess is that it should. Guess if no one else responds I'll find out myself in short order as I need to build some new models. You can make the platform a "hard" surface. There's a good tutorial online about making hard surfaces.... "Adam's FS Design Blog" which was on abacuspub.com. Not sure it's still there though.

Good luck and I hope you make it freeware - I'd love to try it out.

Edit: I do hope you are talking about P3D. If you are talking X-Plane - I use Blender to build the models. Not sure about the "depth" of water in X-Plane, though.

 

[maddz]

I'll give you my 2 pennies worth. Yes, it should work below the waterline - even in FSX there were a couple of feet below the water. I Used FSDS for my FSX models - though I dunno if it works with P3D v4. My guess is that it should. Guess if no one else responds I'll find out myself in short order as I need to build some new models. You can make the platform a "hard" surface. There's a good tutorial online about making hard surfaces.... "Adam's FS Design Blog" which was on abacuspub.com. Not sure it's still there though.

Good luck and I hope you make it freeware - I'd love to try it out.

Edit: I do hope you are talking about P3D. If you are talking X-Plane - I use Blender to build the models. Not sure about the "depth" of water in X-Plane, though.

Hi Wizard,

Thanks for the info.

I'm about to start the project, witch could take a while as i need to learn how to use programes from scratch - thanks for the tip on the tutorial - i shall go hunting.

For sure will be freeware if it ever happens ( i like to give back to the community, where i can)

Im useing fsx (ACC) ATM, so i assum it would work in P3D.

 

[tgibson]

Hi,

You might be able to use the model you created in Sketchup, Export as DAE or Collada, Import into ModelConverterX and create the hard surface using the Attached Object Editor/Auto Platform option using the moving platform's material as the choice? Then Export the Object as an MDL file or place it as a BGL file.

 

[maddz]

Hi,

You might be able to use the model you created in Sketchup, Export as DAE or Collada, Import into ModelConverterX and create the hard surface using the Attached Object Editor/Auto Platform option using the moving platform's material as the choice? Then Export the Object as an MDL file or place it as a BGL file.

Hi tgibson,

Thanks for the tip. I've exported/imported into MCX :

....have to read the manual now, im not able to find the Attached Object Editor/Auto Platform option?

(appologies for the late reply, dont have much spare time to get on the PC during the working week)

 

[maddz]

4 day reading and PROGRESS!

Wow, my head hurts... I've had a big learning to curve to overcome but its amazing the amount of info thats out there to be found.

Still very early days (Clearly). ive had to jump many hurdles and read many forums to get this far, but its coming together, after many failed attempts.

I think ive got the know-how now, i just need to refine

A quick video

The animation needs tweaking, also need to find out how to trigger the animation. I think its something to do with "ambient" settings used. It currently just moves by itself in a loop up and down.

add the finished shape of the dock and add ramp.

add a hard surface to the lifting platform.

Finally add textures.