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The FSDS 2.24 and 3.5 Tutorial

Part #013

The first Aircraft 4 poly smoothing
OK, finally you should have a fuselage as shown in (Picture053). Now I like to smooth the poly’s a bit, it’s not necessary for the project in the moment, but will show you how to smooth the polys. Make sure you are in the “Part Mode”, then go to “Edit” go down at the menu list to “Part Properties” and click on it, a Popup window “Part Properties” opens, look at the right site where you see a little empty box before Polygon Smoothing, click on the box and press OK (Picture 054)
 
Part #014

The first Aircraft 5
Now it’s time for the Ruder! First you have to look at your right Backdrop drawing, how many points should the tube have to form a ruder? – We will use a tube with 6 points and 2 sections, Radius 0.5m, length 1m. Move the new tube back to the ruder (I suggest to Press Constrain X before) (Picture055)
Now go to “Point Mode” and fit the tube to the drawing, I suggest expanding the right view window and zoom in to the part. Finally you should have a tube in the right view window like (Picture 056 and Zip file "FSDS F4F Wildcat 02"). Now go to theTop View Window and expand it (a little tip, go to “view” and click on “Center on Part”), now select all points (remember selected points are Yellow) press - Constrain “Y” and “Z”-, select "scale” at the toolbar and move with your mouse left while pressing the left mouse button until the tube fits closely the drawing (Picture057). Expand the Top view and go to the Back view window, expand it and center on part, we will make the top of the ruder and tail fin a bit smaller, select the top 6 points move with your mouse left until it fit the drawing, now select the top 3 points and do the same again (Picture 058). Expand the view, go to “view” -select and click on “Center on Project”. Below the actual ZIP file "FSDS F4F Wildcat 03".
 
Part #015

The first Aircraft 6

Maybe you always noticed that the elevator looks like the Ruder, so we can use the Ruder part for it. Go to the upper toolbar click on “Copy” and on “past” now we have doubled the part. The next step is to rotate the new part, click on“Transform” then select “Rotate” make sure that at the "Options" are “vertices” selected, then write into the left “Z” box "90" (degrees) Now move the part into the right position. At last we have to correct the front part, so go to “Point Mode” select the front points (Picture 060) and move them backwards until the part fit’s the top drawing. Press Constrain “X” and “Y” before. For the right elevator “copy” and “past” the left elevator part, go again to “Transform” select “Flip” and Click on “Flip X” (Picture 061). Now go to “Edit” and go down and click on “Part Properties”, at the new window you see the "Part Properties" menu; go to “Axis Location” at the lefts side, then to the "X axis "and remove the minus before the number (Picture 062)and press “OK”. Your aircraft should look now like the one in Picture 063.
 
Part #016

The first Aircraft 7, the wings 1
Now we come to the wings, I prepared a tube made from 10 points and two sections originally length 4m, radius 2m, I moved the point’s until they fit the wing profile seen in the right view backdrop (Picture 064).
You will find the new setup in the Zip file below (FSDSF4F Wildcat 04)

 
Part #017

The first Aircraft 7 the wings 2
…Select the top view window, go to “Point Mode” and select all point’s, move the points right until the left row of points are at the centerline of the aircraft, then select the two outer point row’s, move them right until the middle row of points are at the line between the flaps and aileron, at last select the right row of points and move them until the end of the right wing (Picture 065). Now go to “Part Mode” select “Move” select also constrain X and Y. We will move the X, Y, Z axis more forward to the center of gravity, so press “shift” at your keyboard and move (only) the whole axis forward (Picture 066)
 
Part #018

The first Aircraft 7 the wings 3
To fit the wings to the drawing, we have to go to the top view. Select “Point Mode” and “Mouse select” then select the outer 3 posterior points. Use “Scale” and now it’s important to select constrain “X” and “Y” (Picture067) - move with your mouse left until the aft point fits the drawing. Now do the same with the two front points. In picture 067 you can see in which order I moved the points. Finally you can see the result in Picture 068.
 
Part #019

The first Aircraft 7 the wings 4
Now we go to the “Back” View, - to rotate the wing we need to use “Part Mode” and “Rotate”. Now move with your Mouse left until the wing fit’s closely the drawing (Picture 069). We notice that we have to move the wing a bit downwards, so use “Move Mode” press Constrain “X” and “Z” and move the wing downward (Picture 070). The next step is to fit the wing thickness to the drawing. Use “Point Mode” and select the outer points of the wing, press “Scale”also constrain “X” and “Z” move with the mouse left (don’t forget to press the left mouse button) until the outer wing-end fits the drawing (Picture 071). Now do the same with center row of points. - We see that we have to adjust the wing again this time upwards (Part Mode, constrain “X”,”Z” and Move) then rotate the wing again until it fits the drawing (Picture 072). Now Select “Point Mode”, “Scale” and constrain “X”,”Z” and adjust the center Row of points to the drawing (Picture 073).
 
Part #020

For the next two parts of the tutorials I will post Pictures and a “Zip file” only. In the Zip are two new “fsds” files, one with the new object before manipulation and one file with the final new added object. I think a few pictures can better explain how the new object will get into its new shape.
 
Part #022

The first Aircraft 8, Textures 1
Now it’s time to give the aircraft its textures. We don’t need the backdrop for texturing so we can hide the backdrop, starting with “Top” view, go to “view” click at the dropdown menu at “Backdrop” then select “Hide” (Picture 084). Now repeat it with the other two views.
I will start with the fuselage, but before we start with the fuselage we need to think about which parts of the fuselage we will texture together. For this aircraft I will include the tailfin and the headrest part with the fuselage.
Unfortunately I have to correct a little error I made when I start with the aircraft. For easy texturing I need two symmetric half’s of the fuselage. Select the fuselage part, go to “Point Mode” and select all middle points as shown in (Picture 085) and remove the points, next we select all left points(Picture 086) now use “scale Mode" - press constrain “Y” and “Z” and move with your mouse left until all points are lined up in the center (Picture 087). To let the aircraft look a bit more smooth I like to adjust the first points at the right site of the center (Picture 088). Use again “scale” and press constrain “X” and “Z” and move your mouse a little left (Picture 089).
 
Part #023

The first Aircraft 8, Textures 2
The next part is the headrest part; remove the left points (Picture 090). Before we do the same with the ruder I will split the top poly of the ruder, go to “poly mode” press < or > until the top poly is white (Picture 091) than go to “polygon” and click at the drop down menu at “subdivide”(Picture 092) now select “point mode” select all left points and remove them. When we subdivide a poly we get a new point in the center of the poly (Picture 093), select this new point and move the point a bit backwards and upwards as shown in (Picture 094) a last step before we join all this parts together is to create a box 1m x 1m x 1m (I call it “scale box”) and place the box above the aircraft as shown in (Picture 095)
 
Part #024

The first Aircraft 8, Textures 3
Now we will join all fuselage parts, select the new box, the headrest part, the ruder part and the fuselage part, use the right or left arrow at the toolbar, go to “edit” and press select, until all parts are yellow marked as selected (Picture 096), now press one of the arrows until the fuselage part is green.
Now go to “Part” and click at the dropdown menu on “Join selected” (Picture 097). All selected parts are joined to one part with the axis of the former green selected part.
At last we will make the texture template of this part, go to “part” / “Make Texture Template”, select at the popup window under Texture application “Right” and texture Size 512 x 512 , press “OK” (Picture 098). Now save the template in the folder “Texture templates” as Fuselage R (Picture 099).
In picture 099 the selected texture size is 256 x 256, this size is too small!
 
Part #025

The first Aircraft 8, Textures 4
Next will be the wing, again we add a box 1m x1m x 1m, then we select the box and the wing, the wing must be green (Picture 100) then join both Parts together, now make a top and a bottom texture template texture size 512 x 512 like described in part #24, save it as “wing top” and “wing btm”
The last template will be the elevator (you can remove the left elevator first); there are the same steps to do as before with the wing, add a box 1m x 1m x 1m join only with the right elevator (elevator part green) and make the template (Picture 101)
Now it’s on you to bring all templates on an empty texture size 512 x 512, for this tutorial I mirrored the wing and elevator bottom texture from left to right you will find my texture as bitmap and as Paint shop Pro image in the Zip below.
 
Part #026

The first Aircraft 8, Textures 5
Now we can start with texturing, first we remove the “scale boxes”, therefore go to point mode, select the points of the box and delete them and do it with all parts (Picture 102 and 103).
We start with the fuselage, make the Fuselage the current part and go to “Part” at the top Toolbar select at the dropdown Menu “Texture” now we go down to “Right” and press “select”, the texture list menu opens, because the list is empty we have to add our texture to the list, so press “add”, the “texture definition” menu opens and now we browse for our texture folder (if your setup is correct, the texture folder will open automatically), select “First_Aircraft_R” and press “Open” (Picture 104) than press at the “texture Definition” menu “OK”. The texture is now in the “Texture List”, click at the texture and press OK, the “Texture Properties” Menu opens; we start at the top left corner of the texture, press the left mouse button and move to an imaginary bottom right corner until the right fuselage backdrop is completely into the box (Picture 105), then click “OK” and again “OK” at the part “Texture Assignments” menu, now the fuselage is textured (Picture 106).
 
Part #027

The first Aircraft 8, Textures 6

… For the wing and the elevator we proceed the same way, but we haven’t to add a new texture to the texture list. Because I switched the wing and elevator bottom texture template from left to right at the texture, the bottom textures are a bit special to apply. Starting with the wing, make the wing the current part and proceed like with the fuselage but instead right we use “top”, press “select”, click on “First_Aircraft_R” and press “OK” like the fuselage we start from the top left corner of the texture template and move down to the imaginary bottom right corner of the top wing texture template. To fit the texture exactly to the template we can use X and Y Crop -also X and Y size at the right site of the “Menu”, with X,Y Crop you can move the drawn box left, right, up und downwards. With X,Y size you can make the box bigger or smaller, just try it out yourself. There is also a Zoom function where you can zoom into the texture (Picture 107). It’s important to be as exact as possible while assigning the texture. Finally press “OK”, the top Wing Texture is now assigned. Now go to “bottom” at the “Part Texture Assignments” Menu and do the same with the bottom wing texture but after you draw the box around the texture template check the box before “Invert X” at the right site of the Menu (Picture 108). Now press “OK” and proceed the same way with the elevator
 
For all who are waiting for updates, Sorry, I can’t go forward until June 17[SUP]th[/SUP].
By the way, when I finished this part of the tutorial I will put all posts together as PDF and upload it to Sim-outhouse. If someone is interested to have a look at it first ( PDF or MS word 2010) just send me a PM. As I said it before English isn’t my native language, and it may sound a bit twisted.
 
Part #028

The first Aircraft 8, Textures 7
Maybe, you ask yourself, “Why did he use only one half of the aircraft?” the answer is simple, it’s easier to work with one half of an aircraft, especially when there are cutouts, OK, there are no cutouts within this project, but there is another reason, -texturing!

First go to your Texture folder of your aircraft project, copy the “First_Aircraft_R” texture and save the copy as “First_Aircraft_L”, now open your current FSDS project file “Aircraft_01_j4”save it as “Aircraft_01_K_R” and save it again as “Aircraft_01_K_L” (Picture109) we stay with the last “Aircraft_01_K_L” file because we will assign the left texture (First_Aircraft_L) to all left aircraft parts at once .

We add again a simple 1m x 1m x 1m box because we will texture one site of the box with the “First_Aircraft_L” texture, the texture “First_Aircraft_L” isn’t in the texture list, so we had to add the texture to the list (look at tutorial Part #026). - It doesn’t matter which site of the box we chose, I use the “front” so go to “part”, “texture” until “Texture list” than chose “Add” search for your texture “First_Aircraft_L” select the texture. Finally the texture should be in the texture list (Picture 110). Now com’s the “trick” we chose “Global Rename” at the right site of the “Texture List” Menu, to use this feature we click first at the new added texture then click at “Global Rename” a popup menu appears with two boxes, the texture name is inside each box the upper box is called “old Name” the lower box is called “New Name”, because we will use the new texture “First_Aircraft_L” we have to change the name in the old Name texture box, so replace the “L” with an “R” at the end of the texture Name (Picture111) than press OK, a new popup window shows that 63 references had been changed (Picture 112) now press OK until all popup menus are gone. All textured parts are now covered with the new texture. Finally you can remove the new added box. I’m sure you will love this feature when your aircrafts get more complex.
 
Part #029

The first Aircraft 9, Flip the parts
the “Aircraft_01_K_L” file is a half right aircraft with left textures, so we have to flip all parts over to the left site. We start with the fuselage, make the fuselage the current part, go to “Transform” at the upper toolbar, and select “Flip” and press “Flip X” (Picture113), Next will be the Wing, after you flip the part you will recognize the wing angle is downwards, we have to correct this, go to “Edit”, “Part Properties” and set the “Z “axis from 6.5 to -6.5 (Picture 114 and 115) and press “OK”, at last the elevator has to be “flipped”, after you “flipped” the part, the elevator is still at the right side because the axis of the part is not at the Project “Z” axis (Picture 116). To move the entire part to the left site we go again to “Part Properties” than use “Axis Location” write in the box behind “X:” a (-) minus before the number and press OK (Picture 117)
 
Part #030

The first Aircraft 10, assembling two models into one

Now we have to assemble the left and right model, we stay with the “Aircraft_01_K_L”; there are still the windshield frames, select those 3 parts and delete them.

Now select all parts (all parts in yellow and one part green) and press “copy” at the main tool bar (Picture 118) than go to “File” and press “open”, a popup window opens asking if the changes of the current file should be saved, press “Yes” in the next popup window search for the “Aircraft_01_K_R”and click on it, than press “open” and press “Past” (Picture 119) you will recognize that in the preview Window aren’t all part’s visible, but they are there! Save the file as “Aircraft_01_L” close the file and open it again, you will now see the full aircraft in the preview window (Picture 120)
 
Part #031

The first Aircraft 10, joining the fuselage parts

In this step we will join the left and right fuselage parts. Open the “Aircraft_01_L” file and unselect all parts (“Edit” and “Unselect all”), for a better visibility of the part’s we hide the backdrop pictures at all view’s (“View” / “Backdrop” and click on “Hide”) (Picture 121).
Now select both fuselage parts, it doesn’t matter which part you use as main part (when selected “green”) (Picture 122) than go to “Part” at the main Toolbar and click on “Join selected” (Picture 123). Now both parts are joined together but not ready. To explain what I mean, we will look at the untextured project, go to “View”/”Perspective View” and uncheck “Solid Texturing on” (Picture124).

this Part will be continued soon with Part #032
 
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