"Best" Gmax Tutorial?

[Travis]

Okay, I have been using The Stupid Idiot's Guide to Gmax, but it has fallen short on cutting out the control surfaces.  So what, in ya'lls opinion, is the best Gmax tutorial available?

(I tried the ones included with Gmax, but they couldn't help me.)

[Mustang]

well the stupid idiots guid is by far the best tutorial out there and it covers cutting out the controll surfaces pretty well in my opinion... what questions do you have maybe i can help

later

[Travis]

Cutting out your control surfaces is actually pretty easy. We'll do this with Edge/Cut.  I find it easiest to use Snap/Edge to make sure I'm selecting the edges I want. In the top view I've simply traced the fontrol surface of

Adjusting Vertices: If you need to adjust some of the vertices you've created the best way to do this is again using Snap/Edge to move the vertex along one of the new edges. You can "slide" the vertex up and down along the edge as long as your edge is highlighted by the 3d snap.

Now repeat the process of cutting your edges out on the underside of the wing, ensuring you have everything line up. To assist ensuring the control surface lines up along the trailing edge you can use Snap/Vertex. This will snap to the vertex you made on the top.

Detaching the Control Surfaces is as simple as selecting the polygon and then clicking on Detach. You can repeat this command to separate the Aileron from the trim flap and the landing flap. However, in this case--since all three share the same hinge point--I'm going to seep them together a little longer.

Okay, that's a direct quote from the Idiot's Guide in the section on cutting out control surfaces.  What I don't understand is in the first paragraph, it says to use Snap/Edge to select the edges, and then the next sentence degrades into gibberish.  Edges of what?  The object I'm cutting?  The background images?  Once I figure out that one part, all the rest should be fairly simple.  Its just that little bit that has me confused.

[X_eidos2]

Not having read the idiot's guide (not qualified  ;D) I had to do a little testing before writing my answer.

The edges being referred to are the edges of the polygons of the mesh being edited.

Why the author of the tutorial has you cutting up edges to make control surfaces is beyond me. I've always taken the approach of having the edges of the polygons of the wing match the position of the control surfaces during the creation process, so that when it's time to make the ailerons, its always been a simple matter of detaching polygons from the wing mesh. Making trim tabs would be a simple matter of using the boolean process and going in and cleaning things up since boolean tends to make twice as many faces as you really need.

But this illustrated one of the beauties of software. There's always more than one way to do the task. Which way is best depends on personal preferences.

In the Gmax help file there's a good description on how to use the cut edge function.

[Scottler]

Unless I'm an absolute moron, which has been known to be true from time to time, I found even the Stupid Idiot's Guide a bit advanced for me.  It just jumped right into it.  Anyone else think so?

[Travis]

Deffinitely.  I think the guy is pretty advanced at it, and took for granted some of the things people don't know starting out.  There are times when I have to reread things three or four times and then go back in the guide and read over something else before I understand it.  Kinda strange, but its making me pay attention . . .

[Felix/FFDS]

The idea of teh SIGtoGmax is to do it AFTER you've done the gmax tutorials.

It is important to do the basic program-handling tutorials before you attempt others.

Not everything in the gmax default tutorials applies to FS, but more important is getting to familiarize yourself with the program.

[Scottler]

Well, that would certainly explain why the only thing I was able to successfully create was a cylinder.  lol  (Which, admittedly, is farther than I've gotten on previous attempts.  So I suppose the SI Guide did something.  lol)


I'll have to check out the regular tutorials when I get home.  Anyone know where I can find those?

[Felix/FFDS]

If you have FS9, gmax 1.2, the help files and default tutorials are in disc 1 under the "Extras" folder.

They are also a separate download from the discreet site....  

Don't forget, that there are also specific tutorials/links from the FFDS site, Tutorials Section.

[quote]
I'll have to check out the regular tutorials when I get home.

[Scottler]

Felix, you are truly a help.  Thanks.  I've actually seen the tutes on the FFDS site, but it was when I was still afraid of gMax.  Perhaps tonight, after stops at the bank and the pet store, and before the finale of "For Love or Money 2", I'll be able to try it out.

Assuming the modler is of average intellect, about how long do you think it would take someone to get to the point of being comfortable designing and building aircraft?

Also, where does one find the specs for various aircraft?  One thing I couldn't find was the radius of the fueslage, which is important in gMax.  I found the length of the plane I was trying to build, but nowhere could I find the radius!

[Felix/FFDS]

Assuming the modler is of average intellect, about how long do you think it would take someone to get to the point of being comfortable designing and building aircraft?

Anywhere from one week to two years....

Also, where does one find the specs for various aircraft?  One thing I couldn't find was the radius of the fueslage, which is important in gMax.  I found the length of the plane I was trying to build, but nowhere could I find the radius!

If you have a proper scaled backdrop, with the "basic" dimensions correct, other dimnesions fall into place.  Depending on the quality of your image, you may be a few inches "off",  but remember, you're making an artistic statement, rather than making a detail engineering document.

For example, presuming you have the correct wingspan in your view, when you draw your cylinder against the iimage, you'll "fit" it to the backdrop.  Say you estimate the diameter/radius off a bit, you can still us the spinner to adjust it.

[quote]Felix, you are truly a help.

[Scottler]

Ah-Ha!!!  There's another thing I was doing incorrectly.  I'm such a Stupid Idiot...oh wait, this book IS for me!

Where can I find the images to use as a backdrop?  I've tried finding info here at SimV and also at airliners.net, but I didn't see anything that I could use as a template, so to speak.

[Felix/FFDS]

sigh -

Go to
Simviation Design Utilities Page and towards the bottom of the page you'll see 3-View Resources which gathers my favorite resources for backdrop images - 3-views and scale plans...



[quote]Ah-Ha!!!

[Scottler]

Thank you Felix.  I promise.  If I've got any further questions, I'll ask someone else.  You've done more than your share today, and it's appreciated.

Thanks!  ;D

[Travis]

Scott, what aircraft are you looking to build, specifically?