Just need some feedback...

[Wing Nut]

Well, here's my first attempt at cutting out a cockpit area.  I am building the cockpit as a separate model that I can just drop in and scale after I'm ready for it.  Obviously, I am not ready for it yet.  ::)  I could use a few tips on lining up the points, because it gets real confusing, especially when looking from the front of the plane.  I read several tutorials that suggested I build the inner fuselage from a tube and then cut a hole in it and then make a third fuselage segment to go in after that!  It seemed like a little too much work for me, so I took a tube, flattened it, and the rolled it around (ever see a roll pin and you'll get the idea).  Then I put it in and shaped it from there, with the last step being to use the split where the two ends meet to shape the opening so I wouldn't have to eliminate any points.  Clear as mud?  





BTW, I have no illusions.  I have a long way to go and much practice to do in this.  This is my first plane after all...

Kevin

[ozzy72]

You are doing a lot better than I can Kevin

Mark

Ps. Glad to see you you've got your old callsign back, great choice of movie for this week, inconceivable

[Mike Thurman]

Hey, for a beginner, that's damn good

[Felix/FFDS]

The first "cut" is always rough.  I have no qualms about adding points, creating filler polys, etc., to "round out" the curves, etc.

Of course, what I HAVE done also is port the fuselage section to gmax, shape merge to cut the cockpit hole out, then port it back to FSDS, and only use that bit of the gmaxed-fuselage around the cockpit. ...

[Hagar]

I first experimented with the VC back in the days of AF99 & progressed to a proper DVC with FSDS1. I don't claim to be an expert but I find it easiest to copy/paste the fuselage & remove the parts I don't need. Then flip all the polys & you have the basis of your DVC. No problems with lining up points or scaling as it's an exact fit. Being the inner view of the visual model, it's just like the real thing. You can easily fill in the missing parts later & create new parts as necessary. It's obviously best to finish the normal model before using this method.

Creating the DVC separately from scratch would involve just too much work for me to contemplate.

[Wing Nut]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the help you're giving me. I do have just a few questions:


The add points button is always inactive when I am working, no matter what mode I use.

[Hagar]

[quote]The add points button is always inactive when I am working, no matter what mode I use.

[Travis]

You seem to be learning swiftly, young Jedi . . .

The way I have always created a VC is taking the exterior model and creating a duplicate, then inverting all the polys and cutting what I didn't need.  After that, its just a matter of scaling and putting points where they need to go.

Just out of curiousity, what aircraft are you designing?

[Wing Nut]

My problem with this is this; if you make a second fuselage, then cut out the points, aren't you still going to have that see-through effect?  It still looks like there is no back side to it and just making another fuselage wouldn't seem to make a difference, since if you stack them you can still see through all of them.

Thanks for the compliment. Ender.  The plane is Bob Odegaard's F2G-1 Super Corsair

[lonewolf_0]

Are you trying to make a tub for the cockpit area but are having difficulties lining up the edges of the tub with the edges of the hole in the fueslage?

If so, the way I do it is to make the tub, roughly position the tub edge points to corespond to thier fuselage hole point counterparts. Select both parts and join them to make one part. Switch to point mode then ether using the mouse selection box or manually selecting, highlight each pair of points then use join to combine them as one. Make sure that one of the points you select is current (you'll see why if you don't, just use undo to try again). Afterwards, you may need to fine tune the positions of the newly joined points and possibly flip the tub polys to see them.

Hope this helps.