We shall build a locomotive not because it is easy...

[PapaXpress]

You will find that a lot of scripts now use the Update to control children and locomotive functions. I understand where you coming from with performance. I can say that I have not found any issues with using the Update function as appose to the OnControlValueChange.

[dogrokket]

Very basic question guys: I started the tut on Jerry's site and in the third step, he says to zero out the position fields in 3DC. This puts the cylinder at the far corner of the palette. I'm using 9.2.2. I don't think I can get much farther until I figure this out.... What am I missing?

[PapaXpress]

What is the step number?

[pwillard]

On of my modeling tricks with Crafter/Canvas is to set up my work area as follows

Since most of my work is seldom longer than 30meters (yeah, sorry, I work in Metric) I set my TOOLS--> OPTIONS-->EDITING-->GRID to:

OriginX = -15
OriginY = 0
OriginZ = -15
SIZE = 30
UNITS = METERS

This way... my work area has 0,0,0 in dead center of the grid. It makes placing symetrical things easy... IE; bogeys at +5.58 and -5.58 etc.

[thebigroyboyski]

Quick bogey and body questions here, I've been following the tutorial to the word with far better results than I could of ever hoped for and learned loads in the process. Now I was wondering what's the best way to get my bogies shape symmetrical? Ie the curves on the frame. I've built it by using push pull and chamfer to get the shape but I'm not 100% happy that the curves are exactly the same at both ends. They look good but I guess I'm nit picking here.
As for the body. I'm building a coach to start with and at the ends the face sits slightly recessed from the sides. What's the best way to select the face and move the ends in a few inches?
I hope all this makes sense as I'm new to 3dcrafter but thanks to jerry, papa and mrennie for making the learning process so much easier with the tutorials and blog entries. Much appreciated guys

[mrennie]

Quick bogey and body questions here, I've been following the tutorial to the word with far better results than I could of ever hoped for and learned loads in the process. Now I was wondering what's the best way to get my bogies shape symmetrical? Ie the curves on the frame. I've built it by using push pull and chamfer to get the shape but I'm not 100% happy that the curves are exactly the same at both ends. They look good but I guess I'm nit picking here.
As for the body. I'm building a coach to start with and at the ends the face sits slightly recessed from the sides. What's the best way to select the face and move the ends in a few inches?
I hope all this makes sense as I'm new to 3dcrafter but thanks to jerry, papa and mrennie for making the learning process so much easier with the tutorials and blog entries. Much appreciated guys

The easiest way is to split the bogie in half along the z and x axis, deleting the three quarters you don't want to keep and then mirroring the remaining quarter along the x axis, select the newly generated half bogie and mirroring that along the z axis to create a whole bogie. After each time you do the mirroring, make sure to hit the Optimize Shape Geometry button to fuse duplicate points (two points at the same coordinates - it's sometimes a bi-product of mirroring, and causes problems for texturing and exporting if left like that). Also, before mirroring, make sure that all the points along the axis are equalized, so that the join between the original and mirror parts will be perfect (no tiny gaps).

After the bogie has been created, you'll need to re-position the group centre to make sure it's still in the centre of the bogie (in plan view).

If you need, I could try showing it with some pictures.

[thebigroyboyski]

If I get a chance tonight I'll give that a shot and see how I get on. If I make an **** of it some pictures would be great.
Cheers
Roy

[thebigroyboyski]

Finally got a chance to try this last night and it worked brilliantly Mike.
Is there a way to save the bogie as a separate item so I can use it for another coach that uses the same type?

Cheers
Roy

[mrennie]

Finally got a chance to try this last night and it worked brilliantly Mike.
Is there a way to save the bogie as a separate item so I can use it for another coach that uses the same type?

Cheers
Roy

Hi Roy,

You can copy items using the copy paste buttons, including copying from one model, closing it, opening another model (existing or new, doesn't matter) and pasting in the item. What I sometimes do is paste useful items into their own dedicated model files and name them accordingly, to make it easier to find them again later.

Cheers,
Mike

[thebigroyboyski]

Well here's what i've came up with so far,

Truck2.jpg

Any hints or tips or if i've done something very wrong please let me know

Cheers
Roy

[mrennie]

Well here's what i've came up with so far,

Truck2.jpg

Any hints or tips or if i've done something very wrong please let me know

Cheers
Roy

So far so good

Next, I'd suggest texturing it and then you might even try putting it into a bogie blueprint, and then reference that from a very basic engine blueprint (use a simple cube for the engine body) and see if you can place the truck on the track. If you have the group centres placed correctly, meaning the wheel group centres in the exact centre of the wheel axles, truck group centre in the exact centre of the truck (although height doesn't matter), then everything should pivot and rotate properly. You could attach a coupler to one end using the asset viewer so that another engine could pull your truck and that way you can see the wheels turn (it's a bit easier than setting up the engine blueprint to be able to drive the truck as if it were the complete engine).

One thing I notice is that you've left out the inner faces (the ones facing towards the middle of the track). Was that deliberate? I think it would be noticeable if you were looking at the loco from track level.

[thebigroyboyski]

I'll give that a go mike and see what happens. I've a bit of re-naming to do and finish a couple of details then get everything grouped together first.
I did remove the backsides of the frame deliberately. Because the body sits very low on the coach I wanted to see if it was noticeable. I probably shouldn't of removed it so early on but it's all about learning at the minute and with everyday I work on it I work out new and easier ways of doing things.
Cheers again for your help Mike

Roy

[mrennie]

I'll give that a go mike and see what happens. I've a bit of re-naming to do and finish a couple of details then get everything grouped together first.
I did remove the backsides of the frame deliberately. Because the body sits very low on the coach I wanted to see if it was noticeable. I probably shouldn't of removed it so early on but it's all about learning at the minute and with everyday I work on it I work out new and easier ways of doing things.
Cheers again for your help Mike

Roy

Hi Roy,

If you haven't yet got the right groups set up, there's a little trick to get the groups with their centres in the right place, without the bother (and imprecision) of using the shift tool to move the existing parts within the groups. What I do is to place a new cube into the scene, which appears in its own, new group at the default location in the scene. I select that group in the hierarchy and unhide it. Then I draw the cube as a wireframe. That way, I can see the group's crosshairs inside the cube. The next step is to move the cube into the exact position where I want a group's centre to be (for example, for the truck, I would move the cube into the middle of the truck, so that its crosshairs are where the truck should pivot). The next bit is the sneaky part - I select all the parts of the truck (bogie) and, in the hierarchy list, drag them out of their existing group and into the new group, and once that's done, I delete the new cube. Then all that's left to do is to rename the new group to whatever it should be (e.g. bo01 for the first bogie). There are other ways of getting the same result, but this one works nicely every time and to me seems to be the most straightforward.

Cheers,

Mike

[PolyesterMafia]

Little late-hit comment here...

That solution also works if you have a part that is disappearing because of Field of View issues. Nearest I can tell, something happens during the modeling process, most likely while regrouping parts, that causes a part's invisible bounding sphere to shrink. When this happens, the in-game camera loses track of the part and it de-rezzes before it is completely out of the scene. This same issue can also lock down a part that is supposed to be animated.

The solution, as mrennie explained above, is to create a new shape and place it's center exactly on the group axis of the disappearing part. To add to what was said, a more precise way to center the new cube is to look at the Properties tab and get the exact coordinates and orientation of the Group you are going to replace. Then plug those coordinates into the new cube to place it, then follow the rest of the instructions.

The other way to do this would be to manually edit the Geo file and increase the bounding sphere. This is more of a pain to do, as it has to be done after each IGS export to the game, unless you know somebody that knows somebody that knows how to automate that process.

[Bananarama]

The bounding sphere issue was supposedly addressed in the TS-2014 release, but alas it's still present, especially on large or tall objects.

What I do (and have done since the days of RS) is to create single polys (flipped) and place them at the corners of large buildings opposite the height of the object. If the building is 100' x 100' and 20' tall, then the polys are at the extreme corners and set to -20'. Since the polys are flipped, they're unseen if the object happens to be near a hillside (less polys than a cube, albeit it doesn't matter for the big picture). Towers and utility poles are easier, as they usually only require a single poly centered and opposite the object's height. I use the width and length of the tower/pole to determine the size of the one poly here.