LODEditor by Fred “BaldEagle” Balding / Rick “Dragon” Prior

This is a 3D editing program for the aircraft's.

this page is work in progress, sorry

Well you can get 3ds max from here www.discreet.com you might need to visit your bank manager first though. There's a nice freebie modeller called Gmax made by the same people, unfortunately this program doesn't allow you to save in a format that the LODEditor can read so this info is of little use unless someone has a developer version of Gmax, you have to pay for this one. The developer version can save in 3DS format.

What would be great would be for one of the programmers that knows the LOD structure to write a plugin for g-max, all this would need to do would be to save to a LOD, then the LOD editor can take over to do the structuring etc.

by CCC

Take modeling O-1 for example,

1. grab a good 3-side view line drawing, and print it out. better print in larger size.
2. define the center of this O-1 model. you can mark its center with red pen as zero point of this coordinate system (0,0,0). now draw lines across this point to establish its X, Y, Z axis lines.
3. The coordinate system in LE is, a/c nose heading right hand, vertice X(+), tail heading left hand, vertices X(-), wingtip close to you(top view) Y(+), and away from you Y(-), vertices below zero point, Z(+), above Z(-),
4. ok, now look at its wingspan, you measure the wingspan on this printed drawing with ruler, say, 5cm and you know the real thing wingspan is 20 feet. Ok, 20/5=4. now you know you can measure any point on this sheet, the readings time 4, you got the real number in LE (unit= feet).
5. so, start from the rudder of O-1. In side view, you set few points according to available vertices in LE, then measure their coordinates (X, 0, Z), time 4, got real coordinates in f4 world in feet, ok, keyin the coordinates. you do a O-1 tail on An-2 shape.
6. don't forget to click “calculate normal” button, if you cant view some poly faces.

Notes

Just few notes for you using my LE modeling method:

1. Better pick a default shape close to the size of your project. should save lots effort.
2. Print out 3 side line drawing, mark its center (0,0,0) and draw X/Y/Z axis.
3. When you mark the zero point, put it to a place where you can save effort to move many other vertices.
4. Be sure to calibrate the Y-axis. say, you check a vert# on vertical fin, or nosetip, you can find its X/Y/Z values. if Y not zero, you got to fix this by adjusting whole shape offset. or you'll experience lots trouble to tweak width value.
5. Tweak vertices at model's periphery first. then tewak those closest to center point, then those in between. Sometimes you could disrupt the whole projects after messing up all vertices!

Source (PMC Tactical forums)

Download from PMC Tactical Falcon 4 Downloads page.