Modeling Aircraft

**JM)** · 12-06-2011, 07:27 PM

I was wondering if there was a program (free

) that will allow me to make simple changes to an aircrafts model. Like if I wanted to move the Wheels on a Maule tail drager to make it have try cycle gears. I don't need anything too fancy, just make simple (probably not simple to do) changes.

Thanks!

**mmann** · 12-06-2011, 11:48 PM

Not only is there not a free program available that would allow you to make the changes you have in mind; there is not even a payware program that would allow you to do it. If you were the original developer of the aircraft model and had the original project files for the 3d program that was used to model the aircraft, you would still have great difficulties in making the change you mentioned!

**Jim Robinson** · 12-07-2011, 06:38 AM

But... the visual model has nothing to do with the flight model, so you could approximate tricycle gear by replacing the [Contact points] in the Maule's aircraft.cfg (make a backup first) with those from the Cessna Skyhawk for example. The visual model would then taxi around with it's tail in the air, but from a flying perspective it would basically be a tri-gear. I oversimplified things with that explanation, you'd probably see some strange things happen with the Maule like floating or sunken wheels, who knows what else. Those kinds of modifications require fine tuning of the numbers to work correctly. Somebody at MS already did that with the Maule

.

Jim

**clutchcargo** · 12-07-2011, 12:14 PM

Actually there is a free program that would allow you to change the wheels of the aircraft. It is called Gmax and is included with FS2004 (can't remember which version). BUT (and this is a big but), you would need the original model files of the aircraft (from the designer), to be able to make those changes. So light-heartedly I am saying it is possible but in practicality it would be very hard to do. And let's not even get into the learning curve for Gmax, ha!

Clutch