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Beyond Plane Maker A Second Step into Miscellaneous Bodies/with Motion Making a Nicer Airbrake By Ray Hill Before starting this tutorial, it may help for reference if you have my 'Plane Maker Tutorial 1.0' file downloaded and installed in X-Plane, as this tutorial is based around this model. It can be found in the file library here at FlightSim.Com (tutorial_xp.zip). Please make sure you don't overwrite any of your existing work. The basic airbrake that is configurable in Plane Maker is a rather boring square plate which you can paint (via the .PNG). However it does give the flight engine the required aerodynamic effect. It is not something you can make invisible, but there is a way around this in that you can paint it with zero opacity (so it is see through), your painting app ought to have a color setting to do this. By doing this, it means that it can then be hidden and then overlaid by your (yet to be made) wonderful new object! To create this object, it's probably easiest for many to do this in SketchUp, or Blender if you are familiar with it. Your airbrake will probably need to be something like 3 feet wide by 4 feet; which is a size suitable for a Hawker Hunter (this is just an example). Once you have a standard object modelled, you can simply scale it. Below is an image of my new airbrake. To achieve the folds, I had to use ViaCAD, although there are probably SketchUp Rubies (3rd party plugins) for curving and folding, whilst Blender has it all built in. What you see below is after I have exported the object using ViaCAD's SketchUp exporter (nice of them) and after I have applied my chosen PNG texture file. When you export the object you will get the following dialogue message: The triangle count (mentioned above) is important due to the fact that X-Plane uses triangles to build and image objects. The fewer you use, then the less CPU power is required (I built an earlier one with complex curves which resulted in 30,000+ triangles). The object may now be copied into your plane's 'objects' folder and then applied to a suitable position using Plane Maker's miscellaneous objects tool, as shown below. When I originally did this, I must have got the axes a bit wrong and so had to configure the angular offsets (the last three numerical boxes) in which to get the situation correct. The value 091.0 is to allow the object to fold up further toward the fuselage. The lateral offset (mid left) was required, as I probably didn't set my axis exactly to the mid point in SketchUp. Lo and behold we have an airbrake, however...it is not animated (yet). During the process of making the airbrake, I found the X-Plane export utility for SketchUp (when using their animation tool) to be very quirky, as the focus there seems to be on buildings and scenery. So after about a day of debugging and reverse engineering, I managed to find a way to manually add animation commands at the end of an X-Plane object. I also spent a very long time finding the correct internal X-Plane dataref to use. In the end I applied the dataref editor plugin to X-Plane and browsed through all the elements to find what was changing when I hit the airbrake control. There are over 1,000 datarefs, they are documented, as a list. My trial and error eventually led me to get to the following set of commands that I manually appended to the end of the OBJ file using a simple text editor, but do make sure to save it back with an OBJ suffix. The ANIM_trans line deals with transposition. I left it in so you know of its existence. In our case, we are not moving the object, we are rotating it, so we only need the ANIM_rotate_key statements. ANIM_rotate_begin 0 1 0 tells it to use the y axis for rotation (x, z are zero) the correct dataref is sim/flightmodel... (as above). This dataref has two logical states 0 and 1, so there are two rotate_key lines. The first gives its start and end angle 0 to 0 degrees, to close it. The second gives the open condition of 0 to 30 degrees. The TRIS value is generated within the object but seems to be needed to be moved inside the ANIM_begin and ANIM_end delimiters. So after hitting the airbrake key on the model, it finally worked! Something very important to remember about Plane Maker, is that objects are just images and hold no aerodynamic value. For example, in Plane Maker, if I go into "Expert"/"Invisible Parts" and choose "hide all objects", it leaves only the imported objects displayed, which in this case is two undercarriage doors, an airbrake and a bomb. Now, if I wave my magic wand and add another external object (in this case my Skyray), which is found in the objects folder for this download the following happens... Never one to shy away from challenges of the day, I thought I would take a flight over Dunsfold in my prop-driven Skyray! But first I went back into hidden objects and unticked prop-index 0 and 1 so the prop's re-displayed. All of the above can be quite overwhelming if you are a relative newcomer to Plane Maker, so if that is the case, don't lose heart, but instead, head on over to my Plane Maker series, where hopefully, it will guide you in the right place. All the best! Ray Hill www.rayhillwrites.com
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Beyond Plane Maker A First Step into Miscellaneous Bodies By Ray Hill Creating objects that Plane Maker doesn't do... After spending hours and hours in Plane Maker, we eventually begin to compare our own work with some of the high quality payware planes that are developed. However, there is no reason why your design will not fly as equally well or maybe even better than some of the professional offerings. Of course, because we are limited by Plane Maker, there are a fair few missing parts; i.e. things that we cannot create. In this article, I will go through my own baby steps on how I made some of the missing parts, such as creating simple undercarriage doors and attaching them to native Plane Maker objects. Firstly you will need to become familiar with a suitable 3D CAD package, which in itself is a far from trivial task. My own preference (on balance of price/functionality) for hobby purposes, is to use ViaCAD to create 3D solid models. Unfortunately, whilst it can export many CAD file types, there is nothing to import them into Plane Maker. On a positive, it does offer the ability to export to SketchUp (nice of them) so one can then import to SketchUp and then use the SketchUp to X-Plane add-on to then export an X-Plane *.obj format. Others may prefer just to start with SketchUp and ignore additional feeder apps. Oh, somewhere in there we also need to use a graphics editor to create/edit a suitable PNG texture file for each object. Another alternative is to use Blender and the Blender2XPlane add-on. Not being a computer artist, I personally have found Blender extremely difficult to learn, and whilst I have had some success with very simple objects, my skills are nowhere close to creating a quality airframe. I have also found the Blender2XPlane utility very difficult and inconsistent to use, which is a general problem across far too many freeware offerings. I also looked at AC3D but the fact that the X-Plane add-on was so old, did not fill me with the greatest of confidence. Each object in X-Plane has a defined programmed action that is referenced by "datarefs", the set of which (1,000+) probably gets extended and possibly modified through later versions. As you can see, there are quite a few processes going on and inevitably getting the version levels of all file objects stabilised will mostly preclude using software too far out of date. As this is a general entry level tutorial using low cost, demo or free software I will only discuss using SketchUp and its ability to export to X-Plane. For a good beginners guide on how to use SketchUp, have a look at Paul Mort's series. I would suggest that unless you are an experienced 3D CAD user, with existing software, SketchUp is probably a good place to start. But do start with simple things, as most won't learn all the skills needed to do a full wing, let alone a complete plane without significant investment in learning time. If you want to know more, do a YouTube search for "SketchUp Caravelle". So why is it all so complicated? Firstly you will see a typical wavefront .OBJ (geometric vector) file. These files may be opened with a basic *.TXT reader: Secondly, here is an X-Plane format *.OBJ file: The above is X-Plane's OBJ8 file format. For the techies it is described here. Note: You need to initially refer to section 2. So basically, software is required to translate from a 3 column system where each line is an instruction to draw a line (vector) in three dimensional space, to a 7 column format which also contains the basic geometrical three dimensional vector information, plus the texturing information (which in Wavefront would be in a separate MTL file). For your information, you can also open *.acf files with a basic text editor and see similar logic, but I strongly urge you not to start fiddling, although it is interesting to "lift the hood" and see what is really going on. In this article I am not going to discuss the basics of using SketchUp, as there are many short tutorials to be found on YouTube. However I will say that you will need to understand the concept of Rubies (*.RBZ files) which are functional add-ons which extend the product; the X-Plane exporter being one of these. For this, you will need to download the source file and then go into SketchUp preferences, choose extensions then click on the "install Extension" button and select your SketchUp2XPlane_170.rbz file, or whatever version is appropriate. At the time of writing, I was using the older 2016 version of SketchUp, which worked, but have since moved to 2019. You may also need to install other import Rubies if you have objects in different formats. SketchUp is widely used by both builders and architects, so there exists a vast library of objects (scenery, buildings, etc.) if you also wanted to export them into X-Plane. Plane Maker by default works in feet and inches, so it is important that your source 3D model uses the same units and is sized to meet the needs of your plane. Under general settings you may set Plane Maker to metric units, if that is your preference. When using SketchUp, it is very important to think about how the axes orientate. The green axes corresponds to X-Plane's long coordinate, blue to vertical and red to lateral. The dotted half of the axes are for negative directions, i.e. down, forward or port, whilst the solid axes correspond to backward, upwards and starboard. Zero is always the start point of the chosen object, and if you choose to attach new objects to aircraft reference points, then the object will map to your *.acf's component datum zero point. For an undercarriage element it will therefore map to the high point of an undercarriage leg. Within the Miscellaneous objects function, where you need to add these things, Plane Maker gives you options to fine tune spatial placement as well as any angular changes required. Below shows the axis compatibility between my preferred 3D CAD software and that of SketchUp. For a simple object, we can just use SketchUp to create an undercarriage door similar to the one below. Note that the axes is at the bottom, which is for attaching it to an X-Plane undercarriage leg. This will be OK, but it will need some positional re-tuning to your preferred effect. If this was to be rotated by animation, the axis would need to be reset to top right, as the rotation hinges along the green axis. The physical model is normally the same for either a port or starboard undercarriage leg, but it might be best to have duplicates in separately named files (may help with texturing later). For example, you may wish to paint the inside of a door with a factory primer color, whilst the outside matches the color of the lower wing or fuselage. Save it into your planes \objects folder and name it "mainwheeldoorP.obj". When using miscellaneous objects, Plane Maker will first scan the \Objects folder for a list of useable items (you may need to frequently scroll up to see the full list). You may also need to rescan or reopen to pick up modified objects. If our object is attached to a Plane Maker component that moves, it will become part of that component's motion. On the other hand, if we wish to create an inner undercarriage door, we appear to have no equivalent Plane Maker object to attach to. The same also applies in that we cannot attach to a moving object such as an aileron or an airbrake; so whilst we can create a lovely balance horn and an exquisitely curved airbrake with hinges and hydraulic actuator, we are not offered any moveable components in which to attach them to. We can actually do this but it requires the use of animation; for example we can animate in Blender and also the X-Plane plugin for SketchUp offers animation options. These may have to be mapped to a cockpit/keyboard control button and can sometimes require additional coding. However, by using some lateral thinking, you can, within the undercarriage section, make dummy retracting skids of almost zero length and radius and attach objects to them. These may then be made invisible, but if they are small enough, just add some texture and use them to appear like a hinge, to which you can then attach your object. This does not require knowledge of datarefs, so is a far simpler solution, but we are limited to available elements in Plane Maker and some undercarriage systems may require far more than what comes in the box. Anyway, that was rather getting ahead of our current topic! For now, we just simply need to paint and texture our object. Everything we need is in SketchUp, but even so, it's still annoyingly difficult for beginners, as you would have thought you could use the same texture *.png that the *.acf file uses...but no! So I highlight my object and click on the paint bucket tool, which brings the standard color tool chooser up. See that brick; click on it, then click the "color" dropdown box and choose "new texture" and select the *.png file in your model. Click OK on the next naming option and then click your mini-item which should look exactly like your *.png. Select your 3D object and then using the shift key, click the paint bucket over it and it should cover it in something. The clever part here is that we need to chose an area with the color(s) we intend to paint the object with. Now this is an extremely laborious thing to do but the principles are well explained in the following video: The video above is 22 minutes long, so there is no need to watch it now, but it will reinforce your knowledge if you invest the time. In other words, why reinvent the wheel. However, if we want to make things easier for ourselves (also less clever), we can simply choose or create another PNG file with a single color and come up with something like what is shown below... Color your wheeldoor file as shown above. Save it (*.SKP format) and then use the X-Plane export tool which will create your final X-Plane object format file. These need to be placed into the \Objects folder that holds your *.acf file. When exporting to X-Plane it may come up with a power of 2 error, which means that your source PNG is not the correct size (256 x 256, scaling up to 4096 x 4096). Remember, it needs to be square, so go and fix the PNG if required. However, even after doing this, you will need to go back in the brick/color tool, delete the old entries and reapply the changed PNG image. If it's already a power of 2 square it should work. The utility will also tell you if texturing is not complete and how many triangles are created. Now we need to add the object. Go into Plane Maker, choose Miscellaneous Objects and do the following: click the bottom left add button and enter your coordinate data similar to the second line below (for mainwheeldoorP.obj): MainwheeldoorS required different settings as it was sourced differently using different axes starting points and an incomplete texture. Note the offset roll angle which was chosen so as to make it a bit more realistic. A little tip here is to check your model in the animated view and make sure everything closes inside the wing on both surfaces. Below is the finished article... Now add an object for the starboard equivalent, then go and create a nosewheel door using the same methods from above. In my experience, I have found that SketchUp initially needs a fair bit of patience to get to grips with, but once mastered it can be used to create many amazing things, often in minutes! Below is a YouTube video by niltondc which shows the creation of a Britannia airliner from 'lofted drawings': Similar tutorial videos may be found for most 3D CAD packages. I hope, at the very least, this little tutorial helps you towards getting a foot through the door into a higher level experience. This will be followed up shortly with a very brief overview of animation. If you wish to know more about aviation science, here is a worthwhile introduction: Basic Theories of Aeronautics: An introduction to using Simple Mathematics and Physics to design aeroplanes And if spaceflight is also your thing: Spaceflight Theories: A beginners guide to rocket and space sciences "Off we go into the wild blue yonder". Ray Hill www.rayhillwrites.com
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A Guide to Using Objutil_combined.py to Create X-Plane Objects By Gary Rumpler You will need these three things, and a few more, to be able to convert models into useable X-Plane Objects. http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=33448 https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cjjwu92mausoh04/AABxwtKzzczZwpW2J8imQGPoa/Utils?dl=0&preview=objutils_combined.py www.easy2convert.com/png2dds/ There are basically six steps in converting a model: Finding and preparing the SketchUp model Converting the SK model for use Getting the Script ready to use Creating a working folder and a scenery folder Converting the three parts from #2 into an X-plane OBJ using the command line How to place the object It will take much longer to read (or write) this tutorial that it will to convert your first object once you get everything set up. I'll tell you as much as I can about what I've learned doing this for about a month now. 1. Finding And Preparing The SketchUp Model If you are reading this you probably know where this all starts: https://3dwarehouse.SketchUp.com You also need some form of SketchUp. I'm not going to cover how to download and install. If you can't get that done... You can search the warehouse by entering what or where you are looking for. I entered Miami. Tip: some times you should look under every one of the combinations, there will be models of Miami not in Miami, but will be under Miami Beach or Miami fl or Miami florida. So be patient and keep looking. Also start by looking at collections first. I'm going to check out the second box, a collection with 49 models in it. There are two ways to download the model. First you can just click on the box with the arrow, or you can click on the model and download from the download box. Here's where a little planning goes a long way. One of the first things I realized was that almost all the models in the 3DWarehouse have the same name. sk14,sk15,sk16 or "building in Miami" for example. Also some of them do have good descriptions, but that gives them a really long file name, which is really bad in step 5. So here is what I do. I created a scenery list worksheet that looks like this: When you download a file you get this in the corner of the window. Click on that arrow and it will take you to your download file. Write the name of the model and any info on the scenery worksheet and then objutil30.jpg renamed to objutil15.jpg And now you are ready to start the conversion. Make sure that you installed the OBJexporter plugin from the beginning of the tutorial. Start SketchUp and load the model you want to work on, in this case 10. There are a number of things which must be edited out before you can convert. First: remove the tile the model is placed on. Click anywhere it is grey and a menu will open. If you click and a blue line surrounds the tile choose erase and the tile will vanish. If you click and a red line appears, chose unlock then erase. This is what it should look like. Now to get rid of the shadow. Go to view and uncheck Shadows. Also go to view and open the item Edge Styles and uncheck anything that is checked. You will learn when you need to do this over time. When you have done this correctly it should look like this: Then comes the first bit of magic. 2. Converting The SK Model For Use The problem with using pre-made SketchUp models from 3Dwarehouse has been that the textures did not conform with X-Planes "power of 2" rule. That is why if you attempt to convert a model using Marginal's utility, the Object converts fine but the textures do not. This is what makes Oscar's utility so awesome. Here's what happens. When you open the plugin OBJexporter, it creates two files and one folder. The MTL file describes the textures and where they go on the model. The OBJ file describes the 3D model. And the Textures folder contains all of the textures used in the model. If you have ever looked at the texture file for an X-Plane object you know it looks like this: (from the CDB Library) Tip: have patience, it sometimes takes 2-3 minutes to write all this info. The magic is in converting all those textures into one, and combining the MTL and OBJ file, that brings us to: 3. Installing Python And objutils_combined.py Here is where even I'm a little sketchy on some details as I had to rely on my 20 year old computer science major daughter and her web designer boyfriend to help me out. Python If you are on a Mac, you already have Python installed. For Windows go to www.python.org. Download the most current version. Make sure that the Python directory is in the main path of your computer. Go to Oscar Pilote's Dropbox https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cjjwu92mausoh04/AABxwtKzzczZwpW2J8imQGPoa/Utils?dl=0&preview=objutils_combined.py Go to the upper right corner and download the file. Also in the same Dropbox in the utilities folder is a program called rectpack. Download that also. So now we should have Python installed and the Python script downloaded. If you open the script using a text editor, you will see that the comments are in French. But here is the important stuff that I really can't explain. If I was following along when they helped me out, they installed rectpact, image, imagefilter, imagestat, and numpy. Hopefully you have a 15 year old computer genius to help with this part. 4. Creating A Conversion And Scenery Folder Assuming that you get all that stuff installed, the next step is to create the working conversion folder. I placed a folder named objconvert in the root directory, and I pinned it in Quick Access. Place the Python script in that folder. Remember the two files and one folder we go from the OBJconvert process? Move or copy the MTL, OBJ and Texture to your working folder. Make sure that you create a folder to put the converted objects in after the next step is finished. Now you are ready for: 5. Conversion Of The SketchUp Model To An X-Plane Model Now we go to the wayback machine. Yes, using the command line. If you don't know what that is ask your 65 year old father who had an Apple II or Commodore 64. Open a command line box CMD cd\ cd "your working folder" Type python objutils_combined "file name".obj then enter. In our example for file name it would be 10.obj When the script is working it takes the textures and makes one texture that conforms to the X=Plane "rule of 2" and X-Plane OBJ that has the texture information. The files will be named "file name"-grouped.png and "file name=xplane.obj Now you can see why I created the scenery list sheet and gave all the SK files numbers for names. Typing is not my thing, and making a mistake on a file name like Government_post_office_building_in_miami_fla_usa is not fun. So number it is. Next I move the two new files to the folder you created. Then I check to see if the conversion was successful using Model Converter X. As you can see this one didn't come out quite right, would I still use it? Maybe if buildings around it covered up the problem. I'm trying to figure out how to fix this. There are two recurring problems: The textures are not applied correctly Missing walls and such I don't know how to fix them after conversion, I'm not really sure why it happens at all. All I know is that the more complex and highly textured models made by really good SketchUp artists usually have no problems. Last but not least: 6. Placing The Models Since there is no airport involved I use Marginal's Overlay Editor to place all the objects. I create a folder with the scenery name, for example "miami" Create a folder in that folder called Objects. Put the new files in the objects folder. Put the scenery folder in CustomScenery. Open OE Scroll to the folder Open the folder, it will take some time, you should have water in the main window and a list of objects on the right side. Click on the globe with the pin to bring up a satellite photo which will help locate your model. When you place the first model and save OE writes the new DSF file. The last thing which is optional, but needed if you are doing a big city is to convert the texture PNG to a DDS. I use a free converter www.easy2convert.com/png2dds. Converting to dds saves space (smaller file size) and loads quicker. So there you have it, feel free to ask questions, there happen to be a number of people who have got this working. Again, Oscar, this has brought a whole new thing to X-Plane and I for one can't thank you enough for the work of yourself and the others who helped at xplane.fr. Gary Rumpler
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Getting Things Moving A Tutorial on Animating Objects in SketchUp for X-Plane By Paul Mort In this tutorial we'll be looking at how to animate objects in SketchUp 2016 and, ultimately, how to export them for use in X-Plane 10. A lot of advances have been made over the years in the flight sim world and one very important change is the capability of object movement. This gives your scenery the feeling of life and makes everything look more credible. To obtain the results described in the following tutorial, you will need the following software installed: X-Plane 10 SketchUp 2016, available at www.sketchup.com. The SketchUp2Xplane plugin by Marginal at marginal.org.uk/x-planescenery/tools.html. This tutorial also assumes you have a working knowledge of SketchUp and the SketchUp2Xplane plugin, and will not deal with the creation of objects, only the animation of them. (Read Paul's SketchUp Tutorial starting here.) Now on with business! Let's take a look at our example, a SketchUp model of this lovely old water mill I created. Figure 1 We will now go through the steps required to animate the wheel, but to make things simpler to understand, we will remove the building behind it. Now, this is all we have left. Figure 2 The wheel itself was created in SketchUp, using the basic shape tools, and was textured from an imported .png file. Please Note: Should the above steps in creating the wheel mean nothing to you then this tutorial may be too advanced. If this is the case, I suggest reading my Object Creation tutorials here. Creating A Component The wheel is made of individual lines and surfaces, so in order for it to rotate as one unit, we need to tell SketchUp this. A component is a defined collection of lines and surfaces which are grouped together and can be moved, resized and animated as one. An example of this would be a car wheel in which there is the tire, wheel rim and hub cap. All of them are individual items but they rotate in unison, as one component. Creating a component is easy. Simply draw a rectangle around the entire wheel using the 'Select Tool'. You will now see that all of the lines and surfaces that make up the wheel are highlighted. With this still highlighted, if you right click with your mouse a drop down menu will appear. Select 'Make Component' from the menu entries. Now a box will appear, allowing you to give the component a name and an optional description. A vital part of the animation procedure is to define at what point the component will rotate. Get it right and the wheel will rotate smoothly. Get it wrong, and the wheel will wobble, spiral or even disappear somewhere totally unexpected. Figure 3 As figure 3 shows, you will see in the box, a button to 'Set Component Axes'. This allows us to define the exact point at which the component will eventually rotate. Click this button and it will bring up a miniature copy of the three colored SketchUp axes. Figure 4 below shows the correct position of the component axes. Figure 4 Now drag the axes to the exact center point of the wheel (it pays to mark this point when creating it), line up the colored axis lines as per the main SketchUp axes and then double click. At this point, i.e. when you have a name, optional description and placed the component axes, you can click 'Create'. It is now time for the magic - the animation procedure. With a correctly set up component, if we select it we now see a blue box bounding our component together (figure 5). Right click on your newly created component and select the 'X-Plane' menu item, then 'Animation' from the sub menu. This time you will be presented with the animation set up box. Here is where we select the parameters for the animation of the wheel. One thing you need to know is that X-Plane uses a 'Data Ref' which is a timer that starts counting time as soon as X-Plane starts up, and it is this that we use to time the animation. Figure 5 As shown above, input the following into the data ref box: 'sim/time/total_running_time_sec' Further down, a figure of 8.0 in the 'Loop' box indicates the time (in seconds) taken for a complete rotation of our wheel. In this case, 8 is quite slow but a lower figure would speed up the rotation in other scenarios. Also used in professional animation, keyframes are objects positioned then a frame recorded, moved and another frame recorded. When these frames are run in sequence, the object appears to be animated. 0 Seconds Keyframe #0 is our initial frame, or animation starting point, so with the component in its first position, input '0.0' into the Keyframe #0 time box and then click the 'Set' button. 2 Seconds Keyframe #1 is our next frame. Input '2.0' into the Keyframe #1 time box. Using SketchUp's Rotate tool, rotate the component 90 degrees whilst ensuring the rotate point is dead center of the wheel and again click the 'Set' button. That's all there is to it! So let's recap on that... 0 seconds is the initial component position and after 2 seconds, it will have rotated 90 degrees clockwise. If you're wondering why only 2 keyframes are needed, consider this ... our loop value is 8.0 therefore our animation will continue until 8 seconds has elapsed, before starting all over again. In the diagram below (figure 6) Portion 'A' to 'B' (2 seconds) is the information we put in but the data ref loop of 8.0 automatically carries the animation on for 8 seconds or one full rotation. Extra frames can be added by use of the '+' button. Figure 6 We can now check the animation with the Preview Slider. Dragging this left or right will show the time and the animation. But you are not limited to wheels in our animation. We could also, for example, create a pendulum effect by rotating the pendulum, setting the frame and then rotating in the opposite direction to the start point. Components can also be moved and keyframes set to give motion animation. Just remember, input the appropriate data ref keyframe time, move the component then 'Set' it. Finally Save your work as a .skb SketchUp file and use the 'File>Export X-Plane Object' selection to convert it to X-Plane's native .obj format. In the example of our water mill, I found that creating the wheel from a Google Image was not recommended as what is perceived as the center point of the wheel is not always the case. This caused an offset in the animation, giving it a spiral effect. It is preferable to draw the component using the SketchUp tools to ensure symmetry and the ability to locate the dead center. As I did, you may encounter some unexpected results on your learning curve but please persevere and the old mill wheel will soon come to life. I hope you found this tutorial both informative and interesting. Paul Mort Get SketchUp -
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SketchUp Tutorial Part Nineteen By Paul Mort Please note that the references made in the following tutorial are applicable to X-Plane. Hello again and welcome to what is sadly the last in the series of my SketchUp tutorials. In this final tutorial, I thought we would deviate slightly from the norm and use it to review what each of the past tutorials has covered. We can then can use this final tutorial as an index to the whole of the series. Tutorial One In this short opening tutorial, we looked at the menu bar and was introduced to the concept of 3D axes and how they related to a model. We were also introduced to a very important member of the team, the SketchUp lady who gave us a rough guide to how big things were. Tutorial Two In this second tutorial, we took our very first steps in using the principal drawing tools of SketchUp, like the circle, polygon, arc and push/pull tools. Tutorial Three Next up, we covered the slightly more advanced concepts of drawing rectangles and applying offsets to create some interesting effects. Also introduced, was the follow me tool for creating some very unique and interesting shapes. It was in this third tutorial that we got to proudly display our very first object, a wooden coffee table. Tutorial Four In tutorial four, we were introduced to simple texturing and how it gave the illusion of materials and depth of field. We discussed the art of creating a simple texture file of our own and how to apply it to our model, and we also looked at how to convert models for use in X-Plane. That was thirsty work, so we then created a drinking fountain using the things we had learned so far. Tutorial Five In this tutorial, we began using more sophisticated texture mapping and manipulation. As well as looking at these methods, we also created a sign and learned how to move and resize textures. Tutorial Six In part six, we covered how to map textures to curved surfaces using projected textures (we were well on our way to becoming SketchUp artists). Texture mapping was covered and we built a credible looking wall. Tutorial Seven In this tutorial, we put together all that we had learned in the previous tutorials and used it to construct a Roman temple style bath house (complete with nice pillars). Tutorial Eight For this tutorial, we began looking at a vital element of scenery creation: people. We were introduced to the perfect aviation couple (yeah right) and made an object of them. Nice object, but dodgy sandals! Tutorial Nine We were at halfway stage by this time and this tutorial looked at more building work, in principal, how to create the elements of a castle. Tutorial Ten We were into double figures now with these tutorials and beginning to get pretty smug with our creations. With that in mind we changed up a gear and looked at how we could create the interior of a building. We learned that we could give the illusion of an interior by texturing windows. Important details such as chimneys were also covered in this tutorial. Our knowledge was starting to pay off in the form of some really nice detailing. Tutorial Eleven This tutorial showed us how to avoid those embarrassing mistakes when creating buildings intended for even/uneven scenery (far more embarrassing than pasta sauce stains). We also tackled the all too common problem of texture flash and the rather elegant solution of how to remedy it. We were not only SketchUp artists by now, we were also problem solvers, especially when it came to lines that didn't line up! Tutorial Twelve Confidence was now our middle name in this tutorial. Here we mastered cylinders and looked at complex rotation so as to produce both intricate and interesting shapes. We also learnt how to texture curved shapes with projected textures. Tutorial Thirteen Unlucky for some, but not for us, as in this tutorial we mastered the black art of transparent and opaque texturing. With this new found knowledge, we were able to produce some impressive results. And for our final trick, Mrs Houdini escapes from the opaque blue 'Tank Of Death'. Tutorial Fourteen Here we became special effects experts, producing smoke and lights. Tutorial Fifteen In this slightly more advanced tutorial, we were introduced to the making of 'components' and the advantages of using them. The very elegant subject of producing 3D text was also introduced. Tutorial Sixteen For this tutorial, we discussed detail vs performance (simulator frame-rate) and how best to approach this dilemma. We also covered detailing for buildings such as pipework, guttering and door handles. Tutorial Seventeen An essential addition to any scenery is the vehicle and this was covered in tutorial 17. Here we tackled the creation of a van (the same procedure translates to almost any vehicle). Tutorial Eighteen In our very last tutorial, we dealt with rather handy SketchUp hints. We also delved into the workings of the new 'rotated rectangle tool' introduced in SketchUp 2015 plus some handy tools to help get our measurements right. Well as they say, 'That's all Folks'. May I say it's been an absolute pleasure writing this series of instructional tutorials. I really hope you found them both enjoyable and useful. Thank you for all the kind feedback I've received during the course of this series. I'd also like to give a big thank you to my friend Dominic Smith for editing them and also to Nels Anderson for hosting them at FlightSim.Com. If you require further help regarding SketchUp, feel free to email. Paul Mort pmort76@gmail.com Get SketchUp Read other parts of this tutorial -
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SketchUp Tutorial Part Eighteen By Paul Mort Please note that the references made in the following tutorial are applicable to X-Plane. This time we're back with more SketchUp hints, tips and tricks which, hopefully, will make for a more enjoyable and productive experience. Handy Hint 1 As you should now be aware, when importing textures or photographs into SketchUp (for later conversion to an X-Plane object), the dimensions of the .png file have got to be a power of two, which in simple terms means square, i.e. 512px by 512px, 1024px by 1024px and so on. If not, an error will be generated when trying to export your model as an X-Plane object. Forgetting this one important fact can mean the difference between an enjoyable experience and one which turns into a nightmare. However, help is at hand as we will see below. Figure 1 Figure 1 above shows a completed model car, minus of course its texture. For this model we have created a photo texture of 512px by 512px, which as we've just learned, is the correct size. When we come to import it into SketchUp, the 'Create Material' dialogue box is displayed (Figure 2). Figure 2 As you can see from Figure 2, the 'Create Material' dialogue box displays not only the name of your texture file and what it looks like, but more importantly, it displays what dimensions the texture will be when imported. By looking at the above dialogue box you can see that the imported dimensions are 1ft by 1ft (power of two). These dimensions can of course be changed manually but for the moment we'll leave them be. Figure 3 In Figure 3 above I have deliberately introduced an incorrectly proportioned texture in which the height measures 520px by 512px (not a power of two). As you can see, the figures of 1ft by 11 3/16 inches are not proportional, thus in effect, giving you a heads up to problems down the road. In this instance a difference of just 8px has created a situation where the object conversion to X-Plane will fail. The lesson here (so as to avoid frustration later on) is to ensure that these two figures match exactly. A New Tool In SketchUp 2015 New to SketchUp 2015 is the 'rotated rectangle' tool. It sounds painful doesn't it, but it's not really. Before the introduction of this new tool, a rectangle was created by using the 'simple' rectangle tool. The method on how this is done is shown below (Figure 4). Figure 4 The problem with using the 'simple' rectangle tool was that it always produced a rectangle which was parallel to one of the axes and required the use of a second tool - the 'rotate tool' - to change its rotational position. However, with the newly introduced 'rotated rectangle' tool we can determine the orientation of the rectangle by clicking on a corner, a second corner and finally the last third corner. These three clicks give the ability to place the rectangle in an arbitrary position which is not locked to an axis. Figure 5 shows the new tool in action. Figure 5 Tape Measure And Dimension Tools Quite often when creating models in SketchUp, it's normal (especially with objects of a fictional nature) to gauge dimensions simply by eye. However, recently I have been creating a few real life models from photographs, ones where simply guessing the dimensions would not do. This is where the 'tape measure' and 'dimension tool' come into play. Tape Measure Tool This tool allows us to accurately measure the distance between any two points on our model by simply clicking on our first point and then hovering the cursor over the second. By hovering the cursor over the second point, a box will appear giving us the distance between our two chosen points (Figure 6). Figure 6 If you click on the second point (optional), the dimension box will disappear, leaving an erasable guide line which extends between the two points. By not clicking, the line is anchored to the first point but free to hover over another in order to measure another point. Dimension Tool The 'dimension tool' is quite similar to the 'tape measure' tool we've just discussed but...let's say we have measured the height of a column and wish to create another object of the same height elsewhere. The procedure here is to again, click on our first point, but this time click (not hover) on the second. This will create a line displaying the distance (in text) between these two points. By moving the mouse around, we can now move that line along any of the three axes (Red/Green/Blue) and project it elsewhere. The line and text will this time remain unless we decide to delete it (Figure 7). Figure 7 That's all for this time. I hope you've found this tutorial on hints, tips and tricks both interesting and informative. Paul Mort Get SketchUp Read other parts of this tutorial -
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SketchUp Tutorial Part Seventeen By Paul Mort Please note that the references made in the following tutorial are applicable to X-Plane. Hello again and welcome to the latest in my SketchUp series of tutorials. This time, we'll be delving into the black art of creating vehicles to use in your scenery. In our last tutorial, we were introduced to Peeping Tom, the new guy in SketchUp 2015. Tom got fed up using public transport, so in this tutorial we're going to create a van for him, to help him with his various romantic encounters. Our first task involves importing a picture of a van into SketchUp, scaling it and then making it sit vertically on the red axis as in Figure 1. Figure 1 Although we will not be adding the wheels until later, we still need to place the picture with the wheels resting at ground level (red axis) using the Move tool. Using the arc and line tools, it is now a case of carefully drawing around the shape of the vehicle, making sure all arcs and lines are parallel to the picture (red axis). In other words, not sticking out on the green axis. Rotate the picture and inspect your work as you go so as to ensure all lines are flat to the picture. Draw important details such as window and light positions. Figure 2 shows the process in action. Figure 2 When finished, you will have a complete outline, so select the picture and press 'Delete' to remove it. This will then leave only the shape you have drawn as in Figure 3. Figure 3 It's beginning to shape up but as you can see, it's just an outline at the moment with no surface, so our next step involves creating the surface of the van. This is achieved by drawing a series of lines within the shape, joining up points to create a sort of 'Patchwork' array of small surfaces. You don't need to be too particular about where they go as you will be deleting the interconnecting lines when the shape is finally filled (Figure 4). Figure 4 Once we have fully filled the side of the van, we can delete the shared lines but obviously not the outline. The individual surfaces are then merged into one, completing the side of the van (Figure 5). Figure 5 We now have a choice to make; we can make a copy of the side we've just created and use interconnecting lines to join them together, or, as I prefer, use the 'push/pull' tool to extrude the side into a box. We'll use the extrusion method here, with Figure 6 showing the result. Figure 6 As you can from the above picture, we now need to create the other side of the van and this can be done in one of two ways. One is by copying and pasting the left side to the right, but in my experience I've found this can lead to geometric errors if not placed accurately. So my preferred method is to recreate the side exactly as we did when we first filled in the outline. Once again, use the 'Patchwork' of small surfaces method and when complete, delete the interconnecting lines. When complete, you'll have a fully surfaced side. Figure 7 shows this in progress. Figure 7 Now that we have the complete shell of the van, it can be textured and embellished as we see fit (Figure 8). Figure 8 We can now add the wheels by creating fitting circles with two 'offsets' for the tires and the hubcaps. Drawing arcs around the wheel arches and then extruding them creates our mud guards (Figure 9). Figure 9 You will notice however that because certain areas such as the bonnet are made from flat surfaces, it looks a bit unconvincing. Don't worry, help is at hand with SketchUp's smoothing facility. By selecting the eraser tool and then simultaneously holding down the 'CTRL' key and left mouse button, instead of erasing, the tool becomes a smoothing tool. When applied to a surface, this incredibly useful tool will reduce sharp edges and give the surface a nice smooth finish as in Figures 10 and 11. Figure 10 Figure 11 There we have it then, our friend Peeping Tom now has a new van to help him in his travels. Thanks for reading and keep the comments coming in. See you next time. Paul Mort Get SketchUp Read other parts of this tutorial -
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SketchUp Tutorial Part Sixteen By Paul Mort Please note that the references made in the following tutorial are applicable to X-Plane. Hello SketchUp fans and welcome to tutorial number 16. In this tutorial, we will discuss what it takes to create an eye catching model and (now that you're skilled in the tools necessary) how you can give them that extra something to help them stand out in the crowd. Detail vs Frame Rate When designing a model for X-Plane, or any other simulator for that matter, it is important to remember that the more detail you apply to a model, the more it will adversely effect your frame rate. An example of this is in some of the textures applied to certain recent payware aircraft. The textures used in these cases, whilst being highly detailed, can bring even a high end computer to its knees. Like the old saying goes, there's no such thing as a free lunch and this applies to scenery creation. Figure 1 below shows an example of a parish church I created sometime ago in SketchUp. Whilst the church is pretty nice to look (even if I do say so myself), due to a couple of reasons, it cannot be considered a frame rate friendly object. Figure 1 Why is this? Well firstly the texture used in the model is extremely busy and complex, which, straight away, hampers any ideas we might have had of achieving good frame rates. Secondly, the interior of the church has been modeled in such a way that the windows are left clear, so as to give a view inside. This means that valuable CPU time, which could be used elsewhere, is spent modeling the interior. A far better idea (isn't hindsight a wonderful thing?) would have been to use a uniformed stone block texture (a far simpler pattern), and to make sure the windows are appropriately filled. Moving forward to today and an idea that I now adopt, is to texture the windows with a picture so as to give the illusion of depth. This has the added benefit of not having to design buildings with a 3D interior. No interior, higher frame rates, which in a flight simulator is vital. An example of this is shown below in Figure 2. Here we are introduced to Tom (Peeping Tom?). He's a real cool dude and ladies man, especially with his book of phone numbers! As we can see Tom is peeping through a window. Figure 2 By texturing purely the surfaces of windows, it allows us not only the advantage of not having to design the interior, but also the added bonus that the interior looks better (in most cases) than any anything that could be modeled in SketchUp. The most important factor though, is that by not creating the interior of the building, we are using far less polygons for the CPU to render, thus achieving better frame rates. The Little Details A few simple details on any model can be the difference between an ordinary SketchUp model and a great one that really stands out, so lets take a look at how we can add these additional features whilst maintaining frame rates. Pipework And Drains Pipework and drains are a feature that pretty much every building exhibits and like many external features, are simple to create when you know how. Manipulating pipework in SketchUp so that it can be shaped is easily done by using the follow me tool. If you need to familiarize yourself with this tool, then instructions are given in an earlier tutorial. To bend a pipe, we first create a flat circle and then draw a line outwards (from the center) at ninety degrees. After extruding it into a pipe (Figure 3) we then need to create a path for it to follow. This is provided by the arc anchored to the right angled lines. Figure 3 By selecting the surface of the pipe (using the follow me tool) we can now carefully trace along the arc with our mouse cursor. As if by magic, the pipe then follows our cursor and bends along the length of the arc (Figure 4). Figure 4 The redundant lines can now be deleted if no longer required. Drawing a smaller arc at the bottom of the pipe has the effect of creating a drain. The use of the push/pull and follow me tools used in this example have been covered in previous tutorials, so if you find yourself scratching your head, go back and refresh. Door Handles The exact same procedure can be used to produce door handles. Figure 5 shows a door handle (magnified for clarity) with the extrusion work already done. The only exception to the previous example is that we have drawn two right angles without arcs as we need more of a square bend to the handle. Figure 5 By using the same technique as we did earlier for the pipework, we select the smaller inner circle and then very carefully, get it to follow the line with the follow me tool. Figure 6 shows the results, which I think you'll agree, is rather pleasing to the eye. Figure 6 Rain Guttering A simple but effective rain gutter can be built by extruding a vertical square into a long box. One end is equally divided into four by drawing vertical lines. An arc is created (Figure 7) between the outer lines. Make sure you remove the line shown in the picture (restores the circular surface) otherwise you will have to push pull both halves separately. Figure 7 Figure 8 below shows the results of the push /pull on the circular surface. Figure 8 When all is done, the parts we've looked at today can be fitted together to form more complex ideas, as shown below in Figure 9 and 10. Figure 9 Figure 10 Thanks for all your comments regarding my tutorials. Keep them coming and if you have a certain subject matter you'd like me to cover please let me know. Thanks for reading and see you next time. Paul Mort Get SketchUp Read other parts of this tutorial -
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SketchUp Tutorial Part Fifteen By Paul Mort Please note that the references made in the following tutorial are applicable to X-Plane. Hello again and welcome to number 15 in my series of SketchUp Tutorials. In this tutorial, we will be looking at 'components' and what they are and what they can do for us. What Is A Component? The definition of a component according to the dictionary is shown below in figure 1. Figure 1 So using the definition above, let's think about Lego. To form our model in SketchUp, we use individual items which, just like Lego bricks, go together to form the completed model. A component is a group of two or more of these items which, when defined as a component in SketchUp, can be given a convenient name, moved, rotated, sized, etc. as a whole unit. Component Overview In being able to work with components, we can design, let's say a wheel and make a component by grouping all its parts together. Figure 2 identifies the individual surfaces of the wheel which do not interact together and are completely independent of each other. Figure 2 Moving or sizing any of these surfaces would have no impact on any of the others until we make a component. How It's Done Making a component could not be simpler. To make the component, we hold down the left mouse button and drag a box around the wheel which highlights all the individual parts. With the highlighting still in place, right click anywhere on the wheel and select the 'Make Component' option. Figure 3 shows the dialog box that pops up enabling us to name the component, give it a description plus other options. Figure 3 Once created, left clicking anywhere on the wheel will create a blue bounding box which surrounds our newly created component (shown in Figure 4). Figure 4 Moving, sizing, rotating, etc. now all act on the component and it behaves as a unit. If you find you need to alter any of the individual parts making up your component, you can always left click on the wheel to bring up the bounding box and then right click and select the 'Edit Component' option. This gives you access to the individual lines and surfaces which can be textured, resized, moved or rotated. Left clicking anywhere outside of the bounds of the component will exit the edit mode and our newly edited component will reappear. If we choose the 'Explode' option instead while carrying out the above actions, the component is permanently restored to its individual parts. Advantages Of A Component The advantages of components are numerous in as much that we can create the component away from the main model, thus minimizing the risk of geometry errors. Creating one wheel component and making three identical copies of it is far simpler than trying to draw four individual wheels which inevitably won't be identical. In the case of equally spaced fence posts around a square field, we can make the row across one side into a component which ensures perfectly spaced posts when creating our other three copies of the component. 3D Text Component Figure 5 Figure 5 shows us an example of a built-in component feature of SketchUp, the 3D text facility. To bring the 3D text creator into play, locate and left click on this icon: A pop up box as shown in Figure 6 will appear asking us to input our text along with its attributes. Figure 6 Click the 'Place' button and a floating 3D copy of our text appears. Drag it around to the desired position and left click to place it. After anchoring the text, we will see a blue bounding box as we did for the wheel in Figure 4. Figure 7 As we have previously learned, to texture any component we need to select it, right click and then choose the 'Edit Component' option. We can then access the individual surfaces to apply texture. One great time saving feature is shown in Figure 8. We have made a copy (Ctrl+C) of the tall 3D text and resized it (Figure 8). We now only have to texture one of the copies and all the others (however many) will do the same action. For example let us use the fence post scenario again; create a post, convert it to a component, make multiple copies around a field and then by texturing just one, all the others will follow suit. Figure 8 So as we've learned in this tutorial (I hope), making components in SketchUp not only makes life considerably easier for us when modeling, but this ability also save us valuable time when creating our masterpieces. I hope you found this tutorial helpful. We'll be back shortly with more techniques and tips in the next installment. Until then...happy modeling. Paul Mort Get SketchUp Read other parts of this tutorial -
SketchUp Tutorial Part Fourteen By Paul Mort Please note that the references made in the following tutorial are applicable to X-Plane. This tutorial assumes that you have the open source image editor, Gimp, installed as we will be using it in this tutorial to create textures. In this tutorial, we are going to discuss how to add different lights and smoke to our creations so that they can then be converted and used in our simulator. Lights If we consider the uses which lights have to offer in X-Plane, the possibilities are virtually endless. We could apply lighted markers to runways, street lighting to towns, lights to vehicles plus much more. Lighting in X-Planes helps create the illusion that things are happening, that there is life. Without it, X-Plane at night would be an uninteresting dark blur. In the real world, lights are everywhere...so let's create some! When it comes to generating lights in SketchUp, there are two main types, default lights that X-Plane can interpret and display, and also customized lights in which the effect, color, size, direction and more are achieved by a series of specified numeric parameters. This tutorial is an introduction on how to create standard lights and therefore will deal only with the default lighting set. Custom lights will follow in a later tutorial. Figure 1 Figure 1 shows our intrepid model displaying a fairly typical marker pole. This could be used for a variety of purposes (runway marker, car park marker, etc.). As nice as it is however, it contains no lighting element and is therefore useless as a night marker pole. Creating A Named Light For the marker pole to be used at night, we will have to add a light to the top of the pole. This will be placed inside an opaque (remember tutorial 13) glass dome, typical of this kind of object. We cannot penetrate inside the glass dome to access the bulb (just like the real world), so we must first add the light and then the enclosure in SketchUp (in that order). Figure 2 Figure 2 shows the tool we will be using for this procedure. It is the tool used to add text labels to models. After selecting this tool, left click and hold on where you would like the light to be centered. Still holding the left mouse button down, drag a line to a convenient point, so as to add text. When this is done, release the mouse button. Next, by right clicking and selecting 'Edit Text' we can now add our label. Simply type over the highlighted blue text and type LIGHT_NAMED. Important: this needs to be in capital letters and you must include the underscore for it to work. In this example, we are going to use an X-Plane default light named 'Ambient Street Light 3' which is typed as amb_street_light3. This is added to our already entered text, so you should have: LIGHT_NAMED amb_street_light3 Again I must stress, that this needs to be typed exactly as shown otherwise it will not work. A list of lighting objects is available at http://wiki.x-plane.com/Named_Lights. Figure 3 Figure 3 shows our finished text label pointing to the source of the light. Notice that I have found the exact top center of the marker post by drawing two intersecting lines. In certain cases you may need to attach the light to a temporary line in order to get the required light point. An example of this would be a light floating in a room with no convenient anchor point. Our marker post is now almost finished and as it stands, would work quite well, but to really finish it off we are going to give it an opaque glass dome. If you are unfamiliar with how to create opaque textures then please go back to Tutorial 13 which explains the process in detail. Figure 4 Figure 4 shows the completed marker post with its opaque dome. It is now ready to be converted into an obj file. Figures 5 and 6 show how our newly created object looks once it has been imported into X-Plane (day and night conditions shown). Figure 5 Figure 6 Smoke Creation The production of intermittent puffs of smoke is identical to placing a light in SketchUp with the exception that we do not specify NAMED_LIGHT. The format for smoke is: smoke_<Colour> <Density> Colour is labeled either black or white and the density is a numerical point ranging from 0 to 1 with number 1 being the most dense. Figure 7 The visual appeal of a simple chimney (Figure 7) is greatly enhanced by the addition of black smoke. In our example, we have added a text label with the format: smoke_black 0.5 with the 0.5 representing one half of the maximum allowed density. Once again, it is essential that we type the text label exactly as shown for it to work. To get the origin of the smoke in the chimney center, you draw guided lines, just like we did with the marker post. Once done, you then attach the text label and removed the guided lines. Figure 8 I hope you have found this tutorial both informative and interesting. In the next tutorial we'll be getting to grips with those custom lighting effects and their many different parameters. See you next time. Paul Mort Get SketchUp Read other parts of this tutorial -
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SketchUp Tutorial Part Thirteen By Paul Mort Please note that the references made in the following tutorial are applicable to X-Plane. This tutorial assumes that you have the open source image editor, Gimp, installed as we will be using it in this tutorial to create textures. (Visit the Gimp web site here, if you do not already have it installed: http://www.gimp.org) By now, you should be fairly proficient in creating models that are not only to a good standard, but also turn out the way you envisioned. With these skills honed, perhaps you have wondered how to achieve glass textures, tinted glass textures or plausible water textures. If you have, then this tutorial will be right up your alley. It is time to turn our to attention to the main topic of this tutorial: glass. In number 13 of this series, we will cover the making of opaque colored textures. These can be used for a range of purposes such as windows, cockpit and vehicle glass and of course, water. As mentioned, we will use Gimp to create the texture and then SketchUp to apply this to our model. So What Exactly Is Opaque? The term 'opaque' is used to describe the degree to which a surface allows us to see what is behind it and in the case of tinted colors, gives the object behind it a shade of color, similar to looking through tinted/colored glass in real life. At one extreme, opaqueness becomes totally clear and at the other extreme, solid color that blocks out anything behind it. Picture 1 Picture 1 shows our long suffering SketchUp lady standing next to a green cube and pink wall. This is actually a surface textured in red but made 50% opaque in Gimp. Picture 2 Now if we turn the whole thing around, we can see that the green cube and our SketchUp lady are tinted by the 50% opaque red surface. So how is this achieved? The next section assumes that you are familiar with importing and applying textures into SketchUp (as covered in my previous tutorials). Upon opening Gimp, select the 'File' menu and then the 'New' option. Immediately after this, a dialog box will open asking you the size of canvas required. As you know (if you've been following my previous tutorials) to import a texture and then successfully export the model as an 'obj' file, the imported (png) texture file needs to be 512 pixels square, 1024 pixels square, 2048 pixels square, etc. So in the dialog box we select 512x512 pixels. The 'alpha' component of a graphic determines the opaqueness of each pixel so first we need to enable alpha by selecting the 'Layer' menu then the 'Transparency' option, and finally the top option which is 'Add Alpha Channel'. For demonstration purposes and simplicity, we are going to add alpha to the whole square, but of course if you had multiple colors and textures within the 512x512 pixels square, then you would only use the following procedure on the parts you need to be opaque or transparent. You would do this by selecting them with the 'Rectangle Select' tool. So the area is selected (all in our case) and the alpha component is enabled. Next it's a simple case of using the 'Eraser' tool to wipe away the area within the square (make sure the opacity setting of the eraser is set to 100%). Picture 3 Picture 3 shows the result of using the 'Eraser' tool on our square. Gimp uses a checkerboard pattern to tell us we have erased the area within the square. You will need to pass the eraser over a few times to make sure the pattern is even as it is here. In effect, we have 'erased a hole' out of our canvas, denoted by the checkerboard pattern. Applying An Opaque Tint The next option is to apply a color to the 'hole' we erased by first selecting a basic color and applying it like a sticker over our 'hole' with the 'Bucket Fill' tool. After selecting a color and the 'Bucket Fill', we need to set the opacity's value in the Tool Options dialog box. Before applying the 'Bucket Fill', set this to your desired degree of opacity (50% in our case) as in Picture 4. Picture 4 When the color has been applied to the checkboard area, you will still see (depending on the degree of opacity set), the pattern merged into our applied color. Picture 5 shows the result of successfully adding the opaque color to our square. Picture 5 All that remains now is to export our 512x512 pixel texture as a .png file and import it into Sketchup. Once this is done, it can then be applied to our model. The process can be a little daunting at first but once done a few times, it will become second nature. When exporting the file from Gimp, a dialog box will appear as in Picture 6. Important: Make sure the bottom 'Save color values from transparent pixels' option is checked otherwise the alpha component will not be saved. Picture 6 And for our final trick, Mrs. Houdini escapes from the opaque blue 'Tank Of Death'... Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. See you next time. Paul Mort Get SketchUp Read other parts of this tutorial -
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SketchUp Tutorial Part Twelve By Paul Mort Please note that the references made in the following tutorial are applicable to X-Plane. This tutorial is in part, a response to a message left by FlightSim.Com member Ricardo NY1: "I'd like to see your take some time on texturing curves/tube objects with projected textures. So far it's been hit or miss with what I've learned". Well Ricardo, let's cover that in this tutorial. We'll start with the creation of curved objects and then move on to texturing them. Producing Curved Shapes As I've mentioned before, SketchUp may not be the easiest program to achieve certain tasks (like curved objects), but unlike some other packages, there are usually several options open to you in order to achieve the desired result. Like most things in life, you simply choose what works best for you. The Cylinder Let's start by looking at the simple hollow cylinder in Figure 1. This is a good place to start as it's relatively easy to produce. As Figure 1 shows, it's created in four stages: 1) Create a circular surface. 2) Push/Pull upward to the desired height. 3) Create an Offset. 4) Push/Pull the inner tube downward. If any of the steps mentioned above are unfamiliar to you, please look back over my previous tutorials to familiarize yourself with them. Figure 1 - The Cone The following procedure is the basis of producing numerous curved shapes. Figure 2 shown below shows the production of a basic cone. After producing a circular surface (of the required diameter), a line is drawn on the BLUE axis, from the center of the circle to the desired height of the cone. Another line is then drawn to the outer edge of the circle and finally one last line is drawn back to the circle center. This creates a right-angled triangular surface which forms the basis for our cone. Figure 2 The final stage is to select the Follow Me tool (covered in previous tutorials). With this selected, we click on the RED triangular surface so as to select it and then carefully trace around the line of the circle (you may need to rotate your view as you proceed). To the SketchUp newcomer, this can be quite a tricky process as you need to accurately follow the circle line, however, practice makes perfect. To produce a symmetrical shape, simply repeat the above process on the other side of the circle (Figure 3). Figure 3 If the shape appears bumpy, simply select it, then from the menu bar, choose 'Window' and then the 'Soften Edges' option. This will then smooth out the shape. Note that by simply changing the shape of Line 2 (Figure 2) it's possible to produce any number of shapes as Figure 4 clearly shows. SketchUp's versatile tools, plus their relative ease of use, means that curved shapes become an interesting proposition, limited only by your imagination. Figure 4 Texturing Curved Surfaces If we were using SketchUp on its own to produce drawings or plans, then texturing curved surfaces is easy, but as we need to convert the creation in SketchUp (.SKP File) so as to be usable in X-Plane (.OBJ File), we need to create our own texture (.PNG File). SketchUp Tutorials 4 and 5 covered this procedure, so if you need to refresh your memory on how this is done, I suggest reading through them again. The Projected Texture To successfully texture a curved surface, we firstly need to import the required texture. Figure 5 (below) shows the imported (.PNG) texture file that we will be using. Figure 5 If we were to simply apply the texture at this point, the result would look something like Figure 6 (shown below). As you can see, this is not what we want. Figure 6 - So, how can we avoid this happening? First, we need to create a rectangle which is both taller and wider than our object. This rectangle must also be situated a short distance away from our object. Using the Paint Bucket tool, texture the rectangle by right clicking on the rectangle and selecting 'Texture' then 'Position'. By doing this, the rectangle is then able to be textured in any required color (Figure 7). Figure 7 When we have our required texture ready, we simply right click on the rectangle and select 'Texture', making sure we tick the 'Projected' option. Finally, with the Paint Bucket tool selected, click the 'Sample Paint' icon (Figure and left click on the orange rectangle texture. Figure 8 Finally, left clicking on our object will cause it to be textured with the projected texture from the rectangle...voila! Figure 9 And that concludes this tutorial. I hope this helped, Ricardo, in what can be a bit of a tricky subject. However, with enough practice, eventually it will come right. Paul Mort Get SketchUp Read other parts of this tutorial -
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SketchUp Tutorial Part Eleven By Paul Mort In this tutorial, I'd like to share with you some useful SketchUp hints which I have learned along the way. These hints will (I hope) help you with some of the issues encountered by new users of SketchUp. Please note that the references made in the following tutorial are applicable to X-Plane only. Floating Buildings Let us look first of all at probably the most common issue seen in scenery creation; the levitating building. This issue blights many sceneries and can be a real annoyance to new designers. So, why does this happen and what can we do as designers to prevent it? Well, X-Plane, just like in real life, has hills, so how do we place a level building on a gradient without it floating? Figure 1 Solution Figure 1 (above) shows the problem as mentioned. The rather elegant solution to this problem is to design your building with a basement. When creating your basement, it is important to make sure it is at least a couple of meters below the level of the ground (or below the Red Axis in SketchUp) as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2 Now when the building is placed on a steep gradient, the basement (not air) will be present, as shown in Figure 3. Figure 3 Flashing Textures If I had a dollar for every flashing texture I've seen in a scenery, I'd be a very rich man! You've no doubt seen them too; horrible flashing triangles, which only seem to get worse the more you move around. So why do they occur and what's the solution? Well, simply put, it's where two different textures clash with each other, and the flashing is the result of the rendering engine becoming confused. Think of it like pouring two different colored paints into the same tin; a random pattern will appear. When you create any surface in SketchUp, it's import to remember that it's flat, meaning it has no depth. When two flat surfaces are on top of each other, they occupy the same area and conflict with each other. Solution To solve the above problem, we need to separate the textures and give them space so as to allow them to work independently. Figure 4 below shows a poster on a wall. Figure 4 In this scenario, the texture which makes up the poster would almost certainly clash with the wall texture underneath it, so a solution has to be found if the two are to work together. In this case, two solutions exist. Solution one involves defining a separate surface (rectangle) for the poster. However, if we were placing hundreds of posters along a wall, this would end up being an extremely time consuming and tedious exercise. The better solution in this case, would be to give the poster depth by using the Push Pull Tool. By extruding the poster slightly toward us, we have successfully separated the two and prevented any possible texture clashes, as can be seen in Figure 5. Figure 5 A Great Problem Solver When drawing complex models, it can sometimes be infuriating when you're unable to create a surface because of a wrongly orientated line. However, as usual help is at hand. Select the 'Window' drop-down menu, then 'Styles'. A dialog box then appears as in Figure 6. By selecting the options as shown in Figure 6, we can then identify on which axis any line lies, by highlighting its color and thus finding the offending line. Figure 6 Now all the lines in the model are colored according to which color axis they lie on. As we can see from Figure 7, it is the black line that is the culprit, as it should be in line with the Green Axis. By using this technique we have identified the source of the problem. You will find (especially when creating complex models) that this procedure comes in extremely useful. Figure 7 This concludes tutorial number eleven. Next time around we'll be covering even more hints and tips, plus how to create curved figures like cones and balls. Hope you found this tutorial useful. Paul Mort Get SketchUp Read other parts of this tutorial -
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SketchUp Tutorial Part Ten By Paul Mort Following on from my previous SketchUp Part Nine tutorial, we will continue on with tips and tricks used in making buildings in SketchUp. Please note that the references made in the following tutorial are applicable to X-Plane. The Classic House Although I would admit that there are more complex and technical programs out there for the creation of 3D objects, one thing that does stand out with SketchUp is that there are usually more ways than one to get where you want to be. Let's take the example of a simple house. Figure 1 (below) shows how NOT to start creating a simple box shape for your house. The reason is this: drawing individual surfaces by using lines or rectangles can lead (in complex shapes) to lines not being parallel, which can cause problems with other surfaces not fitting correctly. Our example, shown below, is obviously exaggerated for demonstration purposes, but as you can see, it doesn't take much error at the start to cause problems later on down the line! It's also the long way around as using the Push/Pull Tool is a far simpler and less time consuming method as Figure 2 clearly shows. Two moves and the job is done. Figure 1 Figure 2 Roofing Made Easy The next stage in the modeling of our house is the creation of a roof, to which a very easy solution exists. Whenever we move across a straight line in SketchUp, the program will tell us when we reach the mid point by displaying the word 'Midpoint'. The dot displayed at the end of our Pencil 'Line Tool' also turns from red to green. Figure 3 shows a line drawn from the midpoint of one side, following the apex of the roof to the midpoint on the other side. As we hover over this line using the 'Move' Tool, the line turns blue and we can move upwards to make the line rise vertically. This makes creating the roof apex extremely easy as shown in Figure 4. Figure 3 Figure 4 The Embellishment After building the basic shape, it's down to personal choice and imagination as to how your final creation finally looks. By drawing basic shapes and using 'Push Pull', it's possible to create some really nice effects and details, such as curved tube door handles. Curves you remember are created with the 'Follow Me' Tool (covered in a previous tutorial). A Note On Windows When it comes to buildings, there is a choice to be made regarding the look of windows. Do you simply delete the surface where the window is or do you texture it? The answer is, it's personal choice. Removing windows from a building results in being able to see clearly through the model. The result of this, is that you will need to create some form of textured interior, usually by removing the base of the building so as to gain access inside. One of the best ways to compliment the interior is by including an upstairs floor. This can be time consuming (if you wish to match the quality of the exterior) but a good feature of this is you can place both people and objects inside and they will be in 3D as in Figure 5. Figure 5 Texturing Windows The alternative to removing windows is to leave the window surface in and use a picture of an interior to texture it. The disadvantage to this method is that you will need to do this to ALL the glass areas of the building, so you choose your picture textures carefully. If you get them right, you can create some impressive results as in Figure 6. Figure 6 Drawing Chimneys Because of the slope of our roof, we cannot just draw a rectangle on it and 'Push Pull' as the chimney would extrude at the same angle as the roof. As ever though, there is a solution. As Figure 7 shows, start by drawing a rectangle to the required dimensions on the roof. Next, draw two vertical lines on the Blue Axis from the two lower points of the rectangle to the required height. Then create a vertical rectangle using the lines as a guide. Finally 'Push Pull' the vertical rectangle toward the center of the roof and (as if by magic) it will 'Melt' into the roof giving you a vertical chimney. Figure 7 And with a little embellishment... Hope you enjoyed this latest tutorial. Paul Mort Get SketchUp Read other parts of this tutorial -
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