Building a plane?

1st Official Post
    • Official Post

    Have a look at this Forum thread as you can learn quite a bit reading through it.

    We also have in our Wiki a whole section on 'aircraft development' to help get you started.

    You can always post in this forum any questions when you begin, there are a lot of individuals here that can help you.

    IPACS Development Team Member

    I'm just a cook, I don't own the restaurant.
    On behalf of Torsten, Marc, and the rest of the IPACS team, we would all like to thank you for your continued support.

    Regards,

    Jeff

    Hi

    My advice would be to examine an aircraft TMD file. If you think you can make sense of the mumbo jumbo in there then go ahead and start modelling but NOT the other way round.

    There is scant documentation regarding the TMD file and what little bits that have been in the forum are now scattered to the winds, lost in various forum posts. Like most things IPACS, aircraft development seems to be secret and about as confusing as they could make it.

    And.... before the moderators say otherwise, the facts speak for themselves, aircraft development by third parties is next to nil. Sure if you ask for specific help, nine times out of ten its forthcoming but that's not a way to proceed with any development. Comprehensive documentation should be there from the start and its only when you have exhausted that do you make a request help. Spoon feeding a titbit here and a titbit there is counter productive and pretty useless

    Is this a rant..perhaps, but sometimes its the only way to make people listen

    Steve

    • Official Post
    Quote from boeingcorp

    thanks Steve i will have to check it out, good advice

    Regardless of how some members of the forum feel that making an aircraft is too difficult, the fact of the matter is that it's not as difficult as it seems. You need to build your aircraft model in a 3D modelling application, and most of the tricky work is configuring the TMD file of the aircraft. For that, it's best to copy an existing similar aircraft TMD file and modify it from there.

    Also, neither myself nor Jan (Jet-Pack) are moderators, we are both full members of the IPACS development team and Jan works directly with aircraft setup, configuration, and design, so he will be there for you if you are serious about making an aircraft .

    I'm not going to tell you that aircraft development is point and click easy, but if you take your time, and learn the process, like Jan said, it's not that difficult to do.

    IPACS Development Team Member

    I'm just a cook, I don't own the restaurant.
    On behalf of Torsten, Marc, and the rest of the IPACS team, we would all like to thank you for your continued support.

    Regards,

    Jeff

    Quote from drhotwing1

    Regardless of how some members of the forum feel that making an aircraft is too difficult, the fact of the matter is that it's not as difficult as it seems. You need to build your aircraft model in a 3D modelling application, and most of the tricky work is configuring the TMD file of the aircraft.

    How difficult will you assume it is for a third party developer (such as carenado) to convert one of their airplanes from, for example, FSX to Aerofly FS2?

    • Official Post
    Quote from Hartman

    How difficult will you assume it is for a third party developer (such as carenado) to convert one of their airplanes from, for example, FSX to Aerofly FS2?

    For an actual development company it's rather easy to use our tools to develop a rather complex aircraft. Especially if they already have the aircraft modeled.

    IPACS Development Team Member

    I'm just a cook, I don't own the restaurant.
    On behalf of Torsten, Marc, and the rest of the IPACS team, we would all like to thank you for your continued support.

    Regards,

    Jeff

    I think the real question is once one has the 3D model - like in a conversion - say Carenado or Indiafoxtrothotel or ... - how do you figure out the rotation axis info for all the animated parts and then, how does one figure out the TMD file for aircraft systems. Jan has really contributed a lot, but I think it is hit and miss so far. The SDK DR400 is some help as well but it just seems to be quite hard - or we would have a few that are payware or freeware already. A real detailed breakdown of the TMD file would be the key, line by line!

    • Official Post
    Quote from whitav8

    I think the real question is once one has the 3D model - like in a conversion - say Carenado or Indiafoxtrothotel or ... - how do you figure out the rotation axis info for all the animated parts and then, how does one figure out the TMD file for aircraft systems. Jan has really contributed a lot, but I think it is hit and miss so far. The SDK DR400 is some help as well but it just seems to be quite hard - or we would have a few that are payware or freeware already. A real detailed breakdown of the TMD file would be the key, line by line!

    I agree with you here. A breakdown of the TMD and what each line means and does should help. Let us work on this and add it to our wiki. I always wanted to make a step by step tutorial for aircraft as well as i'm sure that would help as well.

    Give us some time and we will try to get this done for everyone to help solve the mystery :)

    IPACS Development Team Member

    I'm just a cook, I don't own the restaurant.
    On behalf of Torsten, Marc, and the rest of the IPACS team, we would all like to thank you for your continued support.

    Regards,

    Jeff

    Quote from drhotwing1

    A breakdown of the TMD and what each line means and does should help. Let us work on this and add it to our wiki. I always wanted to make a step by step tutorial for aircraft as well as i'm sure that would help as well.

    This would be great :)

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    "Also, neither myself nor Jan (Jet-Pack) are moderators"

    Jeff, Perhaps you should update your avatar, quite clearly says...moderator

    As I tried to point out, the difficult part is the TMD file, making the model is relatively easy, just time consuming

    TMD example ( a small fraction)

    <[multibody_joint][JointFuselageLeftElevator][]

    <[string8][Body0][Fuselage]>

    <[string8][Body1][LeftElevator]>

    <[tmvector3d][X0][0.066585 -0.990262 0.122254]>

    <[tmvector3d][R0][-4.61 1.07 0.05]>

    <[float64][Kp][10000000.0]>

    <[float64][Kd][50000.0]>

    <[uint32][Type][0]>

    <[string8][InputPosition][ServoLeftElevator.Output]>

    or perhaps this

    <[rigidbody][RightElevator][]

    <[float64][Mass][100.0]>

    <[tmvector3d][InertiaLength][ 1.8 2.3 0.1 ]>

    <[tmvector3d][R0][ -5.4 -2.1 0.05 ]>

    <[tmmatrix3d][B0][ 0.866 -0.5 0.0 0.5 0.866 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0]>

    If we had documentation which explained some of this then great but we don't. How much needs modifying and which bits don't, it's a bit like trying to plait fog, you can see it but you can't touch it

    I don't wish to sound negative, wrong forum for that, but lets be honest, the TMD file is pretty scary

    Steve

    Quote from whitav8

    The SDK DR400 is some help as well but it just seems to be quite hard - or we would have a few that are payware or freeware already.

    Yes, I think there is something strange that not a single one of the established third-party developers are trying to offer a payware aircraft for Aerofly FS2. Just Flight converted their Arrow III into Flight Sim World (allready when it was in early access). So why not convert it to Aerofly FS2? I'm ready to buy. But maybe Just Flight had some special internal deals?

    • Official Post

    I've learned how to build aircraft for aerofly through learning by doing, too... started by making my own aircraft like a lot of other people in this forum :)

    All of the parts that make an aircraft are pretty much self explanatory but there are lots of them and each has a specific goal which is explained easiest if you just search through our tmds. You sort of have to be able to read the file without getting distracted and just look at the structure and links between the objects. Only the links make up the logic of the aircraft.

    Our tmd doesnt assume anything, e.g. just cause you call it landing gear doesnt mean it automatically behaves like a gear. Its more like coding where you have variables and the executable doesnt care about the variables name

    .. and therefore the tmd can be very powerful and you can create very complex logic circuits or very complex physics structures like a retractable landing gear with several moving parts.

    An easy example are switches and buttons which are split into the dynamics section of the tmd file and the graphics section (hingedbodygraphics and movinggraphics) objects.

    If you follow the switch from the controls, to the dynamics, to the graphics and sound you can get a basic understanding of how the entire tmd works.

    Quote from Jet-Pack

    I've learned how to build aircraft for aerofly through learning by doing, too... started by making my own aircraft like a lot of other people in this forum

    I suspect it's not that difficult either. Having said that, would it be possible to recover the official IPACS DR400 from the latest update?. It should be a matter of minutes I guess.

    Cheers, Ed