Grover
Saturn V Misfire
--==##NOTE!!!! THIS IS NOT FINISHED YET, IT REQUIRES FURTHER EDITING, AND CHECKING, EXPECT TYPOS FOR THE MOMENT##==--
Well, the last tutorial I wrote in this style was quite sucessful, and allowed orbinauts to perform their first re-entries in a DGIV, now, im going a little devvy; Sketchup modelling.
I wont go into great detail about how to design realistic models, but I can give a rough guide on how to use some of the essential tools, and use Sketchup as a design plan for creating bases with measurements of positioning accurate to up to 1 micro meter on EVERY object
But first, we'll start at the top; Why use sketchup at all?
Well, I use it because I CAN. I find its interface and methods easier to understand than other modelling software like 3dsmax, anim8or and Blender. Also, its style of building means that with a little practice, you can put out some good models, especially for structures like buildings, though it does have a weakness in the smooth flows of aerodynamic craft, so if you want to design a sleek vessel, look somewhere else (although with practice and AWESOME patience, you can design sleek models just as good as those that other software packages can pump out)
Well, with that rant out the way, lets move on to step one;
CONFIGURATION
For some strange reason, sketchup inherently works in inches, which are no good to orbiter, since all its units are in SI form (Meters, seconds etc) not imperial form. so you should change this before you do ANYTHING.
Due to OFs limit on images, I cant go crazy with screenshots, so you'll have to put up with instructions like [Edit>Delete guides] rather than me putting hundreds of screenshots into this tutorial
So, to configure your sketchup package, go to [Window>Model Info], then select the 'Units' page, which should give parameters for Length units and Angle units:
set your values similar to mine. YOU MUST SET UNITS TO METERS and I suggest precision to 1mm, as you will then be able to use sketchup to locate points on your vessel, like exhaust positions and the such, because 1cm I find is a just not accurate enough.
After that, draw any shape to unlock the export dialogue box, so you can edit its settings before you forget, any old shape/line will do. (click on the workspace, press [L] then drag a line in any direction)
Then go to [File>Export>3d Model]
Then hit the "Options" button in the lower-right part of the box, so you have this dialogue:
and set the bottom value to "Meters"
You should then perform a similar change to the Import setting, going to [File>Import>>Options] and set units to Meters
After all this, you may want to save the settings so they will load each time, so delete the shape you drew (press space to activate the "Select" tool, then click your shape (Double click if it contains more than one entity (an entity is a line or face)), then go to [File>Save as Template] and save it as something like "Orbiter Modelling", you may also want to set it as the default template for sketchup modelling
Now youre ready for modelling!
As my personal tip to all you out there: start simple. learn the tools. THEN get onto complicated shapes and structures. But learn them in order:
Start with the line tool, the simplest of all, try to draw a UGCO cargo box, with its bottom face being right on the origin (centered obviously) and a simple cube, of dimensions 1.3m^3
If you find getting the distances accurate is difficult, you can simply start drawing the line, move the mouse in the direction that the line should go (along either of the three axis for now) then type [1.3] (without square brackets) and hit enter to draw a line of EXACTLY 1.3m
You will notice, that as you draw closed 2d shapes, orbiter fills in the faces for you, if you didnt want a face there, just use the select tool (press space) to pick it (it should then change texture to show blue dots), then press [Delete] to remove the face, but none of the edges (if you accidentally selected edges, they will turn blue)
You can also use the rectangle tool, just click on one of its vertices, then click on the opposite vertex to draw it; this will always draw a face inside the rectangle.
The circle tool is similar, just click on its center, then draw a line to match its radius, this again will always draw a face inside the circle.
using any one of these tools, you can enter incredibly accurate values by simply typing them and pressing enter (a recent discovery of mine)
if you want to edit an entity (only the edges that make them, faces change themselves) you can change line length (providing that the line is not attached at BOTH ends), Circle/Arc segments (more segments makes more detailed circles, but creates more vertices, I prefer to use 36 segments) or just see lengths by using the "Entity Info" box, available by right clicking any entity, and then selecting the top option (you guessed it: "Entity Info"). this box will always adapt to new selections, so you can leave it open if you want
These tools form the main bulk of what you will use, but there are two slightly more advanced tools that are indisposable for any modeller in sketchup
The push/pull tool is selected by clicking the button on your tool-tray, 10th overall and next to the paint bucket. You can use this tool to extend a 2d face into a 3d object. so to draw the cube again, you could use the rectangle tool to draw a 1.3m square, then use the push/pull tool to drag the face upwards by 1.3m, as shown here:
if you want the tool to create a new 3d shape connected to the original one, rather than extending the shape, you can press [CTRL] so a + appears above the cursor, indicating that it will create new faces rather than extending existing ones (see its use in the next section)
The next tool is the scale tool. I use this to make gradualy smaller shapes, in conjunction with the push/pull tool so you can make domes without needing fancy tools. simply select the face or object you want to make bigger or smaller, select the scale tool (key) and drag the yellow boxes. using [CTRL] will force the scaling to happen about the center of the object, so the scaling is uniform over the face/object
One final tool I will mention is the tape measure/guide tool. This is literally a tape measure, you can use it to measure distances over your mesh to check scaling, or you can use it to add guides to help you offset objects, like the uppermost point of a doorframe you want to add into an existing face. simply select the tool (8th along the tooltray), select a point to start measuring from, then select where to measure to. if there is a + above the cursor, it will add a guide point/line (press [CTRL] to toggle guide generation on/off). If you measure from an endpoint (vertex) it will simply add a guide point where you make the second click, but if you measure from a point along a line, it will create a parallel guide line from where you first clicked, and offset as you defined by clicking/entering an offset value
Those are the basic tools to use, you can probably make any model with those, but I have yet to work out how to generate perfect spheres if you practice with these tools, you should be able to work them well after a week or so.
now a quick note on exporting and texturing:
I prefer to do my texturing and UV mapping in 3dsmax, but i wont go into this since this is a sketchup tutorial. Simply use the export command in [File>Export] and ensure the units are set to meters before creating a 3ds
You can then convert these files to MSHs or otherwise use them for your addons, sketchup doesnt yet have an extension to export as a Mesh file, and nor should it, since you cant really texture objects in sketchup, it has no UV mapping capability worthy of mention (it tends to leave one huge mess of twisted lines when you get the model into 3dsmax UVW unwrapper)
Appendix- Surface base construction
Next, I will explain how to use a plan in sketchup to make a surface base.
Using sketchup for base design is fantastic; once youve planned it, you can get incredibly accurate measurements and then export complicated taxiway shapes as meshes (via a texturing and MSHing department ;P), then just fill in the gaps with them. as an example, I will use my currently-nearly-released base, Port Grover:
I originally wanted to just export the whole base as one mesh then plonk it into orbiter, but it got complicated with wierd CTDs and the problem o0f exporting long flat objects onto a sphere. so i decided to just do it AIA style and make a long complicated CFG. I was also inspired by Armstrong Lunar Base to use runways as taxiways, then change the texture and removed PAPI, VASI and all but one runway segment
The upside of the new method is a base with accurate taxiways, the downside is the runway count, which is over 40 in my case, so if you want to find ILS information for the actual runway(s), youll have trouble finding it
But back to sketchup, there is a method for doing it accurately:
Firstly, get your plan into sketchup and orient it so it is exactly how it will be in orbiter, where the origin of the model is the base marker, which is defined at the top of the CFG file i of your base, and the Red axis is North (as is shown in my screenshot above, you can see that both runways have heading 120 / 300.
Then, you need to understand how Orbiter will read the distances put into the CFG. the rule is:
POS: [South/North] [Up/Down] [East/West] ;(values given are [Positive/Negative])
ROT: angles are given in degrees ANTI CLOCKWISE.
The system appears reversed; angles go CCW and North is a NEGATIVE VECTOR along with west. so on the sketchup render, the solid red and green lines show negative vectors, and the dotted axis show positive vectors
So, as you can see, i need 40 runways defined to make the taxiway system, as well as my actual runways, 12L and 12R (not shown on this render, since they were already implemented and removed from my virtual "checklist" of objects by the time i had this image)
Before you can make your measurements, there is a few things you should do:
-:remove any object that is not flat to the ground, in my case, the hangars (use the Edit>Hide command to temporarily remove them) then, select the entire object (you can use [CTRL]+[A]) and make them into a group, so you can draw lines over them without them becoming segmented by the edges that make the cosmodrome
-:finally, draw two lines along the green axis in either direction from the origin, these will be where you measure to, notice also that they do not become segmented by the edges of the model you made into a group, a very useful feature
So, start at one side of the cosmodrome [fancy name for spaceport] and start adding runways to your CFG, using an appropriate texture, and making the measurements from the point (the middle of one end of the taxiway segment) to the Green axis you lined earlier. take a RED AXIS measurement first (remember, North and West are Negative) then put a 0 in the next part, then take a measurement of the part of the Green axis between the origin and where the line you just drew meets it. this measn that your position vectors are given as:
these are all on one line (see my examples below) and with a single space between each value, dont give units or use the suffix k, or use brackets or "" marks
As an example, here are a couple of different runway entries into my own spaceport, try and work out where they lie on my plan:
NOTE: If you use a custom texture as I have, you need to add its name to the long list in [..\..\Orbiter\Config\Base.CFG] else it will NOT render on the taxiways.
The NRWSEG and RWSEG entries are related to the texture mapping, since your texture will probably be a square with a line running vertically through it, you can copy my segment arrangement, but you need to understand the first digit after RWSEG1:
that is basically how many times the texture renders onto the taxiway, so use a smaller value for shorter sections, roughly, it should be how many taxiway widths make up the taxiway length, but its not too important. if you use too few, the texture becomes stretched, if you use too many, there are too many for orbiter to render at full resolution, so it renders a reduced resolution instead.
One last note on this method:
Athough you can see the taxiways running along the runway sides can possible be done as one single runway entry, and it is true that it would reduce load on the user's computer, but it then requires that the meshes used for the junctions have to be raised above the ground to prevent texture conflicts, and when viewing from above, you require large vertical offsets, which means that vessel's landing gear will cut through them
The meshes are added in a similar fashion to the runways, just ensure that the rotation is right and that you know where the origin of each mesh is so you can place them with the 1mm accuracy which is so useful. i find that the best way to do this is to import them BACK into sketchup and show (using a line) where the origin of each mesh it (where orbiter considers the "Center" of the mesh
This is another copy of some entries from my base, note the format of each entry and copy your own meshes if you need to.
NOTE: the tag OWNMATERIAL is ESSENTIAL else the models will NOT render
You must place the meshes in ..\..\Orbiter\Meshes and their relevant textures into ..\..\Orbiter\Textures, else they will not render, and may cause CTDs
Using these methods, you can create a base that is incredibly accurate, and if you take your time, you can make a very realistic comsodrome as well
That concludes my tutorial for now, if you have any questions/feedback, please post and I will try to answer, and if it becomes a "Hot Topic" I will write them into this tutorial.
Thanks for reading
Well, the last tutorial I wrote in this style was quite sucessful, and allowed orbinauts to perform their first re-entries in a DGIV, now, im going a little devvy; Sketchup modelling.
I wont go into great detail about how to design realistic models, but I can give a rough guide on how to use some of the essential tools, and use Sketchup as a design plan for creating bases with measurements of positioning accurate to up to 1 micro meter on EVERY object
But first, we'll start at the top; Why use sketchup at all?
Well, I use it because I CAN. I find its interface and methods easier to understand than other modelling software like 3dsmax, anim8or and Blender. Also, its style of building means that with a little practice, you can put out some good models, especially for structures like buildings, though it does have a weakness in the smooth flows of aerodynamic craft, so if you want to design a sleek vessel, look somewhere else (although with practice and AWESOME patience, you can design sleek models just as good as those that other software packages can pump out)
Well, with that rant out the way, lets move on to step one;
CONFIGURATION
For some strange reason, sketchup inherently works in inches, which are no good to orbiter, since all its units are in SI form (Meters, seconds etc) not imperial form. so you should change this before you do ANYTHING.
Due to OFs limit on images, I cant go crazy with screenshots, so you'll have to put up with instructions like [Edit>Delete guides] rather than me putting hundreds of screenshots into this tutorial
So, to configure your sketchup package, go to [Window>Model Info], then select the 'Units' page, which should give parameters for Length units and Angle units:
set your values similar to mine. YOU MUST SET UNITS TO METERS and I suggest precision to 1mm, as you will then be able to use sketchup to locate points on your vessel, like exhaust positions and the such, because 1cm I find is a just not accurate enough.
After that, draw any shape to unlock the export dialogue box, so you can edit its settings before you forget, any old shape/line will do. (click on the workspace, press [L] then drag a line in any direction)
Then go to [File>Export>3d Model]
Then hit the "Options" button in the lower-right part of the box, so you have this dialogue:
and set the bottom value to "Meters"
You should then perform a similar change to the Import setting, going to [File>Import>>Options] and set units to Meters
After all this, you may want to save the settings so they will load each time, so delete the shape you drew (press space to activate the "Select" tool, then click your shape (Double click if it contains more than one entity (an entity is a line or face)), then go to [File>Save as Template] and save it as something like "Orbiter Modelling", you may also want to set it as the default template for sketchup modelling
Now youre ready for modelling!
As my personal tip to all you out there: start simple. learn the tools. THEN get onto complicated shapes and structures. But learn them in order:
Start with the line tool, the simplest of all, try to draw a UGCO cargo box, with its bottom face being right on the origin (centered obviously) and a simple cube, of dimensions 1.3m^3
If you find getting the distances accurate is difficult, you can simply start drawing the line, move the mouse in the direction that the line should go (along either of the three axis for now) then type [1.3] (without square brackets) and hit enter to draw a line of EXACTLY 1.3m
You will notice, that as you draw closed 2d shapes, orbiter fills in the faces for you, if you didnt want a face there, just use the select tool (press space) to pick it (it should then change texture to show blue dots), then press [Delete] to remove the face, but none of the edges (if you accidentally selected edges, they will turn blue)
You can also use the rectangle tool, just click on one of its vertices, then click on the opposite vertex to draw it; this will always draw a face inside the rectangle.
The circle tool is similar, just click on its center, then draw a line to match its radius, this again will always draw a face inside the circle.
using any one of these tools, you can enter incredibly accurate values by simply typing them and pressing enter (a recent discovery of mine
)if you want to edit an entity (only the edges that make them, faces change themselves) you can change line length (providing that the line is not attached at BOTH ends), Circle/Arc segments (more segments makes more detailed circles, but creates more vertices, I prefer to use 36 segments) or just see lengths by using the "Entity Info" box, available by right clicking any entity, and then selecting the top option (you guessed it: "Entity Info"). this box will always adapt to new selections, so you can leave it open if you want
These tools form the main bulk of what you will use, but there are two slightly more advanced tools that are indisposable for any modeller in sketchup
The push/pull tool is selected by clicking the button on your tool-tray, 10th overall and next to the paint bucket. You can use this tool to extend a 2d face into a 3d object. so to draw the cube again, you could use the rectangle tool to draw a 1.3m square, then use the push/pull tool to drag the face upwards by 1.3m, as shown here:
if you want the tool to create a new 3d shape connected to the original one, rather than extending the shape, you can press [CTRL] so a + appears above the cursor, indicating that it will create new faces rather than extending existing ones (see its use in the next section)
The next tool is the scale tool. I use this to make gradualy smaller shapes, in conjunction with the push/pull tool so you can make domes without needing fancy tools. simply select the face or object you want to make bigger or smaller, select the scale tool (key
One final tool I will mention is the tape measure/guide tool. This is literally a tape measure, you can use it to measure distances over your mesh to check scaling, or you can use it to add guides to help you offset objects, like the uppermost point of a doorframe you want to add into an existing face. simply select the tool (8th along the tooltray), select a point to start measuring from, then select where to measure to. if there is a + above the cursor, it will add a guide point/line (press [CTRL] to toggle guide generation on/off). If you measure from an endpoint (vertex) it will simply add a guide point where you make the second click, but if you measure from a point along a line, it will create a parallel guide line from where you first clicked, and offset as you defined by clicking/entering an offset value
Those are the basic tools to use, you can probably make any model with those, but I have yet to work out how to generate perfect spheres if you practice with these tools, you should be able to work them well after a week or so.
now a quick note on exporting and texturing:
I prefer to do my texturing and UV mapping in 3dsmax, but i wont go into this since this is a sketchup tutorial. Simply use the export command in [File>Export] and ensure the units are set to meters before creating a 3ds
You can then convert these files to MSHs or otherwise use them for your addons, sketchup doesnt yet have an extension to export as a Mesh file, and nor should it, since you cant really texture objects in sketchup, it has no UV mapping capability worthy of mention (it tends to leave one huge mess of twisted lines when you get the model into 3dsmax UVW unwrapper)
Appendix- Surface base construction
Next, I will explain how to use a plan in sketchup to make a surface base.
Using sketchup for base design is fantastic; once youve planned it, you can get incredibly accurate measurements and then export complicated taxiway shapes as meshes (via a texturing and MSHing department ;P), then just fill in the gaps with them. as an example, I will use my currently-nearly-released base, Port Grover:
I originally wanted to just export the whole base as one mesh then plonk it into orbiter, but it got complicated with wierd CTDs and the problem o0f exporting long flat objects onto a sphere. so i decided to just do it AIA style and make a long complicated CFG. I was also inspired by Armstrong Lunar Base to use runways as taxiways, then change the texture and removed PAPI, VASI and all but one runway segment
The upside of the new method is a base with accurate taxiways, the downside is the runway count, which is over 40 in my case, so if you want to find ILS information for the actual runway(s), youll have trouble finding it
But back to sketchup, there is a method for doing it accurately:
Firstly, get your plan into sketchup and orient it so it is exactly how it will be in orbiter, where the origin of the model is the base marker, which is defined at the top of the CFG file i of your base, and the Red axis is North (as is shown in my screenshot above, you can see that both runways have heading 120 / 300.
Then, you need to understand how Orbiter will read the distances put into the CFG. the rule is:
POS: [South/North] [Up/Down] [East/West] ;(values given are [Positive/Negative])
ROT: angles are given in degrees ANTI CLOCKWISE.
The system appears reversed; angles go CCW and North is a NEGATIVE VECTOR along with west. so on the sketchup render, the solid red and green lines show negative vectors, and the dotted axis show positive vectors
So, as you can see, i need 40 runways defined to make the taxiway system, as well as my actual runways, 12L and 12R (not shown on this render, since they were already implemented and removed from my virtual "checklist" of objects by the time i had this image)
Before you can make your measurements, there is a few things you should do:
-:remove any object that is not flat to the ground, in my case, the hangars (use the Edit>Hide command to temporarily remove them) then, select the entire object (you can use [CTRL]+[A]) and make them into a group, so you can draw lines over them without them becoming segmented by the edges that make the cosmodrome
-:finally, draw two lines along the green axis in either direction from the origin, these will be where you measure to, notice also that they do not become segmented by the edges of the model you made into a group, a very useful feature
So, start at one side of the cosmodrome [fancy name for spaceport] and start adding runways to your CFG, using an appropriate texture, and making the measurements from the point (the middle of one end of the taxiway segment) to the Green axis you lined earlier. take a RED AXIS measurement first (remember, North and West are Negative) then put a 0 in the next part, then take a measurement of the part of the Green axis between the origin and where the line you just drew meets it. this measn that your position vectors are given as:
Code:
[Southern offset (negative if norhern)]
[Vertical displacement above the ground]
[Eastern offset (negative is western)]As an example, here are a couple of different runway entries into my own spaceport, try and work out where they lie on my plan:
Code:
RUNWAY
END1 -774.497 0 -2761.468
END2 -852.439 0 -2716.468
WIDTH 60
RWTEX PGRTaxiway1
NRWSEG 1
RWSEG1 1 1 0 1 0 1
END
RUNWAY
END1 713.031 0 355.007
END2 -49.071 0 795.007
WIDTH 60
RWTEX PGRTaxiway1
NRWSEG 1
RWSEG1 2 1 0 1 0 1
END
RUNWAY
END1 -1308.811 0 -1026.927
END2 -1386.753 0 -981.927
WIDTH 60
RWTEX PGRTaxiway1
NRWSEG 1
RWSEG1 2 1 0 1 0 1
ENDNOTE: If you use a custom texture as I have, you need to add its name to the long list in [..\..\Orbiter\Config\Base.CFG] else it will NOT render on the taxiways.
The NRWSEG and RWSEG entries are related to the texture mapping, since your texture will probably be a square with a line running vertically through it, you can copy my segment arrangement, but you need to understand the first digit after RWSEG1:
that is basically how many times the texture renders onto the taxiway, so use a smaller value for shorter sections, roughly, it should be how many taxiway widths make up the taxiway length, but its not too important. if you use too few, the texture becomes stretched, if you use too many, there are too many for orbiter to render at full resolution, so it renders a reduced resolution instead.
One last note on this method:
Athough you can see the taxiways running along the runway sides can possible be done as one single runway entry, and it is true that it would reduce load on the user's computer, but it then requires that the meshes used for the junctions have to be raised above the ground to prevent texture conflicts, and when viewing from above, you require large vertical offsets, which means that vessel's landing gear will cut through them
The meshes are added in a similar fashion to the runways, just ensure that the rotation is right and that you know where the origin of each mesh is so you can place them with the 1mm accuracy which is so useful. i find that the best way to do this is to import them BACK into sketchup and show (using a line) where the origin of each mesh it (where orbiter considers the "Center" of the mesh
This is another copy of some entries from my base, note the format of each entry and copy your own meshes if you need to.
Code:
MESH
FILE PGRTaxiwayTurn
OWNMATERIAL
POS -1308.811 0 -1026.927
ROT 150
PRELOAD
END
MESH
FILE PGRTaxiwayJunction4
OWNMATERIAL
POS 4.132 0 1067.156
ROT 60
PRELOAD
ENDNOTE: the tag OWNMATERIAL is ESSENTIAL else the models will NOT render
You must place the meshes in ..\..\Orbiter\Meshes and their relevant textures into ..\..\Orbiter\Textures, else they will not render, and may cause CTDs
Using these methods, you can create a base that is incredibly accurate, and if you take your time, you can make a very realistic comsodrome as well
That concludes my tutorial for now, if you have any questions/feedback, please post and I will try to answer, and if it becomes a "Hot Topic" I will write them into this tutorial.
Thanks for reading
Last edited:
