TransferMFD Transfer orbit

markopolo5437

New member
Joined
Jun 28, 2018
Messages
12
Reaction score
0
Points
0
So, I'm using the Challenge 2 - Lunar Transfer scenario to learn how to work with Orbiter for deep space maneuvers. I was able to use the MFD - Align Planes screen successfully to zero out the Inclination differential, then use the MFD - Transfer screen to do an insertion burn to the Moon. I'm having difficulty now as I approach the Moon.

For the insertion burn, I first did the burn for the recommended time period recommended on the Transfer screen, beginning half of the burn time before the indicated time to burn. That put me in a collision with the Moon, with no other inputs. Next, I feathered the throttle towards the end of the burn to yield an apoapsis just short of the Moon's apogee. That also put me into the Moon.

There must be a second burn to enter Lunar orbit, I just don't know how to manipulate the Transfer screen to provide a direction and length of burn, and a time at which to fire the engines.

I'm sure there's something really obvious that I'm missing. Can somebody please point that out to me?

Thanks!
 

Marijn

Active member
Joined
Mar 5, 2008
Messages
755
Reaction score
166
Points
43
Location
Amsterdam
Once you are on your trajectory to the moon with or without midcourse corrections, a retrograde burn at the closest encounter should result in a closed orbit around the moon.

Perhaps you can give IMFD a try for your navigation.
 

Ripley

Tutorial translator
Donator
Joined
Sep 12, 2010
Messages
3,133
Reaction score
407
Points
123
Location
Rome
Website
www.tuttovola.org
AFAIK, TransferMFD just puts you on a...well...tranfer orbit to another body.
You could download and install IMFD from Jarmonik's site, or its Moon-dedicated subset LunarTransferMFD (LTMFD for short).

With IMFD for example, when you are close to your targeted body, you can circularize your orbit with just 3 clicks:
"MNU", to open IMFD's main menu;
"Orbital <", to enter orbital submenu (the "CIR" manoeuvre is already selected by default);
"AB <", to activate Auto-Burn.

Go here for Jarmonik's MFDs:
http://users.kymp.net/p501474a/Orbiter/Orbiter.html


Then, if you choose IMFD:
https://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=4142
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPu_SHPaJzs7Cp8OBsj41Ka-EIhReBbSJ


And BTW, welcome to Orbiter Forum!
 

markopolo5437

New member
Joined
Jun 28, 2018
Messages
12
Reaction score
0
Points
0
IMFD

I downloaded the IMFD and LTMFD files, unzipped them, and put the .dll files into the Modules/Plugin folder. I edited the Orbiter.cfg file to include the lines LunarTransferMFD and InterMFD57.

From here, how do I activate these plugins? They are not available when I use the SEL button below the MFD. I have the IFMD Manual, and it doesn't address the installation/activation issue.

Thanks for your help.
 

llarian

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 1, 2009
Messages
575
Reaction score
159
Points
58
Location
Ottawa
You will find IMFD and Transx tutorials on youtube. I've just been going back over David Courtney's IMFD tutorials for a Ceres project I'm working on. Excellent set.
 

markopolo5437

New member
Joined
Jun 28, 2018
Messages
12
Reaction score
0
Points
0
How do you get IMFD and LTMFD to work? I've downloaded the files, put the .dll into Modules/Plug In, and edited the Orbit.cfg file to include LunarTransferMFD and InterMFD57 lines. From there, how do I activate the displays?
 

Ripley

Tutorial translator
Donator
Joined
Sep 12, 2010
Messages
3,133
Reaction score
407
Points
123
Location
Rome
Website
www.tuttovola.org
...and edited the Orbit.cfg file to include LunarTransferMFD and InterMFD57 lines...
What?
Did I forget something?

---------- Post added at 08:42 ---------- Previous post was at 08:05 ----------

Wait!
Did you mean Orbiter.cfg file, in your main Orbiter folder?
If you intended to activate the new MFDs that way, that's not how you should do it.

Just unzip the MFDs you downloaded (the whole zip file, not just the dll in ..\Modules\Plugin folder) into your main Orbiter folder.
Then you launch Orbiter and from the Launchpad's Modules tab you check those two MFDs (they're under "Miscellaneous").
The same "Modules tab check" procedure must be repeated if you use D3D9, since it has its own config file, named "Orbiter_ng.cfg".

That's how they have to be activated, then you'll find them among your selectable MFDs while flying.


NOTE: you can edit Orbiter.cfg file (and its "counterpart" Orbiter_ng.cfg) to control the order MFDs are listed in the MFD menus.
Some MFDs (the default-hardcoded ones) are fixed though, and will always appear first.
 
Last edited:

markopolo5437

New member
Joined
Jun 28, 2018
Messages
12
Reaction score
0
Points
0
IMFD

So I put the complete unzipped folders IMFD and LTMFD into the Orbiter/Modules/PlugIn folder, then launched the Orbiter app. IMFD and LTMFD were available in the Modules tab of the app, and I checked the boxes. When I launched a scenario, I used the SEL tab to choose either of the IMFD or LTMFD displays, but there were no MFDs available besides the default 10 choices.

Now what?

Thanks in advance.
 

markopolo5437

New member
Joined
Jun 28, 2018
Messages
12
Reaction score
0
Points
0
IMFD tutorials

Also, the IMFD tutorials which I saw online by Tex are horribly out of focus, and do not address the installation/activation issues.
 

Tommy

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 14, 2008
Messages
2,019
Reaction score
86
Points
48
Location
Here and now
Its possible that the MFDs dont show because they aren' on the first page, try hitting the SEL button again to get to the second page.
 

Ripley

Tutorial translator
Donator
Joined
Sep 12, 2010
Messages
3,133
Reaction score
407
Points
123
Location
Rome
Website
www.tuttovola.org
So I put the complete unzipped folders IMFD and LTMFD into the Orbiter/Modules/PlugIn folder...
Wrong.
Put them into your MAIN Orbiter folder instead.

Look at the folder structure of, say, IMFD:

Config
Doc
Modules
Orbitersdk
Scenarios

Those folders (with their content) must go in Orbiter's relative homonymous folders.

See this, from 23:04
 
Last edited:

ADSWNJ

Scientist
Addon Developer
Joined
Aug 5, 2011
Messages
1,667
Reaction score
3
Points
38
Just to help you out here, @markopolo5437 - because it's non intuitive to start with, and we have all been there... do this:

As Ripley said - go to http://users.kymp.net/p501474a/Orbiter/Orbiter.html and get the LunarTransferMFD or the InterplanetaryMFD for your version of Orbiter. (E.g. if you have just started, and picked Orbiter 2016, then make sure you get the Orbiter 2016 version). Why do we still have the older Orbiter 2010? It's because there's not 100% backwards compatibility, so there's many things that run on Orbiter 2010 but not on Orbiter 2016.

Also note that downloads from specific addresses like this is a bit non-standard: the vast majority of addons will be found on orbithangar.com.

When you download the addon, store them in a folder somewhere near your Orbiter installation. E.g. I have an O: drive for all my Orbiter stuff, with O:\Orbiter2010, O:\Orbiter2010Repo, O:\Orbiter2016, and O:\Orbiter2016Repo. The 'repo' folders are my file repositories for all the addons I download, plus the original installer ZIP files. Why? Because it's always handy to have everything local for when you want to set up a new installation, e.g. if you mess things up, or if you are doing a specific scenario where you want to install an exact set of addons in the right order.

Once you have your addon downloaded and stored in your repo, then take a close look at the file extension, as it determines what to do with it. You will have one of these:

  1. ZIP files. Noce & easy: Right mouse, Extract All..., Browse to your orbiter root (e.g. O:\Orbiter2016 for me) and hit Extract.
  2. EXE files. The addon writer has created an installer, so run the .exe and follow the instructions.
  3. RAR, 7z, etc. files. Pretty rare, and these are just a different zip format. Go to www.7-zip.org and download and install 7-zip, which is pretty much the king of all compressed file formats. Once you have this installed, you can open the compressed file and then target your orbiter install again.

Note that when unzipping or expanding these compressed files, they will have multiple files and a specific file structure inside. This is why it is critical to unzip all files, and just overlay it onto your Orbiter root, so the files will drop into the right subfolders.

Looking at IMFD for Orbiter 2016, as an example, the file is IMFD57.zip (at the time of me writing this). Double-clicking into the zip shows it has 5 sub-folders: Config, Doc, Modules, Orbitersdk, and Scenarios. This is a classical hint that this is an Orbiter ZIP file, as these subfolders map directly to the subfolders under your Orbiter2016 install. Have a look around for a couple of filenames: e.g. in Config, make a note it has IMFD5.cfg, and in Modules\Plugin, note InterMFD57.dll.

So, hit the back arrow icon to go back out of the ZIP back to the repo folder, and your IMFD57.zip. Right mouse, Extract All..., select your Orbiter2016 root, and press Extract. If it asks you if you want to overwrite any files, then you have either added it before, or the ZIP file shares filenames with other installs (e.g. the XR-series spacecraft share some common files). Generally I would advise to always allow the unzip to overwrite files, as the developer obviously intended for this package to install as one unit. But - that's also why you keep the files in a repo, so if you screw it all up, you can generally reinstall orbiter and all addons in under 15 mins.

Final checks ... in your Orbiter2016 root (e.g. my O:\Orbiter2016, or your C:\Orbiter, or whatever you chose), go find those couple of files you noted: in under Config ... you'll see lots of files, but IMFD5.cfg should now be there. Same under Modules\Plugin ... tons of files, but you should find InterMFD57.dll. (If you don't, then your extract didn't work, so retrace your steps and figure out what you did wrong).

Now you have your addon installed, you need to activate it. When you launch Orbiter.exe or Orbiter_NG.exe (the latter is used with the D3D9 addon, and gives you 10x faster graphics, by the way): in the Orbiter Launchpad (where you select your scenario), click on Modules, and then look for the module you have just installed. In this case: InterMFD57 will be there and unselected. Select it (tick in the box!), go back to scenarios, pick something simple (e.g. Delta-glider folder, Docked at ISS), double click it to launch. In the simulation, get to a virtual cockpit view (press F8 until you have 2 large green MFD displays), then press SEL 2x, 3x, times until you see Interplanetary, select it, and you should see the opening message for IMFD. E.g. for mine: *Reboot Completed*, Version 5.7, Date of build, Dec 16 2016.

Hopefully this detailed walkthrough is of use to you and to other beginners. Installing things can feel a bit complicated, but you will quickly get the hang of it!

Welcome to Orbiter, and to this Forum.
 

markopolo5437

New member
Joined
Jun 28, 2018
Messages
12
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Eureka!

It worked! Thank you so much for your patience, and your clear, detailed, step-by-step explanation, ADSWNJ. I'm surprised there is no information like this in the add-on Manual. I guess they assume a basic level of knowledge which I didn't have until now.

The key principle that I was missing is to unzip the add-on into the root Orbiter folder, then everything goes into its proper place, and the add-on will work. Pretty simple, in retrospect, but not available without knowledge of that key principle.

Thank you, too, Ripley. I'm sure you'd have gotten me through this eventually.

Now, I'm off to look for tutorial videos to help me to operate the IMDF interface. I'm stoked. Orbiter seems like it's just the right simulation for me - real physical systems, lots of detail, lots of options. I'm sure I'll be spending many hours zooming around the Solar System.

Thanks again. Good Orbiting to you all. :thumbup:
 

ADSWNJ

Scientist
Addon Developer
Joined
Aug 5, 2011
Messages
1,667
Reaction score
3
Points
38
You are very welcome. Happy Orbiting.
 
Top