• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
    • Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

P3D v4 Blender export constraints

F747fly

F747fly

Resource contributor
Messages
1,713
Country
netherlands
Hi all!

I am quite sure someone must have discussed this at some point before, but I cannot figure it out at the moment.
I'm trying to export a "copy rotation" constraint. The setup includes the front gear door and an empty object. So the door has a local Y-axis that I want to rotate it on (i.e. I do not want it to rotate on any other axis) and I constrainted it to the empty, which then is animated to rotate on the global Y-axis, so as to force a rotation on the local Y-axis of the door object. So far so good, but this does not export in to MDL, ofcourse perhaps, but is it at all possible to get this done?
 
I'm aware of that, but that still wouldn't export the actual animation I set up I think....
 
You have a point here,
maybe if you open the 3d file in gmax and work in the animation manager,
I'm having a problem with my hangar animated for SODE, where I opened it in Gmax (I do not have much experience with Gmax) and I can not save the animation.
I'm looking for more information and if I find I'll tell you, sorry.
 
I know almost nothing about Blender but I do know about animation constraints in Gmax and 3ds Max and they don’t export to FS. I fully expect you’ll have to reduce the constrained animation to keyframes.
 
Yeah I was afraid of that. So in that case I have two options I guess.... Either I find a way of getting the rotation on just the local axis (and no other axis then that axis) or I let it keyframe the whole thing...
 
Keep It Simple Frits my advice, Do not add any more then you have to, in a Blender to FSX/P3D export, since opening and closing doors can be done without it:
Here is an example how it can be done
1. Create an empty which is perfectly aligned with the pivotpoint hinge of your front-gear-door.
2. Cut of the Front-gear-door-area from the front fuselage section.
3. Now parent the front-gear-door to the relevant empty.
4. Set the origin-point of the front-gear-door to the relevant empty axis and you are ready
5. You now can create the "open-and-close" animation of the front-gear-door by simply rotating the (hinge) empty over the right x,y,z-axis
It is as simple as that.

If you want a video to go with this explanation, watch the famous Krispy1001 Blender2FSX - V22 "landing gear animation" video on Youtube:
 
Thanks for the input Ronald. However I'm looking to rate these doors on axis that do not fit the global axes. I'm sure other people will have had to face similar issues though...
 
Hello F747fly,

My constraints are exported normally from Blender, without any problem. But if I understand correctly, in your case, you have an empty object that moves on any axis, and you just want your door to follow it...? All you have to do is create a parent link between your door and your empty object...
 
That's right Chris, to illustrate the issue I've captured a video recording of it:


As you can see the one side (right-hand) is animated with the constraint so that it moves in a, for humans, logical way along a single local axis (local Y). However the other side (left-hand side of the plane) is animated as one normally would and ask you can see Blender does the most logical thing for a computer, it finds the shortest route through x and y. So I want it to be like the right-hand side, but the constraint I am using doesn't seem to export...
 
But when you say that the constraint is not exported, you mean that there is no animation at all...? Or, there is an animation, but not the one desired by the constraint...?

For each side, you have an empty object... This empty object must be placed and animated exactly in the axis of rotation you want (for opening every door). Then, the door will become the child of your empty object, and the export of the animation will be done without any problem...! But there must be no mirrors or other parents.

In the worst case, you can send me your model so I can check...!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top