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CAT v0.94 beta has just been uploaded and unless you guys find some bugs for me to solve I think this will also become v1.0. The only other thing I still need to do before I can release v1.0 is to make a good new manual. I will start working on that now. But in this thread I want to point at a few of the changes in this new version, so you will be able to use it without a manual 
.
Saving configurations
Nick made a good request to me. He asked if it would be possible to save more then one configuration. This is possible now.
When you press the save configuration menu you will get a list with a maximum of 10 configurations. When you start CAT for the first time they will all be named free. If you now select one of these entries you will be asked for a name for your configuration.
From then one the menu will not show Free, but the name you entered. If you have used all 10 spaces or want to overwrite a saved configuration just click on the entry again and supply a new name. You will be warned that the old one is overwritten.
Loading the configuration works the same. You do again have a menu with the 10 different configurations to choose from. The load menu has one additional entry, the Last save on exit. When you exit CAT you will be asked if you want to save the current configuration. This will be saved in a special file, which you can load with this option.
International windows
The source file produced by CAT should now work fine, regardless what your regional setting in windows is. Please let me know if there are still trouble.
Bounding box
Probably the biggest change in this version is the addition of the bounding box. Instead of a condition, you can now also use a bounding box as animation condition or animation trigger. This means that when the aircraft is in this box the animation works or is triggered and else it is not.
The figure above shows how the screen looks where you can enter the bounding box. You define the positions along the three axis that define the borders of your box. Please note that you must use integer values here (I just remember this, in the next version of CAT I will check this as well).
On my PC it seems that GMax switches the axis a bit. The x axis is the width of the object (x in GMax), the y axis is the height (z in GMax) and the z axis is the negative length (y in GMax). If you all find the same transformation of the axes I will rename the labels in the next version to just read width, length and height.
There is one very important limitation, so please READ this. The bounding box you define does NOT rotate with your object. So it is always north orientated, regardless of the heading you give your object in the XML file. This means that when you want to place your object rotated you need to calculate the correct bounding box for that first.
If you think it is useful I could add a rotation box in the next version of CAT that does the math for you. But please remember that such a MDL object should always be designed for one specific heading.
That was it for the manual erratum for now. Please let me know if there are things in this version that should be improved before we can have a non-beta version. And have fun with this release-candidate
.Saving configurations
Nick made a good request to me. He asked if it would be possible to save more then one configuration. This is possible now.
When you press the save configuration menu you will get a list with a maximum of 10 configurations. When you start CAT for the first time they will all be named free. If you now select one of these entries you will be asked for a name for your configuration.
From then one the menu will not show Free, but the name you entered. If you have used all 10 spaces or want to overwrite a saved configuration just click on the entry again and supply a new name. You will be warned that the old one is overwritten.
Loading the configuration works the same. You do again have a menu with the 10 different configurations to choose from. The load menu has one additional entry, the Last save on exit. When you exit CAT you will be asked if you want to save the current configuration. This will be saved in a special file, which you can load with this option.
International windows
The source file produced by CAT should now work fine, regardless what your regional setting in windows is. Please let me know if there are still trouble.
Bounding box
Probably the biggest change in this version is the addition of the bounding box. Instead of a condition, you can now also use a bounding box as animation condition or animation trigger. This means that when the aircraft is in this box the animation works or is triggered and else it is not.
The figure above shows how the screen looks where you can enter the bounding box. You define the positions along the three axis that define the borders of your box. Please note that you must use integer values here (I just remember this, in the next version of CAT I will check this as well
).On my PC it seems that GMax switches the axis a bit. The x axis is the width of the object (x in GMax), the y axis is the height (z in GMax) and the z axis is the negative length (y in GMax). If you all find the same transformation of the axes I will rename the labels in the next version to just read width, length and height.
There is one very important limitation, so please READ this. The bounding box you define does NOT rotate with your object. So it is always north orientated, regardless of the heading you give your object in the XML file. This means that when you want to place your object rotated you need to calculate the correct bounding box for that first.
If you think it is useful I could add a rotation box in the next version of CAT that does the math for you. But please remember that such a MDL object should always be designed for one specific heading.
That was it for the manual erratum for now. Please let me know if there are things in this version that should be improved before we can have a non-beta version. And have fun with this release-candidate
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