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Nav lights on a aircraft model with wingflex

G

gpxe0

Messages
46
Country
france
Hello

I am trying to add nav lights on an aircraft model that has wing flex animation. I created the effects in MCX very easily. I exported object, tried in P3D4. No issue. I then reopened MCX and used the Hierarchy editor to move the attached effect under the correct SceneGraphNode (the one for the wingflex anim). The attached effect immediately disappeared from my screen in MCX. I thought it might just be a bug so I dediced to export object again and try in P3D4. It didn't appear anymore. I tired to place the attached effect under a Model Part (and not directly under the wingflex SceneGraphNode) but I had the same problem.

What I can I possibly do wrong ? I know MCX is very reliable so I must be mistaking somewhere....

Thanks for your help
 
tgibson

tgibson

Resource contributor
Messages
11,338
Country
us-california
What were the effect's location coordinates? After moving the effect under the SceneGraphNode, try changing these to 0;0;0? Try doing that first?
 
G

gpxe0

Messages
46
Country
france
Hi Tom

Thanks for your reply. I did try that indeed. It seems that when you drag the attached effect under a different node, all coordonitaes are f**ed up because of the transformations existing in any parent (SceneNode or ModelPart). I have to determine again all coordinates for my attached object .... and it's even more complicated for the orientation ! What a nightmare ! I would have hoped that when doing the drag and drop MCX would have adjusted that automatically....
 
tgibson

tgibson

Resource contributor
Messages
11,338
Country
us-california
And if they lose their axes after dragging them to the node, they can no longer be used as landing or taxi lights that light up the ground. Nav lights and such should be fine?
 
G

gpxe0

Messages
46
Country
france
Indeeed they hadn't lost their axes. But the final node came after a preliminary node which reset the reference point (or at least the general scale). This scale, at this node level, is 1/1000th of the "normal" scale. And so are the axes. So small that you can't see them.... To be mroe explicit, I'm working on the Hawker Sidley Trident 121.
 
G

gavinc

Messages
149
Hi,
I have found the best way to attach lights to moving model parts is as follows
- create an effect at co-ordinates 0,0,0
- export and re-import the model
- drag the effect to the desired part
- export and re-import the model
- now you can adjust the location of the effect relative to the part by manipulating the x,y,z values (easiest to do in wire frame mode). You will also note that the orientation of the effect is messed up (the green line should be pointing forward for landing and taxi lights to work correctly). Usually setting the roll value to -90 will orient it correctly, however since the orientation is all messed up just entering -90 won't work - for reasons I don't bother to try to understand setting the roll to 1800 will force MCX to set it to -90 and then the lights work.
- export and re-import the model
- now set any necessary visibility conditions.

This is what I usually do with AI aircraft I assume it will work with user flyable as well.

good luck
gavin
 
KAI31

KAI31

Messages
135
Country
ukraine
Such a problem really exists with MCX, and not only with convertible models, but also with new ones that are created in 3D MAX and then transferred from the X-file to MDL using MCX. It is very inconvenient. It turns out that lighting effects can be attached and correctly installed only at the end of the model's construction.
Or use the standard command line to convert from an X file.
 
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