Wind Turbine animation question

[Tachyon]

Can I do an animated wind generator rotor via a gmax model only or do I need additional tools? Has anyone thought about varying the speed of rotation with wind speed?

 

[arno]

To show different speeds with different wind speeds, you need to use more than GMax. You could for example make different animations in GMax and then combine them with CAT into one new object.

I am still testing a way to make a windmill also rotate with the wind direction, while the rotors are animated (the RotateToAircraft command does not work with animations).

 

[Tachyon]

Not knowing much about the coding end of this and learning the model making end (via GMax for now) When I first read about someone else up here wanting to rotate the head of a wind generator to the direction of the wind I envisioned a "nested" effect. Assemble the head and animated rotor as a single entity and then rotate that object with the wind. Although this does not sound possible now. But I'm thinking outside the box, cuz it's where I'm at!
Then I read this thread (http://www.scenerydesign.org/forum/showthread.php?t=332) about variables and wondered if you could employ the 0C72 (wind ground velocity) and 0C74 (wind ground heading) variables to switch between models of the generator head facing different directions (maybe 4 or 6 major headings) while it's rotor was being animated. So getting back to my original question has anyone figured out how to rotate an object on it's X or Y axis via GMax? I've done the animate process and have a wicked wing generator going but the animation process doesn't survive into FS9.

 

[arno]

Then I read this thread (http://www.scenerydesign.org/forum/showthread.php?t=332) about variables and wondered if you could employ the 0C72 (wind ground velocity) and 0C74 (wind ground heading) variables to switch between models of the generator head facing different directions (maybe 4 or 6 major headings) while it's rotor was being animated.

Yes, that would also be an option, but will give you a lot of different MDL files that you all have to place at the same location. This is the approach Nick has tried for his animated flag before.

The idea I have will allow you to have one MDL object that does rotate with the wind, but I should still test the code tweaks.

So getting back to my original question has anyone figured out how to rotate an object on it's X or Y axis via GMax? I've done the animate process and have a wicked wing generator going but the animation process doesn't survive into FS9.

You can rotate along the X and Y axis, just as along the Z axis. Just make sure you select the correct axis in GMax when you are rotating the object. I have used this when I rotated the vanes of my windmill.

 

[nickw]

I have the flags working, animated, to 8 different directions. Using this method. But...

I never want to do that again!

Arno is working on this solutions, I do hope it works

 

[Tachyon]

That'll be the cats meow for these wind generators. Now, how do I make the main rotor spin in FS9? I've got it spinning just fine in gMax but that dissapears somewhere between gMax and FS9.

 

[arno]

Are you sure that you named your objects tick18_ when they are animated? Without this prefix the animation will not work in FS.

 

[Tachyon]

ah nope ... didm't do that. Where was this documented? And is tick18_ a prefix, sufix, or the name in it's entirety?

 

[arno]

It's a prefix. Check the MakeMDL SDK and the GMax SDK for documentation.

 

[Tachyon]

ok ... easy enough. Did that and I get a error "Part tick18_Rotor_52m contains a scale. Remove before exporting." Don't remember ever re-scaling this object. Or for that matter any of them. Whats that mean? (Besides the obvious of course, that "Part tick18_Rotor_52m contains a scale")

(I see that area in the MakeMDL now ... thanks)

 

[nickw]

If you resize the object in any way you get that message.

You can reset the scale on one of the pages, have not got it to hand.

 

[Tachyon]

er ...hmmmm.... I do recall ..... ah .... "resizing" very early on in the intial design of the airfoil that would become the main rotor blades. Please enlighten me as to how to correct this. And is this why the "animation" still doesn't work in FS9 after having appended the tick18_ to the animated part?

 

[nickw]

Select the object
Click on the Hierarchy Tab (one big box, three smaller)
In the reset section, click the Scale Button.

The reason your animation is not working is probably because of this.

 

[Tachyon]

Badaboom, badabing. Thanks loads that did the trick. Now... what'd I do?? Why did that work? And Should I be resetting the size in the hierarchy tab everythime I've resized something? To quoat Jeff Spicoli "aawwwhhh knarley!" Wow .... that thing [my wind generator] is spooky looking up close and animated. I'm going to have to grab a frap of it for you guys.

 

[rbrown3rd]

I sure am glad you smart people are working on this. When it comes to Gmax and animations I am dumber than a bag full of hammers. I have an island that is just itching for some wind generators to power their houses. I knew I could not do it from scratch and after reading your posts I am glad I did not go down that road as I would still be looking for the place in which to insert the ignition key. Best of luck on your work. I sure would love to get my hands on a couple of rotating wind generators that point into the wind. I really don't care if they spin faster with the wind, just that they point into the wind. It is just too complicated for me to solve.

 

[rbrown3rd]

Did you guys get the wind generators working? Are they available anywhere? Sure would love to add one to our scenery.

Bob

http://www.fs-freeflow.com/ admin

 

[arno]

Hi Bob,

I finished an old windmill (so not a modern wind turbine) that uses GMax animations, rotates towards the wind and the rotation speed depends on the speed of the wind as well .

But I only have the technical part finished, the 3D model is not fully finished yet. So it is not an object that can be downloaded and used by others yet.