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Old 1st February 2012, 01:59 PM   #2
Stiglr
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Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Portland, OR
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Default Re: Help with complex fuselage shapes

My standard advice for an interior pit is to:

1) Copy the exterior fuselage geometries. Delete all the stuff forward and backwards of the cabin.
2) In surface mode, select all the copied surfaces. Make them ONE-SIDED. Then Reverse Normals. This should result in interior-facing surfaces. Give it a new name (e.g., cockpit_interior). You might consider also making the exterior surfaces one-sided as well.
3) Cap the rear bulkhead (if any). You might need to wait a bit before capping the forward bulkhead.
4) Resize the object to 98 - 99% to avoid overlapping with the exterior.
5) Hide the rest of the model, so you don't get visually confused.
6) Use the Knife tool to cut vertical and horizontal sections in the interior that delineate structural columns, ledges, etc. Recombine groups of surfaces where necessary to describe shapes. Then extrude or intrude the surfaces to create the desired shapes and structural elements.
7) Make use of the indent tool to sink or extrude areas to get those formed plastic areas. Or, create new boxes and shapes and just "graft" them to the interiors.
8) For the canopy framing, you'll need to work with the interior and exterior fuselage parts to determine which of the interior and exterior parts should hold the surfaces that describe the "thickness" dimension of the framing. For a flight sim, usually, you'll want those showing in the pit for the player's POV, but do what is necessary to get the best aesthetics from both inside the pit and from outside viewpoints.

If you'd like to go into this in more depth, PM me; we might be able to arrange a Skype session where we can share a screen.
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Last edited by Stiglr; 1st February 2012 at 02:02 PM.
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