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Using Sketchup to make a flyable model

J

jonraptor

Charter Member
Calling upon the experts,

I have been a flight simmer for many years, throughout this time I've pondered trying to build an aircraft. I've tried Gmax but haven't been able to fully grasp its intricacies. I was trained on solid works in school and have some experience in other cad programs. My question is, is it feasible to build an aircraft model with Sketchup? Could I then use a model converter to get it into the .mdl format so that it would be usable in fsx? Any advice or comments would be greatly appreciated, I am humbled by all who can build aircraft for this game. It appears to be a huge undertaking!
 
I was using sketch-up as the base starting point for modeling when eventually I did manage to get the exterior airframe shaped and looking the part. I even managed to get it into MCX, and P3D.
At that point I was in need of knowledge on how to progress to the next stages. Animations and XML would eventually come to play, so any further progress at that point onward were futile as the model would need to be brought into Gmax/3DsMax to continue. By that time I needed to make a decision as I had been bitten by the modeling bug to the point it was an addiction. I took the plunge of learning Gmax in order to continue my journey. To my knowledge there's no other way because eventually you'll have no choice if you have true intentions of getting your work into the flight simulator (s)

All I can suggest is that you take the Gmax plunge. There are some great people around which I'm sure they'll help you along your way as they help me along. I've posted my fair share of questions, comments and other issues here in Aircraft Design forums! :icon_lol:
 
Thank you both for your comments.....as I do more research it seems as though that is the direction I'm going to have to go in.

Oleboy
I have followed your work and I must say I am impressed with the progress you have made. I will need a lot of help from people in the know because it seems as though modeling resources are becoming more scarce as time moves on.
 
Milton Shupe said:
I have several tutorials about getting started with gmax. Unfortunately, I recently closed my website but the raw folders data is here on SOH.

Read the instructions for installation and this may be useful for you:

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?78797-Gmax-Tutorials-by-Milton-Shupe-zip
Click to expand...


Thank you Milton, I admire the work that you have done in Gmax. Is Gmax a good platform for developing aircraft specifically for FSX? I've read that 3DS max is more suited for development in FSX, but I know from experience that both programs look very similar.
 
jonraptor said:
Is Gmax a good platform for developing aircraft specifically for FSX? I've read that 3DS max is more suited for development in FSX
Click to expand...

Gmax is perfectly suitable for FSX development; lots of developers, both freeware and payware, use it. It's also free, whereas 3ds Max is very expensive: deep pockets required. You might also consider that exporting from Gmax to FSX is a single operation, whereas from 3ds Max it's a two-stage job. The only mandatory case for using 3ds Max is with very large models of ~400,000 polys or more and for that you'll need the P3D sdk and Max 2012.

And finally, FSX-compatible versions of Max (versions 7 to 2008) are no longer for sale...
 
hairyspin said:
Gmax is perfectly suitable for FSX development; lots of developers, both freeware and payware, use it. It's also free, whereas 3ds Max is very expensive: deep pockets required. You might also consider that exporting from Gmax to FSX is a single operation, whereas from 3ds Max it's a two-stage job. The only mandatory case for using 3ds Max is with very large models of ~400,000 polys or more and for that you'll need the P3D sdk and Max 2012.

And finally, FSX-compatible versions of Max (versions 7 to 2008) are no longer for sale...
Click to expand...

Thank you for clearing that up for me Hairyspin.
 
Well, I have finally got some decent reference material so I guess its time to start getting more familiar with Gmax......lots of questions to come
 
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