AutoCad and Orbiter

[craigh]

Hi,

New here, long time sporatic user of Orbiter.

Long ago on the M6 site I recall seeing some discussion on the use of Autocad for building objects, ships, etc. for Orbiter but I don't recall any details.

For sure, one cannot go directly from AutoCad's .dwg format to .msh, the software simply wasn't designed for gaming. It is however a highly powerful drawing tool.

1) Has anyone in this community experience with AutoCad ship building and are they willing to provide some advice, conversion tool links, or pointers?

2) I'd like to get some sort of understanding as to why AutoCad is/isn't a good tool for a task like Orbiter.

I've been playing with some 3D design in the tool and use it extensively for work. I'd rather not go through the learning curve on Animator or GMax if I can avoid them (I've enough other software on the computer as it is!).

In the end, I'd really like to start contributing back to the community and learn the ins and outs of modding for Orbiter.

Thanks!

CraigH

 

[Zatnikitelman]

Can AutoCad export to .3ds? If it can, and you can texture and do all the normals stuff, then you're good to go.

 

[craigh]

Zatnikitelman,

AutoCad can export (obviously some are of no use here):
.dwg
.3ds
.wmf
.sat
.stl
.eps
.dxx
.bmp

I seem to recall somebody had once mentioned that the poly count was too dense within AutoCad.

Suggestions on ballpark settings for surface mesh densities? It's all adjustable.

On the aside: For sure I can import .3ds, .dxf, and a host of other formats as well.

Thanks.

 

[Zatnikitelman]

If you can do 3ds, then you can use mshmaker which is simple to use (or 3ds2msh, but I've never used it successfully) or if you need some final touchup stuff that AutoCad can't do, put it into Anim8or.

 

[craigh]

I was just reading up on the .3ds format. Like AutoCad, 3d Studio Max is also an AutoDesk product. Waay back when, I have a dim memory that the Studio Max series may have been an offshoot product/add-on package of AutoCad. It may also have been a product aquired by AutoDesk fairly early on and modified to conform to the AutoCad geometry. Just don't recall.

Anyway, converting the .dwg format to .3ds is pretty simple. I guess it's a few steps after that to convert to a .msh format.

Another question!

Scaling: Since Autocad is infinately scaleable, are the final .msh products we use in Orbiter at a 1:1 scale or something else? I'm wondering as I've encountered several ships and astronauts that obviously don't scale well to each other.

I'd do a search for old strings but as M6 is a bust...

Thanks!

 

[Ursus]

Yeah... s'posed to be 1:1 (in meters).

 

[francisdrake]

I have used Autocad 2000 for the first versions of the 'orbital space capsules'.
Used the 3ds export and 3ds2msh converter.

Problems:
- I could not control mesh smoothing. Round objects stayed polygonal.
- The body modification tools in the basic Acad 2000 were rather limited,
so making things like doors and windows were really difficult.
Also there were no means to control details like mesh vertices and faces.
- Polycount is higher, as every body has an outside and a visible inside.
(The inside is not necessary for many parts.)
- I am not sure if you can control textures in Acad (never tried).

Finally I gave up, tried several free 3D programs and ended up with Gmax.
If you can handle Acad, then Gmax is definitely learnable for you
You can do everything needed for Orbiter, and the MaxToMsh-converter 1.2
does the conversion job.