Re: [Flightgear-devel] 3D models and Blender

[Josh B. <jba...@at...>]

Arnt Karlsen wrote:
> On Mon, 20 Mar 2006 15:51:33 -0500, Josh wrote in message 
> <441...@at...>:
> 
> 
>>Markus Barenhoff wrote:
>>
>>>· "Berndt, Jon S" <Jon...@es...> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>If I'm not mistaken, the open source 3D modeing tool has been used
>>>>to develop 3D models for FlightGear. Correct? Can the 3D models
>>>>simply be opened in Blender?
>>>
>>>yes, there is a script for import/export ac3d files (mostly used in
>>>flightgear).
>>>
>>>cu markus 
>>>
>>
>>And they are included with the binary distribution of Blender.
> 
> 
> ..can Blender now do _parametric_ modelling?  (Essentially "drawing by
> typing in model part sizes eg gear strut diameters etc, rather than
> messing around with some rodent.")
> 

Yeah, sort of. Whenever you are moving or resizing something, you can
type "nx.09-" for instance to do whatever on the x axis to a factor of
-.09. So to move something 40cm along the z axis: "gz.4". (the n is
redundant if you specify an axis) To scale something to twice it's size
on only the x and y axis, but not the z, you would type: "sZ2" The - can
go anywhere after you hit the n key. You just have to be aware of the
starting dimensions of new meshes as Blender creates them. Most objects
have a side length or diameter of 2m, and I believe that the heights are
all 2m as well.

Josh