Animating Wheels And Rods On Model Imported From TSM .dst

Always happy to help out <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

This is just a peculiarity of MSTS, none of the other sims will have this odd problem.

I hope you’ve been reading my steam loco tutorial and all the 3DC help files.

It takes a while to get the hang of it, but it’s worth the effort.

I’ve imported several models from TSM to 3DC, but haven’t tried to animate any of them until now.

While trying to animate a simple steam loco(using the TS Rod Animator plugin), I’ve discovered that after import, the X and Z axis of all objects are now 180 degrees out, causing the wheels/rods to rotate in reverse. The piston is shifted in positon from the front of the model to the rear and is rotated 180 degrees on the Z axis.(Possibly the X axis also.) This is possibly caused by the fact that when importing .dst files, the model is reversed on the Z axis and mirrored on the X axis. Choosing ‘Flip Z’ and ‘Invert’ corrects this visually, but apparently, the axis orientaton is not corrected.

I’ve exhausted my limited knowledge of 3DC trying to fix this problem. Has anyone encountered this, or can anyone offer a possible solution?

Thank you,
Mike Adams

Mike.

The flipped TSM model can be corrected during the import – there is another thread on this here.

However – if you’ve already got a corrected flipped model you may need to correct all the group orientations – Just run the ‘normalize groups’ plugin
This just resets all the group orientations without affecting the model.
This should be a good starting point for doing the animations.

Thanks Paul,

‘Normalize Groups’ worked for resetting the axis orientations.

The animation works fine in 3DC and Shape Viewer. However, in MSTS, the piston does not move. I animated it manually, but it still doesn’t move in MSTS.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Mike Adams

Good to hear it’s nearly there <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

I have had similar problems with rods not moving in MSTS, it’s very frustrating.

I think it is down to the sequence in which the parts (groups) are created in 3DC and exported.
Basically the wheels need to be defined before the pistons.

You may be able to see this by looking at the matrix section of the S file.

If you select the piston group or hierarchy (use right click select), copy then paste it back to the same parent group.
It should appear in the same place as the original.

Then delete the original group this should move it down the matrix list.
Let me know if this works.

Paul,

You’re correct in your suggestion. I checked the .s file and the piston did appear before the wheels even though it is below the wheels in the hierarchy. I simply moved it above the wheels in the hierarchy, exported the model directly to the .s file and it worked correctly.

This is a big hurdle for me. Now I need to learn how to create models in 3DC, instead of just importing them.

Thanks again for your help,

Mike Adams