animation of wheels and rod

Or if you are using the TSW it will animate your drive wheels and connecting rod automatically.

Richard

I’m making a 6wheeler diesel loco with coupling rod. Animation in 3dc works pretty well and makes no problem as long as I don’t use the MSTS parts hierarchy. When I change the arrangement and use the names and the hierachy as prescribed from Kuju everything goes its own ways or isn’t animated any more. How come? Is there anywhere an example or a docu for correct usage of the hierarchy?

Thanks; I know the tech-docs and I know how much information they offer. I read the two animation tutorials in fact I learnt to animate the wheels with them. The problem with the microsoft/kuju hierarchy is that some of the nomenclatura doesn’t work (at least for me <!– s:D –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!– s:D –>). E.g. wheels1 or wheels2 won’t animate anything. Main_wheel_link doesn’t work, too. If I rename the wheels1 to wheels11 resp wheels 12 then they are animated but I have the impression the animation is not synchronized with the wheels animated in 3DC.
Richard, I love the TSWizard but it can’t fit all purposes. If I make a diesel engine with rods but no bogies I’ve problems with inserting the correct number of wheels. Maybe I should try the steam-loco template andnbsp;but then there are so andnbsp;many unanswerable parameters. Probably I should try it for the *.s file anyway. I don’t have to use the *.eng file. Another problem is the second rod that is located in an angle of 90 degrees to the first. Is this a main wheel link too? I don’t think so. I have to animate it in 3DC and then there is the problem of synchronizing again.
Btw. sometimes if you use the TSwizard with a model the second time it would be useful if one could change some choices esp. with part identification. E.g. I had to replace a main rod but if TSwizard run once it never asks for part identification again or if there were changes; and it couldn’t identify the rod after the exchange and couldn’t produce it in the consequence.

5.0.7 (and 5.0.6) automatically animate the wheels and coupling rod when you use the MSTS Wizard. It also organizes the hierarchy properly. If you want to try it out but are worried about messing up your model, just make a copy of your engine and use the Wizard on the copy. Be sure to read the andquot;preparationandquot; tutorial before exporting. There are a couple of steps required before the wizard can be used.

Richard

TSM does not automatically animate Wheels1/Wheels2 (or their connector). 3DC does this for you if you select a andquot;steam engineandquot;.

I would say that if you have a diesel that has bogie-less drive wheels and connectors between them that it better fits the model of a steam engine than a diesel. If you use the TSW it will animate these wheels and the connector between them. The main wheel link is a single rod that connects all of the wheels together.

If you click the andquot;Resetandquot; button when in the andquot;Part Identificationandquot; section you can re-select your parts.

Richard

The hierarchy is described in one of the tech docs on your MSTS CD. (explore the CD in My Computer).

In addition, probably more useful, is Ian Morgan’s tutorial on Coupling Rod Animation – available from this site at:

[img:cuiea5ho]http&#58;//www&#46;amabilisplus&#46;com/downloads/Tutorials/CouplingRodAnimation&#46;zip[/img:cuiea5ho]
<!– m –><a class="postlink" href="http://www.amabilisplus.com/downloads/Tutorials/CouplingRodAnimation.zip">http://www.amabilisplus.com/downloads/T … mation.zip</a><!– m –>

happy modelling!

If you are building a 6 wheel set with coupling rods, you should name them Wheels1, Wheels2 and Wheels3 , making the rods Rod01 and Rod02 with rod02 a child of rod01. (Although in real life, the rods are often phased 180deg apart, there is no need for such realism in MSTS as there is no way you can see the other side of the loco).

Rod01 should have its pivot point moved to the front end of the rod and should be a child of wheels1.

Then animate both the wheels and rods in 3DC and all should work OK.

If you have three wheelsets and wish MSTS to animate them, name them Wheels11, Wheels12 and Wheels21 – although Wheels13 is a protected name, I have never found them to animate automatically, tenders with 4 wheelsets work OK as above with the 4th wheelset named Wheels22.

Regards – Mike.

If you are renaming the wheels to 11 and 12 then MSTS will animate them automatically as it will assume they are bogie wheels. (it animates bogie wheels automatically). I am sure this confirms your thought that the animation is different to your own animation in 3DCP.

Have you tried asking at [img:2ezf8lcj]http&#58;//www&#46;uktrainsim&#46;com[/img:2ezf8lcj]
<!– m –><a class="postlink" href="http://www.uktrainsim.com">http://www.uktrainsim.com</a>&lt;!– m –>
?

JonG