Blender 2.5 to X-Plane

[AgreMeister]

First Post!

anyway, Ive been having trouble with the blender 2.5 to X-Plane scripts. I installed them per the instructions, they appear in the addons window of the user preferences, I've checked the activate box, and nothing new appears in the import or export menus

what am I doing wrong? any help is appreciated.

John

[Goran_M]

First Post!

anyway, Ive been having trouble with the blender 2.5 to X-Plane scripts. I installed them per the instructions, they appear in the addons window of the user preferences, I've checked the activate box, and nothing new appears in the import or export menus

what am I doing wrong? any help is appreciated.

John

You're probably better off asking Sam in his thread over at the org.

http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?showtopic=47934

I don't think any of the commercial developers here use Blender 2.5.

[Dozer]

The simplest mistake is that you need to enable specific Blender layers for rendering in 2.5. As far as I can find out, the only official documentation for the XP2Blender scripts are two videos on Vimeo by Sam256. http://vimeo.com/user5006039/videos

edit @Goran: what do the 'big boys' use then? I was sure you use Blender - v2.4 is it?

[Goran_M]

We use Blender 2.49 for exporting.

(Although I've been told to use AC3D because it's a LOT easier for animations.)

[guym-p]

AC3D has several distinct advantages that I have not discovered, or matched, in Blender.  Ben Supnik's X-Plane plugin is one of them, another is the ability to highlight several (or all) objects and view and edit the entire UV map.  If anyone knows how to do this in Blender I'd love to know.  On the other hand, Blender is a more polished, grown-up application with more features.  For me, the most useful features are instances, local and view manipulation, superior unwrapping of complex shapes, and rendering.

If only one piece of software had all the advantages!  Meanwhile I use both.  I use Blender 2.49 for passing stuff to and from AC3D, and Blender 2.5 for actual work, because of the nicer interface and better rendering.

Guy.

[Simmo W]

Ha, I could never fathom 2.4, but .5 is so much more understandable.

Why do you export to to AC3D, for animation? Sheesh, blener animation, yet to understand that!

[Goran_M]

Blender Animation, although I have gotten very used to it, is still not as good as AC3D animation because Blender doesn't go through the range of motion for the object.  For example, the needles snap from 1 keyframe to the next. 

In AC3D, you can see the needle move smoothly between the keyframes. 

Of course, for a needle, it doesn't really matter, but for complex animations like Fowler flaps, landing gear, or anywhere else where there is a "parenting" of one animation to another, AC3D animation is much more convenient because it is possible to see the entire animations movement and make adjustments.

[guym-p]

Capsnully: Actually, I use AC3D for most of it, but only because I started the Comet that way.  Since then, I have grown to like Blender, and I might well start the next one in Blender, but I'd still go back to AC3D for UV maps, animation and manipulators.

Goran_M: I didn't know that about Blender animation.  I could not get by without the smooth animation preview, so it's another reason for me to keep animation in AC3D.

Guy.

[All9Yards]

Has anyone developed a script to export in Blender 2.5x, obj's to X-Plane yet??  Now trying to figure out AC3D to map a photo to just one side of, say a building, aka cube.  Can't seem to get there and becoming frustrated.  The tuts for AC3D are very lacking compared to Blender tuts.  But if if is not possible in Blender, then ok, work with AC3D.  That's a challenge.  Any help out there would be appreciated.

[All9Yards]

Has anyone developed a script to export in Blender 2.5x, obj's to X-Plane yet??  Now trying to figure out AC3D to map a photo to just one side of, say a building, aka cube.  Can't seem to get there and becoming frustrated.  The tuts for AC3D are very lacking compared to Blender tuts.  But if if is not possible in Blender, then ok, work with AC3D.  That's a challenge.  Any help out there would be appreciated.

[Dozer]

Yep it's possible! The scripts are maintained by a chap called Sam256 and you can get them from Github here:

https://github.com/der-On/XPlane2Blender/

From the Github page, use the 'Wiki' link to find the videos that explain how to use it. (Last time I checked, a few months ago, there wasn't much written documentation, but about twenty minutes of video that explained pretty much everything!)