Goran_M

Use the Boolean cut with caution. It works in some cases, but in others, it leaves dirty geometry and can be harder to work with. In the case of doing a cut in the cockpit, select the external cutting object first, move it into position, Shift right click the fuse, press W then select "add difference modifier". You might get a copy of the cutting object stuck in the fuse. In that case, go to edit mode and delete the vertices that are NOT part of the fuse. You will find though, you will be left with a nice cut that contains a ton of extra vertices. Post back with results Goran

Haha Believe it or not, it looks pretty good. I think a lot of people have problems modelling the fuselage around the windows as Dan describes it. The other way to do it which is cleaner imho, is to model the fuse and cut the cockpit out using a boolean cut. No dodgy edges then. A little more work involved but sometimes it can be a better result. Keep going. Goran

Me too!!! It's progressing quickly. And because I don't work (I sold a business I had about 4 years ago) I can spend an insane amount of hours on it. I pretty much wake up at 9am and work on it until 1 or 2 am. But yes, I do take a few breaks during the day and having a daughter is another job for me.

I might have stumbled onto something with the wingbox. I'll give it a go and see how it finishes up. Problem is, the more I try to merge it to the fuse, the more the photos show the wingbox to be a separate object just bolted on to the fuse.

I'm trying to stay zen about the whole thing.

*sigh* I'm now on my 10th wingbox. After spending about a day trying to get the squared section in the centre from a rounded fuselage and merging the square section to the rounded front and rear parts, I have decided to start the whole thing again using some of the techniques I have used in previous attempts. Perfectionism. It can be a curse.

Jason and anyone else who is interested. I have discovered, by accident, the "Kermingle" of polys at the rear and front of the wingbox that joins on the fuselage is a "visual casualty" of the non rendered raw Blender model. I was cutting out the windows for the fuselage and saw the same problem happened because of the boolean operation. Boolean cutting creates an insane amount of vertices and polys around the edges of the cut that join it to the the nearest edge. This appears to throw the poly alignment out of whack. BUT, as I said, it is a visual casualty and after rendering the model, all appearances of distortion are gone. Basically because there is no distortion in the rendered product. Hope that makes sense. Screenshot might help explain what I am talking about.

I think I have you beat. I spent 4 hours building a 787 wing box! I rebuilt it 3 times before it started looking anywhere close to the real thing. To add insult to injury Boeing is rebuilding their wing box! :-\ Yeah, but I have you beat in quantity. I built 9 of them

Yes, but as you say, I have to force myself to do this. :-\ I do it sometimes and then I just keep building and forget to continue marking edges. And strangely enough, I COMPLETELY FORGET to do it after midnight. I'm working on it though. Anyway, in saying that, here's another screenshot of the main landing gear. I've managed to cut down some of the vertices. This took me the better part of a full day. God Bless the Mirror and Duplicate functions!! Oh yeah, I know what the blackened parts are on the render. Duplicate vertices have been taken care of.

Like a tax audit!

Good eyes. I'm coming back to that in the next few days. It's proving tricky to get rid of. Should have seen it while I was making the wingbox. 90 minutes of the wingbox was spent on merging the front and back of it to the fuselage and making it look like part of the fuselage. Current progress on the main gear minus the wheels. (Which are completed) The compressable strut is positioned vertically purely for ease of work on it. Once it's completed, I'm rotating it to join the vertical strut that will be connected to the horizontal section of the gear arm. Couldn't they make the gear like NORMAL aircraft??? The brake lines will be fixed. Have a look at how many vertices in that small section!! (Mostly the brake lines.)

A small update to progress. I've redone the nose again, tweaked the gear, completely reworked the engine nacelles (Photos show a straighter top edge when viewed from the side and more rounded overall shape). I plan to tweak some things in the VC (lengthen the centre pedestal, adjust the shape of the parking brake, add more buttons to the centre pedestal) Also, a payware developer has asked me to model a 3D cockpit for 1 of his payware aircraft. I cannot divulge details on who it is or what aircraft yet, but I will have it modelled within the next 2 weeks and closer to completion I will let you all know the details on it. Here's a bunch of new screenshots. Goran

Yeah. ;D

Rafael, not what you thought it was, huh? It's actually hard, brain draining, nerve wrecking work. However, the more you remodel it, the better you will get at it. You just have to hope your nerves don't disintegrate into oblivion.

Still not right. :-\ Post a wireframe Don't add vertices or polys if you dont have to. Every extra poly adds to the PC's and simulators workload

Rafael, if we criticize you, remember, it's never personal. But we're not going to tell you it's good when it isn't. Patience, nerves of steel and a good eye for 3D are essential. All 3 of these are not beyond your reach. Follow Dans tutorials, even refer to some others on youtube. Wiki.blender.org has some amazing info that can help you. Do not ask us to criticize your work because we WILL and we will do it harshly. But imagine what people will say about it who DO NOT know you. They will rip you apart. Don't go by 1 photo of an ERJ. Get several and do comparisons. If something doesn't match, write it down. Clear that cockpit and start again.

You need to fix the roof where it joins on the windows. Too dimply. Tip of the nose has a very sharp point. Those are 2 things that stand out right away. Take your time. Look where the vertexes and edges are and re face some of them so it smoothens out. Don't just use Dans method of converting Quads to Triangles. That's quick and dirty, even though it works sometimes. It's like fixing a scratch on a car. You can just paint over it or do it properly and sand it back and respray it. You won't get ALL the bumps out but you can minimize them. If you find you really hate what you've done, minimize blender, browse the internet or go and put on a movie or something for about half an hour. I've even wanted to burn my one. I actually decided to re-do the entire fuselage yesterday because I wasn't happy with some things. Took me a few hours but I've re done it and it looks better than before...but not by much.

Select Object mode, right click the first object then shift right click the next object. Press CTRL J and then click Join Selected Meshes. Now right click on the fuse or the window and go into edit mode. You can now edit either object.

HAHA I did that to the cessna I made a while back. Go into edit mode for the windscreen, place the cursor on the centre of the windscreen, rotate on the z axis, reposition both sides, S X 0 to align the vertices with the mirrored section and you'll have it all on the same side. OR, you could just delete the fuse and start it again. Goran

Here's what I suggest you do. Instead of immediately posting screenshots after you modelled something, try this. After modelling it for the first time, go grab a drink, stretch your legs and come back after 5 minutes. 5 minutes away from the PC is hardly a drop in the ocean when you spend hours modelling something. When you DO come back to the computer, it will be with a somewhat fresh set of eyes and you can critically observe what you modelled. Note the errors and seriously think of ways you can fix them. What I do is I sit back in my chair, look at what I modelled, then tilt my head back, close my eyes and start thinking of all the tools available to me and how I could use them to fix what I modelled and the different ways I could model it. The wingbox was a perfect example. Have a look at my latest post in the Hawker forum. THAT is something I am finally very happy with and it was after modelling so many wingboxes and taking on board Javier and Nicks advice. Needless to say, I'll probably modify it somehow in the next few days. Goran

Ok, I HAD to post this. 4 days total and 9 wingboxes before finding a method I'm happy with. This one looks to be the final wingbox and I HAD to show it after pulling my hair out and cussing every 3 minutes. The curse of being a perfectionist, I guess. Oh yes, this one wingbox took me 5 and a half hours.

Not a bad little tool, that edge modifier. I haven't really bothered with too many modifiers. Might have to explore that a bit. Goran

Rafael, avoid overusing the "set smooth" button. In some cases it works well. In others, it makes the objects look worse. I've only used it on the fuse, wingbox and tires. Everything else is "set solid", including the VC.

Here's some advice that I take very seriously. If you want to make it payware, look at it and ask yourself, "Would I pay for this?" If you answer honestly and say no, then you need to fix it. Fortunately (or unfortunately) I'm a serious perfectionist. Shit, I'm on my 7th wingbox now. And I'm only on there because I want to give the VC a break before going back to it. And going by what Nick (gilbernl) said, I still look at my engine nacelles and can't comprehend how they took me 6 hours!!?? Goran

Nice. I'll finish up the PM version and as soon as you get the repaint done, I'll put it up on XP.org.