to adjust the new point until it looks about right. This is why I like using the Perspective View, as I get immediate feedback on how the Collapsed point looks. I'm sure I could much harder to get the location more exact, but the result might not be much better but would surly take a lot longer.
Extruding the Wing
Extruding the Wing: We're now going to use the same method of extruding polygons as we used before. Go to Poly mode, select the polygons that make up the wing, then "pull" them out with the Extrude Tool.
Now we're going to do something a little different. Go to the Left Viewport (you can also hit L) and--while still in the Poly Mode hit the View Align button. This will line all the polies to that viewport. Now you can adjust them with Select and Move until they're in the right spot.
There are still too many polies, so I've continued to use the Vertex/Collapse tool to eliminate the number of vertices down to the same general number and location we had in the line we used for "Shape Merge".
There are two ways to make your fillet... One way, you can continue to use Extrude to "draw" the wing fillet out and shape it as you go until you are at the beginning of the wing root. Or you can take that first extrusion all the way to the wing root, shape it correctly, then use Slice Plane to insert "Cross-sections" that can be shaped to match the fillet. This is the way I used. It actually takes a few more polygons, though.
NOTE: At this point I took a hard look at my wing fillet, and decided it didn't look quite right, so I went back to my shape merge (saved file) and re-worked it. So if you see the screenshots in this file look different, that's why. It only took about 30 minutes, and looks a lot better.
Now in a singly Poly/Extrude I've drawn the wing out and using both the Select and Move and the Select and Non-Uniform Scale tool I've scaled and positioned the wing.
Making the Wingtip
Again, the way I'm doing this wing is covered in much better detail at Gerard van der Harst's tutorial at airexotica/tutorials. I'll just give you the brief version for continuity's sake.
Draw "Path" for the wingtip: Going to Create/Shapes/Line we'll draw a Spline along the shape of the outer wing tip. I left this named "Line01". Once this is done I'll Move and Rotate it into the exact location in the side view. This is the "Path" we'll use to loft the shape of the wingtip.
Making the "Shape" for the wingtip: Using the Selection arrow, get your wing and choose Edge, and select the leading edges of the wingtip (see screenshot). Once you have these selected, go below and click on Create Shape. Ensure "Linear" is selected and hit and "OK" to "Shape01".
You now need to select the new shape and adjust the pivot point by going to the Hierarchy Tab/Effect Pivot Point Only and adjusting the pivot point with the Select and Move tool until it's at the very forward tip.
Lofting the Wingtip: Now we'll go back and select our "Path", in this case it's named "Line01". We'll go to Create/Compound Objects/Loft. Below, in Skin Parameters, make sure both Shape Steps and Path Steps are set to Zero (If you forget this you can change it later under the modify tab). and click on the Get Shape button and we'll pick our "Shape" we made from the leading edge of the wing.
Adjusting the Loft: However, you'll see the loft we've made is not oriented the right way. The way I fixed this is to go to the Modify Tab and choose Shape. Then, using Rotate we'll select and rotate the "Shape" that's part of the Loft Object (not the "Shape01" Object itself) along the Y Axis until the whole Loft more resembles a wingtip.
Scaling the Loft: Now we're using the Deformations/Scale to get the size of the loft right. You can see in the Scale Deformation Window that I reduced the leading edge Scale Control Point of the loft a little and the trailing edge quite a bit. I also decided I needed to scale the loft in the center so the thickness remained constant halfway back, the tapered sharply toward the trailing edge. To do this I added another Scale Control Point using the Insert Corner Point button at the top, then moved it into position. Remember this method. We'll use the same basic concept to make the canopy frame.
Welding the Wingtip Together: Now select your wing and then attach the wingtip to it. Scroll down and under Weld select Target. Now using the Move button you can move each vertex in the former Loft Object toward a wing vertex until the cursor becomes a Crosshair. When you let go the Vertices are welded. Continue this around the top and bottom until your wingtip is welded together. As always, look closely at your object to be sure you've eliminated all unnecessary polygons.
In this case, I've used Vertex/Collapse to weld several "duplicate" vertices together.
A quicker way to do this (and something you should do anyway) is to Select All Vertices (ensure "Backfacing" is "Off") and Weld all your close vertices together. The distance is controlled at the Weld/Selected spinner. I often weld a distance of between 0.01 and 0.05, but the smallest distance the sim will recognize two Vertices is 0.005... When working on a detailed part of my airplane (such as the Virtual Cockpit) I use this distance.
Some notes on Smoothing Groups
NOTE: For more (and better) information on Smoothing Groups, see Finn Newick's video-tutorials at gMax Domination.
Up until this point, my wing is still part of my fuselage. I could have detached it earlier, but just didn't get around to it until now. Basically, we've going to select the polygons we want to be in the wing, then hit Detach. However (of course), it's a little more complicated than that.
Auto Smooth: The problem becomes one of "Smoothing". Let's take a look at it. Select all the polygons (ensure "Backfacing" is "Off") and then under "Surface Properties" click the Auto Smooth button. You'll see your object change it's smoothness. You can clear all smoothing in your selected polygons with Clear All and you can adjust the Auto Smooth Spinner until you have something close to what you want (don't worry, it won't be perfect. You'll fix it later).
Select by Smoothing Group: You'll see after you've played with Auto Smooth that some edges are smooth while others are sharp depending on the amount in the Auto Smooth Spinner. This is because some polygons are in one smoothing group and others are in another. You can select each of the Smoothing groups by using the Select by SG button. You can add polygons to multiple Smoothing Groups by selecting the polygon then clicking on the numbered box of the group you want to add to. This will blend the polies from one smoothing group into the next (we'll use this technique below when we smooth the leading edge of the wing).
Note: If you want to look at your work without the polygon edges, simply Hit F4. The long way to do this is to Right Click on the Viewport Name in the top left corner of the viewport (i.e., "Perspective") and unclick Edged Faces.
Detaching the Wing
Our problem now is that when detach the wing, we'll loose the continuity between one smoothing group and another. To get around this we'll do something we really don't want to do: Add Polygons.
However, before we do that, let's experiment a little. The Me334 has a very pronounced wing fillet that runs smoothly from the wing into the fuselage. I'm going to detach the wing at a few different places on the fillet and see how it looks. To do this: From poly mode select the wing polygons (with Backfacing "Off") and click on the Detach button. Take a good look, then try detaching the wing at a different place and see the results.
Even better than detaching the wing is to place all the polygons you want in the "new" object in their own Smoothing Group (see Some notes on Smoothing Groups). This way you can make small adjustments on either side of the "proposed break" to see what works best.
You can see by my screenshot I found the best place to detach my wing at along the underside. However, even though I was lucky enough to find a smooth place to detach on the underside, I still have an obvious break on the top (not shown). My only recourse is to add new edges to detach at (using either Slice Plane or Edge/Cut until I find a place that results in a smooth break. I can also go back and adjust the vertices to either side of the break to try and get a smooth flow between the wing and the fuselage.
Slice Plane is the method I used to detach the top side of my wing. You can see here that I was able to detach without much of a break showing by slicing a new "cross section" between two existing "cross sections". Remember this technique. We'll use it again later when we Break the Aircraft into Groups in Chapter 8.
Smoothing Wing: Now that the wing is detached, I've selected all the polygons, then tried several different number in the Auto Smooth Spinner, finally settling on "33". Now I'll use the Select by SG button to choose the polygons on the underside, and then I'll select Only the first polygons on the upper side of the leading edge, and then add them to the current Smoothing Group by clicking on that number. This way I have a smooth leading edge and a sharp trailing edge to the wing.
Cutting out the Control Surfaces
Cutting out your control surfaces is actually pretty easy. We'll do this with Edge/CutI find it easiest to use Snap/Edge to make sure I'm selecting the edges I want. In the top view I've simply traced the fontrol surface of
Adjusting Vertices: If you need to adjust some of the vertices you've created the best way to do this is again using Snap/Edge to move the vertex along one of the new edges. You can "slide" the vertex up and down along the edge as long as your edge is highlighted by the 3d snap.
Now repeat the process of cutting your edges out on the underside of the wing, ensuring you have everything line up. To assist ensuring the control surface lines up along the trailing edge you can use Snap/Vertex. This will snap to the vertex you made on the top.
Detaching the Control Surfaces is as simple as selecting the polygon and then clicking on Detach. You can repeat this command to separate the Aileron from the trim flap and the landing flap. However, in this case--since all three share the same hinge point--I'm going to seep them together a little longer.
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Making the Control Surfaces
Now we need to make the rounded edge of the Control Surfaces. For this I'm going Hide the wing, then I'll make a eight sided Cylinder and align it along the forward edge of my control surfaces. I've found it easiest to use Local Reference while moving, rotating, and scaling. You'll note I'm only using one (1) height segment in this Cylinder. That's because I'll need to Slice Plane to match the control surfaces later on.
Once you have the Cylinder in position you can either use a Taper Modifier or convert it to Editable Poly to taper it to the control surfaces. I used Editable Poly then used Slice Plane to cut the cylinder to match each of the control surfaces. You'll see I left some overlap on either end that I'll delete. Next I matched the cylinder to the control surface by using Snap Vertex to Move the vertices on the cylinder to touch those on the control surfaces.
Once this is done you can Poly/Detach the cylinder apart and Attach each part to the matching control surface, and we'll add a new set of polys on each end to complete them. You may have to be a little creative to make the tip of the aileron so it matches the wingtip.
For smoothing groups I left the top of the control surfaces in group 1 and the bottom in group 2 (just like my wings) and placed the round fore part (from the cylinder) into group 3.
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Animating the Control Surfaces
Rotation Animation: Animation of the Control Surfaces in gMax using Stock Animation Names for Rotation Animation very simple (see the readme in the SDK). All we have to do is name the part correctly (l_aileron, l_flap, r_elevator, l_elevon, rudder, etc.) and ensure the pivot center is correctly placed (see Moving, Hiding, and Pivot Point in Chapter 4). The part will rotate in the sim around this pivot point. If for some reason you need your object to do something different (i.e., your aircraft has "fowler flaps) you will need to use a Keyframe Animation covered in Animating the Landing Gear.
Other Details and Linking Objects
The Me163 (which used this wing) also had permenant slats on the leading edge of the wing. I was able to add these by using Edge/Cut and then extruding the new polygon "down", then welding the verticies on the trailing side back to the wing.
I did the same think to the leading edge of the lower side of the wing.
Linking Objects: At this point we're about done with the wing (other than cutting out the landing gear bays) so this would be a good time to Link the wing objects together: See Some Notes on Part Hierarchy for instruction on how to do this.
A screenshot of my current subtree is at the right.
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Drawing a Line: First we'll go to the Create Tab and click on the Shapes button. Choose Line. Now, in the side viewport I drew an outline of the point where my wing fillet meets the fuselage. I had to guess some as I don't have a very detailed 3-way drawing of this aircraft. Make several clicks, but not too many, as you want to limit the polygon count as much as you can if you're planning to fly this aircraft in a sim. I used 14 "points" in this case. Your last click should be on top of your first click, in which case you will choose "Yes" to the "Close Spline?" box.
