Simviation Forum - Contact points descriptions

Nov 4^th, 2003 at 10:54pm

Travis Offline
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Can someone PLEASE tell me where I can find some sort of detailed description of the contact points and what all the entries do?!! I just can't seem to get the hang of it. Everything else I can do, but the aircraft I edit or design always either fall straight through the ground or shudder on the runway until their gear colapses, engines or no.

HELP, PLEASE!!! Embarrassed

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Reply #1 - Nov 4^th, 2003 at 11:26pm

Felix/FFDS Offline
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Aircraft Container SDK..

Felix/FFDS

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Reply #2 - Nov 5^th, 2003 at 3:41am

microlight Offline
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... or for a condensed version, look in the default 737 aircraft.cfg, where all the points are labelled at the start of the contact points section.

BAe ATP for FS9 now available! www.enigmasim.com

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Reply #3 - Nov 5^th, 2003 at 4:20pm

Travis Offline
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Felix, is there any other place I can get the SDK other than the regular site? The link to the Aircraft Container SDK seems to be broken.

And microflight, I know what all of the contact point entries ARE, I just don't know what the all DO. Like the dampening ratio. What exactly is it dampening? And how does this affect the compression?

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Reply #4 - Nov 5^th, 2003 at 4:42pm

Felix/FFDS Offline
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Quote:

Felix, is there any other place I can get the SDK other than the regular site? The link to the Aircraft Container SDK seems to be broken.

Microsoft rearranged the flightisim downloads pages:

http://www.microsoft.com/games/flightsimulator/fs2002_downloads_sdk.asp

Felix/FFDS

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Reply #5 - Nov 5^th, 2003 at 4:48pm

Hagar Offline
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Thanks Felix - duly noted & bookmarked. Why do M$ insist on changing things every 5 minutes? I can no longer find the old FAQ pages I relied on. Roll Eyes

???

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Reply #6 - Nov 5^th, 2003 at 4:54pm

Travis Offline
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Yeah, that's the same site I tried. I keep getting a "The page cannot be found" message. What gives? I think somethings wrong with my net connection, but I have no clue as to what. Could someone PLEASE send it to me via email? tshortdog@yahoo.com

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Reply #7 - Nov 5^th, 2003 at 5:11pm

Hagar Offline
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Ender. I would happily send it but the file is far too big. Try disabling any Download Manager software before clicking the link.

Meanwhile, Microlight's suggestion will give you the info you're looking for. It's all I ever used. Start counting from the = sign in the [contact_points] entries.

//0 Class <0=none,1=wheel, 2=scrape, 3=float>
//1 Longitudinal Position (feet)
//2 Lateral Position (feet)
//3 Vertical Position (feet)
//4 Impact Damage Threshold (Feet Per Minute)
//5 Brake Map (0=None, 1=Left, 2=Right)
//6 Wheel Radius (feet)
//7 Steer Angle (degrees)
//8 Static Compression (feet) (0 if rigid)
//9 Max/Static Compression Ratio
//10 Damping Ratio (0=Undamped, 1=Critically Damped)
//11 Extension Time (seconds)
//12 Retraction Time (seconds)
//13 Sound Type
//14 Airspeed limit for retraction (KIAS)
//15 Airspeed that gear gets damage at (KIAS)

PS. The Class entries are wrong. 3 = Skids & 4 = Floats. Class 5 is Water Rudders.

PPS. The link doesn't work for me either. It must be dead. What the heck are M$ playing at? ??? Angry

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Reply #8 - Nov 5^th, 2003 at 6:06pm

Travis Offline
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Okay. I understand all that stuff, as in what all the entries are, but I don't understand what the "dampening" thing IS. What does it do? What does it dampen? I have been using the FLight Model Workbook, intended to make airfiles to the 1% method, and I have worked out everything but that one entry.

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Reply #9 - Nov 5^th, 2003 at 6:13pm

Hagar Offline
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i don't pretend to know either. It's a while since I messed around with this stuff & AIR file editing is a black art to me. I could be quite wrong but I look on damping as being the suspension. It affects the amount an animated gear leg compresses with the weight of the aircraft on it.

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Reply #10 - Nov 5^th, 2003 at 10:50pm

Felix/FFDS Offline
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Quote:

Okay. I understand all that stuff, as in what all the entries are, but I don't understand what the "dampening" thing IS. What does it do? What does it dampen? I have been using the FLight Model Workbook, intended to make airfiles to the 1% method, and I have worked out everything but that one entry.

THink of the damping ratio as being the "shock absorber strength"

0 is no shock absorption - springs work, but you end up with a basketball...

1 - you better have a good orthopaedic surgeon available ..

Compare this value with some of the defaults..

Felix/FFDS

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Reply #11 - Nov 5^th, 2003 at 11:07pm

Travis Offline
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Okay, I'm done with airfile stuff. I don't want to do it anymore.

I'll just finish out the textures and upload the whole thing to SimV and hope some enterprising individual decides to do justice to the project.

Thank you all for your help.

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