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Step |
BUILDING YOUR FIRST AIRCRAFT |
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| 1 |
The first thing you will need to do when you build an
aircraft is to set up the directory structure in the PLANES
directory of your current X-Plane folder (note that with
the constant updates, you may have more than one
X-plane folder)
As a general rule, I keep my development aircraft in
a
separate folder from the downloaded aircraft. Notice in
the screenshot the folders you will require:
AIRCRAFT NAME FOLDER
Inside this folder you should place four more (although
these are not 'required' it is a good practice to follow)
AIRFOILS
BITMAPS EXTERIOR
BITMAPS INTERIOR
SOUNDS
Make sure you get them spelled correctly or some
parts
of the aircraft may not function correctly. |
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| 2 |
Now that we have the folders in place, lets start up
PLANEMAKER.EXE in the root directory of X-plane. |
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| 3 |
You should now have the build menu
up in front of you witha simple tube shape on the screen. If there is an aircrafton the screen please go to the menu bar. Go to
FILE and then NEW |
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| 4 |
Next go to STANDARD and choose
FUSELAGE. |
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| 5 |
This will pull up the empty
FUSELAGE GEOMETRY screen. From top to bottom on this screen you have the
following:
 | The RADIUS of the fuselage cross-section. This is the tallest or
widest your fuselage is going to be. This decides how wide and tall
the PANES (below) will be. By default these are at 3ft so the PANES
below are 3ft wide and 6ft tall. |
| Next is the COEFFICIENT OF DRAG. This declares how 'dirty' your
fuselage will be. A zero means that your aircraft's fuselage creates
no drag. Some examples are found next the the box you'd set the
values. |
| FUSELAGE CROSS SECTIONS or PANES are where you shape your
aircrafts fuselage. This is broken down in to four parts:
1- The top box is how far back from the zero-point (nose) the pane is
in feet. By default the panes are spaced out 2ft apart starting at the
nose. You can change these values (even positive or negative) be there
is a special rule. NO TWO PANES CAN HAVE THE EXACT SAME VALUE
!! If you do this X-plane will crash when you try to load the
aircraft.
2- The PANE itself is a nine-point curve that you can form in to a
shape for the fuselage.
3- The COPY-SEC box is a doubleheaded arrow and is used to copy one
PANE to the PANE next to it. This is handy for building a constant
shape for a length.
4- Lastly is the offset box. This isn't used very much anymore as
X-plane has a top/side/bottom view option that replaces this. |
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| 6 |
Now lets fill in the details for
our quick aircraft.
| Set the RADIUS to 2.5ft. This is going to be a small aircraft with a
5ft wide fuselage. |
| Set the COEFFICIENT OF DRAG to 0.100 for an average fuselage. (we'll
wax it) |
| Next we'll set the PANES spacing. Change the eleven panes to the
numbers shown. This will space out our PANES for the nose, cockpit,
and tail. |
| Now click in the first (leftmost) PANE and you'll see all nine point
change to one point. Center this on the left-middle of the PANE (this
is the center of the aircraft). Do the same for the last (rightmost)
PANE as well. |
| In the second PANE shape the points like you see here. Now click on
the word SEC in the COPY - SEC arrows below and it'll copy to PANE
three. Move a couple point in PANE three and then copy it to PANE
four. Continue it until you hit PANE ten. If you need to ZOOM IN on
PANES use the Z and X keys to do so. DO
NOT use the RADIUS size for this or you'll damage your aircraft.
Note that PANE 5 and 6 are your cockpit. |
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| 7 |
Close the FUSELAGE window and see
what we have so far. You can use the W,A,S,D keys to rotate the
view. Use the Z and X keys to zoom in and out. Use the I,J,K,L
keys to move your point of view. BEWARE of the F,N,
and T keys as these are advanced shaping keys that could
damage your aircraft.
SAVE YOUR WORK... X-PLANE DOES NOT HAVE AND UNDO
FUNCTION!!!!!!!!!
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| 8 |
Now lets slap a wing on this
thing. Go to STANDARD and then to WING1. The following menu should pop up.
There is a lot here, but it isn't very difficult to handle:
| WING SEMI-LENGTH- This is the length of the wing from where it
attaches to the wing tip. This is not measured from the front or rear
edge, but from a point 25% back from the front. This is called the MAC
(mean aerodynamic chord) and is basically the center of lift for most
airfoils. |
| ROOT CHORD - This is the length of the wing root (where the wing
attaches to the aircraft) from the leading edge (the part that would
hit you in the head if the plane rolled by) to the trailing edge (the
part you'd wait to pass over your head before it would be safe to
stand up again). |
| TIP CHORD - Like the ROOT CHORD but at the tip end of the wing. This
number is usually the same or smaller that the ROOT CHORD (but still
hurts just as much if it hits you in the head) |
| SWEEP - This is the angle at which the wing is angled back (or
forward if negative numbers are used). Note that this is measured at
the MAC (see SEMI-LENGTH above) and means if you are copying a real
design you may have to do a little calculation as most books list the
sweep from the leading edge (duck) rather than the MAC. |
| DEHID - This is the dihedral angle of the wing. If this
number is zero the wing is straight when viewed from in front or
behind. If this number is positive the wings will be angled upwards
(Boeing 747 or outer wing panels of an F-4 Phantom II). If this number
is negative it is called anhedral and the wings will look bent
downwards (IL-76 or C-5 Galaxy) |
| LONG ARM - (no this isn't "the law") This is how far back
the wing starts (the root) and is measured from the MAC. |
| LATRL ARM - this is how far 'out' (left/right) that the ROOT is
attached. If this value is zero then the wing will be one continuous
piece. In general this number is more important for WING2 and WING3 as
these are often attached to the ends of WING1. |
| VERT ARM - This is how far above (positive) or below (negative) the
center of the aircraft the wing is attached (from the ROOT). |
| # ELEMENTS - This is how many 'parts' a wing had for X-plane to
develop the flight model. This number can be from 4-8. The more
elements the more work the sim has to do, bu the more detailed the
design is. If you have a simple wing (rectangular) then you can get
away with fewer parts. If you have a complex twisted wing with complex
airfoils you'll most likely want more elements (or blades). |
| INCIDENCE - This is the angle at which the airfoil is mounted on the
aircraft. If this value is zero the when the aircraft is level so if
the airfoil. Many aircraft have wings mounted at angles and/or with
twist (look at the B-52 that comes with X-plane to see what I'm
talking about). Note that the leftmost side is the ROOT and the
rightmost side is the TIP. |
| FLIGHT CONTROLS - The checkboxes under INCIDENCE are to allow you to
add flight controls to your aircraft. Again the more elements (blades)
the more checkboxes. Leftmost being the ROOT and rightmost the TIP. |
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| 9 |
Time to build your WING1
structure!
| Set the SEMI-LENGTH to 15.0. This will give you a 30ft long total
wing length, measured down the MAC (not a big deal here, I'm building
a simple wing) |
| The ROOT CHORD (duck) will be 4ft. |
| The TIP CHORD (duck again, good reflexes) will also be 4ft (the wing
will be rectangular) |
| SWEEP will stay zero. (straight wing) |
| DIHED will be 3.0. This will bend the wings up slightly. This was
done for stability issues. |
| LONG ARM is 5.0. This attaches the wing 5ft back from the nose. This
is measured to the MAC, which is 25% of the ROOT which is 1ft back
from the head-banger since the ROOT is 4ft. |
| LATRL ARM - is 0.0 since this is going to be a continuous wing. |
| VERT ARM - is 2.2ft above the centerline of the fuselage. This will
put is right on top of the 'cockpit'. |
| # ELEMENTS - is seven. This was done for looks more than flight
detail. |
| INCIDENCE - is zero across the board, just keeping it simple |
| FLIGHT CONTROLS - The first column is over the cockpit so I left it
off. Sections 2-5 have flaps. Section 6-7 have aileron1 set. |
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| 10 |
SAVE YOUR WORK... X-PLANE DOES
NOT HAVE AND UNDO FUNCTION!!!!!!!!! |
SAVE YOUR WORK... X-PLANE DOES NOT HAVE
AND UNDO FUNCTION!!!!!!!!! |
