3DSimed - creating and placing objects...

MileSeven

MileSeven

Registered
The 3DSimEd help and forum seem broken at the moment - and I'm banging my head trying some simple actions...

Specifically, I want to put some new cones down on a track.

  1. From Primitives, I 'Add Object' and select the GMT of a cone. This opens up the Object Instance Edit dialogue.
  2. I then find where I want it on the track and hover the mouse over that point.
  3. Right-click and select 'Memorize XYZ'.
  4. Go back to the Object Instance Edit and click on MR to transfer the coordinates.
  5. Hit the green tick to close dialogue and save the changes (not yet exported, obviously).
...and the object ends up in a fairly random location, nowhere near where I want it!

I'm clearly missing something fundamental - some kind of offset to the XYZs???

Can anyone help?

TIA.
 
I find where I want it on the track and hover the mouse over that point.

Right-click and select 'Memorize XYZ' of final location

From Primitives, I 'Add Object' and select the GMT of a cone. This opens up the Object Instance Edit dialogue.

Go back to the Object Instance Edit and click on MR to transfer the coordinates.


in GROUP EDIT window of new object, end left icon CREATES OBJECT

sometimes this MAY BE NEEDED
EDIT
OBJECT CENTRES
BOTTOM CENTRE OBJECTS
USE PIVOT POINT = YES
 
MileSeven said:
The 3DSimEd help and forum seem broken at the moment - and I'm banging my head trying some simple actions...

Specifically, I want to put some new cones down on a track.

  1. From Primitives, I 'Add Object' and select the GMT of a cone. This opens up the Object Instance Edit dialogue.
  2. I then find where I want it on the track and hover the mouse over that point.
  3. Right-click and select 'Memorize XYZ'.
  4. Go back to the Object Instance Edit and click on MR to transfer the coordinates.
  5. Hit the green tick to close dialogue and save the changes (not yet exported, obviously).
...and the object ends up in a fairly random location, nowhere near where I want it!

I'm clearly missing something fundamental - some kind of offset to the XYZs???

Can anyone help?

TIA.
Click to expand...
Maybe THIS can help you, even if i have written it for an animated Object.
One important Part is the Objects Pivot Point, that has to be set to 0,0,0, when you use the copy XYZ Coordinates and "paste" with the MR Button Function in 3DSimEd.
 
Hurrah! Thanks both.

So what now appears to work for me is (possibly some redundant actions but I'll work on that):

  1. Primitives->Add Object
  2. Select GMT
  3. Right-Click target location, MemorizeXYZ
  4. EDit->Transforms->Object Centres->Bottom Center Objects->Yes (use pivots)
  5. Click MR in Object Instance Edit
  6. Click Green Tick in Object Instance Edit

Job done!
Crikey - that was a wasted afternoon recovered! Thanks once again.
 
MileSeven said:
Hurrah! Thanks both.

So what now appears to work for me is (possibly some redundant actions but I'll work on that):

  1. Primitives->Add Object
  2. Select GMT
  3. Right-Click target location, MemorizeXYZ
  4. EDit->Transforms->Object Centres->Bottom Center Objects->Yes (use pivots)
  5. Click MR in Object Instance Edit
  6. Click Green Tick in Object Instance Edit

Job done!
Crikey - that was a wasted afternoon recovered! Thanks once again.
Click to expand...

To duplicate cones or grandstand with 3dsimed I worked this way :

-geometric center of all object
-duplicate the object in 3dsimed
-save the coordinates of the new location
-move the copy of the object to the new location
-save all GMTs in your folder
-add the new object in the scn file

And it's done.

Now with blender, it's easier to move mesh and add new objects.
But I still rather use 3dsimed for billboard objects (trees in crowd) and animated objects (cornerworker or TeamMember)
 
Last edited:
3377 said:
To duplicate cones or grandstand with 3dsimed I worked this way :

-geometric center of all object
-duplicate the object in 3dsimed
-save the coordinates of the new location
-move the copy of the object to the new location
-save all get in your folder
-add the new object in the scn file

And it's done.

Now with blender, it's easier to move mesh and add new objects.
But I still rather use 3dsimed for billboard objects (trees in crowd) and animated objects (cornerworker or TeamMember)
Click to expand...
Blender was the next thing on my list to look at - are you saying the cones would be easier to achieve there (not that they’re a problem anymore…)?
 
If you plan to do a lot modifying or building new 3d models, blender is probably the best choice. As you can modify 3d models much much easier and faster in blender, and it is relatively easy to learn as well (a week or two for basic stuff, and all the work will pay off later).

Just one important thing to note about while working with blender:
Exporting model from blender (any format), then re-importing into 3dsimed will introduce a 0.000009 pitch (it is an approximate value as 3dsimed only show that many decimal places), this may seem very little, but is enough to cause mismatch/gap (if it is a road surface). So you will need to manually correct it from object panel (just change the pitch value back to 0.0 will do the trick).
 
MileSeven said:
Blender was the next thing on my list to look at - are you saying the cones would be easier to achieve there (not that they’re a problem anymore…)?
Click to expand...

Blender is way more powerful. After importing your track scene in blender (colada or fbx format), you can select any object and move them in mesh edit mode, never move them in Object mode. You can easily rotate them, move them, redo the uv used for the object. You can also easely create good barriers or fence with blender, not with 3dsimed

I also like 3dsimed to change track sponsoring

After modifications with blender, open the file in 3dsimed, upen each saved object created/modified and export then to GMT. Then update the scn file
 
svictor said:
If you plan to do a lot modifying or building new 3d models, blender is probably the best choice. As you can modify 3d models much much easier and faster in blender, and it is relatively easy to learn as well (a week or two for basic stuff, and all the work will pay off later).

Just one important thing to note about while working with blender:
Exporting model from blender (any format), then re-importing into 3dsimed will introduce a 0.000009 pitch (it is an approximate value as 3dsimed only show that many decimal places), this may seem very little, but is enough to cause mismatch/gap (if it is a road surface). So you will need to manually correct it from object panel (just change the pitch value back to 0.0 will do the trick).
Click to expand...

Thanks I didn't knew about that. I converted a track and added a wetmap with puddle to it. (Just editing the roads in blender) then using the modified road in rf2 I didn't felt any gap between the grass/gravel meshes and the road meshes.

Is there a way to ad a new map for the puddle with all existing raceable surfaces without creating new one? I had kerbs objects for example before adding the puddle map, about 100 racesurface objects, now I have only 12. Can I keep this number to ~100, in order to not having to modify the scn file ?
 
MileSeven said:
Hurrah! Thanks both.

So what now appears to work for me is (possibly some redundant actions but I'll work on that):

  1. Primitives->Add Object
  2. Select GMT
  3. Right-Click target location, MemorizeXYZ
  4. EDit->Transforms->Object Centres->Bottom Center Objects->Yes (use pivots)
  5. Click MR in Object Instance Edit
  6. Click Green Tick in Object Instance Edit

Job done!
Crikey - that was a wasted afternoon recovered! Thanks once again.
Click to expand...
So. I've just gone back in today to add some more cones and refine the position of the handful I set out yesterday.

The above process works fine for adding a new cone - but I'm back to the same problems when trying to move one I created earlier...
The object is moved to an offset from it's current position using the (absolute?) memorised XYZ rather than the delta between the old and new positions... So if the object sits at an X of, say, minus 400 according to the right-click on the track - and then I click at a point of minus 405 and then paste those values, the new position is not minus 405 absolute, it's -805...

Off to download Blender - but I'd still like to understand how to handle absolute vs relative positions sensibly in 3DSimEd!
 
IIRC you have to choose menu edit - object centers - and then center object or bottom (i don't remember if both option work)
Then the changes in coordinates will be with regard to the object coordinates
 
MileSeven said:
So. I've just gone back in today to add some more cones and refine the position of the handful I set out yesterday.

The above process works fine for adding a new cone - but I'm back to the same problems when trying to move one I created earlier...
The object is moved to an offset from it's current position using the (absolute?) memorised XYZ rather than the delta between the old and new positions... So if the object sits at an X of, say, minus 400 according to the right-click on the track - and then I click at a point of minus 405 and then paste those values, the new position is not minus 405 absolute, it's -805...

Off to download Blender - but I'd still like to understand how to handle absolute vs relative positions sensibly in 3DSimEd!
Click to expand...

The object has mooved because it's geometric center is not (0,0,0) anymore. To handle it, after opening the scene do :
-edit/object center/geometric center objects
-each object will have its coordinates taken from the origin
-do you modification and then export rfactor2 objects
 
3377 said:
Thanks I didn't knew about that. I converted a track and added a wetmap with puddle to it. (Just editing the roads in blender) then using the modified road in rf2 I didn't felt any gap between the grass/gravel meshes and the road meshes.

Is there a way to ad a new map for the puddle with all existing raceable surfaces without creating new one? I had kerbs objects for example before adding the puddle map, about 100 racesurface objects, now I have only 12. Can I keep this number to ~100, in order to not having to modify the scn file ?
Click to expand...
Yes it is possible, select all object, add or modify a UV channel that has the same channel name/order/material across all objects that you wish to add puddle map (you may need to add missing channel individually). Then just re-map your UV map on them as a whole.

For example:
First add a new UV channel named "puddle" to one of the surface object(you may want to make sure channel order is same as well), then repeat this process for every other surface object (with same "puddle" name), and make sure channel is selected:
upload_2022-3-31_8-42-4.png


Next, select all surface objects, switch to UV Editing and top view (hotkey: num 7), use Project from View(Bounds), and a new puddle UV map will be created (you may want to add a little padding at the edge though), then just assign a new texture and paint:
upload_2022-3-31_8-45-50.png


PS: if you work the whole track in blender, then the pitch won't matter because the whole track will have the same amount pitch after exporting (but it is best that you take a note about it, so later on when you working between GMT and blender, you remember whether pitch was changed or not). The issue comes in when only modifying/exporting a selected few objects, which can cause gap between other non-blender modified GMT files.
 
Last edited:
3377 said:
The object has mooved because it's geometric center is not (0,0,0) anymore. To handle it, after opening the scene do :
-edit/object center/geometric center objects
-each object will have its coordinates taken from the origin
-do you modification and then export rfactor2 objects
Click to expand...
@3377 - thanks - I struggled a bit to get this working exactly as suggested, but the following seems to work for me:

Open .SCN
Edit->Transforms->Center Model->Geometric Center Model
Edit->Transforms->Object Centers->Geometric Center Objects

...then select object in question, memorize XYZ, move save...

One problem I am now getting is that on saving the SCN (and/or models) and reloading, I am getting duplicate model entries with the default SCN save option....
 
MileSeven said:
@3377 - thanks - I struggled a bit to get this working exactly as suggested, but the following seems to work for me:

Open .SCN
Edit->Transforms->Center Model->Geometric Center Model
Edit->Transforms->Object Centers->Geometric Center Objects

...then select object in question, memorize XYZ, move save...

One problem I am now getting is that on saving the SCN (and/or models) and reloading, I am getting duplicate model entries with the default SCN save option....
Click to expand...

I think the problem is that you updated the scn file via 3dsimed and the program added the gmt that you created. I usually open the scn with a text editor and copy/paste the entry that I need, then add the correct gmt and instance name. I also had a lot of problem with the 3dsimed scn file updates with double entries..... It's tideous.
 
i agree with 3377, the SCN update in Simed can cause duplication errors, i think the scene options on save can be misleading.

Add objects not found in Scene
Delete objects in Scene but not in Model
 
Updating via 3dsimed can also cause SCN to lose external LOD setting (that modder manually written in SCN file), for some old special tracks like targa florio it can cause big problem.

There is a few good use with 3dsimed's SCN updating/saving though, such as isolating & filtering out unwanted obects to create a special SCN that only contains selected objects for further batching purpose, especially if the tracks has every gmt files placed in one folder. (for example, create a batching SCN file via 3dsimed's SCN update method for moveable objects only, and later on only need to load this SCN file in 3dsimed for batching update)
 
Last edited:
Slightly left-field, but 3DSimEd related….

…my 20-day intro is due to expire shortly - but I’m somewhat reluctant to fire money into the ether for an activation code when the help file source and 3DSimEd forum remains broken and offline…

Is 3DSimEd actually still being supported, does any one know?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top