posted 01-28- 12:38 AM               

1. A group in creator is recognised as a group for the SM file if it doesn't have LOD or Object items as children. These groups are not really that nessacery for SM file creation, unless you need shared properties, but they do help with the editing process.

2. A group in creator is recognised as a Model for the SM file if it includes child objects that are LOD or Object items.

3. A piece of geometry that will show up in SDOE is always a child of a LOD record. For example group(wing)->LOD(l123)->Object(o123)->Polygons(p123) represents a potentially visible thing in SDOE.

4. Objects that are direct children of group records (i.e. not part of a LOD), and have polygon children, represent visually editable openplane Properties. For example you might have a wireframe box that represents an inertia volume. Its comment record will contain the property string, with place holders that the MG.exe will exchange for things like origin, chord, quarter chord, area etc etc. I don't think that the colour of the mesh is important except as a sort of coding convention.

5. DOF's enact upon groups that are children of it. For example, DOF(d123)->group(aileron)->LOD(i123)->Object(o123)->Poly(p123).

6. I'm not sure what the switch record does, but I think its probably just a useful creatr editing tool and is'nt transferred to the SM file. Basically it allow you to hide and unhide child items of the switch record by clicking on indicators in the switch properties.

That's about it, simple isn't it. Unless of course I've cocked it up!.

One other little tip for people like me who don't read the manual is that most of the records in Fokker flt file are collapsed so you need to expand them to see all of the records.

Please let me (and every one else) know if there are any other tips tricks or whatever. 2 months isn't alot of time to figure this beast out! (although it's not as hard as it first pretends)