Problem Spacecraft parts not aligning in orbiter

[slaver0110]

I've just pulled out the gumpshen to try my hand at making my own spacecraft, and after some trial-and-error, I've managed to get the general idea of making the mesh(es) and textures in 3dsmax (2012) and using spacecraft2 to get things in motion in the simulator.

One problem is getting in the way, and for the life of me, I can't figure out what's causing it. When I create 'object-A', and 'object-B' in MAX, and align them the way I want them (the example I've been using to troubleshoot this is a window-pane placed in the open area of a simple box). I go through the MSH_Maker process, and in the simulator everything (textures, shapes, scale, etc.) is correct...
...except...
in the case of the window-pane, the pane-object (a simple box with a transparent texture) will be out-of-alignment with the box.
In a nutshell, even though I'm aligning the objects in Max, in the simulator they're out of alignment with each other.

So, the question is, what am I missing here? I'm reasonably well-acquainted with Max, I've tried changing the units, using editable mesh instead of poly, but to no avail.

Cheers!

PS: As an afterthought, I thought that msh_makerv121 may be the culprit, so I dl'ed max2msh. The script seems to run fine, but simply creates an empty .msh file. (talk about bad luck...:shrug

 

[Hlynkacg]

I don't know max

But in Blender I Iknow I have to "Apply Rotations" before exporting my mesh or I'll encounter similar issues.

 

[jedidia]

PS: As an afterthought, I thought that msh_makerv121 may be the culprit, so I dl'ed max2msh. The script seems to run fine, but simply creates an empty .msh file. (talk about bad luck...)

That's weird. Probably a problem with 3dsMax 2012... never had trouble wih earlier versions or GMax...

 

[slaver0110]

Think I've got it now...

Ok, after due process-of-elimination, I've found the culprit; though I still can't get a grip on why this happens as it does.

The mis-alignment of individual parts/objects was resulting from me using the 'move' tool to center the fuselage (the first object created) on 0,0,0 in Max. After that, other parts (glass panes, thruster meshes, fuel tanks, etc.) were made elsewhere in the viewport and moved to thier proper place; while this makes a great model in Max, once it's imported into Orbiter, the parts that were not themselves centered on 0,0,0 would be out of place.

(I'm not sure if I'm describing this properly, so I apologize if I don't seem to be making sense)

I can only assume that centering an object in Max somehow affects it's coordinates in the .msh relative to other objects that were not centered.

 

[Hlynkacg]

Ok, after due process-of-elimination, I've found the culprit; though I still can't get a grip on why this happens as it does.

The mis-alignment of individual parts/objects was resulting from me using the 'move' tool to center the fuselage (the first object created) on 0,0,0 in Max. After that, other parts (glass panes, thruster meshes, fuel tanks, etc.) were made elsewhere in the viewport and moved to thier proper place; while this makes a great model in Max, once it's imported into Orbiter, the parts that were not themselves centered on 0,0,0 would be out of place.

(I'm not sure if I'm describing this properly, so I apologize if I don't seem to be making sense)

I can only assume that centering an object in Max somehow affects it's coordinates in the .msh relative to other objects that were not centered.

So it is the same issue I described

Blender has "Local" and global "coordinates" as you add new objects to a mesh Blender and apperently "3DS Max" record thier positions at rotations relative to the central mesh.

Orbiter does not support local coordinate definitionsand there for you will need to convert these relative coordinates to global coordinates before exporting.

In blender this is done by pressing "apply transformations" in the object menu.

In 3dsMax I have know Idea.