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Simple Animation the Hard Way

I still use the old FS9 part names & as Erick said, it helps to find things & it also helps when tagging parts in the animation manager.
 
ErickC said:
I think that this is a good enough rationale as-is to continue using the old part names. ;)
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I'm one of those (sometimes) excessively anal-retentive folks who insist on giving meaningful names to every stinking object in the scene. I also like to Link objects into relevant sub-groups so that I don't have to go crazy trying to track down some part that's named "Object15329" or some other silly auto-generated part name!

Oh dear! I just noticed that there's one of those pesky things still left in my APU_Panel tree! Argh! Where's the Raid?
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n4gix said:
I'm one of those (sometimes) excessively anal-retentive folks who insist on giving meaningful names to every stinking object in the scene. I also like to Link objects into relevant sub-groups so that I don't have to go crazy trying to track down some part that's named "Object15329" or some other silly auto-generated part name!
Click to expand...

That's me!! I use auto generated names as an alert, when I see one it means the part is not finished/old/useless. Same goes with unlinked parts.
 
Unlinked parts are an abomination and an offence to the eye. Last thing I want is to move some multi-part assembly and have an object left behind: bolt heads, tyres, gauges or prop spinners - it shouldn't happen!!
 
I see some of you do a lot of naming parts. With 3DS MAX you can simply check hidden parts under the parts list and then you can find any part even if grouped very fast. So again there is no need to rename thousands of parts. Just name animated parts and save yourself a ton of work. Just figure i can convince some of you as this is why the program auto names parts. ;)

For Gmax if i had to find a part that i had no clue where it was located i had a simple trick. Save a temp scene and un group the entire project then click H and find the part. Then you knew where it was and can quickly go to your normal scene and un group and locate the part. :stirthepo
 
I have a horror of Groups and prefer Named Selection Sets for versatility. A well organised hierarchy makes for predictable working too.
 
n4gix said:
I'm one of those (sometimes) excessively anal-retentive folks who insist on giving meaningful names to every stinking object in the scene. I also like to Link objects into relevant sub-groups so that I don't have to go crazy trying to track down some part that's named "Object15329" or some other silly auto-generated part name!
Click to expand...
Bill, you bring up an excellent "best practices" general idea, that of organization. I believe that I have some writing to do.

delivery guy said:
I see some of you do a lot of naming parts. With 3DS MAX you can simply check hidden parts under the parts list and then you can find any part even if grouped very fast. So again there is no need to rename thousands of parts. Just name animated parts and save yourself a ton of work. Just figure i can convince some of you as this is why the program auto names parts. ;)

For Gmax if i had to find a part that i had no clue where it was located i had a simple trick. Save a temp scene and un group the entire project then click H and find the part. Then you knew where it was and can quickly go to your normal scene and un group and locate the part. :stirthepo
Click to expand...

I am not convinced, but whatever works for you, of course, is best. I prefer to have my parts named precisely what they are. To me, it is logical that the left wing ought to be called the left wing, just as I would do with the #1 thrust reverser idler link or the outboard midflap carriage, for example.
 
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ErickC said:
To me, it is logical that the left wing ought to be called the left wing,
Click to expand...

What is logical about naming a static part from Box200 to left wing or Left_Wing or L_Wing? The model file sure doesn't care. Either way you have to track down the part by knowing the location or the name that was custom or auto generated. Also tracking down a part by a custom or auto generated name would take the same time.

Think of it this way, after 10 years you would have just renamed parts for 2 to 4 solid months. That's 4 months of your life wasted.:laughing:
You know the saying don't fix something that is not broken.

But i will agree with you that if this is what you prefer then i say go for it.:)

The only reason i am trying to convince some developers to stop this bad habit is because it's pointless. The only point i have heard so far is organization. The topic should be called organization the hard way! As long as your grouping your parts you are organized. Anyways i am done trying to make my point. :tapedshut Just trying to help!
 
I suppose that this idea would appear to be excessive as well. I actually document every animated object in an Excel type spreadsheet so that the actual C+ coder will have ready reference to the variables and events scripted. Here for example is the section devoted to the previously mentioned APU controls panel. Note that while I use hex numbers for the eventIDs, I use easily identifiable custom L:vars for <Visibility> conditions.

It should also be self-evident that using meaningful names makes using the FSX Tools to apply Animations, and mouse/visibility tags much easier, since the names are the same!

By using the same 'prefix' of "APU_" for the names all of the tags are clumped together since they are sorted and displayed alphabetically by the tools.

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