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Ideas for development tools for aricraft and scenery's

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Ideas for development tools for aricraft and scenery's

Postby www2 » Tue Jul 02, 2019 2:04 am

This is an continuation of my early post that is response to curt in this topic about tools for developing Aircraft, airports/scenery.

The first tool i call the Aircraft companion.
As the name say this is a tool to crate, design and manager systems for JSBSim aircraft.
The features for this tool:
* importer from OpenVSP/datcom/xflr5 to JSBSim
* A tool for designing Electric/Fuel/hydraulic/air/etc systems (think blender node editor. And i know there is a old tool for this call JSBSim Commander but this is not maintained sins 2013)
* Engine designer tool is to create Engine power tables for JSBSim.

The second tool that i wand to see is what i call FGWED this a X-plane Wed tool.
This tool is for editing airport to prepare to include in flight gear.
Be site the tool we need a object Library that is compatible with the x-plane object library.
And a expedition library to add new object that be publish under MIT or BSD license.
The idea is that this library is a collaboration between Flight Gear and X-plane.
The data will be host on FG Gateway this is similar as the X-Plane gateway and the same time is a mirror of the X-Plane gateway beside the airports that have edit in FGWED this database be use for future scenery generation.

The last is the Flight Gear tools for blender.
This blender addons is basic fg2blender on steroids.
Beside the basic import and export AC3D and import FGXML files, this addons can be use to design cockpits and create animation and connect property to animation that can be export in FGXML files.
For design cockpits there is a content manager for importing gauges from "$FGROOT/Aircraft/Instruments-3d/" as a proxy.
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Re: Ideas for development tools for aricraft and scenery's

Postby xDraconian » Tue Jul 02, 2019 3:45 am

www2,

I like some of these ideas, and even share some of your goals, but I'm not clear on your intent.

Are you building each of these tools?
Attempting to assemble a team to do the work?
Brainstorming on concepts?

Some feedback:
Aircraft companion - Sounds like you want FDM designer tools specifically targeted toward JSBSim. You may have better success discussing this with the JSBSim team.
FGWED - I think building a clone of WED is a poor strategy. Instead, I would encourage you to consider contributing to WED to provide options targeted toward FG. e.g. Export to FG, Convert FG -> X-Plane, etc.
www2 wrote in Tue Jul 02, 2019 2:04 am:we need a object Library that is compatible with the x-plane object library

I believe this has already been started via Project3000.
www2 wrote in Tue Jul 02, 2019 2:04 am:And a expedition library to add new object that be publish under MIT or BSD license

I don't understand.
Flight Gear tools for blender - Already started, but presently on hold. See FGBlenderTools.
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Re: Ideas for development tools for aricraft and scenery's

Postby www2 » Tue Jul 02, 2019 5:39 am

xDraconian wrote in Tue Jul 02, 2019 3:45 am:www2,

I like some of these ideas, and even share some of your goals, but I'm not clear on your intent.

Are you building each of these tools?
Attempting to assemble a team to do the work?
Brainstorming on concepts?

This topic is brainstorming for now.
xDraconian wrote in Tue Jul 02, 2019 3:45 am:Some feedback:
Aircraft companion - Sounds like you want FDM designer tools specifically targeted toward JSBSim. You may have better success discussing this with the JSBSim team.

Good point.
I think if this tool become a realty, JSBSim is the main focuses and why i talk about JSBSim.
For YASIM is not my focus, but is no problem to add this to this tool.
xDraconian wrote in Tue Jul 02, 2019 3:45 am:
www2 wrote in Tue Jul 02, 2019 2:04 am:we need a object Library that is compatible with the x-plane object library

I believe this has already been started via Project3000.

Thanks for the info.
xDraconian wrote in Tue Jul 02, 2019 3:45 am:
www2 wrote in Tue Jul 02, 2019 2:04 am:And a expedition library to add new object that be publish under MIT or BSD license

I don't understand.

With a expedition library i mean to to add objects/lines/pavement/etc that current not in the default X-plane Library think road markings and and taxiway/runway markings.
And for the chose License I can say that i plane this library to be a joint venture between dev teams of x-plane.
xDraconian wrote in Tue Jul 02, 2019 3:45 am:Flight Gear tools for blender - Already started, but presently on hold. See FGBlenderTools.

Thanks not use this tool.
And any idea when i can expect a blender 2.80 port?
Btw the python API for blender 2.80 is frozen.
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Re: Ideas for development tools for aricraft and scenery's

Postby xDraconian » Tue Jul 02, 2019 7:54 am

www2 wrote in Tue Jul 02, 2019 5:39 am:And any idea when i can expect a blender 2.80 port?
Btw the python API for blender 2.80 is frozen.

Import for 2.80 is partially working.
Export has not been started to my knowledge.
You may want to ask at https://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=13442
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Re: Ideas for development tools for aricraft and scenery's

Postby Alant » Thu May 28, 2020 4:19 pm

There is a current thread in the JSJSBSim-Team list where some developers are supporting the revival of JSBSim Commander. See viewtopic.php?f=6&t=36061
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Re: Ideas for development tools for aricraft and scenery's

Postby Hooray » Thu May 28, 2020 4:23 pm

Since this is about brainstorming for now: We have also repeatedly tinkered with the idea of creating a simple wizard framework to set up a UI for some of the most common XML boilerplate (that was even in the pre-Canvas days):

http://wiki.flightgear.org/Aircraft_Generation_Wizard
Image

Using the Canvas system it would be very easy to create an in-sim UI to set up all sorts of XML files by using existing files as templates, in fact Andy wrote code for this sort of thing years ago, and used it for a Nasal based templating engine, and it's all still to be found in his github repo.

Providing such a built-in tool would surely be the safest way to ensure that people actually go the extra mile and add the markup required to support new features (think meta information, status rankings, aircraft variants etc)

Basically, whenever a new -set.xml feature is added, it would only need to be supported by the UI to enable people to easily batch-update existing fgaddon aircraft by traversing a foreach loop
Please don't send support requests by PM, instead post your questions on the forum so that all users can contribute and benefit
Thanks & all the best,
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Re: Ideas for development tools for aricraft and scenery's

Postby Riki » Fri May 29, 2020 11:57 am

Hooray wrote in Thu May 28, 2020 4:23 pm:Since this is about brainstorming for now: We have also repeatedly tinkered with the idea of creating a simple wizard framework to set up a UI for some of the most common XML boilerplate (that was even in the pre-Canvas days):

http://wiki.flightgear.org/Aircraft_Generation_Wizard
Image

Using the Canvas system it would be very easy to create an in-sim UI to set up all sorts of XML files by using existing files as templates, in fact Andy wrote code for this sort of thing years ago, and used it for a Nasal based templating engine, and it's all still to be found in his github repo.

Providing such a built-in tool would surely be the safest way to ensure that people actually go the extra mile and add the markup required to support new features (think meta information, status rankings, aircraft variants etc)

Basically, whenever a new -set.xml feature is added, it would only need to be supported by the UI to enable people to easily batch-update existing fgaddon aircraft by traversing a foreach loop


Hi! I am really interested in this topic. Two days trying to make my aircraft work in FG and still counting. I still do not understand why there is no clear wiki entry telling us (developers) what properties are required in our XML files in order to make the aircraft just work. But that is a topic for a different discussion.

First of all, thank you very much Hooray for your work in the Aircraft Generation Wizard (http://wiki.flightgear.org/Aircraft_Generation_Wizard). It is a very good idea and the PoC looks awesome. It is just what I need (or what developers need).

Since my aircraft is not working I am trying other methods, like using that wizard but unfortunately gitoriuos was bought by GitLab and the link you wiki entry does not work anymore:
https://gitorious.org/fg/hoorays-fgdata ... 3bfdcbabf6

In your reply to this post you mention Andy's GitHub repo. I am quite new to this forum and I do not know about it. Could you point me to the right repo?

Thanks in advance!
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Re: Ideas for development tools for aricraft and scenery's

Postby xDraconian » Sat May 30, 2020 5:01 am

FGBlenderTools has a similar concept for maintaining the XML structures. Very basic Read functionality at the moment and requires quite a few changes to align with Blender 2.80+ before it will support Write functionality.

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Re: Ideas for development tools for aricraft and scenery's

Postby Hooray » Sun May 31, 2020 12:10 pm

It would actually be easy to re-implement the original idea by using a Canvas dialog - people could browse for an arbitrary -set.xml file to use as a template and the go through a wizard-like interface to customize each section (name, splash, author, 3D model, fdm, nasal, bindings etc) - and once everything is complete, the -set.xml file could be written to disk. In fact, Nasal has meanwhile even SGPath bindings, so it could even create a standard structure contaiing other files and even folders

Something like this would be ideally implemented as an add-on, and you'd want people involved who have previously used a scripting language like JavaScript, and who are either familiar with aircraft development workflows (mainly XML, properties, files) or who can turn our existing docs into a corresponding workflow.

Again, someone who's previously done Nasal/Canvas coding could have a simple wizard up and running within 30 minutes - a more complete version might take a whole weekend. But at that point, others might join and extend it over time. Which is why creating an add-on would be a great idea.
Please don't send support requests by PM, instead post your questions on the forum so that all users can contribute and benefit
Thanks & all the best,
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