Blender - node cords?

[Xellith]

Basically I have my model in game. Huzzah! It doesnt have a texture (because I havent colored it in yet). But Im getting the feeling I messed up somewhere... okay not a feeling.. I DID. I cant for the life of me figure out what the heck the node stuff is all about. All I know is that in game by little green blobs on my model are deep within the shape I created.

Now Im fairly sure I need "node coordinates" and then change these values in my cfg file:

// --- node definitions ---

// definition format is Position X, Position Y, Position Z, Up X, Up Y, Up Z

node_stack_top = -0.0, 5.0, -0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0

node_stack_bottom = -0.0, -5.1, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0

But I have no idea where in blender I can find this information. I have looked on youtube tutorials and searched this board. I might just be missing it due to information overload but I dunno.

I appologise if this is a really dumb question ><

Basically I set my thing to meters in blender. Have it 1.5 meters high and 1 meter radius. The little connection blobs in KSP are within the shape itself. Where can I find these numbers to change this stuff and have stuff able to connect to the side of my fueltank thing Im making.

Thanks in advance.. and I appologise again for my ignorance/idiocy or whatever else it is ><

[Tiberion]

Okay the nodes are basically defined in two parts.

A specific point where it spawns defined with an X,Y,Z coordinate, and a "vector" it should align attachments to, defind as an X,Y,Z vector (basically telling it if X, Y or Z is "UP" relative to the new connection.

So the specific point that the 1st three numbers represent is in relation to the pivot or origin of your node collider. For shapes like a cylinder (fuel tank, etc) the center of the collider usually matches the center of your model. In this case, you need to know the distance from that center point to the top and bottom faces if your cylinder. If the cylinder is 2 meters tall and the piviot/origin is in the very center of the cylinder, then your top and bottom nodes would be roughly 1 meter up and 1 meter down (in the Y axis)

You would also want it to be aligned with the Y axis (so that Y is UP) so your node looks like this:

node_stack_top = 0, 1.0, 0, 0, 1, 0

node_stack_bottom = 0, -1.0, 0, 0, 1, 0

if you don't know how tall your cylinder is, you can measure it in blender, in a couple of ways. if you have nice long edges, you can just turn on edge numerics and see how long they are. Go to edit mode, then hit N to bring up the right side properties panel, and scroll down to find Numerics: Edge Length and check that box. Then you can select an edge it will show you how long it is. You might have to add a few edges together, but you should be able to get a pretty close measurement.

If your model is oddly shaped, then you might need to use a "ruler" object to measure. goto Object mode and go to Add, Mesh, Plane. then rotate it so its outer edge matches the distance you need to measure. then hit Ctrl+A and apply "rotation and scale" or the numbers will not be accurate. then once again go to edit mode and turn on Edge Length numerics and you should have your number.

(You can also use a well-placed vertex to get an X,Y,Z coordinate, which will also give you the info. Go to edit mode, highlight the vertex and hit N to open the properties panel again, the very first thing in the panel is the transform coordinates)

(If you don't know how to swap between selecting vertex, edge and faces, its on the Edit (mode) toolbar, typically under the main 3d viewpane, where it says "Edit mode" or "Object mode". There are 3 "cube" icons, each one with a yellow highlight showing one vertex, one edge, or one face. Whichever one is selected decides what part of a mesh is selected via rightclicking. they only show up in edit mode of course)

Anyway, now that you know all of that, the short answer is that the "5.0" and "-5.1" are setting the Y axis values for your nodes. Since your model is only 1.5m high, 5m should make the nodes well outside your model.

That likely means your scale is set wrong in the config, it should be scale = 1.0

Yours is likely set to 0.1 which means everything is divided by 10. So either try 7.5 and -7.5 or change the scale to 1.0 and try 0.75 and -0.75

[Xellith]

Thank you SOOO much for the assistance. I still had a bit of a struggle due to me being an idiot - but I finally created something presentable.

Care to give me your appraisal?

http://www./?wn7dipzccz4rwpm

I more or less designed it to decrease the amount of resources that are used by someones computer. I did my best to balance it according to stock item power. This should yeild greater performance over using just 2 FL-400 fueltanks while more or less giving you the same benifits in game as using them.

Tell me what I did wrong lol

Edited October 3, 2012 by Xellith