This section will help you to get accustomed with the template concept.
During this "training" session, you will be prompted to perform some operations which
are quite useless... Sorry guys! It won't be that bad.
Templates are polygons with special features. The templates are stored in template classes. The templates of a class share some characteristics which allow for automatic generation of polygons. There are three kinds of template class:
Create a template
To create a template, you need to create a template class. Select the
Template/New class menu option. The class creation panel is displayed on the right
part of the screen.
Look at the proposed options, I suppose you will understand them easily. Select
the default option: section, 12 vertices, xOz plane. You need to enter a class name
(alphanum, 8 characters). You may also enter the coordinates of the origin of the
first template of the class in the input fields at the bottom of the panel.
You need then to set the class parameters which define the shape of the class. You
will do that by editing the first template of the class. Click on the set parameters
button (with a big green dot on it). It will activate the template editor panel.
The Template editor input panel is composed of five parts.
(1) At the top of the panel, the height and width of the template
(or chord and thickness) are displayed and can be edited.
(2) Below these two input data fields, a graphic window displays the shape of the template
with the current settings. Another template of the same class can be displayed at
the same time (it is drawn in fuchsia). A bar just below the graphic window controls the
display of the reference template.
(3) In the middle of the panel, two adjustable bars (or one in case of a half-section)
allow you to modify directly the settings of the template without manually writing
the values of the parameters.
(4) The parameters of the template are displayed and can be edited on the sub-panels
in the lower part of the input panel. There are two sub-panels in case of a section
template. To display the sub-panel dedicated to the lower part of the template,
click on the Lower parameters thumbnail. To display the sub-panel dedicated to
the upper part of the template, click on the Upper parameters thumbnail. There
is only one sub-panel in case of a profile template or in case of a half-section
template.
(5) To cancel or validate the input, click on the cancel or the OK button at the
bottom of the panel.
The sides of the templates of a class are making given angles defined at the
creation of the class. You may modify the class angles in the edit panel when you
are creating the first template of the class. Then, it will be no longer possible
to access them. The length of the sides is specific to each template. You can also
modify it from the template editor panel, either by editing the coefficient input
fields in the parameter sub-panel or by dragging the small vertical lines in the
upper and lower bars just below the template display
window (the white one). You can switch from the upper parameters sub-panel to the
lower parameters one by clicking on the thumbnails of the parameter
panel. The picture hereafter illustrates the meaning of the section class coefficients.
Validate your settings: click on the OK button of the template editor
panel, then click on OK button of the class creation panel. You have
created your first class and its first template.
Create another template
You can either select the Template/New template menu option or click on the
priority template button on the tool bar and then click on the fourth
button of the tool bar. A new panel is displayed at the right of the screen.
A combobox can be seen at the top of it. It allows you to select the class to
which you will add a new template. At the moment, there is only one class
available. Enter the coordinates of the origin of the new template. Please,
give it a "y" coordinate different from the "y" coordinate of the template you
created a few seconds ago. You can also edit the height and width of the template.
Give it a 7.000 height and a 5.000 width. As it is a section template, you will
have to edit the coefficients of the template before you validate its creation.
Click on the edit button. The template editor panel is displayed, but you
will notice that you can no longer modify the angles. You can also notice that
you can display the image of the first template of the class by clicking on the
see button below the template display window (actually, you can display the
image of any existing template of the class by clicking several times on the arrow
buttons, but at the moment only one is available). Select the coefficients you
want and validate the creation by clicking on the OK button of the template
editor panel, and then on the OK button of the template creation panel. You
have created your second template.
Template ties
Templates can be tied to each others. This creates a dynamic relationship
between a child-template and its parent-templates. The following example will
help you to understand the concept of template ties.
Create a third template. Please assign it a "y" coordinate which is different
from the "y" coordinates of the two already created templates. In the template
creation panel you can see that the tie button is now enabled. Click on it.
The template creation panel is modified and gives you more options.
These options allow you to align the template with two other templates of the
class. The parent templates can be selected by clicking on the Up/Down
buttons besides the rows displaying the coordinates of their origin. The
association of a coordinate row with an Up/Down button is a convenient way to
select a template among the list of templates available for a given class. It is
often used within the template creation/edition and cover panels. At the moment,
there is no choice since there are only two templates available.
There are four kinds of alignment ties:
The alignment ties are dynamic links. Edit the first template of the class:
select the Template/Edit menu option. A new panel is displayed at the right of the
screen. It looks like the template creation panel but it offers more options. The
coordinates of the origin of the selected template are displayed. We don't want to
edit this template but the previous one in the class list. Select it by clicking
on the Up/Down button besides the coordinate row. Modify its height and
width. Validate. You will see that the height and width of the child template are
modified automatically.
Cover templates
The template concept is useful because it allows you to automatically generate
surfaces. This is the purpose of the Template/Cover menu option: select it.
Another panel is displayed at the right of the screen. You will recognize a class
selection combobox and template selection coordinate rows. Select the cover
section option (radio-button) and then select two templates by clicking on the
Up/Down buttons... Validate (cover button).
Aircraft Designer 2000 will automatically
generate the polygons covering the part comprised between the two templates. Now,
if you edit one of these templates (modify the height, for instance), you will see
that the polygons will reflect the modification once it is validated.
Profile class
You can do the same thing with a profile class. There are three profile
types which are illustrated by the following figure.
The creation process of a profile class is similar to the creation process of
a section. Of course, the meaning of the coefficients is not the same.
Editing a template, you will notice a few
differences. For instance, you can no longer access the coefficients of the
templates once the class is created.
Create a profile class parallel to the yOz plane. Create several profiles
in this class. Enter a different abscissa for each profile.
Activate the cover mode. Four options are
proposed. Two of them allows you to automatically build wing tips. Try the wing
tip / simple option. Clicking on the sample button displays a window giving
information on the required parameters.
Be cautious: the order of selection of the templates is important.
The wing tip will be built on the second one. Validate. Look at the result in
the 3D view mode. You can change the angle of view in the 3D view mode by
hitting the q key of the keyboard or the Q one.
Go now to the front view mode. We shall modify the dihedral angle of
the wing. Click on the Priority template button in the tool bar. You can now
select a template by clicking on one of its vertices. Select one of the profile
templates supporting the wing section you have just created. Click on the edit
button of the tool bar (the fifth one). Because we are in the Priority template mode,
it will activate the template editor. You can modify the "z" coordinate of the
origin of the template in the appropriate input field of the panel. You can also
relocate the origin by clicking on the navy-blue window. A red cross shows the new
location of the origin. Move it and click on the confirm button. If you are not
happy with the new location, you can click on the retrieve button... but if you do
that you will see no difference on the wing tip! Validate the modification (OK
button). You can see now that the wing tip is modified accordingly.
The wing tip building process is based on vectors. To modify it, you must edit
the vectors. Go to the Utilities menu and select the Show vectors option.
The vectors are now displayed by red lines (dotted or solid). To cycle through the
list of vectors, you just have to give the blue-navy window the focus (by clicking
on it) and press the v or V key several times. To
modify the currently selected vector, select the Utilities/Edit vector menu
option. Play with it to get accustomed and understand the way it works.
Special feature of the profile templates:
The trailing edge of a profile template is composed of two vertices at the same
location. Therefore, there is no texture smoothing at the trailing edge and it
looks sharp.
The half-section class
The half-section class is useful to build a canopy or the intersection of a prop
engine with the wing. The Tie option does not tie a half-section to other half-sections
of the same class as with section classes and profile classes. It ties it to section
templates. One can tie a half-section template to a single section template or to
a pair of section templates. One can make a half-section to be tangent to its
parent section template(s). All these features are used to automatically generate
the intersection of a canopy with the fuselage.
Create a 14 vertices section class in the xOz plane and populate it with two or
three templates. Keep a distance of 5 ft between each of them. Then create a top
half-section class. Edit the first template of the class. Click on the Tie
button: a combobox is displayed in the lower part of the panel as well as one or
two coordinate row(s) to select the parent templates.
We shall align the template with one template of the previously created section
class. Select the section class in the lower combobox, select the tied to a single
template option and do not select the tangent option. Select the parent
template by clicking on the Up/Down button besides the coordinate row. In
the front view, you can locate the origin of the half section (red cross in the
blue-navy window) by clicking inside the parent template. Modify the scale of the
display window to feel more comfortable (lower-right part of the screen).
Actually, the red cross remains in a very narrow band delimited by the upper and
higher extremities of a pair of sides of the section template. You can move the
cross in a band defined by another pair of sides by clicking with the right
button of the mouse. Validate the edition.
Create another half-section template tied to another parent template of the same
section class (same options). Validate. Then, create a third one between the two
previously defined parent templates and tie it to these two parents: this time,
do not select the tied to a single template option. Make sure that you
select the right parent templates. Validate.
Now you have the elements required to automatically generate the intersection of a
canopy with a fuselage. Select the Templates/Cover menu option, select the
half-section class in the combobox and select the combined cover option.
The templates available for such a cover automatic process are displayed below (two coordinate rows).
Select the two single parent half section templates. Click in the intermediate
option checkbox: the third half-section template is now made available for the
combined cover and appears in a third coordinate row. Validate by clicking on the
cover button. Aircraft Designer 2000 automatically generates the intersection of
the surface built upon the half-section templates with the surface built upon the
parent section templates. The canopy part is stored in the multiple
selection buffer and can be easily transferred to another sub-assy.
You can try again and use one tangent half-section template.
Advanced option: wing/fuselage intersection
Clear the project by starting another one (File/New menu option or first button of the tool bar). Create a sub-assy. Create a 14 vertices section class in the xOz plane (default plane):
Click on the Up/Down button associated to the base profile coordinate row
in order to bring the 0.000, 0.000, 0.000 profile on display.
Click on the Up/Down button associated to the intermediate profile
coordinate row in order to bring the 3.000, 0.500, 0.000 profile on display.
Enter 0.200 as intermediate lift coefficient and validate (OK button).
Aircraft Designer 2000 will automatically
generate the intersection between the fuselage and the wing.