Animating an ADI

[Jediteo]

I am currently trying to animate the ADI in our aircraft. The ADI has three axis of movement (pitch, roll and heading). I have gotten the axis to work individually in the sim, however, I have an issue concerning the pitch in relation to roll.

 

The problem is that the pitch animation will not be affected by the roll, so for example if I bank 90 degrees to the right, the pitch should animate to the right (being up in terms of the aircraft orientation.) Currently the sphere will just animate in the vertical axis regardless of the rotation input.

 

I have used the Local setting in 3DS Max for the animation arguments, but cannot get it to work properly. Any ideas how to solve this?

[SkateZilla]

can you post a quick video? trouble understanding exactly what the issue is.

[Jediteo]

Not sure how I can make a video of it.

 

Image you bank right 45 degrees. The roll rotates the ball to the right. The pitch axis should now be 45 degrees off the vertical. However, the axis of vertical rotation, the pitch argument does not follow with the roll. So instead of the animation actually showing the change of pitch of the aircraft, it merely rotates the ball as if the wings were level with the horizon.

 

In other words, the pitch axis will not change with the roll as it should. So the pitch is moving vertically regardless of the other attitudes. I've checked other cockpits in the modelviewer (Huey and A10) and they seem to work just fine. Just animate the roll argument, and then the pitch, and the pitch follows the new roll attitude.

 

I'm sure it is a simple setting in 3ds max I have missed.

 

EDIT Found a video of the instrument

Edited February 14, 2014 by Jediteo

[towsim]

If you have control over the turn sequence then start with pitch followed by roll. You obviously turn around X and Y instead of U and W. The turn sequence and the axes used are the major reasons for confusion.

[Alfa]

I am currently trying to animate the ADI in our aircraft. The ADI has three axis of movement (pitch, roll and heading). I have gotten the axis to work individually in the sim, however, I have an issue concerning the pitch in relation to roll.

 

The problem is that the pitch animation will not be affected by the roll, so for example if I bank 90 degrees to the right, the pitch should animate to the right (being up in terms of the aircraft orientation.) Currently the sphere will just animate in the vertical axis regardless of the rotation input.

 

I have used the Local setting in 3DS Max for the animation arguments, but cannot get it to work properly. Any ideas how to solve this?

 

It sounds like the problem is that you are trying to animate rotation in two different axis around the same pivot point. The simplest way to solve this is to add an additional element and link your sphere to that - e.g. a pin through your sphere - then animate pitch rotation for the sphere and bank for the pin.

[Jediteo]

Thanks for the tip.

 

I have been able to insert a pin along the vertical axis of the sphere, but I am having some issues with getting the rotation of the pin to translate properly onto the sphere. They appear to share the same pivot point (I did align their centered pivots). However, when I rotate the pin, the sphere orbits the pin instead of rotating in place.

 

I find myself lacking when it comes to 3ds max, I'm more of the documents and research guy.

[Alfa]

That sounds odd :)

 

1). make sure that the pivot point of the pin is set correctly so that the pin doesn't have a "coaxial" movement when you rotate it :)

 

2). place the pin through the center of the sphere - i.e. the pivot point of the pin needs to be perfectly alligned with the center of the sphere. Then link the sphere to the pin.

 

When you rotate the pin, the sphere should follow its rotation - you can now animate e.g. heading rotation for the pin and pitch rotation for the sphere itself.

 

NB. in your video it appears that the ADI ball has three axis of motion - pitch rotation, heading rotation and bank tilt.

 

You can animate all three rotations in the way described above - i.e. a horizontal pin for bank, a vertical pin for heading and then pitch rotation for the sphere itself.

 

I have attached a zip file containing a simple ADI ball, that I have set up and animated like mentioned above.

 

The file is made in 3ds max 7 with ED's plugins and animated with argument based rotation for the three axis:

 

Pitch rotation(green) = arg. 0

Bank rotation(red) = arg. 1

Heading rotaton(blue) = arg. 2

 

I don't know if the animations are done in the way they should for the sim, but should at least give you an idea about how go about it :)

 

 

Thanks for the tip.

 

I have been able to insert a pin along the vertical axis of the sphere, but I am having some issues with getting the rotation of the pin to translate properly onto the sphere. They appear to share the same pivot point (I did align their centered pivots). However, when I rotate the pin, the sphere orbits the pin instead of rotating in place.

 

I find myself lacking when it comes to 3ds max, I'm more of the documents and research guy.

[Jediteo]

Thanks!

I think that worked.

 

Now I just need to figure out how to code it properly. 360 degree rotation is a tiny bit difficult.

[Jediteo]

Got it to work finally. A bit confusing in the Lua, but nailed it.

 

Thanks a big bunch for the help.