Very interesting...

I tried out the demo and it looks like a good start, but I could see no way to paint my own design. The price is right, but how do you do your own paint design?

I want to make a vinyl graphic for my plane, but don't see how to do the design work.

Kent
 
From what I read on their site, it looks like you do your paint design in a seperate graphics program (even Microsoft Paint) and then somehow import it to their program?
 
I'll fess up in that I,m partly responsible for the RV-9 version of this program. Over a year ago I had asked the author if he was interested in developing an RV version. The 9A was chosen because that's what I'm building and I sent him the outline drawings for the 9A. Since the basic look is the same for the 6,7 & 9 series it shouldn't mater that much which one your building. Even though there are a few things missing I think it does a reasonably good job of depicting what your design will look like. In order to depict your design you need to first purchase the product (VERY EXPENSIVE $10.00??) Then you will need to modify the included templates using a drawing package. There are instruction for this process on the website. I have used the very limited MS paint with some success. There are some limitations to what parts can be modified, but even with its limitations I still think it's worth the money. I think the real challange will be in your creativity and skill with what ever drawing package you choose. The real beauty of this program is that it gives the user the ability to rotate the aircraft so it can be seen from any direction and attitude. :)
 
>> There are some limitations to what parts can be modified

What are the limitations?

I've done a paint scheme using an RV-7A flight simulator model that came with a paint-kit. The process invovled modifying their photoshop files using Adobe photoshop and adding them to the appropriate aircraft folders in flight simulator. The problems for me are #1 I'm building a -9A and not a -7A, and #2 the model provided is a tip-up, and not a slider.

For me the motivation is not really to design the paint scheme, but rather to generate some nice images of it for display on my webpage. Also to provide to the person who is making a custom-painted model for me.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to find an RV-9A slider model for Microsoft Flight simulator.
 
:( >>What are the limitations?<<

Wheel pants and spinner can only be a solid color. No way to make design on top or bottom of fuselage that I could find. You are only given a side view to modify but by bringing a color close to top or bottom that color will cross either top or bottom of fuselage to varing degrees. I will need some more time playing with it to see how this actually works.
 
The Easy Way Out....

When I was trying to design my paint scheme, I played around with a bunch of different paint programs that I had collected over the years (foreign travel can give you the chance to obtain numerous software packages...), but I found that I didn't have the time to learn the subtleties of the programs and do any real designing.

So I took the easy way out, made up a sketch by hand, and sent it (and an outline file of the airplane) to my sister - who is a computer graphics person by trade! It didn't take her long to produce the beautiful drawings that I gave to the paint shop.....and it didn't cost me anything!

Paul
 
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