Custom Supports..

Hey everyone, I have another question. As you can see from my previous roller coasters, I have no custom supports. How do you guys make them so good? When I try to make them, they are usually way off where I want them to be! Can anyone help me out or gives me tips? It would be appreciated. Thanks.

Look at other people's support structures....but I'd suggest you don't copy them - lol. The biggest help hint I can give is USE THE SNAP!!! it makes it sooo much easier. also - go look at the NoLimits articles, especially G Force Addict's hyper-support tutorial.

[GRIM.657]

first the basics:
>Fundament Node: Lies on the ground. Think of it as a concrete footer.
>Track Node: Connects to the track.
>Free Node: Can be placed anywhere in space
You have to place these nodes before you can build the support. Change to the ?????????Add Support????????? mode and place the necessary nodes where needed. A red ball represents nodes. Fundament Nodes are best placed in the Top view. Track Nodes are placed the same way predefined supports are placed. Free Nodes are placed the same way a Vertex is. When you have all your Nodes in place you can connect them with Tubes. There are 5 different tubes to choose from. Change to the ?????????Add Support????????? mode, select the type of tube you want, then click and drag a line that connects the 2 nodes you wish to connect. 2 Fundament Nodes cannot be connected, as it really would make no sense to do so

this was taken from the NL halp page

<<GRIM>>
?????????copyright 2188, GRIM

Tarzanman, what is the snap?

I've never heard of it before ===> newbie

snap is what the grid is for...go to settings / preferences and then a box will pop up that will say something like "snap distance" and then it will ask you to put in a distance in meters. when you look at the grid - each little dot represents the intersection of two imaginary lines - it's like a massive coordinate plane. The snap function will automatically place any type of node at the nearest measurement. For example, if your snap is set at o.5 meters, it will automatically place the node at the intersection of .5 meter lines.

I'm not explaining this well, am I??

if your snap is set to 5 meters. Suppose we're dealing with one of the larger boxes (where the bold lines are - 10x10 little squares)we'll call the lower-left corner (0,0). Suppose you click at (4,4), The computer will automatically place the node at (5,5). If you click at (2,4), your node will be placed at (0,5)...

just experiment with it and you'll be fine

Understood! thanks! I was wondering why my nodes were off center from where i wanted them to be haha.

http://www.coastercrazy.com/articles/arti ... =10&aid=69

That tutorial really helps but I even have touble making complex supports sometime. At times they go great and other times they are a nightmare.