How do YOU use the built-in FVD?

I am and basically always have been a Mac user, so for a really long time there were few (really none) NL tools that were readily available to us without a lot of effort. Neither Bootcamp nor Parallels were worth the trouble just to use Newton 2 when I'd have to purchase a new NL copy to run on a PC and might not have enjoyed building with Newton anyway. I also couldn't get any of it to work through Wine.

As an aside, I did finally download FVD ++ only a few months before the release of NL2, but never really dug into it. I may do so more now that I have been fooling around with NL2's FVD.

Anyway, I did finally go with bootcamp and am running NL2 BEAUTIFULLY on my Mac so I'm a happy camper. I've always been a hand-builder mostly because that was my only option, but I've been having a good time fooling around with the FVD.

I realize that the "best" way to use the built-in FVD is a completely subjective question so I'm just looking for opinions: those of you that are using it, how are you going about building your tracks? Do you design some parts by hand and use the FVD for complicated elements? Do you basically build a station and do the rest by FVD? Etc. There's no right answer but being so new to FVD as a whole I would love to hear your thoughts on this, especially because as I understand it, the built in FVD does not really use the same system as Newton or FVD++.

I just used the built-in FVD tool to make a dive machine, and here's how it went:

- Make station, lift, and first turn out of simple elements (could also do by hand)
- Use a single FVD "element" through the MCBR, tweaking each piece in sequence and adding more total time as needed
- Create MCBR
- Use a single FVD "element" for the second half of the ride, right up to the final brakes
- Complete the circuit using simple formulas or by hand

I thought the built-in tool worked very well. Most of the issues I see in my trackwork are my fault!

I have also used it to make a dive machine. I make some elements combined (like two or three at a time) or single ones. The tough part with it is you can't specify input conditions (to my knowledge), so your banking is always zero because the end of the track is always zero (to my knowledge). So I connect FVD elements where there is no banking.

You can fix the banking on the end of the track, just click the final vertex and open the roll panel. It can be adjusted like a roll point, which aids with FVD... I actually only figured that out today. But even when the roll of the end of the track is zero, the banking of my FVD elements are definitely not all 0, unless I'm misunderstanding what you're saying?

Right, though, otherwise you can't set input conditions besides setting the conditions of the last element and continuing with the FVD, if that makes sense, but it's not very elegant. I've tried fooling around with the first points in the FVD but you are correct that it doesn't appear as though the input can be changed, again other than setting it at the end of the previous element.