Open Rocket - Body Tube Lettering - How to NOT repeat lettering more than one time ?

[kjhambrick]

Help please !

I am trying to figure out how to add my rocket's name to the fincan body tube and I've got the size about right but OR repeats the letters until it runs out of space on the BT.


I know it must be simple but I can't figure out the knobs and sliders ...

Thanks !

-- kjh

 

[tsmith1315]

I'm a redneck, so I'd just slice the airframe into two pieces, with one the desired length of the decal. You could also add the text to a background sized to match the tube proportions circumference x length.

I'm curious to see how others approach this.

 

[Jeff Lassahn]

Change the "Repeat" control, I think "sticker" mode is what you want for a logo like that. Then fiddle with the offset numbers until it's lined up how you want.

 

[kjhambrick]

I think that would work, Tim if I make the fincan a 'shortie' and the letter-bearing BT just long enough to hold my decal !

I'll wait and see if someone has an Idea which control I screwed up before I take a virtual Xacto Knife to the .ork but shucks, there is already an 8-inch BT-55 Coupler inside there ...

Thanks for the great idea !

-- kjh

 

[kjhambrick]

Change the "Repeat" control, I think "sticker" mode is what you want for a logo like that. Then fiddle with the offset numbers until it's lined up how you want.

Thanks @Jeff Lassahn

I tried that and it made the entire BT opaque grey.

Is there a Color / Shine / Opacity setting that I need to twiddle ?

Thanks again !

EDIT: Let me try to make a new Decal Image with no Background Layer ... seems like I saw some images with the tell-tale checkerboard background meaning no layer there ... Maybe that'll do it !

EDIT: I am sneaking this in while I am copying files from a Customers old server to a new server so it'll have to wait until tomorrow ...

-- kjh

 

[neil_w]

https://www.rocketryforum.com/threa...so-quick-and-fairly-complete-tutorial.129192/

 

[kjhambrick]

Thanks @neil_w ... that's the only way I got as far as I have gotten

Do I need to remove the background layer from my sticker image files ?

Thanks again

-- kjh

 

[neil_w]

Do I need to remove the background layer from my sticker image files ?

Usually yes, although you don't have to if your background layer is the same color as your paint. The outlines of some color images against transparent in the decal file sometimes looks a little janky; making the whole decal opaque works better in those instances. It's on a case-by-case basis.

In any case, the decal is applied over the paint. If there are areas in the decal image that are clear, the paint will show through. Anywhere there is opaque color in the decals, only the decals will show.

Foreground decal image is always opaque, regardless of the opacity of the underlying component. This is addressed at the end of the above tutorial.

"Repeat" is usually not the mode to use unless you really have some sort of repeating texture that you're using.

 

[kjhambrick]

I removed the background in my .png with gimp on Linux:


Now when I use 'Sticker Mode' in the FinCan Appearence Editor, I get no text instead of a black fincan.

I thought that maybe there is an issue with OR on Linux ( I do have other display issues ).

However, after I installed OR on Win10 in a VMWare Machine, it works more or less the same.

The text above appears in Repeat Mode as shown above in post #1 if I set the Texture Color white.

But all I see is a Black FinCan if I set the Texture Color Black and select 'Sticker':



I'll bet I am doing something wrong ...also attached my .ork ... maybe there is corruption or something is borked elsewhere.

Note that there will be one missing .eng file ( AT E27 ) also attached for completeness.

All I really wanted to do was decide the best font height for my Body Tube so Repeat Mode gets me what I wanted so I can have some lettering cut.

Thanks.

-- kjh

 

[neil_w]

What is causing you problems here is the fact that your decal needs to be rotated 90 degrees. That seems to rotate it completely off to the left of the component. A negative Y offset brings it back into view (x is circumferential, y is front to back). Also the text was a little too large so I reduced the scale a bit and tweaked it to get the above render.

My suggestion is to rotate the decal image itself so you don't need to rotate it inside OR, e.g.:


Often, when editing body decals like this, I'll rotate them 90 degrees counterclockwise, edit, then rotate 90 degrees clockwise, and save. But if you prefer to keep the decal file horizontal, then you *can* get it to show properly in OR, you just may need to fiddle with more of the controls.

To get a good feel for what the different controls do, start with the settings shown in the screenshot above and then try the up/down buttons for each parameter.

 

[neil_w]

It is probably worth explaining how I figured out the above. I noticed that your rotation was set to 90 degrees, so I reset it to 0 to see where you were starting, and saw the lettering smushed in the wrong direction. Then I incrementally increased the rotation and saw that the image was not only rotating but moving to the left until it completely disappeared. Then I just brought it back using Y offset.

The behavior of these things is not always intuitive; sometimes there is no alternative to simply overserving its behavior and dealing with it accordingly. That's why I try to make my decal images so the require as little parameter-twiddling as possible inside OR; it saves me from confusing situations like this.

The one area where I freely twiddle inside OR is X rotation for body tubes, which is very easy to grasp inside OR, and much more difficult to adjust in the image itself.

As is so often the case, there are multiple ways to get where you want to go, and you just choose whichever is most comfortable and/or intuitive for you.

 

[kjhambrick]

Neil !

You're awesome !

That makes perfect sense now.

Thank you $1-zillion !!

-- kjh( I KNEW I must be doing it wrong )

p.s. Your two posts might be helpful in your Decals in OpenRocket: a not-so-quick and fairly complete tutorial ... or is it already there and I missed it ?

Woo Hoo ! It works, Neil !



And it works well enough so I can see that I don't like the horizontal space between the CAP-L and the lower-a ( the horizontal pitch is too wide )

I'll find a different font.

But now I can see how large I want my sticker to be !

Thanks again !

-- kjh

 

[neil_w]

p.s. Your two posts might be helpful in your Decals in OpenRocket: a not-so-quick and fairly complete tutorial ... or is it already there and I missed it ?

I'll have to go back and check. Will add if not already there.

By the way: for your fin can, you have the "figure style" set to white, which is causing it to not show up in the side view of the rocket. Probably not what you want. Check "use default color" to make it reappear.

Thanks to @JoePfeiffer for pointing this out to me; I had never realized you could set the figure appearance that way. There's always more to learn!

 

[kjhambrick]

By the way: for your fin can, you have the "figure style" set to white, which is causing it to not show up in the side view of the rocket. Probably not what you want. Check "use default color" to make it reappear.
<<snip>>

Thanks again Neil !

Fixed in my .ork

-- kjh( those 3D Views are so pretty, they're liable to distract me from my Sim Data )

 

[neil_w]

Thanks again Neil !

Fixed in my .ork

-- kjh( those 3D Views are so pretty, they're liable to distract me from my Sim Data )

You have so many sims in there that take so long to update I'd be reluctant to ever make changes to the design.

 

[kjhambrick]

Yes, I used to be that way but ...

One nice thing about OR is I can highlight all the Sims and then Click [Run Simulations] and it recalcs them all at once

I've printed the attached table for each of my rockets and they're in my launch book so I can select motors for the conditions at the site that day ...

-- kjh

p.s. It would be nice to be able to change the launch site conditions for all the Sims in the .ork at once ...

That way I could move from Apache Pass at 413 ft MSL to Hutto at 643 ft MSL and resim all at once

Or maybe Summer ( 95 F ) vs Winter ( 30 F ) ... etc

 

[neil_w]

p.s. It would be nice to be able to change the launch site conditions for all the Sims in the .ork at once ...

You can!

Select all the rows and then Edit -> Edit. This is available in 22.02 but will be cleaned up and improved in the upcoming release.

 

[kjhambrick]

Woo Hoo !

Thanks Neil !

You made my day(s)

-- kjh

EDIT: This is awesome ! Thanks Neil ! I am able to change the launch site ( Lat, Lon, Alt, Temp, Press ) for all Sims all at once and resim all !

Very nice !