Child Objects

[dlljones]

I'm quite experienced at attaching and positioning child objects to assets but I've hit upon a problem attaching one to a tender (a BR early logo which I've used before many times). I think I know the cause - from looking at the bin file no other child object exists in the base model so therefore the original author's blueprint did not cater for adding child objects - am I right? Should I not waste any further time on this therefore or is there a workaround? I've had the same problem trying to add a carriage board to a carriage.

Any help would be appreciated please.

Thanks

Llew

[AndiS]

If I understood you right, then your problem is simply one of replacing a few lines in the XML.

A blueprint with children looks like this:

Code: Select all

			<ContainerComponent>
				<cEntityContainerBlueprint>
					<Children>
here come the children
					</Children>
				</cEntityContainerBlueprint>
			</ContainerComponent>

Each Child starts with

Code: Select all

						<cEntityContainerBlueprint-sChild d:id="...">

and ends with

Code: Select all

						</cEntityContainerBlueprint-sChild>

as you already know.

Now what you will see is most likely something like

Code: Select all

			<ContainerComponent>
				<cEntityContainerBlueprint>
					<Children />
				</cEntityContainerBlueprint>
			</ContainerComponent>

In that case, you replace

Code: Select all

<Children />

by

Code: Select all

					<Children>
					</Children>

and then insert the child between the two lines.

It could also be the case that you just have

Code: Select all

			<ContainerComponent>
				<cEntityContainerBlueprint />
			</ContainerComponent>

Then, you first replace <cEntityContainerBlueprint /> by a pair of lines as for the Children, and inside that you insert the pair of Children lines.

XML-Background: Element X starts with <X> and ends with </X>. <X /> is short for <X></X>. Linebreaks and spaces do not matter. Neither do attributes as in <X name="value">, it is still the starting tag of X.

[Oldpufferspotter]

Hi,
Just a quick question:
Is it the usual practice to add logos and train company names to the sides of rolling stock in this way (i.e. child objects)?
There are one or two locos on which I would like to change the names, the Terrier 0-6-0 tank locos for example from Southern to a fictional light railway's initials by deleting the logo and drawing them onto the actual sides.
regards Ted.

[Kariban]

No, not really *common*; sometimes if the main body resolution is too low then the modeller adds a seperate node inside the model for any logo, so you can use a higher res texture for it. If the main body is a reasonably big texture you can just paint the logo straight onto it, but you do need a high-res texture for it not to turn to jagged mush fairly fast.

However I think it's only not so common because most painters don't know how to make a model; I've certainly used seperate child objects for high-res stickers & logos, and it's something I intend to keep doing. It only really works for clean stock though, trying to match weathering on a child is a bit of a nightmare.

If Andrew Burgess is reading this, read Andi's post; the <Children/> entry might be why you could never get a child object on a tender.

[Kromaatikse]

Another reason for using a child object is that the texture might be mirrored on the other side of the vehicle. This would result in lettering being backwards on one side.

Apparently BR got into trouble with the Heraldry officials for having the roundel always face towards the cab on DMUs, because the mirrored version was not approved as their coat of arms!

[dlljones]

Thanks for all the responses and in particular thanks to AndiS for your detailed reply. For some reason I can't open the bin files at the moment because RW_Tools keeps freezing so I don't know if your fix has solved my problem. I'll try again in the morning and let you know how I get on.

Thanks

Llew

[dlljones]

Hi AndiS

Brilliant!! Your solution worked. Thanks very much for your help in solving something that has been puzzling me for some time.

I use child entries quite a lot - mainly for nameplates and adding detail to (mainly) locos and rolling stock - solving this problem was the last piece of the jigsaw.

Thanks again

Llew