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This unique tool will
allow you to add a dynamic section showing the real Flight Simulator local
time to a building. Classic Clock 1 and 2 is only used to make the
3 hands and to create the dynamic part of the macro code. All
other parts of the building must be made using other tools.
The only difference between Clock 1 and Clock 2 is that Clock 1 is made of a surface that you can define and shape to your needs while Clock 2 is made using 3 single lines as hands. When making your clock section you can apply a full texture to the building, including the clock without the hands or you can place over an existing texture another texture with a clock only. So you could place NovaGold002, 003 and 004 textured clocks over any existing surface. Clock sizes are normally very small compared with the rest of the building which means that you have to use an small scale to make them. I recommend using an scale starting from 1/16 of a meter or smaller, such as 1/32 or 1/64. The smaller scale you use the better you can create a nicer hand shape. You could make the entire building using this scale of 1/16 but this would be a big error as your building would vanish from the scenery only a short distance from it. That's why I recommend you make 2 different macros; one with your entire building using an scale of 1.0 for example, and the second having only the clock parts using an scale of 1/16 or smaller.
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This is the view of the Clock 1 panel. As you can see the hours and minutes hands are always used. The seconds hand is optional, some clocks don't have it.
To design any of the 3 hands you have to
- Select the hand to design - hours, minutes and/or seconds.
- In the left screen part click on all the points making a hand surface using the left mouse button.
- To remove a point from the hand click your right mouse button over the desired point.
- To edit a point, or to change its position, first select the Edit option from the menu. Then click over the point to move and click again on the graphic at the destination point position.
- To continue to add more new points first select Add/erase points from the menu option.
Since you will most probably use a small scale like 1/16 you can place the hands at 1/16 meters from the wall. If for some reason you want the hands to be placed over another texture then you will need to check the Force draw to front view box or you will get some visual problems in your macro.
If you see that one of your hands doesn't show up properly in the scenery you will need to use the triangulation option to make it show unless you have a design error in the hand.
Hand triangulation works the same way as in the Texture triangulation. You must select the 3 points in clockwise order or the hand will not show correctly in the scenery.
In this example the combination 456, or 564 or 645 will be fine as they are all in clockwise order. 654 would not be right and you would not see that section in the scenery.
Notes:
For some unknown reason your clock may hang at different times and different places or positions. For example the clock will always hang at 16:00:00 at Easter Island while it will work in another location without problems.
If the hands have a 'sophisticated' shape it is quite normal that at some hand positions the shape will show some kind of distortion. This can be avoided by using an smaller scale than the one you are using. The smaller the scale you use the better the hands will look.
The tool does not use any textures.