The Official NoLimits/NL2 Help Thread

[AJClarke0912]

[GigaG]

Thanks. Is there a full steel support generator? And if there is not, is there any other wood generators besides Wood Magic? And if there is not any other, is there any other plugins for NL besides Wood Magic (Wood Magic is in the plugins folder).

[vekoma_fan]

so... I got a problem.. I've been trying to download Nolimits for my new mac, but when I download the file, which is a dmg.gz file I cant extract it!!

 

help a fellow addict

[GigaG]

^double click to extract it? I think macs support gzip files. If not, download another archive program and try it.

[vekoma_fan]

so, i feel stupid.. All i had to do was to remove the .gz and it turned itself into a dmg file, and NOW I got it all working!

[Tanks4me05]

http://nolimits-exchange.com/upload/news/35/definitiveggraphpositiv.jpg

 

I'm trying to interpret the Vertical G's chart at the bottom. Does it mean that after 40 seconds, nothing above 2G's is permitted, thus meaning that anything from 1 - 1.9 G's is indefinite? Or does this mean that anything above 1 G is not permitted after 40 seconds?

[A.J.]

They're G-force limits. I believe that if you figuratively shade the area under the line, you can have any amount of G-force changes in the area. But i'm not completely sure, I haven't learned about the limits of G-forces on the human body.

Edited January 13, 2012 by A.J.

[Tanks4me05]

I know they are G force limits. I have been using the charts for months for my own NL creations. However, I just realized that there isn't a "drop down" from 2 to 1 G like there is from 4 - 3 G's after the 2 second mark.

[A.J.]

What I meant was they they're "limits", as in the line being absolute maximum, and all the stuff under the line being okay.

[coastercrazy 9]

Arrow lift hills, do I use the pre-made section, or should I create my own? What have you seen other people do, because it looks pretty good, but will I get bashed for not creating my own?

[A.J.]

If you're talking about supporting - I use the pre-fabricated framework to get the supports spaced out correctly, but when I actually create the supports I go custom with the two sets of beams.

[coasterfreak101]

So I'm back to work on this B&M giga, and I want to make a thick lift spine. That involves .3ds files, which I can't export from Sketchup. How does everyone make their custom objects then?

 

I know that there's a way to have an environment recognize the wooden block support texture as something else too, right? So maybe that's an option? I'm just not sure how to go about that either. Help!

[A.J.]

Not sure about the environment thing (I don't change environments, as I am content with the default one).

 

As far as I know, Sketchup can export to 3DS by going to File > Export > 3D Model, selecting 3DS as export type, and tweaking it with Options. I think that you can only export in Sketchup Pro though.

 

If I recall correctly, the NoLimits Construction Kit has tools for Sketchup models as well.

Edited February 2, 2012 by A.J.

[mightbeawannabe]

On that second question, this should get the ball rolling. To get another texture on the wooden supports, create an image with the texture you want on it (make sure it's in the proper dimensions and format!),save, and in the 'path' section, insert the EXACT path to that image.

 

Oh...helpful hint: Create a new NotePad file or another .txt document. That's where you put that line of text. Save the file as: [insert track name].env. And then, open your track in the sim, go to environments, click on the one you made, and the wooden supports will be plain. In the .nlpack, be sure to include the .env.

[coasterfreak101]

EDIT: I got it! Thank you so much!!

[GigaG]

Is there a plugin or anything to make a NL coaster go faster than 124mph launch and 500ft tall?

[mightbeawannabe]

Speed: Construction Kit

Height: none

[GigaG]

And another thing, can you get instant statistics on the coaster like you do in RCT's test results?

[mightbeawannabe]

Yes and mostly no. For length and block spacing, go to Coaster>Statistics. For other things, open your track in CK and go to Track>Overview that gives you a bunch of semi-useless facts about the coaster. For G-forces, you must ride your coaster in every seat, so for a B&M with 8 cars, you ride it 96 times (3 types of forces*32 seats). Or be practical and ride in every seat in the front and last cars as those'll NORMALLY be the most extreme seats in terms of G's. If you're using an FVD system, the middle will be the force specified (by the creator) as they treat the train as a point-object with no mass (meaning the outermost seats will still be the most affected). CK doesn't know your friction or any speed details, so it cant give any forces or duration.

 

EDIT: I'm directing you to this site, which may further help you in all your questions. To be an active member, you must first register for the main site (no worries, it's free) and then 'apply' for membership to the forum (just saying your regular username, etc. because they're not connected like all aspects of TPR-and your in). Or you could just search within and read without a membership.

[Tanks4me05]

How do you create roofs out of the catwalk pieces? I could never figure it out.

[A.J.]

Every one wooden catwalk is a four-sided polygon.

 

First, you have to isolate the catwalk you're trying to manipulate so that it's four sides and four nodes by deleting the catwalk nodes directly behind and in front of it. Then, you can drag any of the four nodes to create whatever four-sided polygon you want and move it where you want to.

 

You can use the Auto Support Generator to make catwalks on a segment or several, but make sure that once you start doing so, DO NOT leave "clear previous structure" checked, or it will clear all the catwalks you've moved around.

[GigaG]

 

How do you avoid the gaps like this?

[coasterfreak101]

^If you place your supports like this:

 

It'll give you something like this:

design 1-120213194555000.bmp

[mightbeawannabe]

^Actually, that's NOT a good way to do it, not very clean looking. Instead of that, you make the cross piece independent of the vertical. Like this (similar to):

 

 

You could refer here for further advice on supports. It's a good how-to for Intamin specifically, but the same principle applies to others (but not in the case of the loop).

[1pizza14]

Is there any way to get around the MAC track packager not working on Lion? I am very dissapointed that whenever I open it it says power PC applications are no longer supported. Any way around it?