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3.2. SHAPING THE FUSELAGE 19
Simply click a point and drag it to change the fuselage shape there. You can also double click a
point to prevent it from being changed in a future smoothing operation (described in the section
“Smoothing the Fuselage” below).
The buttons Reset this section to vertical and Reset all sections to vertical are available
in this tab as they are in the Top/Bottom tab. However, it may be wise to confine your use of them
to the Top/Bottom tab, as you will not be able to see its effect in this view—the view is essentially
without perspective, so a point that is far away looks the same as a much closer point with the
same up/down and left/right position.
Smoothing the Fuselage
The most basic smoothing operation that can be performed on the fuselage is the smoothing of
individual cross-sections to an elliptical shape. This is done using the Ellipse button in the Section
tab of the Fuselage dialog, as described in the section “The Cross-Sections Box” above.
A much farther-reaching version of this smoothing operation can also be performed. Using the
“Ellipse-Smooth Fuselage” option, located in the Special menu, will nudge all cross-sections of the
fuselage toward the elliptical shape that would be obtained using the Ellipse button. Repeatedly
using the “Ellipse-Smooth Fuselage” will have an effect identical to clicking the Ellipse button on
all stations in the fuselage.
Adding Other Bodies to the Fuselage
Some aircraft have odd protrusions (such as a large fuel tank poking out from under the fuselage)
or even special physical objects attached to them. In this case, it may be best to model the fuselage
itself as not having these things. Instead, you might model these things as separate “bodies”
(physical objects) which intersect the fuselage. X-Plane doesn’t care whether the large protrusion
on the underside of the aircraft is actually part of the fuselage or just another object touching the
fuselage; it will model the aerodynamics the same way.
In this case, you would model the other things using the Miscellaneous Bodies dialog box, found
in the Standard menu.
Each body created in this window is modeled almost identically to the fuselage; there is a
Section, Top/Bottom, and Front/Back tab for each body, just as there is for the fuselage. To add
a new body, simply click a new tab from the top of the window and check the box labeled “aircraft
has this external fuel tank, float, or other external body,” as seen in Figure 3.12. You can add up
to twenty miscellaneous bodies in this dialog box.
Figure 3.12: Checking the “aircraft has this . . . body” box
Finally, be aware of the Insert button, located between stations in the Cross-Sections box.
Clicking this button will insert a new station between the stations on the left and right sides of