Davorama's Ground Vehicle Construction Set is out, and it looks pretty good.

One or two things disappoint.

1: Not even one seat for the occasional open-topped vehicle.

2: The caterpillar track designs provided just wouldn't work. For this picture I took the track units from one of Anthony Appleyard's models. This set is kitted out to produce wheeled vehicles.

3: This sort of product needs better than the standard Daz ReadMe. There's a lot of flexibility, and the components shouldn't be too rigidly defined in purpose, but it's hard even to get a sense of relative scale. Is that a suitcase or a truck body?

Somebody ought to Geep-ify this stuff, and there's plenty of room for folks to make alternative parts and textures.

The GVCS is a very sweet set that meshes with Davo's other sets very well. I've only had it since yesterday and I'm having a blast creating all kinds of new vehicles. About the dissapointments... 1: That is what the SFCS Equipment set is for. Davo said long before he began the GVCS that the Equipment set was modeled first to provide seats, displays and controls for all his other sets. PS it's on sale now. http://www.daz3d.com/shop.php?op=itemdetails&item=2245&cat= 2: You're right here, the tracks provided don't look so hot for large tracked vehicles. Maybe we can get Davo to fix that with some sort of track model. 3: I guess you mean it's hard to guess the scale in relationship to other pieces in the set from the thumbnails. That's true, but since I generally modify the scale up or down on everything, documentation of that sort wouldn't be much help to me at least. Especially since I like loading up parts and saying to myself "Now what can this be used for?" while I twist and turn it around. Like you said flexibility is the main component of all Davo's construction sets. If you check out the FCVS show off thread at DAZ, you'll find dozens of inventive uses for each piece.

I've had the set since it came out and have been enjoying the work of creating new or modified vehicles from it. AntoniaTiger - That is a geat idea of using another model's tracks, have to try that myself. The track module provided is limited for large vehicles. I've already requested a separate "track construction set" in the Daz forum. In a similiar vein there are tons of free models of seats and even consoles out as freebies which could be used instead of the equipment set by Davo. I thought the readme was pretty explanatary but Davo has mentioned that he will be putting up a guide on at least the process of parenting modules on his website when the links for custom cr2s gets put up.

The SFCS Equipment set is good. For the FVCS and _most_ of the GVCS stuff, it's optional. And it's very high tech.

It just doesn't feel right for something like this, which is from the Constriuction add-on. And this needs a seat to be complete.

Nonsense! It doesn't need a seat! It can be a forklift designed to be uncomfortable! ^^

:LOL: Maybe it's meant to be run by a droid. Or it's got an AI operating it. In either case, no seat required.

Attached Link: http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=17415

All seats and view screens are in the SFCS Equipment Pack above thread is intresting

" ... Geep-ify ... " ????????????????????

;=|

I believe Geep-ify is a verb that means to explain clearly.

Well, geep-ers, I shuda knowed that. I thought ify meant it was, well, ify. You know, maybe if ... ;=]

Geep, you've been turned into a verb. How's that for notoriety? :-)

... notoriety? Does that have anything to do with music? ;=]

Oh no! He's channeling Nay Say Guy! What are we gonna do?

I've just bought the GVCS, but I don't yet have the FVCS - that may well change.

That's a long and impressive thread at DAZ; and interesting that the latter posts there show some hybrids of the two sets as well. There's a nice Gerry Anderson / Brian Johnson look to the creations, I thought.

Message edited on: 08/14/2005 14:56

This vehicle should have been quick and easy to assemble. It uses two of the prepared assemblies.

But the wheels were not well-placed, the four units at the rear being too close to the rear of the flatbed. And each assembly seemed to be parented to to the flatbed; I couldn't find any way to move all four as a single unit.

I suppose it's easy enough to fix -- just pop a primitive in, parent the wheel units to that, and parent the primitive to the flatbed.

Hi all, Just saw this thread and thought I'd pop in and say hi and address a few comments to help out if I can. The SFCS Equipment pack was (as moonbiter pointed out) created to be used as seats and equipment consoles. With all the different construction sets I put out, it would be a long and tedious process to try and model consoles and seats for each one, the work would begin to become redundant. Just to let you all know, I have a texture expansion pack coming out for all SFCS Equipment that has the green, police, desert and urban camo and a new grey to better match the construction set interiors. I've also got an expansion pack for the LCV1 shuttle that has all the different exterior textures that are used on the construction sets. The different parts of the construction set can be scaled up and down in all directions, longer, wider, taller, etc to try and get a best fit. I do have another tread model that's being worked on for the G-Tank package I'm working on, attached is a wip image. It has a much larger tread and will be able to be used with all the other packages. I'm not sure if the daz readme is different than the one I supplied them, here is the original readme I gave them: snip snip... The GVCS figures library folder contains all the elements of the Core package. The GVCS ASSEM figures library folder contains all the pre-assembled modules. The purpose of this package being a "Construction Set" is to allow the user to assemble the included figures to create a custom vehicle. The user should have basic knowledge of parenting figures together and using the "memorize all" command under the edit menu to memorize the location of the figures after they have been parented together. A tip to help you design a vehicle is to first determine where the turning point or pivot point of your vehicle will be and to use the figure that is in that position as the main parent figure. I recommend the body part that serves as the axle between the front 2 tires. I would recommend that a crew cab and it's accessories be parented to that axle figure and then the aft portion of the vehicle parented to it as well. Remember to parent parts together in a manner in which will allow you to move certain parts and their child parts to move with them. Another tip is to use the "edit/memorize all" command 2 times in a row to be sure that a part is memorized in it's correct location before saving the figure back to the library. Be sure to use this command after each item is parented to another part. Use the "edit/restore all" command to periodically check if a body part reverts to it's original position, should this occure, move the part back and use the "memorize all" command again. Descriptions: Crew Cabs - There are 4 crew cabs with posable doors or canopies. In most cases, the front, rear, side, ceiling and floor walls can be turned off for good camera positioning. The shadow casting ability has been turned off on all elements of the cabs except the floor. This allows light to pass through the model so the interior can be seen when rendering. If you want shadow casting turned back on, double click on the body part and click the "cast shadows" button back on. Tires/Wheels - Parent these items to a fender figure to create desired effect. Fenders - Some of these fenders have posable parts to allow them to be lengthened. Check each one in poser to see it's capabilities. Some fender/tire assemblies are available in the GVCS ASSEM folder, this will help you save time in design. Body Types - These figures are the main bulk of your vehicle. Most of the Body Types have interiors with hatches and rims. The rims (surrounding the hatches) can be rotated to any angle. You can turn off the coverings/hatches/rims to convert your Body Type to an exteriorized body type. Use the figures property button to turn elements on and off. Miscellaneous Body Types - These are provided to give extra design ability, scale, rotate and use them at your discression. Flatbeds - These serve as a base for your cargo containers and to carry around cargo. Both of these figures have adjustable width and length features, explore these in poser. Cargo Containers - There is a long tractor trailor style cargo container, it has posable doors at one end and the floors can be moved back and forth to lengther or shorten the container. There are 2 other Cargo Containers with sliding doors, hatch doors and window shutters, these can serve as command centers or troop carriers. It is recommended to place the containers onto one of the flatbeds figures to pull them around. Barrels and Containers - These are for looks and to add interest to your scene. The gas can style has a posable lid and a spout that can come out. There is a tank lid figure that you can use as a gas or fuel cap, it has a movable lid. You can parent the tank lid to a barrel and have that serve as an exterior gas tank. Ladders - Use these for those hard to reach places. One style has posable treads that bend, another is a single tread that can be parented to a body type to give an extra "step up". The third ladder is a utility ladder with posable platform and wheels. Use this one to serve as a service ladder. Lamps/Lights - Use there where you want them, you can change the ambient colors in the material editor to give them different colors. Parent them to crew cabs or body types, where ever you feel it is needed. Connectors - These can be used as wheel bases or for any purpose you see fit, they add more design ability. Mufflers - Place and parent these where you want to. One of the large mufflers has adjustable height features. Rails - These serve as roll bars, grills/bumbers and safetly fencing. Most are posable, use them side by side to create long rows of safetly rail. Side Mirror - Parent this to a crew cab for rear view action. It is posable and adjustable. Ramp - This is to, well, you know, roll things up and down onto your rigs. Scale and rotate this as you need. GVCS ASSEMS: There are pre-assembled modules that help get you started in this folder: GVCS ASSEMS This is a good folder to save your creations back into, or you can create your own folder. When saving a figure, be sure to first check to see that all parts are memorized (see tips above), then click on the main figure that all other parts are parented to, the save that main figure to the library, be sure to make sure the "whole group" botton when saving, otherwise you will only get the main part saved to the library, not all the other parented parts. Thanks again for your purchase, please feel free to contact davorama at: snip snip..... I've noticed that daz has taken the liberty on some of my past products to "edit" the readme file to make it smaller. Last, but not least, I've uploaded some pre-assembled custom configs to a new page at www.beyondbent.com. This page has some free pre configurations made by various people who have bought the packages. There are some seating consoles made for the different crew cabs for both the GVCS and FVCS. Each download has a list of required products for use. (one of the links is bad and I can't fix it until I get there, so the GVCS crew cab setups are at: http://beyondbent.zftp.com/assems/gvcscab_equip.zip Hope this helps a bit, any questions and comments I'd be happy to address. Cheers, davo