flow illustrator error?

[moonmonkey]

I've been tring to use flow illustrator the (free to use) aerodynamics simulator and i can play their premade movies, but when i try to play mine it says windows media player cannot play the file ,,,,when i hit the fix button it says it is a problem with sound,,,, i am creating a 24-bit bmp file just like it says to. really want to use it, any body else had this problem?

[ChazInMT]

Yeah, I know sound is such an important feature of Flow Illustrator.......as if.

Hey, do you have the DiVX Codec downloaded on your computer? This would allow you to play the .avi files that FI generates. Just a suggestion.

[moonmonkey]

the divx codec was a good try but "no cigar". if i start with a photo of my car then trace the outline "in paint" then save only the filled shape of the car, it wont work for me. but if i just draw a car shape and use it, it does work. but i cant draw an accurate outline of my 2002 echo 2 door, so im stuck.

[cfg83]

moonmonkey -

I can only see 4 of 40 seconds in my Windows Media Player. I "discovered" that if I just upload the AVI to YouTube as is, I can play it there. I don't know why. It "just works". YouTube has to deal with sources from everywhere, so maybe it can just eat it.

CarloSW2

[moonmonkey]

cfg,, it's got to be something im doing when i convert from adobe illustrator to paint, i think i will take another photo of the car pointing the correct direction, so i dont have to use illustrator to mirror image it, then try it . because when i just draw a shape in paint and use it, it works for me, if that fails ill just have to use youtube, although ill have to learn that also (never posted on it) about time i learn it anyway. thanks.

[ChazInMT]

Bummer, so you have a hard time making

THIS!



I made this last week and played with it after you mentioned you wanted to make a Kamm for it or something. I was wondering if it would help or not and I think it seemed a wash.

I make these fairly easily & quickly by using MS Draw features in the MS Word program I have. I get a good photo, open it in a word doc, then use the Draw Autoshapes/lines/enclosed box thingy. I trace the outside of the car using as few a points as possible, putting a dot in the places where the car shape changes direction.....ie. Base of windshield, front bumper area, back of trunk lid etc. Thing is, you want to make as few points as possible, because, once you have a rough shape, you can right click on your "Stick image" and (drum rolllllllllllll) Edit Points! That’s Right! Here is where the real magic takes place.

Main points for using Draw:

If you right click the point at, for instance, the base of the windshield, and designate it as a "Corner Point" you get these 2 Bug antennae looking things poking out, now when you manipulate these, the line for the hood will form a perfect curve match. If you designate the point at the front of the hood a corner point, you get another set of manipulators for it and now you can change the shape of the hood line from both ends. It may sound a bit complicated, but in use, it is very simple and very very accurate to use.

You can right click on a point and delete it if you don't need it.

You can left click the line anywhere and move it and it will create a new point.

Play with the different features, once you get the hang of it, you can make a line drawing in 10 Minutes or less that is a perfect outline of your car.

Now you can simply click on the image when the trace is done, pull it down so it's on its own, then right click it, hit "Copy", open MS Paint, hit paste. Make sure in Paint you make the "Image/Attributes 1000 x 500" pixels.
Then just use the paint bucket to fill the outline black.

Easy Breezy.....well, works for me anyway.

I love this MS Draw program, It is a basic CAD program which allows you to do some great accurate drawings.

Check this out, I designed the shape of the support ribs for my AeroCap, then took it down to Kinkos where they scaled it up to life size (3 foot by 6 foot) and printed it. For $9 I have a perfect template to work from to make these 8 complex shapes. And it is dead on accurate.

[ChazInMT]

After I posted this I re-read everything and noticed 2 door...Doh. The above is bmp is a 4 door. So I quick made the 2 door.

[moonmonkey]

i think it is working now it seems to be loading. I did not want to do a kamm back as much as i wanted to do a decklid extention like the fusion 999 flats racer. according to greater aero minds than mine (not hard) if you extend the trunklid out behind the car far enough for the air to reattach it will trap the air behind the rear glass and the decklid creating a vortex that will act as a air pocket 15 degree roofline. then the "dirty air" will be only below the decklid thus reducing my cars rear area avalible for drag. I think i am understanding that correctly from all ive read and what aerohead has told me.but one thing bothers me and that is the rear decklid extention on the fusion is not listed as an aero improvement on that car. maybe it does not extend out far enough on that car and its only on it for stability at high speeds. but that does not mean if put it on my echo and extend it far enough back ( about 14-18" behind the car.,, it wont do what im told it will.it will only cost me some plywood and 4 holes in my trunk to test it. so we shall see.

[cfg83]

moonmonkey -

Originally Posted by moonmonkey

cfg,, it's got to be something im doing when i convert from adobe illustrator to paint, i think i will take another photo of the car pointing the correct direction, so i dont have to use illustrator to mirror image it, then try it . because when i just draw a shape in paint and use it, it works for me, if that fails ill just have to use youtube, although ill have to learn that also (never posted on it) about time i learn it anyway. thanks.

Here are my standard settings for success :

Re =2,500,000,
dt =0.01,
movie length, sec = 40,
width = 256,
height= 128,
visual cutoff level = 40

(don't forget to hit the "submit" button to make sure the new inputs take effect)

I use a low resolution 2-bit color (black and white) bitmap, 256*128 resolution. I use this low resolution because that is what the author recommended. Larger size files with multiple colors can choke the program. I use the highest resolution image I have. I get it into a scale that is 2*1 pixels. After saving the master image, I downsize it. Here is the Toyota image in the largest resolution I had (it was a bitmap, but I have to present it as a GIF here) :



The above image was padded to 400*200 pixels. Here it is after I downsized it to 256*128 :



As you can see, it is not as smooth, but the image is still representative.

CarloSW2

[moonmonkey]

thanks for all the help chazinmt and cfg83, i was able to make it work ,i was trying to use too big of a file like you said cfg ,and i used your artwork chaz, i have adobe illustrator but am not that good at anything computer software wise, which is weird because i am an electronics tech for 30 years now. I ran the program with the two different shapes one original and one with a strait back rear decklid , it looks like if you run it back far enough for the air stream to hit it ,it will have the desired effect of only presenting the area under the decklid for drag,,, i think, here are the shapes i used.thoughts?