If you're not familiar with what an "exploded diagram" is, here's an example:
How could this be used in SimplePlanes?
Check out the following build. Can you guess the connections? Do you know where there are connection points left for you to place new parts? Do you know what pieces have been nudged?
Now...if we had an "exploded diagram" view, it might look something like this:
Here the pieces move away from eachother and have lines drawn between the connected joints. Small blue vectors annotate available empty connection points.
Now we can clearly see that the big blue circle was nudged left (from the camera's perspective) and even though it looks like it's connected to the left of the red circle, in reality it's connected to the right of the red circle and the top of the green square block.
This way we could see what is connected to what. Also, it could be a smart system...the connecting lines might change color if the piece has been nudged. The block might get an outline if all of its connection points are full. There are a lot of functional options that could be made here that would be EXTREMELY helpful in both simple and complicated builds.
The information for this is already present in the editor. What is connected to what...which connection point on that block is being used, the position and rotation of the blocks... now we just need a graphical way to see all of those connections so we can identify when that rotator is connected to the darn cockpit instead of the wing.
Just a thought.
-av8r
Hm, I see what you're getting at. It would also be awesome to edit constraints in an exploded view.
@spefyjerbf As far as how to "explode" the diagram, a simple spherical translation from the center of mass outwards would suffice, then you could zoom in on the lines to/from the pieces in question.
@spefyjerbf You should be able to zoom in and out in 3D. This would be used to identify problems and make precise placements, not to get an overview of all 300 parts at once.
You want that detacher connected to the fuselage not the rotator? Well in schematic view you could specifically target that connection and edit it, or at the very least identify if it is or is not attached correctly.
Doing that with 300+ parts would be a nightmare. Drawing the lines of the constraints would be fine, but exploded view moves the parts away from each other. Determining what parts move where may be tricky. With that said, I still think it would be cool.
@AV8R Exactly, we need this.
Ok. @AV8R
@jamesPLANESii Computers can handle network style diagrams with ease. Look at space sims like Elite Dangerous, the galactic map has trillions of systems all connected in a spiderweb. SP can surely handle 10,000 :)
Edit: Plus, from what I've seen, the average creation is <300 parts. Sure there are masterpieces out there in the thousands, but for general purpose we're not talking more than a few hundred.
What about 10,000 part creations?