Turbo Lift

A Turbo Lift is a room in a Spacecraft that allows for fast travel throughout the ship.

Terminology

• Stop - A positional state of a turbo lift.

Operation

Turbo Lifts are operated by clicking any internal wall of the lift with the hand cursor. A list of stops drops down to select from. Selecting a stop will relocate anything inside the lift to the selected lift stop.

Designing A Turbo Lift

A turbo lift is created by first selecting a room, room void, and door jig and going to Part -> Make -> Turbo Lift. Then, stops are added by right-clicking on the turbo lift part in the Parts (F6) list, adding a stop, and moving the turbo lift for each stop.

Developer's Notes

Making a Turbo Lift

A turbo lift is made from a selected room, room void, and door jig. The turbo lift is created with three states. The room is used to create the Car state of the lift. This is the geometry that makes up the visible appearance of the lift car. It moves to each stop when the lift is called.

The room void is used to create the Room Void state of the lift. The room void describes the accessible space inside the lift car. It moves to each stop when the lift is called.

The door jig becomes the Door Jig state of the lift. The door jig is attached to the turbo lift, used when making the jig cut at each stop. The jig state is removed during the finalizing process.

When the first door is cut using the lift, the Uncut Car state is created using the room mesh. This geometry is used when making the jig cut at each stop. The uncut car state is removed during the finalizing process.

Use the parts manager to create stops for the turbo lift. Creating three stops goes sort of like this.

• Make the turbo lift.
• Position the lift car at the first stop.
• Right-click the lift in the parts manager to add the first stop.
• Select the lift and a room. Use Parts, Jig Cut to cut the first door. This also cuts the initial door opening into the lift car and the uncut car state is added to the lift.
• Use the parts manager to add the second stop, before moving the car.
• Move the car to the second position; do not copy it. The Edit, Align Selected Objects command is an excellent tool for doing this.
• Jig cut a door at the second position, using the lift.
• Add the next stop.
• Move the car to the next position.
• Jig cut a door at the next position.
• To see the car at any of its stops, right-click the lift in the parts manager.

The lift will not act as a jig to cut anything until a stop has been added. If the jig cut does nothing, insure the lift has at least one stop.

Do not cut the room with the jig before making the lift. In order for the turbo lift jig to make a door, the jig must cut the lift and a room when the first door is made. The uncut car state is created then; it is used when cutting doors at each additional stop.

The lift car actually moves to each stop, unlike the states of a door or landing gear that are represented by multiple different models. Changes to the lift car will affect its appearance at every stop. The lift car may be edited at any stop. The shape of the door should not be changed. It might stop producing the desired jig cut result due to cached information.

Doors at each stop should be named to match the stop name. This is how the door knows which stop of the turbo lift to select when it is opened. A turbo lift door with no matching turbo lift stop will not call the lift car; then the door cannot be opened unless the lift car is already at the stop.