Elements - Exterior 1

So this is…big…

 

I just wanted to tinker with one file and ended up spending an entire day importing into Stud.io and redoing stuff. I’ve decided not to attempt full deck plans though, because even if I could do them, you wouldn’t be able to see much on the largest decks. And I’m nowhere near figuring out the problems of the oval plan and complex curves of the hull. But I did recalculate the positions of everything, and all the deck placeholders, windows, markings and hatches are now accurately placed. For the first time, there are markings big enough that I can even work in the red pinstripe around the characters. I also solved some issues with the saucer rim and filled in the windows, and I got started on the hull profile for decks 10–16. Here’s the plan:

 

Deck 1/2 hasn’t been updated yet, I just plopped it in there for scale. Eventually I want to revisit the Bridge complex, get more of the angles and curves right, and finish the layout for Deck 2. That’s where Data, Geordi, and Worf all have their quarters, along with 2-Forward and a bunch of subsystems.

 

Deck 3/4: I’m only going to do the main shuttlebay complex. That’s a big area but mostly empty. I’ll skip the surrounding quarters.

 

Deck 5: There’s a small hangar area here, and the phaser strip. That’s all I’m going to do.

 

Deck 6: I’m only doing the central part of the deck, with the computer core complex (it actually runs from deck 5 to 14) and the transporter rooms.

 

Deck 8: I’m planning to do Picard’s quarters, but they have extra-long windows. If I can’t figure that out without cheating the deck position, I may do Riker’s instead.

 

Deck 10: Just 10-Forward.

 

Deck 16: Captain’s yacht and docking complex.

 

That’s it for the saucer, which means I’ll be skipping a lot of things: the arboretum, stellar cartography, sickbay, the holodecks, phaser ranges, labs, and many other areas we see on screen. I could always add some of those in the future but by then it might actually BE the 24th century…

 

For the stardrive section, I want to do most of the neck area. Not the cobrahead with the battle bridge and docking latches, but starting with the shuttlebay complex levels on decks 12–14, all the way down to the deuterium tanks on deck 29. That will include the forward torpedo launcher, docking ports, and main impulse engine. Lots of cool stuff.

 

Then I’m popping down to deck 36 to do main engineering. It has an upper level and a lower bay, and I want to do the entirety of the M/ARA, and some of the associated equipment, but that’s probably all I’ll do for that section.

 

Finally, I want to do a warp nacelle with all of the equipment, control room, access paths, docking port, etc.

 

Then, if the the Q Continuum will grant me the computing power, we’ll see if I can render the entire exterior, all 652 meters of it, over 1950 studs in length. By the time I’m ready for that I should have a new computer, but it won’t have isolinear chips, neural relays, ODN circuits, or even outdated duotronics. And of course I have other priorities to work on too, I just wanted to briefly revisit the Galaxy class. In other words, I’m not quite ready just yet to engage.

Done