Tip #1 - Create your own design for a truly unique paint scheme
When designing a paint scheme on the PC, the program must be able to change colors on different parts of the model. Also, there has to be a way to draw lines, stripes, stars, circles, etc. in order to create interesting and colorful designs. With MACD, changing colors is easy. First, open Paintbooth and press the Color button. A color palette window will pop up where you can select any color you want. Then click on the bitmap image located to the right of the 3D-model. This will change the old color to the new color on the bitmap. The 3D-model simultaneously reflects the same color change. That's how simple it is to change any color on the airplane. Obviously, you will want to draw lines, stripes, or graphics that are different from the ones included in the program. This will require you to use a paint program. Windows's own Paint program is free and works fine for this. Once you have drawn your design with Paint, you save it and select Reload Bitmaps from the View menu in MACD. All bitmaps will be reloaded and the 3D-model will be covered with the graphics that you drew with the paint program. More details about modifiying and saving the bitmaps can be found in the Custom Paint Scheme topic in the program's Help/Contents. By the way, you can also draw on the bitmaps with any other paint program that you may have. You're not restricted to using only MS Paint.

Tip # 2 - Games and 3D applications run poorly on Windows Vista
Here is a tip for Windows Vista users. If your PC is suffering from an ailment called Windows Vista, here is some good news. We have found that the reason games and other 3D applications run poorly on a large number of Vista machines is the Aero interface. Aero uses up a lot of resources leaving 3D applications little to work with. The solution is to turn Aero off, but not permanently. There is a way to turn Aero off only when the 3D application is running. When you quit the 3D application, Aero comes back on automatically.

The procedure to turn off Aero for a particular application is as follows:

1.  Find your application's shortcut icon, either on the Start Menu or on the desktop.
2.  Right click on the shortcut icon. Select "Properties" from the list.
3.  Click on the "Compatibility" tab.
4.  Put check marks on "Disable Visual Themes", "Disable desktop composition", and
     "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings".
5.  Click "Apply" and then click "OK".
6.  That's it. Next time you start your 3D application it should run almost as good as on Windows XP.

Tip # 3 - Side-by-side comparison of two different color schemes
When you have to decide between two color schemes it's best to view them side-by-side. Our MACD Version 2 programs make this very easy. Start the program and select View Model from Control Panel. Then select Side By Side and press OK. You now have two airplanes on the screen. You can load one paint scheme on Plane #1 and load a different paint scheme on Plane #2. If you want to change colors on either airplane, simply open Paintbooth, change colors and go back to the Side by Side screen. You can also rotate both airplanes to view them in any attitude and they can be flown together in the flight simulator. This is a great way to help you decide which will be your final paint scheme design.

Tip # 4 - Background Image
As you probably discovered already, the background image can be turned on with the menu option "View / Background". But you may not know that the background can be changed to just about any bitmap image (with a .bmp extension) you may have. This could be a picture of your backyard or the field where you fly. The following is the procedure for changing the background. Rename the file "bkgimg.bmp" to "bkgimg-old.bmp" in the MACD folder. Note that the background image needs to be in the Windows bitmap format (bmp). Then rename the new bitmap file from whatever it is to "bkgimg.bmp". Make sure the file is located in the MACD folder. Start the program and select Background from the View menu. You now have a new background. Here are a couple of backgrounds you may want to try. Click on the image you want to download.

      
       Background 1             Background 2

Tip # 5 - Problem with Custom Colors
Custom colors that are created in the paintbooth window sometimes will not 'paint' the 3d-model. This problem can be avoided by changing your system display setting to 32 bit color. However, if you're working in 16 bit color, here is the Solution:  Select the color shade that you want from the custom color palette window. You'll notice there are red, green, and blue color components (each represented by a number) shown on the right hand side of the dialog window. Each of the numbers should be divisible by 8. This is important because when they're not, you may not be able to change colors on the 3d-model. For example, if Red is 29, change it to 32 (8 x 4 = 32). You may also change Green and Blue if needed. Now reload the color scheme and apply your custom color to the model.

Tip # 6 - New features in this current version of the program.
Function keys have been added to allow quick access to different functions. For example, press "F3" to access the Paintbooth screen, and "F10" switches to the Side-by-Side View screen. The color of the spinner, wheel pants and landing gear struts can now be easily changed by the user. Also, access to the control panel has been improved. Right click anywhere inside the program window and control panel pops up saving precious time. Another new item is for when you're in the View Model window. Press the space bar to start rotating the model, then press it again to stop rotation. And this last new feature is definitely state of the art. MACD is now able to run in 32 bit color mode, which is supported by almost all of the new video cards. Now you can choose from the greatest number of colors that can be displayed on the PC to design your paint scheme. That's right, MACD just keeps getting better with every new version.

Tip # 7 - Printing the finished model.
This is not a feature of MACD yet, but it's in the works. In the meantime, it is possible to print the screen image. From the MACD program, you may hold down the ALT key and press the Print Screen key. Both keys must be down at the same time. This will send the current MACD screen image to computer memory. Now we need to start the Windows Paint program by clicking on Start/Programs/Accessories/Paint. From Paint, select Paste from the Edit menu. The MACD screen should come up inside the Paint program window. You may print it now by selecting Print from the File menu.