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Flatten and exclude airport background

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1,955
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unitedkingdom
I have used flatten to make my ground polys work on the airport, but I also now want to use an exclude airport background, to remove the green grass rectangle around the airport.

But using this exclude, even if it doesn't overlap the flatten and even in a seperate .bgl file removes the flatten.

Please help me!!!:censored:
 
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1,693
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unitedstates
You want to have the airport background basically to the runway edges, not 500ft away. You want the terrain background to basically touch the runway corrrect?

If thats the case you can make stages of the airport poly the size of the runway, and then you wont need to exclude.
You will need SBUILDER to do this
Sbuilder 2.06 - SB9 for FS9
Sbuilder 3.13 - SBX for FSX

a couple screenshots, 1 of what you currrently have, and one of what you want it to look like after, will help us determine what exactly you are trying to do.
 
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1,955
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unitedkingdom
Thanks for the reply. So I can't change the size of the green surrounding area within ADE? I need to install and use SBuilderX?

I used SBuilderX before, I don't remember seeing the option.
 
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1,955
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unitedkingdom
I've used the flatten mask class in addition to the exclude background but the flatten seems to not work properly, the terrain is still sticking a bit though my ground polys. Without the exclude airport background polygon, the flatten works. :mad:
 

scruffyduck

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unitedkingdom
Thanks for the reply. So I can't change the size of the green surrounding area within ADE? I need to install and use SBuilderX?

Not exactly true. If this is for FSX then ADE can create terrain exclusions to exclude the default airport background and then you can add a new one. Unless I misread the problem ADE can do all of this.
 
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1,693
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unitedstates
Not exactly true. If this is for FSX then ADE can create terrain exclusions to exclude the default airport background and then you can add a new one. Unless I misread the problem ADE can do all of this.

This didnt work for me. But then again it was a compiler issue I was having, not an ADE issue. Havent tried it since.

Anyhow, what I think he wants to do is shrink the airport background poly, and add a flatten. But the exclude will cancel the flatten.
 
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unitedkingdom
Well the exclude background (default mask class) and the adding another flatten mask class should work fine, and it does with another airport, just in this case I have flatten <runway height and max terrain heigh, this might be the issue.

Runway is at 12.988ft, Flatten is at 12.5ft, ground poly are set to 12.5ft or something, maybe I should put them in a bit higher?... Not even the default runway shows though, the terrain does.
 
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1,955
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unitedkingdom
See in the attachments, even with the flatten mask class and exclude mask class, the terrain or default polys show through.
 

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scruffyduck

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unitedkingdom
It certainly sounds like differing altitudes may be part of the problem
 
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italy
Hello Shaun,
I also use this combination (Flatten + General Exclude Airport Background), especially when I get some entrenched or elevated runways/taxiways, and it works well.

I've read somewhere that the flatten poly should be placed just 0.007' below the runway, and I always stick to this value, and generally it does work. From what I see from your values, it seems you may have too much distance between the runway and the flatten terrain, so you may need to tweak those values, either by changing airport altitude, or moving the terrain up a bit, or resetting the flatten.

As for changing the Airport background it may be simpler than it seems: I just draw here and there some LC polys and voilà! just be sure to never touch the runways or taxiways to avoid the vegetation/urbanization growing out of bounds... ;)

HTH
 
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us-arkansas
Did I see this correctly?

You have two polygons which are Exclude Airport Background?

You need to use only one. Having two over the same airport background polygon could confuse FS.

I always put my polygons to exclude the default background in the area of the runways and taxiways. To make sure the exclusion polygon is completely on the default polygon. But not over the airport reference point.

To exclude an airport background the polygon must be type "Exclude Specific" and tag "Airport Backgrounds Flatten MaskClassMap AutoGen" because that is the type of airport background used for default airports.
 

GHD

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12,243
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england
All you need is a polygon exclude which clips the default polygon (use TmfViewer to see the coordinates of the default background).

Having removed the default background, define a new one which surrounds your manoeuvring surfaces.
 
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1,955
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unitedkingdom
OK, I used the two exclude general-airport backgrounds because the 1 only got rid of one part of the mask class area, I could try to put it in the middle.

I have found that using another instance of flatten isn't working either, without the exclude polygons, the terrain is coming through the polys! I don't know why, the ground polys are at 12.5ft. I'll try it with a flatten at 12.4993 and let you know.

Exclude specific class mask isn't working at all for some reason.
 
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1,955
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unitedkingdom
It's Lydd, EGMD. I don't know why now, but I can't make a flatten that will alone show my ground polys everywhere now. Most strange, I've tried a number of heights of flatten up to 11.5ft.

The ground polys are at 11.5ft.

*EDIT

Even by putting a flatten at 5ft. the default dunway and taxiways stay up at 11.98ft with the terrain sloping down in the areas between them....
 
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unitedkingdom
OK.... Success! I changed the airport altitude to 11.499ft, flatten at the same altitude and then ground polys at 11.5ft. Now the exclude airport background works also! :)
 

GHD

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12,243
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england
The default altitude is 11.998 feet.

To exclude the default airport background, look at FSX\Scenery\0601\scenery\cvx4813.bgl in TmfViewer and zoom in on Lydd:



Place your cursor on a position to the lower-left of the background and note the lat/long from the status bar. Do the same for the upper-right.

Now, in ADE, create a rectangular exclusion polygon and set the lower-left/upper right vertices to the values you noted from TmfViewer.



Create a new background polygon using coordinates from your ground polys.
 
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1,955
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unitedkingdom
Cheers George, the exclusion rectangle seemed to work regardless of its size, as long as it was overlapping the default airport background area. My issue was that some of the terrain didn't reach up to a lot of the aprons, and hence I had to flatten by half a foot, otherwise you'd keep dipping down under the ground polys. I had just forgotten to set the whole airport to be at the flatten height also.
 
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