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Changing an Airport's Elevation

O

opaplano

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us-texas
I am properly overlooking the obvious, but..........

When I load any airport (stock or third party) and look at the aiport's Properties, I see no way to edit the elevation of the airport. The elevation box is visible but not editable (as it always was in the AFCAD utilty).

The same holds true for indivdual runway edits.

This question is related to FS2004 airports.

Thanks in advance for any clarification regarding how this is done in ADE9X.
 
scruffyduck

scruffyduck

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Tools > Change Airport Altitude.

This will create a pre-load bgl file placed in the Scenery\World\scenery folder.

ADE will automatically adjust the altitudes of all elements that need to be at the airport reference altitude.

If you do change the altitude then you will get information in the title bar to remind you that the airport altitude is modified
 
O

opaplano

Messages
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us-texas
scruffyduck said:
Tools > Change Airport Altitude.

This will create a pre-load bgl file placed in the Scenery\World\scenery folder.

ADE will automatically adjust the altitudes of all elements that need to be at the airport reference altitude.

If you do change the altitude then you will get information in the title bar to remind you that the airport altitude is modified
Click to expand...

Thanks - I should have read the manual more carefully - my fault. :(
 
jyarddog

jyarddog

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Really need help on this. older fs9 airport. converting to FSX. I can see all but the rwys. did airport background, excludedautogen, maskclass poly with ADE. no change. Do I need to do this with the stock airport instead?

I did tools - change airport EL. 485 ft. still no change. Tried all this with AFX as well. no change. It seems my rwys are probably just below the surface of the ground. Bob
 
R

rfields

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us-arkansas
Okay some basics - Which airport and why are you needing to change the elevation - Addon Mesh? Airport in a hole or plateau in the default FSX?

Does the airport exist in FSX with the same designator as FS2004?

The backgrounds and flattens are from separate files than the airport data. FS2004 uses different format backgrounds and flattens which cannot be used in FS2004.

The best way to bring and airport forward is to open the stock FSX airport with ADE in one window and the FS2004 AFCAD in another windows - and compare as you build a new airport from scratch.

But sometimes we desire to bring the FS2004 AFCAD data into FSX. Opening the .BGL file with ADE and then Load Stock Data gives you a good starting point. You will probably need to exclude the default airport polygon and create a new background because many FS2004 airports do not match up with the FSX background polygons.

If this is an airport which is not in FSX, it is a bit easier to create a background polygon.

One tip - I would go to the airport in FSX without the _CVX.bgl file for the background polygon, flatten, default exclude - to check the elevation. The deal with the background.
 
jyarddog

jyarddog

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us-washington
My partner-in-crime, :) and I got this from fs9 called MAIW Miramar.

We did not load any FS9 AI. I got rid of all exclude files.

With AFX I converted the AFCAD to FSX compatible.

Tried to flatten and lower groiund EL with a CVX file I made with Xbuilder, no change.

deleted that file. Used ADE to make a poly with airport background and a tag- exclude autogen,maskclass, flatten. set alt slightly lower than reported 485 ft. Still no change. Should I use one or the other at this point? AFX or ADE but not both? I've used both in the past, but it may have been unnecessary. And I've change EL oof airports before- just can't remember how I did it... but I think I was starting off with a FSX stock airport in the past.

All shows up... buildings, taxi signs... but no runways or taxiways. I'm close but no cigar. Bob
 
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R

rfields

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I have to ask which MAIW AFCAD are you using as the starting point?

MAIW_AF2_KNKX_RETRO.bgl - 3/17/2008 - from the USN TopGun Miramar Package

or

MAIW_AF2_KNKX_DEFAULT_DK.bgl - 4/13/2008 - from the USN-USMC Special-Use T-34C Mentors Package - both the original and the recently released version 2 of the package have the same AFCAD

I also have to ask why you want to change the airport elevation - both the default FS2004 and the default FSX airports are set to 478 feet elevation. Both MAIW AFCAD files are also set to 478 feet elevation.

According to this chart the real world airport elevationis 477 feet - http://204.108.4.16/d-tpp/1008/00903AD.PDF

Changing the airport to 485 feet might relieve a minor mesh issue - but I would expect that the airport would need to be lower, not higher.

In the real world the west end of the runways is about 50 feet lower than the east end of the runways.

I also assume from your post you are trying to make the FS2004 scenery from the Top Gun package work in FSX. I'll have to set that up and try it. I assume you are trying to raise the airport to avoid the runways disappearing under the scenery. I'm not sure that changing the airport elevation is the way to fix that, if it can be fixed in FSX.

But let me know exactly what you are trying to achieve with the elevation change.
 
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jyarddog

jyarddog

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Reg- I am using the MAIW with the retro.bgl. But somewhere I saw the 485 instead of the 478. Don't know where I got that wrong number. Anyway I will use 478.

[I also assume from your post you are trying to make the FS2004 scenery from the Top Gun package work in FSX. I'll have to set that up and try it. I assume you are trying to raise the airport to avoid the runways disappearing under the scenery. I'm not sure that changing the airport elevation is the way to fix that, if it can be fixed in FSX.] Yes]

Is the stock airport showing through do you think? Bob
 
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