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FS2004 Afcad file not recognized!

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10
Country
yemen
Dear Friends,

I don't know what to say, but since 2004 and I am using this utility AFCAD 2.21 and never encountered any issue or problem. Yesterday when I tried to open an afcad file I was working on since several weeks, it didn't open as well as it doesn't show up in my fs2004 and just shown me the default airport layout. When I attempted to open the file with AFCAD program for 2nd time it has shown me the attached message.
ScreenHunter_52 Jun. 21 01.28.jpg


Please help me in solving this issue.
 
Your very best solution is to download and install Airport Design Editor. You will find it to be much more powerful than AFCAD, very similar in use and simple to learn, plus there is the very valuable and important benefit that when you do run into issues, the community is rich with experienced users that are eager to help you resolve such things. You are doing flight simulator development, you owe it to yourself and those you petition for help, to make your tools current.
 
It might also help if you attach the problem file to a post here so that we can take a look at it.
 
Afcad remains the best among all those similar program, because it allows you to design the airport layout professionally unlike AFX. Take a look at this pics for HAAB layout done by the Lee Swordy afcad utility.

HAAB-1.jpg
HAAB-2.jpg
 
I am attaching the afcad file for HAAB. Please check it and try to fix it up if possible, would be appreciated.
 

Attachments

I cannot really read this file with any of the tools I have. The only thing I can say is that it appears to be FS2002 or earlier. The lat/lon data in is are 0,0 and there does not seem to be any airport. It is only 318 bytes long which is just enough to provide the file header but there is no airport data. It appears to be sca format. AFCAD 1.4 handled sca as I recall but I can't find a copy of that program any longer. The version of AFCAD 2.2 is for FS2004 which you reference.

I will leave others to comment on the relative merits of AFCAD, AFX and ADE :)
 
Hello:

If AFCAD version 2.21 does not recognize it as an Airport Facilities Data aka "AFD" format file, it may be an older FS Scenery Creator aka "FSSC" or Airport For Windows aka "AFW" (last versionb 2.6 ? ) source file in SCASM source code or a SCASM compiled BGL format.

AFW may be able to import it and output a file that is in a AFCAD 1.X or 2.X FS8- or FS9- compatible format.

Alternatively, SceneGenX might be able to convert to a file format that AFCAD can then read.

Otherwise, you may need to de-compile into a *.SCA SCASM source code file using Winfried Orthmann's BGLAnalyze version 3.1 or Takuya Murakami's ScDis version 2.3, which can then be manually converted to a FS9 BGLComp-compatible XML format readable by AFCAD and/or ADE9.

GaryGB
 
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I have run them all Gary - this file is empty. For example SCDis say that there are no sections exist and this is the output

;;; Disassembled by scdis ver 2.3
;;; BGL header info
;scenery id: 0x0
;max north: S0:0:0.00
;min north: S0:0:0.00
;max east: W0:0:0.00
;min east: W0:0:0.00
;sec0 point: 0x0
;min freq: 0x0
;max freq: 0x0
;sec1 point: 0x0
;sec2 point: 0x0
;sec3 point: 0x0
;sec4 point: 0x0
;sec5 point: 0x0
;sec6 point: 0x0
;sec7 point: 0x0
;sec8 point: 0x0
;sec9 point: 0x0
;sec10 point: 0x0
;sec11 point: 0x0
;sec12 point: 0x0
;sec13 point: 0x0
;sec14 point: 0x0
;sec15 point: 0x0
;value0: 0x0
;value1: 0x0
;value2: 0x0
;value3: 0x0
;value4: 0x0
;value5: 0x0
;value6: 0x0
;value7: 0x0
;sec16 point: 0x0
;sec17 point: 0x0
;sec18 point: 0x0
;sec19 point: 0x0
;sec20 point: 0x0
;sec21 point: 0x0
;value8: 0x0

This is what comes from BglAnalyze

Filename: AF2_HAAB.bgl; VIS-Type: 0Latitude S00:00:00.00 to S00:00:00.00, Longitude W000:00:00.00 to W000:00:00.00

Basically this is an empty sca based file only 318 bytes long. There is nothing I can see in there to recover
 
Apologies the bgl file is 184K (318 bytes is the size of the zip) but there does not seem to be any accessible data in it
 
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This is another view of the SCASM output from this file:

; ----------------------------------------
; AF2_HAAB.bgl disassembled by BGLAnalyze (c) on Thu Jun 21 16:23:38 2018

; ----------------------------------------
Header( 0 S00:00:00.00 S00:00:00.00 W000:00:00.00 W000:00:00.00 )
LatRange( S00:00:00.00 S00:00:00.00 )
; since SCASM does not support multiple latitude ranges
; the range has been set to the minimum/maximum latitude.
; LatRange information in the BGL file is given as comment.
; If you want to use band separation, you must edit
; the source file manually.

; Insert the "Set( FSVers 0x800 )" instruction at the beginning
; of the file, if you want to use the FS2002 instructions
; for the facilities section
mif( [$Version < 285] )
Error( You need at least SCASM version 2.85 to compile this code )
mifend
; ----------------------------------------
; end of SCASM source
 
Pity, I've spent around 3 months in designing and rebooting my old HAAB scenery and specially the afcad file with unique style which has taken long time to be done. I am going to cancel the scenery since I have no time to start from zero again, thanks anyways...
 
Hi again:

I have not had time to look at the file you attached above, but from what Jon stated, it may indeed be empty of airport data resulting from some mishap of work-flow inside AFCAD, either due to a user error, or a 'bug' incurred during operation of that airport utility.

[EDITED]

Yes, in a HEX viewer, it is all zeroes and therefore totally empty of FS Airport Facilities Data as Jon stated above. :oops:

[END_EDIT]

Did you keep backups of the 'work' and/or BGL files for your AFCAD HAAB *.AF2 airport BGL file ?

Or did you previously compile those project files into a AFD airport BGL for FS9 ?

NOTE: You would have had to do this to take the above screenshots ;)


If so, attach that info in a ZIP file here so we can see if it is possible to recover and/or convert that data for you to use in either AFCAD or ADE9.


Alternatively, you may wish to utilize one of the freeware add-ons for IACO HAAB cited on this web page: :idea:

http://www.freewarescenery.com/fs2004.html


GaryGB
 
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No unfortunately, I didn't keep a backup for it. I'm attaching the original afcad for HAAB 2008 before I did the new expansion for HAAB 2018 as shown in the pics above. It is the same afcad file which unfortunately corrupted due to sudden cut and loss of power while working on it. When power has come back, after rebooting windows I found the file not opening and just gave me the message shown in the 1st pic above. That's all....
 

Attachments

I can open that bgl file in AFCAD and in ADE
 
Hi Jon:

While working with a I-Pad yesterday, I was not only unable to inspect the BGL the OP originally attached above, but was so far out of my usual Windows based work environment that I missed seeing the "all zero" values in the dummy headers which are always still written out by the (2) particular SCASM decompilers cited above (even when a file that is internally all zeroes is processed by those SCASM decompilers).

Sorry for not initially catching the rather obvious significant results you had already posted above (...the perils of confusion resulting from attempting to 'work' in Apple versus Windows work environments ! :oops::laughing:).


BTW: I can also verify that ADE v1.70x in FS9 mode is able to open the latter AF2-HAAB.BGL file above. ;)

IMHO, this is now a good opportunity for the OP to discover how much easier compared to AFCAD 2.21, ADE in FS9 mode makes it to "Open" his older AF2-HAAB.BGL (imported and converted to source code within a ADE *.AD4 file) ...as a safely backed-up, 'working copy' of his airport project that can then be updated for 2018 prior to output as a airport BGL compiled from the *.AD4 'project work file' via FS2004 SDK BGLComp. :idea:


PS: I was going to post a link for the OP to download ADE version 1.7x, but I cannot find a link to- or achieve a working connection for- the download location via the Scruffyduck website (...as linked by Google). :scratchch

GaryGB
 
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