Altitude problem in V1.05 too

[Reider]

Recently, as some of you no doubt know, I had problems with a new Scarborough Airfield. I received much help and will remain eternally grateful. Some of the problem was getting to grips with KML as I`d always used a current one as a template, strangely this wasn`t working. The big issue was no matter what height I set I was either underground or the middle part of the runway was level and both ends were underground. The height was 162 feet, the map in FSX showed 162 feet, Tcalc showed 162 feet. I had ADE set to Metric, worked out the setting of 49.3776 Meters. Result, the runway was well underground, checked all settings again as above. The Flatten was correctly shown as 162 feet, the underground runway was showing as 49 feet?. Changed ADE to feet and set a new airport at 162 feet. Result, Flatten was at 162 feet, the runway was underground at 49 feet? I multiplied 49.3776 meters by two and set this as a new airport. mmmm, 14 feet from the surface give or take. Then it dawned on me, set a new airport to 162 meters and Bingo! Flatten was 162 feet, runway was 162 feet but still showing 162 meters in ADE!

It took longer to suss out than these notes suggest. No problems, I love ADE and point this out just in case anyone else has a problem with the runway height and the flatten height not matching. It does show V1.05 in the splash screen and both parts of the upgrade were applied. Strangely, after the event the FSX map suggests 164 feet, I guess it isn`t that precise.

I have the images here (screengrabs) if anyone needs them, I attached in zipfile format. All are jpegs, one is the FSX map screen, one is a grab of TCalcX and the important one is ADE showing 162m. Hope this helps someone.

Reider
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[scruffyduck]

Let me take a look Steve and get back to you.

 

[Reider]

If it helps it has worked aok before. I noticed the problem after I temporarily left all settings at meters, barring altitude which was set to feet to check something, but not returned to default straightaway. Then, no matter if set to meters or feet, feet were coming out at the value but marked at meters.

So, I wanted 162 feet to match the flatten, TcalcX and FSX map. ADE showed 162 meters and gave me 49feet??? Setting 162 meters I got 162 feet.

I can work with it, a possible reinstall may fix it. But at least knowing its happening allows me to correct any altitude problems I have. I just wanted to warn others of the problem, alert yourselves and maybe give you a better idea of the problem in the next revision, if it turns out to be a glitch.

Reider
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[scruffyduck]

....and this is related to creating a new airport? It is not possible to change the altitude of an existing airport via ADE Home.

 

[scruffyduck]

Let me see if I understand this problem Steve. I set altitude units to feet and created a new airport using 100ft for the altitude. I then changed units to meters and ADE changed the altitude to 30.48m. I created another new airport at 30.48m and then changed units back to feet and got 100ft.

Is there something I have missed? must be

EDIT
Just going a bit further with this I compiled the airport with 100 feet and the XML contains 100F for the altitude value as I would expect. Recompiling it for metric units and the XML contains 30.48M - again what I would expect.

 

[Reider]

Mine did the same until I changed to all settings on meters ** but ** altitude on feet. Thats when the glitch began. All three images were screen grabbed at the same point in time. Two independent sources (fsx map and TcalcX) show 162 feet which is correct. ADE shows 162 meters when checking the plan of the airport. but is really displaying the correct 162 feet in FSX. If I set it to feet and key in 162 for a new airport, getting rid of the old one as a test, it physically comes out at 49 meters. Its swapping them over, it won`t show on yours because you don`t have the glitch. At some point on mine it has been triggered.

At no point was I attempting to change altitude on a present airfield. In each case I started a new one over and over and over again to see what was going on. I took the three screen grabs, which by the way are not manipulated, to show two sources display 162 feet and one shows 162 meters but is in fact 162 feet in reality. You can see clearly it states meters.

At the end of the day I`m not worried about this at all. I know what to expect and have now produced another airfield with the altitude set to meters so that I can produce the correct height in feet. When I reinstall I`m hoping the glitch is gone, in fact I`ll do that before I use it again. I`m pointing this out simply in case anyone else finds the same glitch and ends up underground when they should be level with the ground.

Reider
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[scruffyduck]

OK thanks Steve - I will keep it on the list though

 

[Reider]

OK thanks Steve - I will keep it on the list though

OK, good idea, I`m not complaining, its just to help anyone else who finds it. I`ve just archived my complete ADE install 'as is' on an external USB drive. Installed a fresh V1.00 and updated both units to make it V1.05. I copied this to my external drive too. Now I`ll go find a suitable place to test.

For anyone now or in the future following this thread. Though the problem for me was time consuming and a real PITA, ADE is well worth the time and effort. I have produced and released 3 Standard Aircraft Carriers with full GPS capability. 3 Acceleration Aircraft Carriers with full GPS, one of which produced over 400 downloads in the first 48 hours! I have a Piper Alpha Oil Rig very near release, with full Aberdeen Harbour and Peterhead Harbour enhancements plus two cargo ships travelling out to the rig and back. EGCB Barton Manchester is heading for more like real life than real life itself I wanted Skegness and Scarborough airports for personal use but will probably release them at some stage too.

Now, a couple of months ago I could not do any of this. Without ADE, the good people on this forum and freewill/advice from all none of us would benefit from these free scenery add ons. So, if you do find a glitch just remember at the end of the day its still an excellent program and I`d say the best there is by a long chalk. Long may it reign. Thanks again all.

Reider
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[jvile]

Steve

There was a problem early on where the Meter /Feet change would get corrupt. In one of the updates Jon worked on getting this fixed.

After you have V1.05 installed could you go up to the dropdown menu Help and select Check for updates.

If all the files are updated correctly to Version 1.05 the update will say

You have the latest version of jmFsScenerylib.

You have the latest version of jmCommonLib.

You have the latest version of Airport Design Editor

I also do a lot of switching back and forth Meter/Ft/Meter and have not had any problems since Jon worked on that part of the code.

 

[Reider]

I`m glad you told me that Jim, was starting to think it was only me imagining it. Yesterday I reinstalled by downloading V1.00 afresh, then applied both parts of the update. Today, after reading your message I rechecked the updates function and got the following;

You have the latest version of jmFsSceneryLib.

You have the latest version of jmCommonLib.

You have the latest version of Airport Design Editor.

I used this new installed and updated version yesterday on a new and previously not installed airport, nor had I done any prep work on it before the day. Its Stretton Airport near Warrington (nicknamed HMS Blackcap), next to the M56 motorway. I started by setting all parts to feet. I checked the altitude in TCalcX and it was averaging 72 feet. Then I set all ADE settings to 'Feet' before editing and adding the airfield. On going to this airfield in FSX, the runway was underground and the runway showed 20 odd feet. Going back to ADE I reset all settings to Meters and entered 72 meters as the altitude on a new airfield in the same location. Back to FSX and everything was as it should be, with the 72 meter airport/runway displaying at 72 feet???

I think I`ll adopt this runway now, it has certain qualities and is only about 7 miles from where I live. I`m going to a BUPA hospital to see a consultant there at Stretton tomorrow, so I may take my camera and go walkabout! I believe carriers arrived in Liverpool and the aircraft flew from there to Stretton. It was also used for aircraft maintenance and a transit airport for new aircraft amongst other things. I never planned to do this, but now the seed is planted in my mind.

Out of adversity once more a phoenix rises from the ashes. I have the measure of this problem now, Vista may be having some kind of influence, who knows? As long as people know it can be circumvented and its well worthwhile doing so then its not a major problem, whatever the cause. If Jon applied the update in V1.02 (guessing here), I went straight from V1.00 to V1.05 without the V1.02, I wonder if this is the cause....mmm?

Reider
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[GHD]

I checked the altitude in TCalcX and it was averaging 72 feet.

TCalcX displays altitude in metres

No wonder you are having problems.

George

 

[scruffyduck]

Steve - you can go straight from 1.00 to 2.05

 

[tangjuice81]

Airport Altitude in SbuilderX

Great app! But unfortunately I keep getting my airport underground. I set the altitudes on everything but the airport is still underground. Yes, I do have vs 1.05 for ADE. Help! Thanks!

 

[scruffyduck]

Great app! But unfortunately I keep getting my airport underground. I set the altitudes on everything but the airport is still underground. Yes, I do have vs 1.05 for ADE. Help! Thanks!

You refer to SBuilderX - did you use that to set the flatten for the airport?

 

[ccartmel]

Barton

Reider,
Let me know if you model the bumps at Barton

Do you have the lat and lon of the airport off the M56? I use Horizon's photographic scenery and may well 'activate' it myself.

Home airport is EGGP and I like to buzz the area with as much local scenery installed as possible despite the hit on frame rates

Regards

 

[GHD]

Great app! But unfortunately I keep getting my airport underground. I set the altitudes on everything but the airport is still underground. Yes, I do have vs 1.05 for ADE. Help! Thanks!

tangjuice81,

Can you upload your cvx and ADE files?

George

 

[Reider]

Reider,
Let me know if you model the bumps at Barton

Do you have the lat and lon of the airport off the M56? I use Horizon's photographic scenery and may well 'activate' it myself.

Home airport is EGGP and I like to buzz the area with as much local scenery installed as possible despite the hit on frame rates

Regards

I searched for the coordinates and RW designations, to no avail-though only quickly. A bit more persistance will pay off later. I believe their were three runways and its easy to get pictures of the airfield for virtual reconstruction. So I used Google Earth and keyed in details of the airfield. From this, I moved the cursor and wrote down the lat/long. Made up an airport with those coordinates and started it in FSX. I then found what could be just random markings on the ground but could equally be some of the pulled down buildings from the airfield. Across the other side of the motorway they appear to continue, which is where all the warehouses should be I guess. I parked the microlight on these markings, running in the same direction, then checked the compass to get roughly 275 degrees down a centre line from the M56. Subsequent rejigs with ADE connected to FSX got the runway moved far enough away from the M56 to be effective.

The lat/lon I used are;

53.345880775 -2.525212335

I got an excellent download for EGGP from Avsim, so I left it at that. I used to cycle there regularly on the Trans Pennine Route prior to my COPD worsening. A good route and brilliant place to watch planes coming and going. We used to stand at the wood fence down the side lane leading around to the tower. You could almost jump up and touch the undercarriage as they came in, they were that low over the fence. Right, time to get all my stuff in order, have to leave here before 6am to get to Warrington and the bus to Stretton tomorrow. Theres one at 6:50am and thats it for 2 hours afterwards. Got an hour or so to kill before the hospital so I may have a look around.

Hope this helps

Reider
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XS1100

 

[ccartmel]

Thanks Steve,
I will look into it myself shortly.
The EGGP I use is that from Derbosoft, V 5.1. The buildings are spot on excepting for the new TNT depot. Doesn't work under DX10 however, so have been looking as ways to extract the scasm model from the bgl and convert into the 'new' FSX model format. I fly with a lot of AI and find that the non-FSX format building objects hit the frame rate badly in FSX, although fine under FS9. Quality though outweighs the issues.

If ever you see a Tomahawk, usually G-RVRR, bounce at Liverpool it may well be me

Regards

 

[tangjuice81]

Altitude problems

I did use SBuilderx to flatten the area and airport. I'll upload the files.

 

[GHD]

tangjuice81,

Your problem is that you have defined the airport at a height of 18 metres. The default Saba is defined at 4.5 metres.

To change the altitude you need a dummy AFD file at 18 metres which you place in the FSX\Scenery\World\Scenery folder.

Compile the following code to create the dummy AFD:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!-- Created by Scenery Design Engine (SDE) on 05/03/2008 -->
<FSData
   version="9.0"
   xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="bglcomp.xsd">
   <Airport
      country="Netherlands Antilles"
      city="Saba"
      name="Juancho Yrausquin"
      lat="17.6449961587787"
      lon="-63.2216513156891"
      alt="18.0M"
      magvar="13"
      trafficScalar="0.7"
      airportTestRadius="5000.0M"
      ident="SABA"
      >
      <Services>
      </Services>
      <DeleteAirport
         deleteAllControlTowers="TRUE"
         deleteAllRunways="TRUE"
         deleteAllStarts="TRUE"
         deleteAllHelipads="TRUE"
         deleteAllFrequencies="TRUE"
         deleteAllTaxiways="TRUE"
         deleteAllJetways="TRUE"
         deleteAllAprons="TRUE"
         deleteAllApronLights="TRUE"
         deleteAllBoundaryFences="TRUE"
         deleteAllBlastFences="TRUE"
         deleteAllApproaches="FALSE"/>
   </Airport>
</FSData>

George