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BGLViewer for FSX BGL files.

A quck check of my FSX PC shows I don't have any CVX files on it.
Click to expand...

OK to be pedantic you are looking it seems for a file with a cvx extension. However there are hundreds of bgl files in FSX with CVX in the name. By habit we call these CVX files. These contain terrain data for FSX which in the past we have not been able to decompile. Patricj has extended the knowledge on the bgl format to include these files and his viewer allows us to view their contents. As I said before you may not find a need or purpose for it and that is fine. Actually it is very helpful to me.
 
mgh said:
From Google, I understand that a CVX file is a Canvas Drawing File, developed by ACD Systems(?) A quck check of my FSX PC shows I don't have any CVX files on it.
Click to expand...
CVX files are "compressed vector" files. I have 5,332 cvx files in FSX\Scenery.
 
That starts to made it clearer. Can this application extract .cvx files extracted from .bgls and then edited?
 
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I believe it is reasonably clear that "mgh" is inquiring about using a utility such as is the basis of this thread, for extracting MSFS vector scenery content from MSFS Compressed Vector X (aka "CVX") format BGLs with a decompile and file output function, so that the previously compressed data (ex: from an author's own BGLs for which source data may have been lost) ...might be otherwise viewed and/or edited. ;)

GaryGB
 
Well I think it is also reasonably clear that this tool is a decompiler for CVX files and will therefore create an output which might enable someone to edit them and recompile them. At the moment (and Patrick is certainly better placed than me to confirm the functionality of his tool) there does not seem to be a way in this tool can easily edit or recompile. However you might find that a tool such as ADE could take advantage of the decompiled information to reconstruct the decompiled data and allow it to be edited and re-compiled ;)
 
Then in short, the application doesn't yet extract .cvx files from .bgls and then edit them but it might at some future time?
 
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It would be useful for the program to be able to output vector polygon files in .bln format. ie.:

number of points
Longitude, Latitude, Altitude.
""
""
 
Golf-HotelDelta said:
It would be useful for the program to be able to output vector polygon files in .bln format. ie.:

number of points
Longitude, Latitude, Altitude.
""
""
Click to expand...
I agree, George; it would be helpful for this utility to output X,Y,Z (aka "Lon,Lat,Alt") vertex coordinates as a BLN:

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/making-water.17540/#post-114883


If Patrick were to develop this feature set further, IMHO, it would be helpful also to offer output as a KML/KMZ. :idea:

The above 2 output file formats alone would make the XYZ poly-line and/or polygon coordinate data output immediately accessible for use by developers in most of the currently available GIS and MSFS scenery development utilities.


Perhaps others with special interests and programming skills might be able to process the data from the current default or either of the above 2 file formats in order to generate other GIS and/or MSFS XML (or other format) scenery SDK source code as needed ? :scratchch


Many thanks to Patrick for his efforts researching and developing this excellent utility ! :)

GaryGB
 
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GaryGB said:
Many thanks to Patrick for his efforts researching and developing this excellent utility ! :)
Click to expand...

Thanks Gary and Jon for your support !! That's really appreciated.

GaryGB said:
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/posts/114883/edit
Click to expand...
I'm unable to access this link. Where can I find documentation about BLN format ?


The BglViewer tool was originally intented as a personal tool to dump all possible information about a BGL file. I'm well aware that other tools previously existed (BGL to XML and XML to BGL, especially Jon's tools.).
Now I realize that there is a real need regarding CVX vectors.
So I will start developing one with BLN, KML/KMZ output formats to start with.
If you have any other idea regarding this tool-to-be, please shoot !

Stay tuned!
 
Perhaps an ESRI Shapefile (SHP) output as well? Shapefiles are pretty much the de facto vector format in GIS, and is actually the only format the SDK tools use for vector scenery (shp2vec).
 
Patrick Germain said:
I'm unable to access this link. Where can I find documentation about BLN format ?
Click to expand...

:eek: OOPS...Thanks for the heads up on this incorrect choice of link while editing... hadn't had my 2nd cup of coffee yet !


My link posted above is now fixed for info on the 'original' simple Golden Surfer blanking file (aka "BLN") format:

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/making-water.17540/#post-114883


Thanks again for considering the additional data output file format options in your utility ! :cool:

GaryGB
 
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Hi again:

If Patrick also has the initiative and ability to program his "BGLViewer" to output the newer type of ESRI Shape file (aka "SHP" with its associated / required SHX and DBF files), and which includes X,Y and Z ("Lon,Lat and Alt") vertex coordinate data, that would also be a very valuable addition to the future feature set, and would further expand its accessibility / utility with other MSFS scenery SDK and GIS applications.

http://www.esri.com/library/whitepapers/pdfs/shapefile.pdf


However, those of us who use SBuilder, and others who were around when Jim Keir released "BLN2SHP", might still be able to implement some extended use of an initial BLN output file with various 3rd party MSFS scenery utilities: ;)

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/where-can-i-find-bln2shp.431366/#post-683778


But then, some might be also able to make extended use of only a KML/KMZ file ...via other 3rd party utilities such as rhumbaflappy's "KML2BLN" (...thus reducing Patrick's workload :wave:, but perhaps increasing our own) ex:

BGLViewer > KML > KML2BLN > BLN2SHP > SHP2VEC

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/th...h-kml-files-with-sbuilderx.20474/#post-629477


Hope this helps ! :)

GaryGB
 
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It should output in every imaginable format known to mankind and maybe some that haven't been thought of yet... :idea:

Or a simple, tried and tested process would be to output in SBuilderX .SBX format, which is plain text and simple enough for most everyone to understand.
 
My vote would go to the ESRI Shapefile support.

I use SBuilderX and for the heavy lifting Global Mapper, both of which can read this format. The GeoBase data I have downloaded for development is also in the ESRI Shapefile format.
 
Patrick Germain said:
Hi Jon
The app is compiled for .NET 4.5
Also ensure that you have all 3 files : BglViewer.exe, PGFSBgl.dll and BglViewer.exe.config.
Click to expand...

Hello Patrick,
Where does PGFSBgl.dll come from? I've searched PGFSBgl on this site, Google and Bing and come up with only this self same link.
I've searched my FSX drive (with Deluxe+Accel+SDK) and found nothing and I've searched C:\windows\system32
I even d/l and installed SBuilderX313.

The downloaded BglViewer 1.0.1.3.zip has 2 files: BglViewer.exe.config and BglViewer.exe
Thanks
 
Hi

I hope you did not find the dll on the net! It's mine :)
In version 1.0.1.3, I merged all assemblies into a single executable : BlgViewer.exe. So you don't need PGFSBgl.dll anymore. It's already included in the exe file.
 
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