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Flatten and Autogen Exclude in FSX

Messages
477
Hi guys and gals (are there any?),

I don't know if eveybody knows this, if not great, if the do sorry for double-posting.

The only way I managed to flatten the FSX ground was using an LWM flatten in Ground2k. I don't know about SBuild as I do not have it.

Also the only way I managed to exclude the autogen was creating a new VTP2 Poly.

I don't know if it's the only way, if not please post other ways to do this task as I'm sure interested in learning all ins and outs of the FSX engine.

Kindly,

Blazer
 
Messages
11
Country
us-texas
Hi Blazer, thanks for this info. can you elaborate on the exclude part? How did you do it with a new poly? Is is possible to do this and not exclude added objects?

Got a project in ground2k4 and did the whole airfiled in VTP polys , looks great in FS9, but just got FSX and discovered it isn't flat, some of the lines don't show and is overgrown with autogen trees now. Came here looking for some answers.
 
Messages
19
Country
portugal
I found if I create an VTP poly with a grass texture for a airfield boundary this also works as an exclude for the autogen in the FSX. My LWM flatten polys does not work in FSX. For the flattens I created a Shape file with a small utility provided by José Oliveira and then with Shp2vec created a new .bgl flatten. This new .bgl work OK in the FSX.
 
Last edited:
Messages
477
Hi Blazer, thanks for this info. can you elaborate on the exclude part? How did you do it with a new poly? Is is possible to do this and not exclude added objects?

Got a project in ground2k4 and did the whole airfiled in VTP polys , looks great in FS9, but just got FSX and discovered it isn't flat, some of the lines don't show and is overgrown with autogen trees now. Came here looking for some answers.

Hi Michael,

I did the new poly with Ground2k4, placed the grass poly at layer 7. This is for the exclude

I then did an LWM mask, and made it a flatten at the altitude I want.

I discovered, however, that the flat isn't entirely flat, there's a 0.1, 0.2 feet diference within the airport. Maybe the round earth problem.

Kindly,

Blazer
 
Messages
477
I found if I create an VTP poly with a grass texture for a airfield boundary this also works as an exclude for the autogen in the FSX. My LWM flatten polys does not work in FSX. For the flattens I created a Shape file with a small utility provided by José Oliveira and then with Shp2vec created a new .bgl flatten. This new .bgl work OK in the FSX.

Hi Jose,

Did you create the flatten poly in Ground2k4 or SBuilder?

Which tool by José Oliveira are you talking about?

Kindly,

Blazer
 
Messages
8,893
I also created a VTP2 poly with a grass texture for a airfield boundary using Sbuilder. However I can't get Sbuilder to communicate with FSX through FSUIPC registered ver 4.01.

I made the VTP poly with FS9 running and then copied over to FSX. It flatten 940 ft up to 1025ft and removed autogen for this airport which is at 1025F elevation.

The problem is on one side of the new grass texture a crater formed that went all the way down to 0 ft elevation.

Anyone get Sbuilder working for FSX plus FSUIPC 4.01?
 
Messages
19
Country
portugal
Hi Jose,

Did you create the flatten poly in Ground2k4 or SBuilder?

Which tool by José Oliveira are you talking about?

Kindly,

Blazer

I only work with SBuilder. The tool of José Oliveira is a small utility that can create shape files for flattens, excludes and water polygons.

For the excludes I think that the better approach is using the .xml style commands.
 

scruffyduck

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34,853
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unitedkingdom
As far as I can tell the XML excludes in FSX are the same as those in FS9. Any tools which creates XML style excludes should work or you could create them by hand.
 
Messages
477
my tool creates bln files. These files are them processed by Jim Keir shp2vec.

José Oliveira

Hi José,

Would this be something I could use for the "Airport Boundaries" vector data as per the FSX SDK? Where can I download the utility?

Kindly,

Blazer
 

scruffyduck

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34,853
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unitedkingdom
There is a copy in the FSX Terrain SDK
 

scruffyduck

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unitedkingdom
Hmm I have tested an XML Exclusion rectangle using the FSX Bglcomp and it seems not to remove autogen trees :confused:

The XML code according to the SDK is identical to that for FS9 but.......
 
Messages
477
Hi there,

There is a copy in the FSX Terrain SDK

I think you misunderstood me :D The utility I would like is José Oliveira's one not the shp2vec one that's already in the SDK ;)

Hmm I have tested an XML Exclusion rectangle using the FSX Bglcomp and it seems not to remove autogen trees :confused:

The XML code according to the SDK is identical to that for FS9 but.......

I posted a suggestion for you regarding this on the other post you mentioned the problem. :cool:

Kindly,

Blazer
 
Messages
19
Country
portugal
The tool is here:

http://forum.simflight.com/viewtopic.php?t=56379&start=15

In the second page of the thread. Sory but it´s in Portuguese. José Oliveira is the best person to explain how ir works...my english is very poor.

In Theory, is possible to export .bln files with SBuilder and then process this .bln file to create the shape files to make the .bgl with Shp2vec tool provided in the SDK.
 
Messages
150
Country
portugal
I made a mistake. It's not Jim shp2vec but bln2shp :)
Basically
In the first place you can use a small program called blnmarker. this program allows the bln file creation by reading plane position. Each time you click mark, the program adds a point to the polygon, to end (close) the polygon click closepoli. If you don't enter anything in altitude he fetches airplane altitude, only managed to achieve something useful by forcing the altitude. The altitude is in meters. The output is the file output.bln.
Generated bln for going around a Rocky River problem.
6,0
-9.04750878029205,38.7104912536849,-3.5
-9.04790593875323,38.7091253009135,-3.5
-9.10414023680572,38.7308625457701,-3.5
-9.1027476295967,38.7328058768199,-3.5
-9.04757814566146,38.7105561246085,-3.5
-9.04750878029205,38.7104912536849,-3.5
If you don't delete the file next time the program will append a new polygon to the existing ones. The file is then processed by the BLN2SHP to generate the shapefiles. This program from Jim will generate the shape files for:
Flattens
Water
Excludes
For example to move an airport it's necessary to generate two bln one for exclude and one for flatten. For José Maia's LPPM
Exclude BLN
5,0
-8.57656109189718,37.1484595750709,0
-8.57522879813038,37.1517926392944,0
-8.59057847700597,37.1562364062361,0
-8.59209814353938,37.1524347909654,0
-8.57656109189718,37.1484595750709,0
Flatten BLN
7,0
-8.58914104411232,37.1497320267933,0
-8.58863146000601,37.1510068742555,0
-8.57879773548187,37.1485011743058,0
-8.57957547273566,37.1465554032613,0
-8.58263552028804,37.1473351530205,0
-8.5823747148501,37.1479876440765,0
-8.58914104411232,37.1497320267933,0

To produce the shapefile
BLN2SHP.exe LPPM_EX.bln EX
BLN2SHP.exe LPVL_FL.bln FL
then use the shp2vec with -ADDTOCELLS In this case the output is 0502.bgl since it is in Portugal

José
 
Messages
18
Country
france
hello everybody,

Where can I get Jim's bln2shp please?

see the link two posts before..

Thank you very much José for BLN2SHP ! I can confirm it works with Scenery Builder export BLN (just a test) :

http://pascal.dumat.free.fr/photos/testflatten1.jpg

http://pascal.dumat.free.fr/photos/testflatten2.jpg

just take care of editing manually the BLN file before compiling : 0 was missing after 11, in my file and first, it did not works for that...

11,0
-1.55951649258812,48.7845651963178,100
-1.55308266905871,48.7866332110237,100
-1.54765189924836,48.786979563096,100
-1.54521272420576,48.7834450216854,100
-1.54670991532329,48.7807751823874,100
-1.55249650823237,48.7771551468793,100
-1.55641447052929,48.7765947229722,100
-1.55825270582341,48.7772840612075,100
-1.55945904773518,48.7793520759134,100
-1.56055049994106,48.7822817634134,100
-1.5595047802912,48.7846052506391,100


best regards , pascal

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/p.dumat/htm/menu.htm
 

GHD

Messages
12,243
Country
england
José,

I have the following files produced by BLN2SHP in the same directory as Shp2Vec:

FLX0501.dbf
FLX0501.shp
FLX0501.shx
FLX0501.xml


but when I run Shp2Vec I get the following error:

D:\FSX Programs\SDK\Environment Kit\Terrain SDK>shp2vec . 501 - ADDTOCELLS

Shp2Vec.exe version 10.0.60905.0 - VectorQuad 6
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.


Error log:
source file .\???501*.shp not found


Where have I gone wrong?

George
 
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