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Landable surface

T

Tejal Bernardo

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spain
Hello, I've just discover sketchup, and the thing is going really fast, I'm making ports, I think that for photorrealistic scenery is a good complement, all is working , but the most important feature I want for the ports is that were landable surface to land with helicos, I know it's has been asked and answered before, and I know about attach tool thing, but I'd like to know the process exactly and if someone have done it before, could be done with a simple plane?, and be added like a bgl object to library to be relocated with object placement tool, It's important for my project and will be great, thank before hand.
 
Hi,

You can not make a hard (landable) surface with Sketchup.
What you can do is make and add a Gmax transparent surface underneath your Sketchup object.
In the Wiki you can find a tutorial on how to make a hard surface with Gmax.
 
thank por the answer, but it's no clear for me though, I supose it must be like another bgl object and could be put in the scenery under the port platfom, so it can't be transparent, and can be made only with one plane?, I guess that could be done but only to be sure, and also I don`t know what problems could be encountered
Robbystar I wrotte you in the post of Ceuta, I was creating this scenary too,but never finished, it`s a pity, it will be a nice scenery but with Algeciras Heliport too, but Gmax is keeping me off the project.:o,
Another question, how could I put photos?
 
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Hi,

The hard surface is an untextured cube made with Gmax ( yes, a bgl) and converted into a library object.
The way I do it then, is to add this library object to the LOM of ADE and place it in the scenery with ADE.
The cube/box can be scaled and positioned so that it fits underneath the spot where you want your hard surface.
PS: I have not finished my Ceuta scenery either for a couple of reasons:
- it was some 500m off location compared to the real world so that the FS mesh did not coincide with the real world geography;
- the custom buildings (capitanía, heliterminal, ferry terminal, autoridad portuaria, etc.) were not to my liking and I am replacing the textures with phototextures
- I still have this problem with 'climbing water' which means that for the port I have to make one huge library object;
- I want to have a photorealistic ground texture.
 
yes, I'm getting into a mess with the surface, I get the surface in his place, but I saw that this must be invisible or at high altitud it will flicker, and there is nothing what one can do (little hell here), any way, there is some progress.
About Ceuta, yes the first incovenience I saw was the location of the scenery, it not match with mine and the boats run aground:), I had to level the platform to zero because the problem with water and of course remake half of scenery, well I'm keep thinking that would be a cool scenery but I must insist the Algeciras Heliport must be included:rolleyes:, with regard to photorrealistic textures for ground will be a problem,( i think in that too), may be google earth?, but really, the approach to the making of scenery was as mine, traffic, vehicle , etc. With ports I think (it`s a theory¡¡) one must do it with more attention because are big estructures,this should be almost unnoticed, photorrealistic are a good idea and even scale down a little, well too much words, thanks for the comments¡¡.
 
Ground mesh possible?

I browsed the Google sketchup guide for idiots at Barnes and Noble and discovered that one can create a smooth contour surface by pulling up or pushing down on mesh triangles.

Is anyone actually using this capability to make actual FSX mesh, and if so, can contour lines be extracted from a manually generated surface?

If so, there is an app that can create a real FSX landable surface from a grayscale raw data file, which, in turn is easily generatable from a contour map.....

Just a thought..........
 
Landable Surface library collections

Hello,

I have made a couple of landable platform library collections in Gmax, one for use with EZ Scenery in FS9, and another for Instant Scenery 2 in FSX.
The problem with using invisible platforms with an object placement utility, is that you can't see them :D.

The FS9 EZ Scenery version uses a platform "dummy" which is white. The dummy is moved into position, and then lowered to ground level (usually when it begins to "mix" with the ground textures), at which point the user switches to the invisible version and places the platform. The reason it works is that once the "dummy" is placed into position, it stays put while the user switches to the invisible version, which is then placed exactly where the dummy had been.

The currently released FSX version uses semi-transparent platform planes which are lowered until they disappear, however these platforms are problematic when used in some locations when placed on ground which is non-level, such as a helipad on a mountaintop, since the helipad is on a surface which is constantly changing as one approaches. Sometimes the platform is slightly higher or lower than the helipad, and since it is semi-transparent, it will be seen.

I have since made a new FSX invisible platform library collection which uses the "dummy" platforms like the FS9 version which will be an accessory for an upcoming helicopter sceney object release.

I have only placed these with EZ Scenery and Instant Scenery 2 which are both highly accurate "what you see is what you get" formats, and I do not know how they would work with the FSX Object Placement utility.

If you would like to experiment with the new FSX collection, send me a PM with your email and I'll send you a copy to try out. Just remember that you have to be able to position the dummy and then switch to the invisible version without changing the position. If this cannot be done with the FSX object placement tool, it probably wouldn't work.

However, Instant Scenery 2 is well worth the cost and with it you could easily place invisible platforms for helipads, pre-hardened helipads, and thousands of other scenery objects with great accuracy.
 
Hi,

Since this thread was started I have also added an option to ModelConverterX to make landable platforms. So when you convert the object from SketchUp to FS you can use that function to add a platform to the roof as well.
 
yes, you can download the Development release, with this you can do landables platforms to your aircraft carrier¡, with "autoplatform" will make landable all object being flat,with the other you put the platform manually, with the axes x,y,z.
 
i don't understand the picht and company... i can make my plaform but i can't place he on my aircraft carrier, so can you help me please, sorry for my bad english
 
Hi,

I am not sure if I understand what you mean with pitch and company.

Maybe you can explain what you are trying to achieve. Do you want to put the platform on a carrier?
 
i can make a plaform, but we have picht box 00.00.00.

this that i don't understand to make
 
sorry i fogot read a some word on message or bernado, so i just clik on autoplatforme and is just simply
 
i have a problem, when i export my model, we a have a error message and in fsx, the model doesn't work (ADD MY MODEL IN ADE after a complie, and each time is my odl model and the placform dosn't woyk, can't you help me plz?

tk
 
Hi,

What is the error message you get?
 
i8s make that:

captureproblem.jpg


and the error panel

captureproblem1.jpg


and the continuation is in the previous message (of ade problem)
 
in the screen is giving only information, not warnings, anyway, where is the problem, you can export your model as a fsx model, as I can see, you atach the platform succesfully, or the problem is when you try to put the ship in fsx with ADEx, sorry but I don think I can help much because in this matter I' m no an expert, Arno coul say better.
 
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