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P3D v4 Re-installing my existing airport into P3d 4.5

SubLogical

SubLogical

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115
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ca-britishcolumbia
I've been away too long and am unsure of next moves - i.e. installing airport into 4.5 ! I think I've prep'd the app (we'll see) and have the airport residing in the editor ready to be installed. I THINK it's time to compile but I'm unsure of the proper steps here?
Approach Mode is in black and I'm unfamiliar with its' current purpose. What is my current next move?
PS if you find my memory please send it back 1st Class!!!
Ken
 
Ken,

There is a manual you can download which you should probably scan for the general procedure.

But the work flow is:

1. Load the airport, either the stock airport (File/Open Stock Airport) or an addon airport (File/Open Airport from BGL)
2. Edit the airport as desired.
3. Save the airport (File/Save Airport) as an AD4 File in the ADE Projects folder. Use this for any further editing.
4. Compile the airport (File/Compile Airport). The resulting BGL file(s) need to be placed into an active FS scenery folder.
5. If still present, remove or inactivate the original addon BGL file. If starting with the stock BGL file , it will be automatically be inactivated, nothing more required.

Hope this helps,
 
Many thanks Tom ... that gets me thinking! I finally tried to compile my code (which is the old original that used to work fine) and it wouldn't compile and suggested I check P3d 4.5 (latest version) for an SDK ... which
I didn't find specifically ... so I think that may be a problem the compiler is fussing about. Anyway, I'm on to P3d to find out if they have a new one or where to get an old one! If you've got a spare moment tell me if you see any
problem with this old "horse" code.

Ken
 

Attachments

Loaded the BGL into ADE P4.5. Then File/Compile Airport, and it compiled just fine. Make sure that Setting/Options/Folders/BGLComp Folder and Shp2Vec Folder lines are pointing to the correct P3D v4.5 SDK folder. Try clicking the Find button. If not:

BGLComp Folder: [your path]\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4 SDK 4.5.14.34698\World\Scenery
Shp2Vec Folder: [your path]\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4 SDK 4.5.14.34698\World\Terrain

Your SDK folder name may be different due to different version numbers.
 
Hello Tom ... and great to get your update ... I was just about to write you regarding those two "jammers" you dealt with. I downloaded the .34698 SDK yesterday but my airport didn't want to acknowledge its existence and kept confirming the
errors you mentioned. I'll press on with your helpful and timely instructions and maybe get mobile. I see that I have 12 airports to re-install.

I don't know if you saw in your news that we're going through an unremitting Heat Storm here in Western Canada ... all existing records are shattered! We've been cowering in our houses and us lucky ones have air conditioning.
The daily temps are 115F +/- and no let-up predicted yet ... the weather guys are calling it the beginning of Climate Change they have been promising.

Hope I can get this computer "flying" soon and very much appreciate your coaching ... I'd be swallowing the barrel without it :banghead:
Ken
 
Well done Tom ... I owe ya big time!
We're in a little village here called "Chase" (which was named after a relative of the well known New York family and early settler here) and I'm going to see if I can get it listed on P3d since my "RBRA" sign-on always lands me in a suburb of Toledo or somewhere on the US east coast :yikes: !

Many Thanks again for pulling me out of the river and I hope you don't mind if I call you again for help before I re-learn how to walk.

Best,

Ken
 
Tom ... Whoops!
I overlooked the business of scenery load ... have you got a few mins to get me thru an install of the airport? I recall that it was relatively painless if you know the moves but I'd like to get a short review from you with P3d in case
they've changed and also I'm definitely rusty. If you're too busy, is there an advisory "How-to" you could point me to? I saw one discussing a Scenery.CFG method I didn't know a thing about.
Ken
 
Sorry to hear about the hot weather; we've been out of the worst of it down here.

I'm not quite sure I know what you mean by "install of the airport". In general, for an airport in its own folder:

1. Create a folder in the Addon Scenery folder (or create an Addon Scenery folder in the main P3D folder if not already present) with the name of the airport. RBRA Riverbank would be logical.
2. Inside that create a scenery folder and a texture folder (if needed).
3. Put all relevant BGL files (including the ADE files) inside the scenery subfolder.
4. Put all relevant texture bitmap (or DDS) files inside the texture subfolder.
5. Start P3D and go to the Scenery Library. Use Add Area and browse to the new RBRA Riverbank folder.
6. Click OK, then if the dialog box remains click the white area (usually not an issue with P3D).
8. Your new airport should be present in the sim.
 
Hi Tom ... Just couldn't get the airport into 4.5 no matter what I tried using every method I could find ... glad to get your instructions (which look very different) and will jump in!
Fires breaking out all over the very dry interior of BC after that history breaking hot spell which moved off to the east (slightly) but I'm thinking "Climate Change" might have been a real worry after-all!

Anyway, sure appreciate your help and will get on this and get back.

Ken
 
Hello Tom,

Oh dear I bring regrets! It went perfectly up to #6 (Click OK ... usually not an issue with P3d). I tried hard to get it to load but ultimately had to back out to get out and of course with no airport. I was careful and your instructions
are very clear so I suspect other problems. There was a "frequent" Scenery.cfg error at the end of back-tracking back out of your instructions.

I have to suggest that in my prior attempts to load the airport I kept getting the same Scenery Cfg error which was "could not find scenery area 133's local scenery directory: C\users\river\desktop\new folder\scenery" and that came up again today when I backed got/out after failing. It asked me if I wanted to unload the area and I held off for the time being.

Also, I was flying last night into Vancouver and a stray keystroke caused a nightmare ... "scenery.dat file error" and the P3d solution proved impossible to achieve so it still occurs if you try flying into Vcr. !!!

I'm wondering if a whole cleanup (re-install) wouldn't be the best medicine and then re-try getting the scenery up after that ? I must say your method is vastly better than what I was trying before!

I will keep your instructions available for another run in any event. Maybe all this recent heat is frying my "flight simming" abilities as well ...!
:rotfl:


If you've got any additional thoughts and have a moment, please give me the benefit of any additional advice.


Best,
Ken
 
Good morning Tom,
I regret that I seem to be doing something wrong with your instructions ... I picked up a new Scenery.cfg file error -
"Could not find scenery area .132's local scenery directory. C:\ program files\Lockheed Martin\prepar3d v4\ addon scenery\ RBRA Riverbank\Scenery

I set up as follows ... created a new "Addon Scenery" folder which contained Folder "RBRA Riverbank" which contained 3 files "RBRA_ADEX_AKP_Riverbank" an AD4 file, "RBRA_ADEX_AKP_Riverbank" a BGL file, "RBRA_ADEX_AKP_Riverbank_CVX" BGL file.
The Addon Scenery file containing the above files resided in the main list with all the other files under its name. There was an existing "Scenery" file.

I lit up the 4.5 and asked Scenery to "add new scenery" and pointed it to the Addon Scenery file and it loaded fine. When I tried to see the ranch scenery I got the above error... which I was getting before I tried your install method except it gave me scenery area number 133 ... which previously was unoccupied so I assumed 4.5 was trying to install into that empty area.

The way it loaded up didn't show me a "white" or anything else except it looked to me like it had processed and added the ranch ... but as I mentioned above the cfg error came up as soon as I looked to see if it was resident in the list ... and the cfg issue came then.

I seem to be jinxed! In the olden days I managed to load scenery without a problem ... but my recent efforts produced the same error :censored:

Cooling down up here ... but lots of smoke from the forest fires that were started earlier.

Ken
 
It sounds like an OS permission problem to me. First delete the existing layer that isn't working. Then try putting the Addon Scenery folder outside any Program Files folder (i.e. C:\FS\Addon Scenery) and try adding that instead.

BTW, I really couldn't follow much of your message because I believe you were mixing up "file" and "folder".
 
Hello Tom,
Thanks for your reply and sorry about the switching "file and folder" ... which I meant to mean the same and bit my tongue after I'd sent the msg.

Will work on your instructions and get back with an update.

Regards,
Ken
 
Me again Tom and here's my story ...

Nothing had worked ... until I aimlessly plugged in an old "airport backup" scan disk and it flashed up "E:\Riverbank Ranch 2015" and the damned thing triggered and loaded automatically onto the computer! There was a 2015 version of the old airport on the screen and it seemed all P3d needed was to find the file's location ... which address (E:\) couldn't have been simpler! But following attempts at installing more current versions of the code produced the "could not find scenery area 132's" error relentlessly.

Also, the capture of the old version will not (so far) "light up the ranch on the computer" without the USB stick inserted ... so I guess I haven't moved the old accepted version onto the computer yet?
Re-coding from the beginning is definitely becoming more attractive !!!

Anyway, I wanted to send my sincere thanks for all your help and patience and if I ever find a clear solution, I'll be sure to pass it along.

Ken

PS: I see on P3d's various forums that I'm not the only one with this problem.
 
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