• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
    • Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

SBuilderX doesn't compile

Messages
10
Country
finland
I'm trying to create a photoscenery and have added a map from disk to SbuilderX. The image is a geotiff which aligns itself correctly automatically. I select all and try to compile a bgl, but all options are greyed out and the program tells me that "there is nothing to compile because no items have been selected". I see a lot of people have the same problem, but so far I haven't found a working solution to this. I'm using SBuilderX v3.15 and Prepar3d v4.4. Any ideas how can I get the program to compile?
 

rhumbaflappy

Administrator
Staff member
Resource contributor
Messages
5,947
Country
us-wisconsin
Right-click on the edge of your image in SBuilderX. Select Properties. Change the map name to Photo00 or Photo_myphoto. Also, make sure the image is in the ...\SBX315\Tools\Work folder with it's TXT file.

SBuilderX wants to have Photo as the prefix of the name to distinguish it as a photoreal source rather than a map source that you would use to draw vectors upon.

Then you can select the photo image, and compile it.
 
Last edited:
Messages
10
Country
finland
Renamed the map and moved the image to the work folder. I tried compiling after this but it made no difference. However, I cannot find any .txt file? What file are you referring to?
 
Messages
10
Country
finland
I also tried deleting scasm.tmp file that was mentioned elsewhere. Moreover, SBuilderX is run as administrator and it is installed outside program files. The problem still persists.
 

rhumbaflappy

Administrator
Staff member
Resource contributor
Messages
5,947
Country
us-wisconsin
Here's the problem:
SBuilderX can use .tif, .png,.jpg,.gif and .bmp files as maps. But it will only make photoreal bgls from .bmp

I use the resample tool with an inf file to make photoreal bgls. I rarely use SBuilderX. Resample will make a bgl from a geotiff file.

To use SBuilderX with a geotiff:

Copy or move the geotiff to the Work folder.
Add map from disk. Right-click on the edge of the image and select properties. In the properties popup window, first change the name to Photo00, then click on Data File button to save a TXT file to the Work folder.
Exit SBuilderX.
Using a paint program, open the tif file, and save as 24-bit BMP.
Open SBuilderX, add map from disk... but add the BMP file of the same name as the tif file.
Now you should be able to select it and make a BGL.

And now you know why I'd rather just use resample directly with an INF file, especially if the image is a geotiff!

***********************************************************************************************************
To just use resample.

Here's an INF file for your Photo00:

Code:
[Source]
Type                = GeoTIFF
SourceDir           = "."
SourceFile          = "Photo00.tif"
Layer               = Imagery
Variation           = Day
NullValue           = 0,0,0

[Destination]
DestDir             = "."
DestBaseFileName    = "Photo00"
DestFileType        = BGL
LOD                 = Auto

Save this textfile as Photo.inf

The SourceFile can be whatever you got from your source... no renaming needed. The NullValue gets rid of the black border from the reprojected image. Image and INF file in the same location.

Drag'n'drop the INF file onto resample. done.
 
Messages
946
Here's the problem:
SBuilderX can use .tif, .png,.jpg,.gif and .bmp files as maps. But it will only make photoreal bgls from .bmp

I use the resample tool with an inf file to make photoreal bgls. I rarely use SBuilderX. Resample will make a bgl from a geotiff file.

To use SBuilderX with a geotiff:

Copy or move the geotiff to the Work folder.
Add map from disk. Right-click on the edge of the image and select properties. In the properties popup window, first change the name to Photo00, then click on Data File button to save a TXT file to the Work folder.
Exit SBuilderX.
Using a paint program, open the tif file, and save as 24-bit BMP.
Open SBuilderX, add map from disk... but add the BMP file of the same name as the tif file.
Now you should be able to select it and make a BGL.

And now you know why I'd rather just use resample directly with an INF file, especially if the image is a geotiff!

***********************************************************************************************************
To just use resample.

Here's an INF file for your Photo00:

Code:
[Source]
Type                = GeoTIFF
SourceDir           = "."
SourceFile          = "Photo00.tif"
Layer               = Imagery
Variation           = Day
NullValue           = 0,0,0

[Destination]
DestDir             = "."
DestBaseFileName    = "Photo00"
DestFileType        = BGL
LOD                 = Auto

Save this textfile as Photo.inf

The SourceFile can be whatever you got from your source... no renaming needed. The NullValue gets rid of the black border from the reprojected image. Image and INF file in the same location.

Drag'n'drop the INF file onto resample. done.

Hi Dick,

I was just ready over your tutorial and I'm having the same problem here where my INF file will not resample and compile to a BGL file. First of all, the file I'm using is a bmp and it's in B/W and it's an aerial view image. I followed the steps above and still it will not compile to a BGL. I Checked the details in properties and it says it's 8 bits. In your tutorial, you mentioned to change the image to 24 bit, so I assume it being B/W, it's going to be 8 bits, and I guess it should still compile. Am I missing something here or is there something I don't understand, and what steps do I need to follow using this bmp and to generate an INF that will compile to a bgl using the resample?

Ken.
 
Last edited:
Messages
7,450
Country
us-illinois
Hi Ken:

I sent you a PM. ;)

[EDITED]

AFAIK, your original "B+W" 8-Bit (Gray-scale) TIF source files are not GeoTiffs, so they must be copied, and converted to Windows (24-Bit color) BMP files.

Those BMPs must each be calibrated / processed via SBuilderX to output another *.BMP file, a *.TXT Geo-referencing file, and a *.INF file for SDK Resample.

Otherwise, you must learn how to manually create those files just cited above, that would have been output for you semi-automatically by SBuilderX. :alert:

[END_EDIT]


Be sure to review the criteria and caveats for using GIMP to output BMP files compatible for use with FS utilities: :pushpin:




PS: Remember this thread ? :rolleyes:



Also, when editing the *.INF file you create for use in this task, I recommend this parameter value setting be used:

CompressionQuality=100

...instead of:

CompressionQuality=85


GaryGB
 
Last edited:
Top