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ScenGenX freshmeat (having deviation issues)

Bluewolf

Bluewolf

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us-tennessee
I think...

Hello, I am a newbie at this. I have been reading around for a bit, but not having much luck.

I am trying to learn how to make replacement airports, I am starting with my local airport (KCSV). I'd say hometown, but I am a transplant here.

What I would like to do:
First just build a simple rendition of the airport with standard textures and such, and eventually replace the textures and make a top notch airport.

I am currently working in ScenGenX, since this is an exsiting airport I am using data from the ACAD file, postion, magnetic variation, alt. The area I have trouble with is the magnetic varition or as its called in ScenGenX Magnetic Deviation. Whenever I enter the value present in ACAD, ScenGenX warns me that the value I am inputing is not valid and asks if it should match them for me. It doesn't say which value it is going to use, so I decline. I am not sure where I should be getting this data from for the devation.

OK so forging ahead I take some readings from acad, runway location data. I then use little items like a windsock and place them with the acad coordinates. I am also using a scaled satelite image of airport and the runway coordinates line up great! The issue is the runway doesn't line up if I use the ACAD variation of -2.7, infact it only works correctly if I enter 2.7 at the deviation. I just want to be doing this right instead of just going with what seems to work.

Thanks for reading, I hope that I can be of assistance to someone, somehow :)



John Palmeri
 
Hi John,

Maybe not an answer to your question, but if you have that much information in AFCAD already, why not build the extra detail in AFCAD as well? That is probably easier then having to transfer all existing data to SceneGenX first.

About the magnetic variation question, I am afraid I can not really help there (as I haven't used SGX for quite a while). But if the only difference seems to be the minus sign, could it not be that the positive direction is set to E in the one and to W in the other program?
 
The differences could very well be true, but I do not know that.

I wouldn't mind using ACAD to modify the airport, but the orginal is not very accurate. The only way I can use ACAD is if I tape a print out over the screen and then move the taxi ways and such. The benefit to using ScenGenX is importing a background image. Even if I do just tape the photo over the screen the buildings are going to be in the wrong place and there aren't going to be the proper amount of buildings or shapes and sizes.


What program do you use? Additionally, is there a good PAYWARE program for scenery design?
 
Hi John,

Bluewolf said:
I wouldn't mind using ACAD to modify the airport, but the orginal is not very accurate. The only way I can use ACAD is if I tape a print out over the screen and then move the taxi ways and such. The benefit to using ScenGenX is importing a background image. Even if I do just tape the photo over the screen the buildings are going to be in the wrong place and there aren't going to be the proper amount of buildings or shapes and sizes.
Click to expand...

That is a good point indeed :). Back to the deviation, have you tried to accept the value SGX suggests? If I remember correct SGX does read this value from a BGL file in FS, so it should be the correct value. Else you could also take the approach charts of the airport and have a look there. The deviation should also be listed on them (although it could be that the data on the charts is newer than the deviation present in FS).

Bluewolf said:
What program do you use? Additionally, is there a good PAYWARE program for scenery design?
Click to expand...

The main problem here is that there is no program for "scenery design". The scenery consists of a lot of different elements and unfortunately there is no program that allows you to edit them all. Therefore you will end up using a few programs and tools (depending on what you want to do). There are also a few payware programs, but in general I do not think they add much compared to the tools available for free.

I use a combination of quite a few tools, for example AFCAD and GMax. Plus quite a few tools I wrote myself, like ObPlacer XML. And for the final details I edit XML and ASM files manual.

But it really depends on the scope of your project what you need. From your description it seems to me that you should be fine when using AFCAD and an object placer tool (like Rwy12 or ObPlacer XML). As an alternative to AFCAD you could indeed also use SceneGenX.
 
Thanks:) I had an easier time getting my head around PMDGs 747 systems than some of these programs. I admit I am much more comfortable as an artist than a programer. Eventually though I would like to replace all the textures and such, I do not expect to waltz in and learn my way very fast. Not only would that be very ignorant, but insulting to you fine folks.
 
Bluewolf said:
What program do you use? Additionally, is there a good PAYWARE program for scenery design?
Click to expand...

I notice that FS Architect has been updated, with some support for FS2004. I used to use this prior to FS2004, but took it off after an arguement with Doug Pouk, the author. Can't for the life of me remember what the row was about, but I don't think I have a current license at the moment:)
Has anyone tried it for FS2004 compatibility? I downloaded the 15 day trial version, but it didn't allow me to run it -- gave me a negative number of days. I've installed it at work, and at least it gave me 13 days out of the 15! Not much use to me at work, though.
This isn't a bad price, so it might be a one-stop solution. Not the most intuitive prog from memory, though.
 
Hi,

That is interesting, I was not aware of that update. I just tried the trial-version and I must say it looks rather nice. Unfortunately it seems the Fs2004 commands are not complete yet (no taxiway for example, only apron). Personally I prefer tools that drop support for the old commands, as mixing them will only confuse the user more (although it might be useful sometimes of course).

But with some extra functionality it seems like this new version can become a very nice alternative for SceneGenX or AFCAD.

In the past I did not like Architect because you had to register an API macro before you could use it in the tool. I prefered the tools that just allowed you to browse for the API file and then use it right away. I have not tested if that has "improved" in this version.
 
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