Gaiiden
FSDevConf team
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Arno & Mods: honestly wasn't sure where best to place this so move it where you see fit as Whisplacer covers 3D objects, scenery design, etc.
I used ADE before discovering Whisplacer, and while I wanted to move over to using Whisplacer more for getting my airport objects situated, it was troublesome to do so when object thumbnails were not available for me to identify objects that are just listed with numbers for user libraries. Creating thumbs for ADE is easy since it has a built-in capture utility so I already had thumbnails of all my objects but didn't know how best to use them in Whisplacer.
After some searching, I found others have had the same problem, but there was no clear-cut solution and the link to the last tutorial related to this process is dead.
So here's the solution I came up with that is very easy and will only take a few minutes to convert any number of ADE thumbnails for use with Whisplacer.
Step 1: Download and install XnView, which is an image viewer that can convert and rename batches of files (NOTE: if you have similar applications, you can adapt these steps to use them instead)
Step 2: Copy all your ADE thumbnails into the Whisplacer/thumbnails/User folder (which you may have to create). Many will be images in the root ADE thumbnail folder, some may be in their own folders. (NOTE: you don't have to copy over any FSX/FSXA default object thumbnails. For those you should get the Whisplacer Thumbnail Pack)
Step 3: Open the User folder in XnView and use Ctrl+A to select all the images. If there are folders, Ctrl+click to unselect them as we will process them separately
Step 4: Make sure all thumbnail images are either JPG or GIF extensions so they can be read by Whisplacer. If they are all either in JPG or GIF formats, skip to Step 6.
Step 5a: Use the View->Sort By menu to separate the images by file type. Then select all of the least-common file types (to reduce processing time) and press Ctrl+U to open up the Batch Processing window. There you can select to convert them either to JPG or GIF (whichever the majority file type is). You can allow it to overwrite the original files since you won't need them afterwards and you have copies in the ADE folder if you screw something up.
Step 6: With all thumbnails once again selected (Ctrl+A) if you needed to do Step 5a, and everything in the same format, Press F2 to open the Batch Rename window and select the Extension check box. In it type "thumb.jpg" or "thumb.gif" - depending on which format you are using. Click the Rename button to start processing.
Step 7: If you have thumbs in folders (really no point unless you like things organized like that) repeat steps 4-6 for each folder.
Now you simply have to use the Library Manager in Whisplacer to add the BGL libraries and once you do you can go into the Library Browser and your thumbnail images will show up! Make sure however you export the new library objects so they can be used in Live Preview mode.
Also note that in the Library Manager there is an option to have Whisplacer navigate to a folder within the User directory to find thumbnail images. I found this can be checked even when thumbs are stored in the main User folder and they will still be found alright.
There you go! Quick and painless if you've already taken the time to capture thumbnail images of your custom objects for ADE.
If you have any problems seeing thumbnails, check the file name of the images in question and make sure they follow this format:
{object GUID}.thumb.gif or {object GUID}.thumb.jpg
I used ADE before discovering Whisplacer, and while I wanted to move over to using Whisplacer more for getting my airport objects situated, it was troublesome to do so when object thumbnails were not available for me to identify objects that are just listed with numbers for user libraries. Creating thumbs for ADE is easy since it has a built-in capture utility so I already had thumbnails of all my objects but didn't know how best to use them in Whisplacer.
After some searching, I found others have had the same problem, but there was no clear-cut solution and the link to the last tutorial related to this process is dead.
So here's the solution I came up with that is very easy and will only take a few minutes to convert any number of ADE thumbnails for use with Whisplacer.
Step 1: Download and install XnView, which is an image viewer that can convert and rename batches of files (NOTE: if you have similar applications, you can adapt these steps to use them instead)
Step 2: Copy all your ADE thumbnails into the Whisplacer/thumbnails/User folder (which you may have to create). Many will be images in the root ADE thumbnail folder, some may be in their own folders. (NOTE: you don't have to copy over any FSX/FSXA default object thumbnails. For those you should get the Whisplacer Thumbnail Pack)
Step 3: Open the User folder in XnView and use Ctrl+A to select all the images. If there are folders, Ctrl+click to unselect them as we will process them separately
Step 4: Make sure all thumbnail images are either JPG or GIF extensions so they can be read by Whisplacer. If they are all either in JPG or GIF formats, skip to Step 6.
Step 5a: Use the View->Sort By menu to separate the images by file type. Then select all of the least-common file types (to reduce processing time) and press Ctrl+U to open up the Batch Processing window. There you can select to convert them either to JPG or GIF (whichever the majority file type is). You can allow it to overwrite the original files since you won't need them afterwards and you have copies in the ADE folder if you screw something up.
Step 6: With all thumbnails once again selected (Ctrl+A) if you needed to do Step 5a, and everything in the same format, Press F2 to open the Batch Rename window and select the Extension check box. In it type "thumb.jpg" or "thumb.gif" - depending on which format you are using. Click the Rename button to start processing.
Step 7: If you have thumbs in folders (really no point unless you like things organized like that) repeat steps 4-6 for each folder.
Now you simply have to use the Library Manager in Whisplacer to add the BGL libraries and once you do you can go into the Library Browser and your thumbnail images will show up! Make sure however you export the new library objects so they can be used in Live Preview mode.
Also note that in the Library Manager there is an option to have Whisplacer navigate to a folder within the User directory to find thumbnail images. I found this can be checked even when thumbs are stored in the main User folder and they will still be found alright.
There you go! Quick and painless if you've already taken the time to capture thumbnail images of your custom objects for ADE.
If you have any problems seeing thumbnails, check the file name of the images in question and make sure they follow this format:
{object GUID}.thumb.gif or {object GUID}.thumb.jpg