Posts by larrylynx

Hi Phil and Ian

Managed to get things to work..

First I used version 2.16, this version seems to auto export FEATCODE without having to check any boxes or go digging

Second, the main error was the sloppy link between to keyboard and the computer....I omitted the prj files for each area..hangs head in shame

Does anyone know if there is a breakdown of the FEATCODE's for the roads etc ie 15719 (motorway ?? )

Thanks for the help guys much apprreciated.

Steve

edit,, probably mentioned elsewhere in forum but its real easy to combine areas in fs2, i added another toc entry to my EGGP tsc file, remember to change the element number in brackets to whatever your next one is

hi

from the pic it looks as if your still in selection mode, click on the translate icon, the crossed arrows, you should see the axis arrows over your selected edge. then you can shift and drag. Max likes to be in certain modes to work

Probably best if you have a plane with multiple polys, when i say 4*4 i mean polys not a size, ie 16 polygons. just helps to see the effect when you add extra polys

I would also suggest leaving your airfield dreams for a few days and just learn max, watch some basic vids etc. Max is too powerful for what we need really and we hardly scratch the surface

steve

Ok

Managed to get scenproc to read the file by checking the box FEATCODE in the select fields to export and their export options pull down tab of the QGIS save as

I now get this error

10:51 ImportOGR Warning... Check the projection of your data. Unusual coordinates found.

Co-ords are EPSG:4326,WGS 84 or same as Ian's pic

Maybe progress ...

Also noticed when you hover over the importOGS line item 2 of the little help pop up mentions bounding boxes to specify a region...are you listening Ian

Had a look at your save as and its different than mine, I have the 'select fields to export and their export options' pull down tab.. I'm using QGIS 2.18

As I now have a 6 year old trying to help I'll let her work out where I'm going wrong....

Steve

Phil

Just tried again, data looks fine in QGIS, right click on the layer..save as...follow your instructions..are there any other check boxes within the save as ...ie encoding, geometry, extent...that I should change etc.. I then click ok..wait a short time for it to save file as a KML

Open sceneproc, use you spc file..changed for my locations and file details... and then nothing is read from the file...TOC is empty

Had a look at KML file in notepad and it has data, wether its correct for sceneproc I do not know.

MMMM back to the drawing board

Steve

Hi Phil and Ian

Never having produced a TOC file using this method (no probs with OSM) I'm wondering just how big they are...reason I ask is this

As we are converting OS data to KML and then to TOC can we safely say that copyright is no longer applicable as we no longer use the original data, if so and they are not too big then why can't we post them all to the forum so we just download rather than having to waste OS download time and our own time at trying to convert them.

I'm not being lazy here but it seems to make sense..Lets take Ian's london TOC problem.. say someone manages to do it but no matter how many times Ian tries he can't make it work...wouldn't it be sensible to simply say..here you are mate just use my file...

Guess I'll have another crack at this and then probably give up...maybe eventually on FS2 as I will be missing out and then I'll stop developing EGGP...ok I won't..just tying to make you all feel sorry for me.

Steve

Guess you were still in nappies when I was working on them now I feel old

Went on to work on the big Boeings 747, 757, 767 and concorde

HI Guys

Thanks for trying to help out but still no luck.

Are there any tick boxes I should know about when exporting from GIS

Here is the only error I get in scenproc

23:31 ImportOGR Error Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

then it goes on

23:31 ImportOGR Information Read 0 features from file

23:31 PlacePointsAlongLine Information Placing point features along lines with filter FTYPE="LINE" AND (FEATCODE=15719)...

23:31 PlacePointsAlongLine Information Created 0 point features

etc etc

Obviously doing something wrong but can't figure it out, must be my old brain cell

Steve (think I'll stick to airport design)

Well I would if anything was actually done in scenproc.

It reads the files and builds no building, trees etc reports no errors and goes through the process

The TOC file simply has this in

<[file][][map_sj]

<[cultivation][][]

<[string8][coordinate_system][lonlat]>

>

>

When I go to save as from QGIS, data showing correctly, I do not have the project option, I have the other 2 plus a default in the crs tab

Any thoughts

Steve

HI Phil

Only way I could get a shape file into QGIS was if all files were present.

As I live on the border between SD and SJ can I combine them using QGIS ? or in scenproc

Ta chuck

ok managed to work it out, you need the other files too ie dbf and shx not just shp

DOH

Hi Phil

What gives....I downloaded this zip file from OS site

opmplc_essh_sd.zip

when unzipped I tried to add SD_Road.shp into a QGis vector layer, it told me it was not valid or recognised data and refused to go any further.

Guess this old man is missing something

Steve

Hi

I think you are missing some steps regarding adding polys.

To learn the process start with a simple 4*4 poly plane, right click on it, go the bottom of the list and convert to an editable poly. In the right hand panel under the modifier list it will say editable poly, click the plus button and make sure you select edge. Now click on an outside edge on the plane, it will turn red. Now shift and drag with the mouse away from the edge and it will add another poly.

ADE is great but eventually you have to start modelling something

Steve

Hi Phil

Been trying some cultivation, for a change, using your method, I get this error in sceneproc.

16:18 SceneryProcessor Error Step ImportSHP is deprecated, please use step ImportOGR

Any ideas

Steve

Hi

Ok here you go. unless you want to do as Jeff suggested. As I have said before, I think that method produces a mesh difficult to clean up but your free to use whatever suits you

The oustide mesh would be a plane with somewhere in the region of 65 * 20 polygons

I believe the runway was a 40 * 3 plane, I moved the verts to give me the 1 metre polys suggested but not sure if they are needed to be honest.

Far apron is a 7 * 6 poly plane , left verts were moved to align with taxiway. Could probably get away with slightly less but remember FS2 likes a dense mesh to assist with smoothing over terrain. When you do decals if they disappear over long distances this is the reason, so use the edge cut tool to devide it up

Where the meshes overlap delete from the outside mesh to give the gap as in the second pic, then attach meshes together using the runway as the master mesh and then manually join using create poly. Remember anti clockwise

If you look at my taxi junctions I have tried to keep to quads, remember no more that 4 sides.

Outside poly can be trimmed to whatever shape you require, you can combine verts to make triangles as I have done in places to follow the underlying photo (airfield boundry etc)

Steve

Hi

Base mesh needs lots more polygons, at least as many as the runway so they can line up, you can then use the cut tool in the edge roll out to insert more verts where they are needed prior to adding polys, will upload a screenie shortly.

Also, taxiways need to have quads not polys with lots of faces. Try to model with 4 sides max and triangles when needed.

Steve

HI

Forgot to add, well it was past my bedtime...

When making polys using the create method always go in a counter clockwise direction to ensure the poly normal is pointing towards you. And...

When you attach multiple surfaces, ie apron ( or aprons as your not limited to one), outside or taxiway to the runway, they will need welding, simply select all the verts and apply a weld with a small value, I use 0.001. Any surface that is attched becomes an element of the main or first surface, this is a great way to select all the polys of say the taxiway, just use the element selection method rather than poly selection. You can also detach a set of polys (so they become a separate object) to work on them or alter just their UV's for instance then attach them back to the main mesh (remember to weld)

Steve

Hi

Here's my method, which is very different than the tut, its also a bit more time consuming but it works for me and gives you more control.

Make the runway from a plane with the required number of sections, may need to move a few verts around to align up with taxiway entrances. you will need a runway that has enough polys to help out with height problems in FS2. Now it gets interesting and time consuming.

At the taxiway/runway junction at one end of the runway, select the edges where it will begin, press shift and drag the mouse, a new polygon/s will be made. Drag the new poly verts to where you want the poly to end, carry on this shift drag method to add more polys, eventually you may come down to a point where you only require a single poly for the taxi way so just drag the verts to overlap them (snap is your best and worse friend here, it can snap to the wrong vert so be careful, more so in 3d) weld them and carry on extruding edges by the drag method. I do this for a taxi way that normally runs from one end of the runway to the other. Any extra runoffs can then be made to fit in with the poly structure/ Dont be afraid to use the create poly in the modifier list, snap again comes in useful. I find manually placing polys this way tends to give a nice orderly structure and they are where you want them.

Aprons can normally be a plane with the required sections, move the verts to where you want them and when satisfied, use the edge drag method to make the polys to attach to the taxiway. For the outside area, I made another plane with lots and lots of polys, only you can decide on how many. Where the taxiway, runway and aprons overlap the polys of the outer plane I delete the polys in the outer plane, ie cutting my hole manually, I then use the create poly command and stitch it all back together but putting polys where I want them, thus avoiding all those long triangles. Automation is ok but it does tend to look for the easiest option with doesn't always produce a nice clean mesh

Steve

PS if you have 2 verts ( or more) that you want to combine into a single point you can use the collapse command in the edit geometry tab, be carefull in 3d as they will be at the average point of all the verts

Hi Antoine

Whilst its nice to have sublayers of modifiers I tend to collapse the stack as it makes things easier for me. Simply convert the object to a edit poly and carry on. You can edit lower down in the stack but its effect will be passed up the chain. It can effect UV's etc so be careful, which is why I collapse things.

To manually change to size of an object or shape you need to click the scale icon and pull the axis arrows. Make sure you select just one arrow as it can scale in more than one direction without you knowing. You can also use the scale option to align vertex that may have strayed if your trying to keep them in a straight line, simply select the verts you want aligning and scale them down in the axis you want., scale them down to zero and they will all be aligned..Right clicking on any of the move/rotate/scale boxes brings up a dialog where you can enter absolute values if you know them. Say you want to alight to verts, select the one thats correct, right click move icon box copy the x,y, or z that you want, select the other vert and paste in the figure from the first vert.

Steve

Hi

Try to keep all meshes as simple as possible, by that, I mean no long triangles as per my screen shot. Quadify mesh makes too many polys as you have found out. Whilst its nice to have smooth corners its a waste of polys and when building a complex airport its best to keep them for other objects. Try to keep away from triangles unles they are necessary and then in places where they are not important

Runways, aprons and taxiways must belong to a single mesh. They can however have seperate materials. The runway material is normally a multi sub object type with a minimum of 3 slots, these 3 are standard materials, they are runway, apron and taxiways. So lets assume you have the multi sub object in that order, select all the runway polygons and assign them to material slot 1 in the edit polytab on the right side (just scroll down and you'll find out where, its with the smoothing settings). Do this for the other polygons but change the number to match their material. Do not assume that a material has been assigned to any polys, even is there is only one material, its always best to select all the polys and manually assign the number 1 in that case to be sure.

Hope this helps

Steve

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Lynx Mk 86

I was a Lynx technician in the RNoAF for 18 years.

Lynx pilots for 6 and Lynx/Gazelle technician for 11 years, back in the days when Lynx serviceability was really really bad