probably a dumb question...

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Alky
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Location: CYXX

probably a dumb question...

Post by Alky » Wed Aug 04, 2010 4:14 pm

... but how do I load the airport I want to modify? I've been through the help file and it describes all kinds of techniques for customizing an area in FSX, but I can't find how to actually load the airport I want to modify!
What am I missing here? :roll:
Thank you.
George "Alky" Fisher

meshman
Posts: 219
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2006 11:54 pm

Re: probably a dumb question...

Post by meshman » Wed Aug 04, 2010 7:11 pm

Aren't you the guy doing the airport backgrounds? :wink:

Working on an airport is different from working on the terrain around an airport. Different process, different tools. If you're working on the terrain, ie changing the airport background area aka the flattened green blob in default FSX, then you can link SBuilderX to FSX using the View | Show Aircraft menu option. This will place a small red crosshair on the SBX screen. Switch over to FSX and slew the plane where you want and the location is updated in SBX. FSX should be in Windowed mode to do this easily.

I make the exclusion for the default airport backgrounds (ABs) larger than what is required, just in case I run into one of those really odd situations that exists in the FSX world. Make the exclusion polygon very transparent and turn on the background image ability in SBX. This allows me to make a new polygon of my desired shape.
Lance

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luisfeliztirado
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Re: probably a dumb question...

Post by luisfeliztirado » Thu Aug 05, 2010 2:19 am

Hello George,

You cannot load an APX (airport facilities) file into SBuilderX. SBuilderX neither handles deletions of default runways, taxiways, etc.. nor creation of new. For that purpose,please use Airport Design Editor by Jon Masterson.

However, you can very easily exclude the default airport background with SBuilderX; still, you cannot load the default bgl file in order to see it. But, in truth, there is no need to see it if all you want is to create an exclusion. In addition, the background image function of SBuilderX lets you load aerial images directly from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, et al, and draw a new airport background using those as a guide.

Best regards.
Luis

Alky
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Location: CYXX

Re: probably a dumb question...

Post by Alky » Thu Aug 05, 2010 8:52 pm

luisfeliztirado wrote: In addition, the background image function of SBuilderX lets you load aerial images directly from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, et al, and draw a new airport background using those as a guide.

Best regards.
Luis
I'm getting incredibly frustrated. I'm not able to get any background image to show in the SbuilderX work area. My hope was to get rid of that flat green default rectangle under the runway of an airport and create a nice irregular shaped texture that the entire airport sits on. I have ADE, AFX and Instant Scenery which I'm quite capable of modifying aprons, adding ILS, buildings, flattening and excluding, but for some reason the whole concept of SbuilderX and how to use it eludes me. I've read the help files and tutorials that relate to what I'm trying to do. As I mentioned, I can't get an image into Sbuilder and some of the menu items in the tutorial don't exist :(
It can't be this hard, I got my first home computer in 1979 so I'm not computer illiterate :(
George "Alky" Fisher

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luisfeliztirado
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Re: probably a dumb question...

Post by luisfeliztirado » Fri Aug 06, 2010 2:39 am

Please calm down, George, it's only a computer game. Just sit back, relax, have a beer until you feel better.

We need more information from you, not just that it doesn't work. Please indicate step by step exactly what you are doing and what you are trying to accomplish. Include as much detail as possible. Probably thousands of people have been doing all of this successfully, and you can as well.

Best regards.
Luis

ananda
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Re: probably a dumb question...

Post by ananda » Sat Aug 07, 2010 12:17 am

Alky wrote:[As I mentioned, I can't get an image into Sbuilder and some of the menu items in the tutorial don't exist :(
Are you reading the correct tutorial?

Search for make_photo-real_ground_textures_in_fs_x.zip at Avsim

Luis has written it such that a computer illiterate can do it. As you are computer literate you should have no problem.
George

Alky
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Re: probably a dumb question...

Post by Alky » Sun Aug 08, 2010 4:35 pm

ananda wrote:
Alky wrote:[As I mentioned, I can't get an image into Sbuilder and some of the menu items in the tutorial don't exist :(
Are you reading the correct tutorial?

Search for make_photo-real_ground_textures_in_fs_x.zip at Avsim

Luis has written it such that a computer illiterate can do it. As you are computer literate you should have no problem.
Well I must have become illiterate since trying to use this program. The above tutorial doesn't seem like a tutorial, it goes into a lot of technical details about Sbuilder. Moving down the page to "Using SBuilderX", I start a new project as described, I select the image server, select View-Show Background menu... and then Sbuilder is supposed to start loading an image... doesn't happen. That's where the whole process dies.
I need a step by step tutorial that takes me from the desktop icon to removing or covering up the ugly green rectangle under a runway and creating an irregularly shaped ground texture area around the airport.
George "Alky" Fisher

rhumbaflappy
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Re: probably a dumb question...

Post by rhumbaflappy » Sun Aug 08, 2010 5:36 pm

You can alter the shape of the Airport Background Poly with SBuilderX, but SBuilderX is primarily a tool for creating terrain elements.

If you wish to alter an airport, the Airport Design Editor is probably the program you'd use.

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=95

If you insist on using SBuilderX, Maybe we can walk you through it.

First, download and unzip these current tile servers into the SBuilderX/Tiles folder, overwriting the old DLLs.
CurrentServers.zip
Current tile servers as of August, 2010
(13 KiB) Downloaded 1580 times
Then start SBuilderX, and use the File | New Project menu to create a new project and a place to store the BGL file.

Then menu File | Save Project as... ( save the project file somewhere ). Now you can reload the project whenever you want.

Then menu View | Go to Position .... and type in the latitude and longitude. Alternately, you can start FSX, go to the airport you want to alter, and select ( in SBX ) menu View | Show Aircraft You now have your general position. Use menu File | Save to save your data with the new position.

Now select menu Edit | Preferences, then select Google Satellite, and OK. Then use menu View | Show Background. You should now see the satellite view of your airport. Zoom in to an appropriate level, then SAVE the project again.

Let us know if you made it this far.

Dick
Dick

Alky
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Re: probably a dumb question...

Post by Alky » Sun Aug 08, 2010 8:49 pm

rhumbaflappy wrote: Now select menu Edit | Preferences, then select Google Satellite, and OK. Then use menu View | Show Background. You should now see the satellite view of your airport. Zoom in to an appropriate level, then SAVE the project again.
Dick
This is where it dies. I have no image loading, the SBuilder page remains blank. I do have the view aircraft cross on the screen. The info bar at the bottom left says zoom=8, but nothing is visible.
Below is what I have in my tiles folder. I copied the files from CurrentServers.zip directly to the folder even though there were separate folders from the original install.
Thanx for your help! :)


Image
George "Alky" Fisher

meshman
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Re: probably a dumb question...

Post by meshman » Sun Aug 08, 2010 9:34 pm

Even at zoom=8 there should be imagery showing, so a couple of basic questions. When you went in to the menu Edit | Preferences and selected Google Satellite did you also check the little box that asks "Use Google Satellite?" The other area might be system related, where the operating system and/or firewall is not letting SBuilderX communicate with the outside world. Version of Windows that you're using and any protective software?

The other option is to use the Gmaps done by Dick or the version available at the PTSim web site. This allows you to grab imagery and load the file into SBuilderX.


Here's the link to Dick's Gmaps work at FS Developer;

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18767
Lance

Alky
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Re: probably a dumb question...

Post by Alky » Mon Aug 09, 2010 5:15 am

meshman wrote:When you went in to the menu Edit | Preferences and selected Google Satellite did you also check the little box that asks "Use Google Satellite?"
Yes.

The other area might be system related, where the operating system and/or firewall is not letting SBuilderX communicate with the outside world. Version of Windows that you're using and any protective software?
I'm using VISTA 64 bit and have Norton Internet Security, however I also have Google Earth which works just fine and I also do most of my flight simming on http://atilla.hinttech.nl/fseconomy/ which incorporates a feature that uses Google Earth image to show the airport you're at.

The other option is to use the Gmaps done by Dick or the version available at the PTSim web site. This allows you to grab imagery and load the file into SBuilderX.
I checked out the site, it doesn't show the airports at the defined coordinates and I'm not sure how to load those images into SBuilderX either. I may just have to forget about modifying the backgrounds of any airports in my FS :cry:
Thanx.
George "Alky" Fisher

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luisfeliztirado
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Re: probably a dumb question...

Post by luisfeliztirado » Mon Aug 09, 2010 1:02 pm

There are other possibilities, George.

First, it may be that there are no aerial images at Google for your location. If you wish, you can indicate the place and perhaps somebody here will check if they can access images. If there are none, that would explain why you get a blank page. You can also try getting images at other locations and see if it works there.

Second, your OS may be blocking the use of certain functions of SBuilderX, since I noticed that you mention not having all menu items. If your OS is at fault, then you can try removing SBuilderX from its default installation directory and installing somewhere else - often, users install to a folder in the root directory in order to avoid excessive user access controls of Vista and Windows 7.

Best regards.
Luis

Alky
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Location: CYXX

Re: probably a dumb question...

Post by Alky » Mon Aug 09, 2010 4:31 pm

luisfeliztirado wrote: First, it may be that there are no aerial images at Google for your location. If you wish, you can indicate the place and perhaps somebody here will check if they can access images.
This is the location i'd like to get an image of into SBuilderX...
As displayed by ADE
N43 28.490398
W123 20.738186

As displayed by AFX
N43* 28.4904'
W123* 20.7382'

These coordinates represent the center of the runway at 2OR4 in Oregon.
Second, your OS may be blocking the use of certain functions of SBuilderX, since I noticed that you mention not having all menu items. If your OS is at fault, then you can try removing SBuilderX from its default installation directory and installing somewhere else - often, users install to a folder in the root directory in order to avoid excessive user access controls of Vista and Windows 7.
My installation of SBuilderX is on drive D. I don't allow my computer to dictate what I can or cannot do, I have UAC turned off and there is only one account on the system... me, the administrator.
Does SBuilderX require .net framework to run? I'm having some minor issues with that and am unable to repair or re-install portions of it without errors.
George "Alky" Fisher

rhumbaflappy
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Re: probably a dumb question...

Post by rhumbaflappy » Mon Aug 09, 2010 6:20 pm

Hi George.

SBuilderX does require the .Net 2.0 runtimes. ( It's written in vb.net 2.0)

But there are some other problems with "Heaven's Gate" airfield. It is misplaced in FSX. So it would require much more than a background change. It would need to be rebuilt... probably with a new elevation. That can be done with ADE.

If you want a photoreal background, SBuilderX can help, but you would need to resolve why the Google tiles won't show on your computer. And you would need to decide if you want to learn to make a replacement airfield.

Dick
Dick

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