SBuilderX Forum

Greetings.

I'm very new to FSX scenery creation and have only recently discovered SBuilderX. I'm very interested in Tile server features. I'm not sure if there's an easier way but I'm using SBuilderX to create a sattelite image background of an airport over which I can lay out and design airport scenery.

I notice that the Add Map _> From background feature writes out a text file along with the associated tile images. Have you considered supporting GPX (http://www.topografix.com/gpx.asp) gps files in addition to your standard .TXT files? With .gpx files saved with your tile images it would then be possible to use a batch processing tool like GPicSync at http://code.google.com/gpicsynv to Geotag all the tile images you save using the lat-lon data from the .gpx files.

With the images containing geotag data it may then allow authors of airport design software such as ADE, FSX Planner and AFX to implement a background image importer that can extract the lat-lon data directly from the geotagged images to automatically position them for accurate background placement.

At the moment it's quite time consuming copying and pasting all the lat-lon coordinates for the corner data from the .txt files created by SBuilderX and then entering these into the data boxes that the main aiport designer tools present you when loading background images.

As I said, I'm very new at FSX scenery creation and there may well be a way to do what I am doing with your tool a lot faster and easier. I'd welcome any pointers

Keep up the great work

Seefer wrote:Greetings.

With the images containing geotag data it may then allow authors of airport design software such as ADE, FSX Planner and AFX to implement a background image importer that can extract the lat-lon data directly from the geotagged images to automatically position them for accurate background placement.

At the moment it's quite time consuming copying and pasting all the lat-lon coordinates for the corner data from the .txt files created by SBuilderX and then entering these into the data boxes that the main aiport designer tools present you when loading background images.

I dabble a little in programming, not as much as a few years back. There would be more work involved in geo-encoding the resultant SBuilderX file then there is in having the airport editing tools read four lines of data from a text file. The SBuilderX text file format has been known for a long time and the opportunity to have the airport editing tool developers adjust to it has been available for that same amount of time.

And I really have to ask, just how time consuming is it to cut and paste four lines of coordinates? Takes me about 30 seconds. Granted, doing it for 200, 300 or more airports really sucks. But can you really fault SBuilderX over a 30 second cut and paste routine? Imagine how much fun airport editing would be without the background images made by SBuilderX.

Seeing as the text file hasn't been automatically read by the airport editing tools, what makes you believe the programmers of these tools would want to start trying to add the ability to read a geo-encoded image? Please, go ask a programmer and let me know what the response is. I wished to have the TXT file read over two years ago and it got "added to the list".

Thanks for the suggestion. I believe that Luis is on vacation at the moment, lucky fellow, so he may not be able to reply to your comments in the immediate future.

In general, the file formats most widely used are the ones that our community supports and incorporates in the various tools. Perhaps one day the GPX format will gain such widespread acceptance; however, at the moment, this does not seem to be the case.

At present, SBuilderX can both export background Maps as, and append, GeoTIFF files. This is a widely used and extremely popular image file format containing all georeferencing information. I believe, although I am not sure, that none of the other tools that you mention are able to work with such a popular and convenient format.

Best regards.
Luis