Hi Doug. I'm no expert at updating default airports as I usually create new ones from scratch. Is it possible to use one or two large Exclusion boxes to cover both the runway & taxyways? If so you could replace them with your own new ones. I might be able to suggest something if you post a shot showing the problem.

Hi Doug. The guys in the FSSC forum know far more than me so that would be the best way to go. It would involve much more work replacing the whole airport but this might in fact be easier in the long run. I thought of suggesting it myself but as this is your first attempt at scenery design I was trying to save you time. It seems I complicated things for you which wasn't my intention. So much would depend on the layout & orientation of the particular airport you're updating.

Hi xmit

Excluding objects is an interesting exercise. Remember you don't need to place huge exclusion areas over objects - you only need to exclude their ref points.

So you can exclude large objects with VERY small exclusion areas - the trick is to find the ref point for each one. For example, in Kai Tak, I've excluded the WHOLE default runway with an exclusion area of just 20m x 20m.

A ref point is usually at an object's 'centre'. As it happens, the ref point was not quite in the rwy centre and I had to develop my own system to 'home' in by placing a 'large' exclusion area over the expected ref point position (something like 200m x 200m), moving
it around until the object (plus others around it) disappeared, actually drawing it's position on my monitor in dry marker, reducing the exclusion area to say a third of the original size, moving that one around within the boundary on my monitor in a grid pattern until the object disappeared (but not the surrounding objects) and repeating the process until I was happy.


With a building finding a ref point is pretty easy but with objects like taxiways it's harder. Even so, by trial and error using my system I found a ref point somewhere near the centre of the airport where a relatively small exclusion area took out the taxiways and most of the concrete apron. Again, by reducing its size I was able to take out taxiways and leave in apron. That left me with a flattening problem even with an A16N flatten in place but that's another story.

Dick 'rhumbaflappy' Ludowise told me about ref points and it's proven to be very useful information. I think you could use it here.

Arno of the Netherlands Scenery Design Group is one of the top designers as well as being one of the most helpful as you know from the FSSC and other design forums. I tried for quite a while to make my Kai Tak apron lights turn on and off at dusk/dawn without success. He gave me a fix within a few minutes of my posting the problem.

What would we do without these guys?

Roger

So there ya go xmit.

Dick's advice has been useful all over again.


You'll find that when you redo the taxiways you are able to correct errors that M$ left in - their taxiways are never as good as the ones you do yourself. They always have little concrete bits hanging out at corners and stuff like that. Bet yours'll be better!!

Roger

Appreciate the help from both of you, I'll  keep you advised...................Thanks again

Ive been wanting to add scenery to a couple of airports in my region.  With the support you guys give new designers, I might consider doing so myself.  Not sure if i want to totally redo the airports (not sure if i can handle all the new tasks).  I have messed with FSSC some and I found out postioning things and creating macros are the hardest to learn for me.  Can any downloadable macro work with FSSC? Hopefully I can create my virtual company I always wanted.
Thanks!!!

SimLover and Aviation Fanatic

Hey,
Was about to go to bed and saw that you replied.  Ive been doing ok so far in the tutorial but I think i installed it the upgrade wrong and now it wont let me access the macros. "Subscript out of range at 423 in fssc.bas"
I also seem to not have the correct paths for the bgl directory and the scenery compiler directory to export my files.  Thanks for the help, Many questions soon to come lol : ???