I'm new to scenery design, I'm more of a repainter myself. I got the most recent version of FSSC. I played around with the older version a year and 1/2 ago an tried to make a complete fictional airport from scatch but never completed it. To my question, is it possible to add to default airports (i.e. tarmac, terminal, taxiways, hangers, etc.) in FS2K2? Thanks, DougD ???

Thanks for the reply Hagar..............................

Hi Xmit. Yes, that's how I do it. Hit Shift + Z to bring up the onscreen co-ords. To position it accurately go to Map view. Then hit Q & then F1 to place you at ground level & show the exact altitude. I find the quickest & easiest method is to take a shot for reference. This can be imported as a "backdrop" in FSSC. Right-click/New Misc Object/Backgound Image.

Providing you configure your files & install them like any other 3rd party scenery you should have no problems. Activate your own files as a new area from the Scenery Library. If objects are in the wrong location or cause a conflict the new area can be modified as you wish or simply deactivated/removed.

Hi Xmit. I should point out that I'm no expert scenery designer. I make it my business to try as many FS utilities as possible & work out the best way to use them. I'm still discovering the new features of the latest FSSC. These make it more user-friendly than ever once you understand the basic principles. It should get easier the more you use it.

First, from FSSC/Tools/Properties/Settings you should set the Flight Simulator version. From the Locations tab set the path to your FS2002 root directory. When using the new Export Scenery Wizard click the Browse button to direct the  export path to the desired location. This can be a previously configured scenery folder in FS2002\ADDON SCENERY or a temp folder anywhere on your HD. The BGL files will be created in a Scenery subfolder in whichever location you choose. The Scenery subfolder will be automatically created for you if necessary. Textures can be exported in the same way providing FSSC can locate them.

The scale of the Backgound Image will depend on the zoom factor in the sim & display resolution you used when taking the shot. It can be adjusted to suit from within FSSC. This can take a little figuring out depending on what you're doing. Some idea of the distance between 2 points on the image is a great help. Working with a new runway of a known length is comparatively easy.

The Area16N Flat Area is one of the best things about FSSC for me. Basically, it flattens the terrain over the selected area. This is much better than the old Flatten switch manually added to Scenery.cfg. It's no longer limited to a 4 point rectangle & can be a complex shape with up to around 50 sides. It should remove default scenery objects like buildings, runways etc. It can also be lowered to create a depression in the terrain. It's possible to use more than one Area16N in a single scenery area. Make sure the A16N.bgl option is selected from the Export Wizard when using it.

I hope this gives you some ideas. Good luck.

Hi Doug. It's been a while since I used FSSC & I made the mistake of relying on my memory. Sorry, I should have checked before replying. 

The Area16N Flat Area is more suited to new aiports. You might not need it for existing ones. Use the Exclusion Object to remove default scenery objects. Right-click/Exclusion. This is a simple rectanglar exclusion area which has options for excluding visual scenery, VOR, ILS & NDB. More than one Exclusion Object can be used in a single scenery area. These can be sized to suit.

For the Background Image use Top-down view, not Map view as I stated earlier. Hope this did not confuse you too much. 

Hello Hagar, well my installations were a disaster. The first time I used the exclusion and it totally wiped out the default airport scenery, I'm not sure why. So I tried it again, I little simpler install this  time. Well it went a little better.
I didn't wipeout the whole airport. Most of the default tarmac textures nearby by new terminal were gone and my terminal was off by about 3-5 degrees even after double-checked the heading, etc in FS2K2. Thank god MS put in system were you can delete added on scenery and restore it to the default look.............................

Hello Hagar, I actually figured it out this morning.  Apparently when your at a default airport you don't need to use exclusion if there isn't any 3D objects in the way or the 16N flat area because it's already flat. Who would of thought?........Well the only thing was that it wasn't in the exact position that I wanted, but after moving it little-by-little. Presto! Portland Jetport has a terminal now. I'm gonna try some smaller scenery projects at existing airports to get better at FSSC before tackling any big projects. Oh, one question Hagar. In FSSC what does the "repeat" mean on the level editor of the 3D objetcs? Thanks for the time...........

That advanced building tool is pretty cool to use. My terminal looked pretty funny though before I figured out you can set height for each level. It's trial & error my friend but it's starting to pay off. Appreciate the time...............

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 : ???

Hi, thanks for the help, Im currently downloading it right now.  Where does the scenery compiler suppose to go, none of the paths I put work.
Ive gone blank to what to add to my airport, any tips?