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Airport creation program (Read 569 times)

Nov 10^th, 2003 at 7:30pm

Travis Offline
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I've been using Gmax to create a scenery, but now I want to create an airport to go with this scenery. I tried using AFCAD, but it didn't seem to work very well for me. I got two runways to show up, but then when I tried to land on them, I went straight through. So I was wondering what I should do. Should I stick it out with AFCAD and see if I can get it to work, or should I get something else and try that.

Any other program MUST be freeware and compatible with FS2002.

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Reply #1 - Nov 11^th, 2003 at 2:15am

Firestriker Offline
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I have been experimenting using Airport for Windows and FSSC. I can make my own API objects with gWax and convert them to API macros with FSregen, then place them with AFW or FSSC. You can also build an airport from the ground up with either program. You only need AFCAD and T-Tools to setup AI for your airport.

Lou

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Reply #2 - Nov 11^th, 2003 at 2:30am

Travis Offline
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What I really want to do is create an airfield type airport (2500' long) on a nonexistent rig in the ocean. The problem is, I want the airport to be about 500 ft ASL. How can I do that while still being able to fly or taxi on the water under the rig? ??? Can I just use AFCAD and Gmax? Or do I have to have some other design program to create the solid ground to taxi and land on?

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Reply #3 - Nov 12^th, 2003 at 9:25am

Firestriker Offline
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You will need to get FSregen:

http://www.nhreas.com/fsregen.html

Be sure you have the latest makemdl.exe

Follow the instructions for making landable surfaces in the FSregen manual and read this link:

http://www.nhreas.com/fsregendocs/HowTo.html

Keep us informed as to your progress.

Lou

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Reply #4 - Nov 12^th, 2003 at 10:01am

RollerBall Ex Member

Bit complicated!

Make your rig in GMax or EOD

Use FSSC to position it and then put a hard surface or invisible runway on top so you can land and taxy

Easy Wink

Wink

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Reply #5 - Nov 12^th, 2003 at 10:34am

Travis Offline
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FSSC=Flight Sim Scenery Creator, right?

Isn't that a payware product? If so, I don't have 35 bucks to fork out on a scenery creator (much as I'd like to) so that option is out of the question. But if I can get it for free, say where!

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Reply #6 - Nov 12^th, 2003 at 11:11am

Hagar Offline
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Ender. FSSC is & always has been freeware. It's posted in the SimV Scenery Design section. http://www.simviation.com/fsdesign_scenery1.htm
To avoid messing with updates visit the home site for the latest version. http://fssc.avsim.net/

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Reply #7 - Nov 12^th, 2003 at 11:58am

Travis Offline
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I give up. Its too much d@mn trouble! I can't figure out how to use FSSC, and FSRegen doesn't want to work for me. I have all the stuff required for FSRegen, but it just doesn't seem to find the files when I specify them. I give it the correct spot to find them, but it just doesn't like me.

GRRRRRRrrrrr!!! Worse than learning Gmax. I think I'm gonna have to stick with aircraft. It seems to work a lot better for me.

One other issue with this whole shebang: I run two computers. One's a stand-alone, and that one I have my FS on, along with Gmax. The other is specifically for the net and is a piece of garbage as far as system specs. And I can't transfer any file I can't compress smaller than 1.25 Mb (floppy disk) over to the other computer, so I can't put FSSC on that one, or anything like that.

Bloody, bloody, bloody b@5t@rd of a fix . . .

Now that I'm done venting, are any of you folks interested in helping me with this scenery? I just want an airport on my rig with some parking spaces. Thats it. Please, someone help me! Embarrassed

Embarrassed

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Reply #8 - Nov 12^th, 2003 at 12:12pm

Hagar Offline
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Ender. I think maybe you're rushing this a little. There's no way you can learn to use a program like FSSC in less than 1 hour. I've been using it since the very first version was released & I'm still learning. These things take time to learn. If you slow down I'm sure you would find all this more enjoyable.

I would willingly help but I have far too much on my plate for the foreseeable future. Sorry.

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Reply #9 - Nov 12^th, 2003 at 12:20pm

Travis Offline
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Okay, okay. I'll give it some time. The real bugger is I can't have it on the same computer as FS. REALLY slows things down.

Make the file.

Transfer to 3.5 floppy.

Transfer to other computer.

Test in FS.

Doesn't work . . . Roll Eyes

Roll Eyes

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Reply #10 - Nov 12^th, 2003 at 12:34pm

Hagar Offline
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I agree it's not the ideal way to work. I have no idea how it's done but is there no way you can connect the 2 machines? Either that or purchase a CDRW or portable storage device like a Zip drive.

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Reply #11 - Nov 12^th, 2003 at 2:46pm

Travis Offline
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Well, the deal is, the two comps aren't mine. They're my father's, and he WILL NOT let me connect them or hook the other up to the net.

The irony of the situation is that the non-net machine has a CD-RW/DVD recordable drive. Roll Eyes

Roll Eyes

And my father won't get one for the other computer because he doesn't think its worth the money. "We already have ONE," he says. "What do we need two for?"

Doesn't matter, now, though. I figured out I CAN transfer FSSC to the other comp, and I'm coming along fine on the airport. Problem is, I already created the beginnings of one airport in FS using AFCAD. I think its messing with the one I'm trying to make, and I can't figure out how to remove the one from AFCAD. Any thoughts? I want to completely remove it, so that there is no record of it in the database. I has a glitch that keeps the two runways I specified in that file there no matter what I do. I can't find a "delete airport" key anywhere, and I don't know how to edit the data in the airport files manually. Help? ???

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Reply #12 - Nov 12^th, 2003 at 3:51pm

Hagar Offline
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Which version of AFCAD are you using? I haven't really got into it but I'm almost certain you can revert to the default airport if you wish.

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Reply #13 - Nov 12^th, 2003 at 4:12pm

Travis Offline
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Thing is, there IS no default airport there. I was creating it straight from scratch. Its out in the middle of the ocean, and I still have a cessna 182 chillin out in the middle of the water waiting to taxi on the "runway".

What about reloading all of the airport data directly from the FS disks? If someone can tell me what disk they are on, I can find them and just copy over.

And its AFCAD 1.1, which is a much older version.

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Reply #14 - Nov 12^th, 2003 at 4:19pm

Hagar Offline
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I recently had to start from scratch (long story) & don't have AFCAD installed right now. I think if you read the instructions carefully it will tell you which fiiles it modifies. It might even automatically create a backup copy which should be easy enough to convert back. I'm not sure which particular CD these files will be on but they shouldn't be too difficult to find if necessary.

It's possible these are among the database files which are created when you first start the sim after install. In this case the ones on the CD might not be any use.

PS. I found AFCAD 1.4 backed up. It's not installed yet. I copied this from the Readme instructions.
Quote:

11. Deleting and Restoring Airports
BGL file backups:

AFCAD modifies the 'bgl' files in Flight Simulator that contain facility data. It automatically makes a backup of every file before it changes the file for the first time and gives the backup the extension ".ORIGINAL". You should not backup these files yourself because improperly named backup files can cause problems for FS2002.

Cataloging Modified Airports:

The Catalog / Delete / Restore Airports window, called from the File menu, will scan all the airports in your facilities folder and will list all original FS2002 airports that have been modified or replaced, and any new airports or overlays that have been added.

Restoring Airports:

An airport that has been modified or replaced with an imported AFCAD file can be restored to an 'out of the box' stock condition by selecting that airport from the list on the Catalog / Delete / Restore Airports window and clicking the Restore Stock Airport button. AFCAD will open the backup file and extract the original airport from it, then insert that airport in the appropriate facility file. If the backup file does not exist, or if AFCAD detects that the airport in the backup file is not in original condition, then AFCAD will ask you to insert the FS2002 CD and it will extract the original airport from the CD. Note that the Restore Stock Airport function only applies to airports that were in FS2002 originally.

Quote:

Deleting Airports and Overlays:

A 'new' airport, an airport or overlay that didn't originally come with FS2002, can be removed by selecting that airport from the list on the Catalog / Delete / Restore Airports window and clicking the Delete Airport button. AFCAD will remove it from whatever facility file it is in but will not alter any of the other airports in that file. Note that the Delete Airport function only applies to new airports. You cannot delete an airport that came with FS2002, even if it has been subsequently modified.

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Reply #15 - Nov 12^th, 2003 at 8:22pm

Travis Offline
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Thanks, Hagar. That helped very much. I got the AFCAD stuff deleted, so now I'm into the creation of the airport in FSSC. I'm having some issues getting it to do what I want, though, and I was wondering if anyone knows of any forums on other sites (or anyone here has the knowledge) where I can get specific info on how to do what I want with this scenery.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Reply #16 - Nov 13^th, 2003 at 11:52am

TJ_Gumby Offline
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Hi Ender:
FSSC is pretty simple really. Here's how it works:

Open the program and and click "Edit" and "Scenery Properties".
Fill in "Credits", "Aiports" and "Dimensions".
At the bottom left, you can see the co-ords of your cursor.
Right click on the spot you want your macro to be.
Choose "New 3D Object"/"Macro" and find the path to your .api files and choose one.
Right click the macro and you can adjust the heading etc.
When your done, click "File" and "Save As" (whatever).
Click "File" and "Export Scenery Wizard".
Make "Base Location" your destination for the bgl file and click OK.
Don't forget you still have to activate the scenery in the sim.
It's a good idea to allow the "Tip of the Day" at startup, you can learn alot that way. Wink

Wink

&&

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Reply #17 - Nov 13^th, 2003 at 2:55pm

Travis Offline
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Ok, TJ_Gumby, that made perfect sense, but I already got most of that from the tutorials that came with FSSC. The major issue I'm having is that even though I have the flat area thingy at the right altitude, and the surface area set up right, I still can't get the runways to "lift" off the ocean.

And now my scenery in that area is a little wonky. Even when I remove all traces of the scenery from the Addon Scenery folder and the scenery.cfg, I still have a "bulge" in the ocean where the scenery is supposed to be. I'd like to get things back to the way they were originally, so can anyone tell me where else I have to look in the scenery.cfg file to fix this? ??? I already removed the actual scenery entry and the entries in the [cache] section.

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Reply #18 - Nov 13^th, 2003 at 6:22pm

PH_AJH Ex Member

Ender, about transferring files from one pc to the other; I had the same problem some time ago.
If you have a digital camera you could use that (well it worked for me, using Windows XP...) as you can use a digital camera as a storage device. Just save a file on the camera and download it on the other pc.
Most camera's have at least 16 Mb memory.
Cheers
AJ

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Reply #19 - Nov 13^th, 2003 at 8:41pm

Travis Offline
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Hey! That's a pretty good idea! Cheesy

Cheesy

8)

I bet the makers of that camera never thought it would be used for such a menial task. Wink

Wink

Now if only I had one of those . . . Roll Eyes

Roll Eyes

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