Newbie needs help. Taxiways, Buildings & More

[brantmacga]

Hey everyone. Long time simmer, first time designer. I have a few quick questions that I couldn't find the answer to on forum searches. I used FSFlatten to expand my home airport, 4J5, and now my taxiways disappear when my spot view gets too low, and when looking out side windows of the aircraft. This was happening w/ runways too, but I used AFCAD to raise the runway level 0.2 ft and now I have no problem. I raised the airport reference point in AFCAD to the same as the runway height, but it still doesn't work properly. I did set the flatten switch to the exact height as reported in AFCAD.

Second, how in the world does SBuilder work? I can't even figure out how to open my area! I've read ALL the help files included but from what I gather, they go on the assumption that you already know a little bit about how it works. Any tips are GREATLY appreciated.

Last, is it possible to take stock terminals and other buildings from other airports in FS9 and place them in another airport?

Thanks a lot for any help!

[brantmacga]

Okay nevermind the question about taking stock buildings from FS9 and using them elsewhere. I found the answer to that off the FS2004 forum! Now, if anyone has a clue about the taxiway problem I'd be forever grateful!!

[Bell206freak]

SBuilder's steep learning curve, like gmax, can be frustrating for any newbie scenery developer. But, SBuilder is remarkably easier to use than most people make it out to be.

To open your area, first open your stock home airport in AFCAD. (Make sure it's the stock FS airport, not the modified one) It'll give you the default BGL in which it's held in (look where it says "From file:"). Reference the last six digits of the BGL, i.e. AP915150.BGL, AP914140.BGL, etc. All other scenery files in Flight Simulator for your home area are in those BGL files ending with those same six digits. For instance, the airport flattening polygon will be in FL915150.BGL, the airport background texture polygon will be in AB915150.BGL, the roads will be in RD915150.BGL, and so on and so forth. Your best bet is to also make sure you have the latest freeware version of FSUIPC so you can track your location in FS using SBuilder.

A note.. The AB bgl file is a VTP type BGL, and the flattens are a LWM type BGL. I thought I'd mention this in case you get frustrated with the errors I encountered when I was a newbie to SBuilder.

[brantmacga]

Oh you are my HERO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why couldn't the help file just say that? --------- Anyone got a clue about the taxiway flattening problem?