Simviation Forums

Posted: **Sun Oct 28, 2007 4:56 pm**

Here is my scenario.

Several of the small General Aviation airports i frequently visit in real life are robust GA hubs with a lot of wonderful activity and unique scenery.

specifically some of the grass strips!

unfortunately, many of the ones i visit in FSX / FS2004 are little more than a green strip of land... no hangars, no parked airplanes etc.

because there is so much that needs to be done to a few specific airports of interest to myself (and probably very few other people), i would like to get into scenery design on my own.

the only question is... where do i begin?

is there a program that will allow me to take the default scenery for a grass strip and add a parking area, and perhaps some parked J3 cubs and a hangar or two?

any help would be great?

Posted: **Sun Oct 28, 2007 7:53 pm**

I'll be moving this to the SCenery Design forum, which is the more logical place to be.

However, there are several ways you can "spruce" up an existing airport. If what you want to do is add objects, possibly the easiest way is to use Abacus' free (yes, free) Scenery Shortcut

WHich takes advantage of the Object Placement Tool that comes with the FS-X SDK (requires you to have FS-X Deluxe)

The following is a quick description:

The Object Placement Tool
The Mission Builder component for designing scenery is called the Object Placement Tool. This is a flexible utility that lets you select and place 3D objects in the mission with "drag and drop" ease.

When you "drop" a 3D object into your scenery, you see it "live" in Flight Simulator X on the screen. You can then "drag" the object around within the landscape until it is at the desired position. As you adjust the various aspects of the object: it's orientation or scale for example, you also see the modified object reflect the changes.

When adding a second 3D object, the live preview lets you you'll adjust its position relative to the first. So the Object Placement Tool gives you true "what you see is what you get" scenery.

When you've completed your scenery, you'll save the Mission which retains the position and characteristics of all of the 3D objects.

The drawback of the Object Placement Tool is that the 3D scenery appears only for the duration of a mission. So if you are not flying the mission, you won't be able to see the scenery.

Scenery Shortcut to the Rescue
Since the Mission Editor saves all of the information about these 3D objects, we need a way convert the mission scenery into a true FSX scenery file.

Here's where Scenery Shortcut comes to life. This clever program converts the mission scenery files into true FSX scenery files ready to fly and to share with others.

OF course there are other ways, (the creator of EZ-Scenery for Abacus "crossed over" to Flight1 and they put out a similar package for FS-X).

Posted: **Sun Oct 28, 2007 10:47 pm**

is there a program that will allow me to take the default scenery for a grass strip and add a parking area, and perhaps some parked J3 cubs and a hangar or two?

Freeware for 'easy' enhancement of FS scenery. I'll let the download/product descriptions speak for themselves.

FS2004:
*Airport design-Afcad 2.21..add your taxiways and parking areas
*Object Placement-Rwy12..add your static cubs and hangers.

FSX
*Airport design-Airport Design Editor, John 'Scruffyduck' Masterson, in development. Requires FSX Deluxe/SDK
*Object Placement-as Felix mentions, 'Scenery Shortcut' if you have FSX Deluxe/SDK

You might also want to poke around the Scenery Hall of Fame Design pages. A good source for scenery design programs, utilitiel and tutorials.

Also FSDeveloper.com-Several of the works in developement for scenery design in FSX are available and discussed here.

I'll also mention 2 payware programs by Flight 1. Both provide 'live view' (you work in the sim flight window) design. Both work in FS9 and FSX (Standard or Deluxe version). Both have demo's available that provide full function within 50 mi. of Seattle.

*Airport design-Airport Facilitator X
*Object placement-Instant Scenery

Dave

Posted: **Sun Oct 28, 2007 11:51 pm**

well i have downloaded and am currently trying to get Scenery Shortcut to work

but so far there is no "TOOLS" menu option like in the demo video

i have installed the SDK and modified the dll.xml as directed but no luck

Posted: **Mon Oct 29, 2007 11:30 am**

there is no "TOOLS" menu option like in the demo video

i have installed the SDK and modified the dll.xml as directed but no luck

Same here. I've tried everything I could think of, but no luck either...

Posted: **Mon Oct 29, 2007 12:30 pm**

perhaps this is a vista thing?

Posted: **Mon Oct 29, 2007 1:28 pm**

Don't see how that would make a difference...

I've been looking through the SDK documentation, but I havn't found any solutions to this issue

Posted: **Mon Oct 29, 2007 2:07 pm**

really too bad - it looks like such an easy program to use. :-[

Posted: **Mon Oct 29, 2007 2:25 pm**

I'm sure someone will be able to shed light on the matter, but we're just gonna have to be a little patient...

Posted: **Mon Oct 29, 2007 5:34 pm**

Make sure that the path you put in the dll.xml file matches the actual path perfectly. Also, make sure you put in the FULL PATH, including the drive letter. The "relative path ..\" that the sample files show don't work reliably...

For example:

Code: Select all: <Launch.Addon> <Name>Object Placement Tool</Name> <Disabled>False</Disabled> <ManualLoad>False</ManualLoad> <Path>C:\FSX_SDK\SDK\Mission Creation Kit\object_placement.dll</Path> </Launch.Addon>

In the above case I have installed the SDK to a shorter path: C:\FSX_SDK instead of the rediculously long path that ACES has specified for the default...

Posted: **Mon Oct 29, 2007 5:57 pm**

In my case, since I installed the SDK per the ridiculously long Microsoft default path:

Code: Select all: <Launch.Addon> <Name>Object Placement Tool</Name> <Disabled>False</Disabled> <ManualLoad>False</ManualLoad> <Path>..\Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK\SDK\Mission Creation Kit\object_placement.dll</Path> </Launch.Addon>

Posted: **Mon Oct 29, 2007 6:16 pm**

Hmm no dice - no matter how i do it :-/

i have...

Object Placement Tool
False
False
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK\SDK\Mission Creation Kit\Object_Placement.dll

only without the word wrap

Posted: **Mon Oct 29, 2007 6:34 pm**

[quote]Hmm no dice - no matter how i do it

Posted: **Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:27 pm**

changed the case... double checked the path... made sure there were no missing characters

nada.

Uninstall FSX/Scenery shortcut and try again?

hmm

Posted: **Mon Oct 29, 2007 10:04 pm**

I don't think it has anything to do with the Scenery Shortcut program. It's probably a problem with the SDK itself...

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