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New FSX scenery design tool using Google Earth

MatthewS said:
I must admit I haven't tested the freeway traffic yet... But I'm pretty sure FSX_KML is doing it correctly. In anycase can you post your KML file so I can use it to debug?

I agree that traffic before the threshold adds great atmosphere :)
Click to expand...

Great tool Mattews thank you just added beaches to the Netherlands :D

André Folkers
 
FSX_KML 1.03 problem

Just started experimenting with this tool. Thanks for your work. I am trying to create an airport flatten from Global Mapper. Unfortunately, I can't get a 3d polygon shapefile (polygonZ type 15) out of GM for flattens, but I can get a KML file, so I thought I would try it in your util. I got it to build, but when I try to display the output shp, it is wrong (looks like there is one or more 0,0 points in it). Here is my KML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<kml xmlns="http://earth.google.com/kml/2.0">
<Document>
<!-- Begin Style Definitions -->
<Style id="area1">
<LineStyle>
<color>FFFF0000</color>
<width>1</width>
</LineStyle>
<PolyStyle>
<color>BF000000</color>
<fill>0</fill>
<outline>1</outline>
</PolyStyle>
</Style>
<Folder>
<name>Area Features</name>
<description>Airport_Backgrounds_Flatten_ExcludeAutoGen</description>
<Placemark>
<description>Airport_Backgrounds_Flatten_ExcludeAutoGen</description>
<name>test 1</name>
<styleUrl>#area1</styleUrl>
<Polygon>
<altitudeMode>absolute</altitudeMode>
<extrude>0</extrude>
<outerBoundaryIs>
<LinearRing>
<coordinates>
-46.95061800,-23.17292100,757.12
-46.94799000,-23.17157200,757.12
-46.93662000,-23.19042300,757.12
-46.93924700,-23.19177200,757.12
</coordinates>
</LinearRing>
</outerBoundaryIs>
</Polygon>
</Placemark>
</Folder>
</Document>
</kml>

I've attached (if I did it right) my output shapefile.

scott s.
.
 
Last edited:
Lock Drive ID for FSX & SDK??

How do you lock in the drive ID for FSX and the SDK. Mine keeps reverting to drive C? These files are on my drive D.

Suggestion - add a few sentences showing the user where the drawn items appear in GE. I normally use G Earth without the sidebar just for random viewing. Also, note how to get the file from there to the program as well as noting that there are two formats KMZ and KML. It seems to default to KMZ (first time)which leads you astray wondering where the KML really is when you save it.

Just started so I have barely scratched the surface of a much needed tool. Many thanks....

Dick Boley
Near 5G8
 
How to?

Hi all:

First of all thanks for this tool.
Just a quiestion, how can I create a KLM file if I do not have the google earth Plus version?

Thanks in advance.

Francisco
 
Good news: polygon and path creation capabilities have just been added to freeware Google Earth as well (at least in beta 4.0.2416). Try to redownload it from the official site, or try www.filehippo.com (I got mine there).

Rafa
 
Erratic TAG Selection?

On my system (2ghz, 1gb, ATI 9800 128mb) it is difficult to select a TAG name for copy/paste to the name/description in a Google Earth element. Eventually I can get a selection but never sure how I arrived at it.

I would like to be able to concurrently select several KML files at once for adding to FSX-KML. Similarly being able to "mass build" a group of KML files at once would be nice. I usually make several KMLs in GE and then process them.

One OT question - I can not find a way to go back and edit an element it GE after I have drawn and saved it. Any way to post edit a poly or a line in GE?

Dick Boley near 5G8
 
Last edited:
Dick

In GE select the object from the 'places' menu, right click on its name and select Edit... from the context menu. While the 'Edit Path' dialogue box is displayed you can move the nodes on your path and also extend it by clicking to add further nodes. These will be added after the currently selected node and so may be in the middle of the path.

You can also cut and paste paths in the places list so it's easy to keep a copy before doing this kind of editing.

Chris
 
boleyd said:
On my system (2ghz, 1gb, ATI 9800 128mb) it is difficult to select a YAG name for copy/paste to the name/description in a Google Earth element. Eventually I can get a selection but never sure how I arrived at it.
Click to expand...

In FSX_KML you can highlight a description and press F2 it should display an arrow which you can click to drop down a list of tags. Highlight the tag and press ENTER it should update the description for you. If you select multiple rows before pressing F2 it will update all the selected rows. But I agree its a bit non-intuitive.


I would like to be able to concurrently select several KML files at once for adding to FSX-KML. Similarly being able to "mass build" a group of KML files at once would be nice. I usually make several KMLs in GE and then process them.
Click to expand...

in FSX_KML you should be able to add multiple KML files in your project but clicking Add KML file button multiple times (i suppose it should also allow multiple select in the file open dialog too). It will then build a BGL for each KML file. It would also be nice if the "project" could be saved so that it remembers all the KML files in your project. I shall these ideas to the development roadmap in the wiki.
 
Last edited:
No luck creating polygon shapefiles

I've been playing around with a simple KML file every way I can think of. When I build the project, FSX_KML 1.03 places many (about 13 per coordinate) points at 0,0,0 in the shapefile, along with the valid coordinates. Could anyone post a kml file that correctly builds a shapefile?

scott s.
.
 
scott967 said:
I've been playing around with a simple KML file every way I can think of. When I build the project, FSX_KML 1.03 places many (about 13 per coordinate) points at 0,0,0 in the shapefile, along with the valid coordinates. Could anyone post a kml file that correctly builds a shapefile?

scott s.
.
Click to expand...

Can you post your KML file?
 
MatthewS said:
Can you post your KML file?
Click to expand...

Attached is a zip of my file, but this is the text of it:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<kml xmlns="http://earth.google.com/kml/2.0">
<Document>

<Folder>
<name>Area Features</name>
<description>Airport_Backgrounds_Flatten_ExcludeAutoGen</description>
<Placemark>
<description>Airport_Backgrounds_Flatten_ExcludeAutoGen</description>
<name>test 1</name>

<Polygon>

<outerBoundaryIs>
<LinearRing>
<coordinates>
-46.95061800,-23.17292100,757.27
-46.94799000,-23.17157200,757.27
-46.93662000,-23.19042300,757.27
-46.93924700,-23.19177200,757.27
-46.95061800,-23.17292100,757.27
</coordinates>
</LinearRing>
</outerBoundaryIs>
</Polygon>
</Placemark>
</Folder>
</Document>
</kml>

For now I am just creating the shapefile, not running it through shp2vec.
FSX_KML appears to build successfully. the .dbf and .xml created seem correct.

Here is what my shapefile output is showing:

Geometry: 3D Polygon
Feature Count: 1
Extent: (-46.950618, -23.191772) - (0.000000, 0.000000)
Layer SRS WKT:
(unknown)
Guid: String (38.0)
Uuid: String (38.0)
OGRFeature(FLXTEST SDJD):0
Guid (String) = {18580A63-FC8F-4A02-A622-8A1E073E627B}
Uuid (String) = {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001}
POLYGON ((-46.950617999999999 -23.172920999999999 757.26999999999998,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
-46.947989999999997 -23.171572 757.26999999999998,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
-46.936619999999998 -23.190422999999999 757.26999999999998,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
0 0 0,
-46.939247000000002 -23.191772 0,
0 0 0,
-46.950617999999999 -23.172920999999999 757.26999999999998))

attached is zip with the kml file.

scott s.
.
 
Last edited:
toprob said:
Any tips on excluding bridges? Can't for the life of me make a bridge go away.
Click to expand...

If it is an extrusion bridge (non-autogen replacement for the FS9 autogen bridges) you exclude them using ExclusionRectangles (see SDK documentation for BglComp tool) with excludeExtrusionBridgeObjects***.

If it's a modelled bridge (i.e. a suspension bridge, bridge with towers...) I believe you use an ExclusionRectangle with excludeLibraryObjects.

To be safe, use both excludeExtrusionBridgeObjects*** and excludeLibraryObjects.

*** There was an omission from the bglcomp.xsd file - the ExclusionRectangle tag excludeExtrusionBridgeObjects which works just like the other excludeXxxxxxObjects tags. So you'll currently need to add that to the schema.

-Doug
 
osman said:
Comparing the cvx file produced by shp2vec with the original shx file gives me the impression that it woud be a very time-consuming and difficult task if someone would try to develop a program to reverse the process, i.e. to produce one or more shx files from a cvx file :( .
Click to expand...

That would be a correct impression ;-).

(Don't anyone interpret that as a challenge).

-Doug
 
rhumbaflappy said:
Hi Matt.

The UUID is not specifically used by FSX... but we were never told it wasn't used by shp2vec to sort priorities of the same poly or line type... might be worth a look. If true, you could play with UUIDs to set relative values for nested polys. I don't know if it's true, but I would think there is some kind of ordering.

Dick
Click to expand...

You were never told... but it's not true. Here's a few things that may help:

Shp2Vec uses UUID to share attributes across geometry clipped from a common shape and eliminate redundant geometry. So it is beneficial to have unique UUID across shapes compiled into a common cvx.

UUID has nothing to do with holes in polygons. The UUID corresponds to a polygon and a hole is a part of the geometry of said polygon.

Shapefiles have no concept of multi-part.

A shapefile individual polygon consists of one or more rings. The first is the outer ring. All subsequent rings are holes in the polygon. A hole within a hole is nonsense - it should be another shape's outer ring.

Shp2Vec is tolerant of any winding order of outer rings and holes. We flip any inconsistent rings. If you want to save a little Shp2Vec execution time, wind your outer rings CCW and your holes CW.

-Doug
 
rhumbaflappy said:
Hi Matt.

I think polys are supposed to be clockwise, with islands counterclockwise, with lakes inside islands clockwise, etc...

If the polys show correctly in a GIS program, they should show in FSX.

EDITED:

It could be that the UUID number may need to be larger for the island, so the hole is made after the river is made????

Dick
Click to expand...

No, yes and no :)

See my other post elsewhere in the thread.

-Doug
 
cearnsh said:
'Fraid it's me again. No matter what I do I can't get traffic moving in both directions. Setting NumberOfLa does exactly what you'd expect (I've tried 1,2 and 4) and TrafficDir with values of F or T sets the direction as expected. Two way traffic has so far defeated me. Setting TrafficDir to B behaves exactly like F - one way traffic flowing away from the origin of the path. Other values don't seem to give any traffic at all (as you may well expect).

I'd be grateful for any suggestions on how to fix this as I can't see what I'm doing wrong. And it's kind of frustrating because the approach to EGSC rwy23 (my home airfield) looks so much better with traffic on the road just before the threshold!

Cheers,

Chris
Click to expand...

Unfortunately support for the B-both traffic direction option did not make it into FSX. Sorry.

-Doug
 
Hi Doug.

As long as we have your ear on this...

how does the sim determine priority among similar polygons? For example, in the same shapefile, 2 overlapping polygons of the same general type?

Dick
 
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