• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

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    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

New FSX scenery design tool using Google Earth

Bad Shp Output Solved!

OK, I found out why my shapefiles were screwed up coming out of kml_xml. The coordinate list must have NO whitespace (or at least, spaces) at the beginning of a coordinate line, and MUST HAVE at least 1 space (maybe other whitespace only tested with 1 space char) at the end of the coodinate line prior to EOL (xOdOa).

If possible, it might be helpful to try to get the coordinate parser more tolerent of whitespace.

scott s.
.
 
Excluding and flattening

I reported before that I excluded my generic flatten and at first got the (re) flatten level at zero. Then I tried putting the polygon in Google Earth Plus at the flatten altitude I needed and extending the polygon to ground. I reran FSX XML and successfully got a custom flatten to replace the old one with much better looking results.

I don't have time to try this for other shapes like water polygons but this may be a small :D breakthrough.

The only limitation to this (isn't there always a caveat?) is that :stirthepo Google Earth appears to me to only allow polygon level setting in meter increments. I settled for a 102 meter flatten surrounding my AFCAD airport runways at 102.1 meters and it looks reasonable. I will try sequential flattens later today to better merge into the surrounding areas.
 
JohnC said:
I reported before that I excluded my generic flatten and at first got the (re) flatten level at zero. Then I tried putting the polygon in Google Earth Plus at the flatten altitude I needed and extending the polygon to ground. I reran FSX XML and successfully got a custom flatten to replace the old one with much better looking results.
Click to expand...

I've been getting good results by putting the elevation into Google, haven't had to extend to ground.
My current project has two different flattens, both originally rounded to metres anyway, so hadn't noticed the limitation, so this is good to know.
It's been a learning curve, that's for sure, but the ability to exclude the default flattens is a huge improvement, rather than the hacks I've used for FS2004.
 
Somebody with knowledge of such things have suggested that it may not be legal to extract information from Google for use in FSXKML. Perhaps somebody with a legal backround should look into this in more detail and see what the official position is. Its a great program but if we are breaking the law by using it without a proper licence...::confused:

Alan.
 
Is it "Legal"

Following from the previous post - I would suggest that then most people who save an image from Google are also “breaking the law”.!;) Given that Google provides this feature in their program and it is available also in the free version it is difficult to see how it could be argued that extracting reference information for private use for FSX KML could be. Bit like the copyright of recording TV programs on your VCR or DVD which is now covered by fair use legislation.

On the contrary using the reference material from Google requires you at present to subscribe the $20, for access to the polys which is good news for them.

It seems to me using the same argument that this would even extend to private use of the actual photo image in FSX.:)
 
Not necessarily. It could be considered "Dervied Data" and therefore copywrite may remain with the owners of the original data.

Alan
 
Hi all.

No more talk about copyright, please.

If you want to contact Google about their copyright issues, that's great. But speculation about it in this forum is inappropriate.


Legal and ethical issues are not the realm of this forum. Please email Google and leave this forum open for technical issues.

Dick
 
FSX KML INI File

I'd like to suggest to the author adding to his program an INI file to store FSX and Terrain SDK paths, because the default path the program shows
( \Program files\ )
are not used on all languages or FSX installations and each time the program is opened to build it shows those paths and one has to change or get an error if his FS X/SDK paths are others.

With the INI file we would configure once, forever.

Thanks,

José
 
Last edited:
MatthewS said:
Thanks, I'll try counter clockwise for my island.

Also, the UUID has a purpose in FSX? I've just been assigning 1 to all the UUIDS. But you seem to be saying that the UUID might indicate some sort of priority?
Click to expand...

Hi Matthew,

I made some test with your nice tool to check the features of exclude Autogen, and I only works correkt, when the UUID is set in the DBF file to the same value as in the XML file. With your UUID 1, I don't get the expected result.

brgds
Oliver Pabst
 
opabst said:
Hi Matthew,

I made some test with your nice tool to check the features of exclude Autogen, and I only works correkt, when the UUID is set in the DBF file to the same value as in the XML file. With your UUID 1, I don't get the expected result.

brgds
Oliver Pabst
Click to expand...

[Assuming you are referring to the Shapefile and it's XML instruction file which are consumed by Shp2Vec]

The UUID field is a unique identifier. I believe Matthew is incrementing the UUID by one (starting at one) for each shape present. If this is occuring such that each shape (across all Shapefiles) consumed by Shp2Vec in a given run has unique UUID then things are exactly as they should be.

-Doug
 
rhumbaflappy said:
Hi all.

No more talk about copyright, please.

If you want to contact Google about their copyright issues, that's great. But speculation about it in this forum is inappropriate.


Legal and ethical issues are not the realm of this forum. Please email Google and leave this forum open for technical issues.

Dick
Click to expand...

Yes I agree, developers need to contact Google. I've updated the manual to say the same.

http://fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?title=FSX_KML#Copyright_of_Google_Earth_Data
 
DougMatthews said:
[Assuming you are referring to the Shapefile and it's XML instruction file which are consumed by Shp2Vec]

The UUID field is a unique identifier. I believe Matthew is incrementing the UUID by one (starting at one) for each shape present. If this is occuring such that each shape (across all Shapefiles) consumed by Shp2Vec in a given run has unique UUID then things are exactly as they should be.

-Doug
Click to expand...

Hi Doug,

you are correct. It was my fault. I changed the project, but there was a EXX* shape in the same directory with the same name, but with a buggy content. So the RUN.BAT will include that too and the result was wrong. Now all is fine.

Sorry for the stupid errormessage and thanks for your response,

Oliver
 
Last edited:
Can't find the file??

Then im trying to biuld a BGL from a KML file I get stuck with this message in the command window:
-
Shp2Vec.exe version 10.0.60905.0 - VectorQuad 6
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Processing PKXGRALEBO.shp
Unable to find the file.
Push any button to continue...
-

The last two lines are translated to english, so they might not be exactly correct. After pushing a button, all files are created except the BGL file.
The thing is that i dont know what's wrong?

Any ideas?

This program seems to bee a really great tool in deed! :)
So it would be nice to find out what im doing wrong.
 
i have a problem, no vehicles in roads!

hi matthews, this tool is really amazing and useful, even more to people like me that live in places not so known, im from Temuco, Chile, where a lot of thing arent in the accurate place
but i have a problem with the moving traffic on the new roads that i made in google, i can see the new roads, but no vehicles on it, the original road near display vehicles, but no in the new one. in the page with help about your software you say "Creating a road with moving traffic" in the tips section, that after draw the polyline, you have to tag it with:
"Tag" the polyline with a road polyline tag
"Tag" the polyline with a traffic polyline tag
no problem with the road polyline tag, but the traffic polyline doesnt exist, in fact when I search it in FSX_KLM_Tags.XML I only found roads of different kind and size, and the only "freeway traffic" that i found, is in the exclusion feature, and this is to exclude the default traffic on the roads of FSX, so where is the tag to put traffic on roads?? and other thing I have to tag it twice with road and oter tag to traffic??
please help!! thanks!!!
 
I have the same problem, no vehicles in roads!

Hi MatthewS ,Hi Vito Pastorini.

I have the same problem with vehicles in roads.

In version v1.03 Beta - 28th 0ct 2006 this features is not implemented. But a can´t find file FW.DBF to edit.

Thx.

André Parente Barbosa
São Paulo - Brazil
 
akme said:
Hi MatthewS ,Hi Vito Pastorini.

I have the same problem with vehicles in roads.

In version v1.03 Beta - 28th 0ct 2006 this features is not implemented. But a can´t find file FW.DBF to edit.

Thx.

André Parente Barbosa
São Paulo - Brazil
Click to expand...

I have attached an updated version of FSX_KML_TAGS.XML

Included is the missing freeway tag called "FreewayTraffic". Please note that under 1.03 you will still need to edit the FW file to set the traffic options.

Also, as suggested by Rhumbaflappy I have added a tag for terrain clinging water called "Legacy_LandWaterMask_Water_NoFlatten"
 
Last edited:
vito pastorini said:
hi matthews, this tool is really amazing and useful, even more to people like me that live in places not so known, im from Temuco, Chile, where a lot of thing arent in the accurate place
but i have a problem with the moving traffic on the new roads that i made in google, i can see the new roads, but no vehicles on it, the original road near display vehicles, but no in the new one. in the page with help about your software you say "Creating a road with moving traffic" in the tips section, that after draw the polyline, you have to tag it with:
"Tag" the polyline with a road polyline tag
"Tag" the polyline with a traffic polyline tag
no problem with the road polyline tag, but the traffic polyline doesnt exist, in fact when I search it in FSX_KLM_Tags.XML I only found roads of different kind and size, and the only "freeway traffic" that i found, is in the exclusion feature, and this is to exclude the default traffic on the roads of FSX, so where is the tag to put traffic on roads?? and other thing I have to tag it twice with road and oter tag to traffic??
please help!! thanks!!!
Click to expand...

Please see post #135 above. I have updated the FSX_KML_TAGS.XML file which you can download from post #135.
 
How to edit FW.DBF?

Hi MatthewS.

I can´t find FW.DBF file to edit. If I found. Which parameters i will need settings.(Sorry but my english is very poor.)
 
akme said:
Hi MatthewS.

I can´t find FW.DBF file to edit. If I found. Which parameters i will need settings.(Sorry but my english is very poor.)
Click to expand...


You first need to download and use the updated FSX_KML_TAGS (see post #135) above.

Then tag your freeway with the new FREEWAYTRAFFIC tag. This will create a FW file when you do a build.

Then open the FW*.DBF file... and you will see various columns relating to the freeway traffic, "TrafficDir" and "NumberOfLa".

Set TrafficDir to B and NumberOfLa to 2 and you should see 2 lanes of traffic in FSX

In the upcoming 1.04 version of FSX_KML you will not have to edit the DBF... FSX_KML will set the appropriate DBF options. But in 1.03 you need to edit the DBF manually.
 
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