Layering tags

[EssieP]

I'm amazed at what great utilities are available on the net for free- I'm really enjoying using KML_FSX. Thanks for all the hard work!

One issue I don't quite grasp yet is the order in which polys are listed in the KML app.

• How do I decide in which order they should be?
• Is there a way of combining polys so that I end up with one BGL after compiling?
• Has anyone got a set of thumbnails showing landclass textures so I can be sure of selecting the right one?

 

[MatthewS]

Here are some discussions about Landclass polygons and tiles using FSX KML

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8302&highlight=landclass

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6366&highlight=landclass

The important thing to remember is that:-

1) Landclass POLYGONS (eg LandClass_POLYGON_Tropical_Rainforest) have a render priority that is defined in FSX Terrain.cfg file. So the ordering in the KML file is not important since ordering is defined by Terrain.CFG. To make a lower priority landclass polygon show above a higher priority landclass polygon you will need to use a POLYGONHOLE polygon to allow the lower priority poly to show through.

2) Landclass TILES (eg LandClass_Tropical_Rainforest) however will take into account the ordering in the KML file.

For example, Lets say you want to use land class TILES to redo the Hawaiian land class. You want to cover it in tropical forest, put a few farms in and also the city of Honolulu.

1. Draw a polygon around the entire island of Hawaii and tag it with LandClass_TROPICAL_RAINFOREST.
2. Draw a polygon around some farmland and tag it with LandClass_HOT_IRRIGATED_CROPLAND. Since this polygon is after the polygon in step 1 it will appear on top of those land class tiles.
3. Draw a polygon around Honolulu and tag it with LandClass_LARGE_CITY_URBAN_GRID_WET. Since this polygon is after the polygons in step 1 and 2 it will appear on top of those landclass tiles.

 

[MatthewS]

*Is there a way of combining polys so that I end up with one BGL after compiling?

FSX KML uses the FSX SDK tools of Shp2Vec (Vector based scenery), BGLComp (Scenery objects and airports) and REsample (Land and water class), and so you would always have these different types of scenery in different BGL files.

Some people make the mistake of create a separate KML file for every polygon in their project, and so by doing this they get a separate BGL for each KML file.

Say you are creating some landclass tile scenery and your project has 50 polygons. Make sure that from Google Earth you save a single KML file containing all those 50 polygons, instead of saving each polygon into 50 separate KML files.
The result will be 1 BGL file created instead of 50 BGL files.

 

[EssieP]

Make sure that from Google Earth you save a single KML file containing all those 50 polygons, instead of saving each polygon into 50 separate KML files.
The result will be 1 BGL file created instead of 50 BGL files.

That's what I want, so my question is more a Google-Earth question:
How do I combine several polygons into one KML in GE?

I'm guessing that I can shift-select several polys before saving as one KML.

 

[MatthewS]

I create a "folder" in Google Earth (right click "My Places" and select Add Folder)

Then move your polygons into that folder (drag them using the mouse).

Then save the folder as a KML (right click the folder and select Save as)

Make sure you save a KML type since Google Earth defaults to KMZ.

 

[EssieP]

That works a treat! Thanks for that, I'm giving the folder a generic Hydro_polygons_Generic... and they all inherit that by default.

Now the up & Down arrows make sense too.

Wonderful

 

[Mace]

I create a "folder" in Google Earth (right click "My Places" and select Add Folder)

Then move your polygons into that folder (drag them using the mouse).

Then save the folder as a KML (right click the folder and select Save as)

Make sure you save a KML type since Google Earth defaults to KMZ.

All this time...and I did not know that.

For combining, I always cut and pasted in the raw kml file. {Placemark} to {/Placemark} from donor file to master file. (!)

thanks for the tip

 

[Tony_A]

I create a "folder" in Google Earth (right click "My Places" and select Add Folder)

Then move your polygons into that folder (drag them using the mouse).

I've found that if the folder is selected when saving each .kml file that GE places the .kml's in the folder. I also cut and paste within the folder before saving the 'folder' .kml to move them to the correct position e.g. polygonhole .kml's immediately below the add-water .kml that then refer to.

Cheers Tony

 

[EssieP]

All this time...and I did not know that.
For combining, I always cut and pasted in the raw kml file. {Placemark} to {/Placemark} from donor file to master file.
thanks for the tip

Actually that's still a useful technique, I had to append a poly to a kml containing about 8 others. Your copy/paste method prevented the loss of all the altitude settings in the rest of the file (which would have been removed had I re-saved the poly's folder as kml).

To reduce confusion- I paste from the XML tab to Notepad (when I've opened the desination KML file in Notepad). I have screwed up the kml tags a few times at first.