Newbie unable to create polygons

[Digiwake]

Hi all
I live close to RAF valley on the Isle of Anglesey, UK. As with most places, Blackshark thinks it has far more trees than it actually does so, like most people I suspect, I’ve decided to clean up my home area to make it less jarring to fly around.
However, even after enabling Dev mode, installing the SDK, opening a new project and identifying the first clump of trees to remove, I’m stymied by my inability to create a polygon. Here’s a summary of what I’ve done:

Freshly installed 1.14.5.0, no community addons
Developer mode enabled
SDK 0.10.0.0 installed
New flight started from RAF valley

[DevMode] Open project. Selected a previously cleaned copy of the Scenery sample folder from the SDK. All file, folder and XML entries modified to reflect my new project name by religiously following the steps in an excellent video by Flying Theston at

Tools > Scenery Editor. Developer mode camera activates automatically. Confirmed it’s active

Focus on the clump of trees I want to remove. NB keyboard and mouse controls do nothing to change the view, but an XBox controller is fine. Is this relevant? If i connect up my HOTAS and pedals, even the controller can’t move the view around

Select Polygon object type in the Objects window. Click Add. One-click placing is not ticked. As soon as I click Add a little coloured vertex indicator appears in the middle of the screen and a new polygon object appears in the scenery editor window, flagged as “unfinished edition”. As soon as the mouse pointer moves out of the Objects window, the vertex marker disappears and a tiny red cross attaches to the mouse pointer

Now, to the meat of the problem. I hold down Left-CTRL and left-click for my first polygon point but nothing happens. Someone on another forum suggested that the first point should be a straight left-click but that doesn't work either. Still holding down Left-CTRL I click elsewhere and nothing continues to happen. If I CTRL+Double-click to finish, the error displayed against the polygon in the Scenery Editor window changes to “Point count < 3” and the coloured vertex marker reappears in the middle of the screen.

To my mind, this suggests that the polygon is being started but my single-clicks are being ignored. Although the editor recognises my double-click to finish, it doesn’t add this or any other points to the polygon, leaving it with zero or, at best, one point. I've trawled through all the project xml files but can't find an element suggesting things are read-only. I can create rectangles!

I think that is an accurate summary of the stages I’ve gone through to get where I am. So, which critical and blindingly obvious step have I missed?

 

[rhumbaflappy]

After the first CRTL-left-click, a red line should appear connected to the first vertex X and follow your mouse around. If that doesn't happen, then the first left-click didn't take.

 

[rhumbaflappy]

Try this:

Check the one-click placing. Nothing follows the mouse. The left-click the mouse, and the red cross-hair should appear, and now follow the mouse. Now, {left-CTRL + left-click} should place the vertex. Move and {left-CRTL + left-click} places a second vertex...

 

[Digiwake]

Thanks Rhumbaflappy. There's a phrase I never expected to type. My issue is that there is never a red line. The first click (with or without CTRL) seems to not take so there is no line to lead to the second point. I get the red crosshair on the mouse pointer but single clicks are never registered. Double-clicks are though. It's odd.

 

[Digiwake]

I've taken a video of the process I'm following, in case anyone is able to point out where I'm going wrong. In it, I make a hilariously misguided attempt to create two polygons, one unfinished and one completed with a double-click. Neither works.

Maybe it would be easier just to buy a shovel and some trees and fill in the mistakes the real world has made.

 

[chrisnoy]

I've taken a video of the process I'm following, in case anyone is able to point out where I'm going wrong. In it, I make a hilariously misguided attempt to create two polygons, one unfinished and one completed with a double-click. Neither works.

Maybe it would be easier just to buy a shovel and some trees and fill in the mistakes the real world has made.

Are you holding the left mouse button down whilst holding the CTRL key?

 

[Digiwake]

Not holding it down, but certainly clicking at each vertex. Does it need to be held down?

 

[chrisnoy]

You need to hold the CTRL down whilst clicking the mouse left button and moving the mouse which draws the polygon, then double click at the end.

 

[Digiwake]

That's what I thought. It's the only sensible way to do it, but it doesn't work for me. I can place objects (trucks, planes, giraffes etc) but not a single polygon. Maybe I'm just not cut out for this.

The giraffe is looking a bit confused at finding itself in Wales.

 

[rhumbaflappy]

Maybe your left CTRL button isn't working the way you think. Perhaps it got re-mapped to something else.

 

[Digiwake]

I did wonder about that but it's fine in absolutely everything else and I haven't remapped it within MSFS itself. CTRL+V works to paste text into boxes within the SDK. I'm a HOTAS / Quest man with little need for the keyboard.

 

[Mikea.at]

Have you allready checkt if polygons are visible? You can enable and disable the groups in the scenery outliner. If they are invisible you cant add new polygons properly.

 

[mamu]

Have you also tried to disconnect all your hotas and joystick? You really don't Need them in developer mode
It happened to me that the ctrl Key didnt work properly unless unplugging the joypad i use for drone camera control

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[Digiwake]

Have you allready checkt if polygons are visible? You can enable and disable the groups in the scenery outliner. If they are invisible you cant add new polygons properly.

I haven't, although now I look at it I'm struggling to see exactly what you mean. There is a show/hide radio button called "Buttons Function" in the Scenery Editor window but there doesn't seem to be a way of toggling it on and off - it's just on all the time. Is this what you mean and, if so, how does it relate to object visibility? Thanks for the help.

 

[Digiwake]

Have you also tried to disconnect all your hotas and joystick? You really don't Need them in developer mode
It happened to me that the ctrl Key didnt work properly unless unplugging the joypad i use for drone camera control

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Yes, all HOTAS etc disconnected apart from the XBox controller, which I need to navigate the developer camera. The controller isn't normally used and has nothing mapped within FS. Thanks

I'm starting to think this may be a lost cause and I should return when the next version of the SDK is released.

 

[mamu]

Yes, all HOTAS etc disconnected apart from the XBox controller, which I need to navigate the developer camera. The controller isn't normally used and has nothing mapped within FS. Thanks

I'm starting to think this may be a lost cause and I should return when the next version of the SDK is released.

As i said before, having the controller plugged in the developer mode gave me the same problem as yours (ctrl Key not working)
Try starting the Sim without the controller
You really don't Need an external controller, all the camera moviments in dev camera are "easylly" made with mouse and keyboard:
Middle mouse Button + ctrl/alt/shift, they use the same Logic as 3ds max viewport navigation (wich Is a pain in the ass if One Is used to Blender)

According to Mike suggestion, your screenshot toggle Is looking good, you are in the step where clicking on a "Red" poligon With no vertex like yours, and clicking ctrl should make a "+" icon appear giving you the ability to add vertex to your poly

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[Digiwake]

Unfortunately, mouse and keyboard don't work to manipulate the dev camera for me, with any combo from no controllers, through just the xbox controller right the way to full HOTAS, pedals and controller. In fact, with the HOTAS connected even the wireless controller can't move the dev camera. It's very odd.

However, I did try a session with everything disconnected and a different mouse and keyboard in different USB ports, but sadly still couldn't make any polygons, despite having the red crosshair and everything described above.

Thanks for trying to help, but I think it's time for me to give up on this one for now.

 

[CaptKornDog]

Apologize for digging up an old thread. Where you ever able to find a solution to this? I'm having the exact same problem. Thanks.

 

[Digiwake]

I never did get it to work, although I haven't tried again for a couple of years. I just fly now and live with the excess trees. If anything, the vastly oversized waterways are worse.