Flattens- Need help

[Timmo]

I guess this is probably directed mostly at Robin and Christian but...

I need to add the airstrip to Motiti Island- Ive tried using Shp2Vec but without sucess (it compiles fine but there doesnt appear to be any data when viewing in TMFviewer- Do flattens show in this??)

Is there another way to add a flatten which will work fine in FSX?

Have you had success using the Shp2Vec tool?

Alternatively, can someone make a flatten for me of the coordinates:

Top L -37.623336 176.424282
Top R -37.626509 176.431429

Bottom L -37.624298 176 423396
Bottom R -37.627317 176.430783

Elevation: 48

Cheers

[toprob]

Since I belong to the 'if there's an easy way I'll use it' school of design, I use FSX KML.
This is shaping up to be a great design tool. Draw your polygon in Google Earth, add the appropriate tag and elevation, save it to a KML file, load into FSX KML and Build.

[Christian]

Yes, the flatten will show in TMFViewer. If it doesn't show for me I usually screwed up something the xml...

Christian

[deaneb]

Since I belong to the 'if there's an easy way I'll use it' school of design, I use FSX KML.
This is shaping up to be a great design tool. Draw your polygon in Google Earth, add the appropriate tag and elevation, save it to a KML file, load into FSX KML and Build.

Great - I had not seen this, but is a very useful tool indeed

Deane

[Timmo]

Here is my Xml which is just a copy of the example1 file
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
- <metadata xml:lang="en">
- <FlightSim>
<Geometry clipLevel="11" />
- <AttributeSet>
- <AttributeBlock name="AirportBounds" guid="{359C73E8-06BE-4FB2-ABCB-EC942F7761D0}">
<Field name="Uuid" type="GUID" />
</AttributeBlock>
- <AttributeBlock name="Texture" guid="{1B6A15BB-05FB-4401-A8D1-BB520E84904C}">
<Field name="Guid" type="GUID" />
</AttributeBlock>
</AttributeSet>
</FlightSim>
</metadata>

The Shapefile is Z-enabled and has each vertex at 48 (Ive just released i need to convert to feet first....ill do that to the shapefile after ive got it working)

The Attributes are
UUid {B3C402BC-A699-401E-8FA8-E747672C7239}
Guid {47D48287-3ADE-4FC5-8BEC-B6B36901E612}

Which relate to a flatten (im nor sure what the UUid relates to though- i just left it?)

[Christian]

Hmm, if you copied it it should be fine. The UUID isn't relevant, it can be anything.

The only other problem I can see is that you have to make sure that the file names are identical. Then with Shp2Vec you call it like this "Shp2Vec . XXXX -addtocells" , if you put all files in the same dir and call them something like this 123XXX.xml.

Christian

[Timmo]

haha- thats what it was- I had just renamed the .xml file but had accidently left another character in the file name (tip for the future: It will still compile with no errors but wont actually add the flatten)

Cheers Christian.

[Christian]

Yes I made this mistake a few times. Lesson learnt - look at how many polygons are added. If none are added you made a mistake somehwhere.

Christian

[Timmo]

Well that was the wierd thing- It compiled fine and said it had added one poly (i.e. the flatten) but still didnt show. That seems to indicate the resampler is only really reporting errors in the shapefile, not the xml.


While ive got you here Christian- Can you tell me the height of this location on the payware mesh?

-37.855371 176.974803

That location is basically at the summit of Whale island- There is a small wooden heli pad up there which id like to add to the photoreal scenery but it would need a flatten since its on a slight slope. The default mesh gives and elevation of 320 ft (?)- I just want to check there isnt too much descrepency between the two meshes......


Cheers

EDIT: Christian, I just also discovered that if you dont define the projection of the shapefile, it will add land areas everywhere over the water (probably within about a LOD 5 or 6 tile). This could cause problems as the spatial information is held within the a shapefile also (i.e. a shapefile doesnt need its spatial reference defined- it will still be placed in the correct place....i wonder how many people this has confused)...

Something to remember for any future small scale work...