I wish to remove all the trees from an Alaskan island in keeping with the real world island. I use FS9 in XP. I am gradually learning EZ-Landclass but I wonder if there is not a simpler way of doing it. I think with EZ-Landclass that I will have problems when I get near the coastline. The default landclass for this island would seem to consist of two classes only. Is there a way of changing all the conifer landclass to tundra-type using xml coding maybe?

I haven't used EZ-landclass (I use SBuilder) but the concept should be the same: modify the landclass. One aspect of SBuilder is that you can use an image (class map) as a source for the desired landclass values. For example, red for 53 and green for 8. To do the substitution you want, the only thing I can think of is LWMViewer2 by Jim Keir. I'm not sure there is a one-to-one correspondence of color to LC in the LWMViewer display, but this is an example of Unalaska which I recently did (waiting for library to get back up) in LWMViewer:My idea is to take a screenshot of LWMViewer and then use a paint program to find the conifers with a similar color selection tool and then do a bucket fill with the desired color, save it and use that in SBuilder. As long as you don't place any water (LC 100) around your shore you should be OK.scott s..

Thanks very much scott s. I think I get the idea but not well enough :(. For example, I don't follow your method here:

For example, red for 53 and green for 8.

or here:

My idea is to take a screenshot of LWMViewer and then use a paint program to find the conifers with a similar color selection tool and then do a bucket fill with the desired color, save it and use that in SBuilder.

Could you take me through it in easy steps?

Hello John,When you make "landclass" scenery in FS9 you need to make a complete LOD5 quad which contains 257 x 257 indices. If you only need to change (set) a few indices for your island you still need to fill the rest of the quad with the "transparent" index. I suppose that all landclass tools do that. What I understood from Scott post is the possibility of "reading" (decompiling) the existing BGL landclass and changing the indices that need to be changed.There are 2 programmes that I know that decompile a BGL landclass. One is TMFViewer by Microsoft. The other is LWMViewer by Jim Kier. With TMFViewer you can get a picture like the one in Scott post. The little coloured squares represent a class. When I tested it, some years ago, I noticed that there was not a unique correspondence between the class index and the colour used in the display. So 2 different indices could be represented with the same colour in the TMFViewer display. If it was not this problem we could take a screenshot of the TMFViewer display and use SBuilder to generate a BGL from a bitmap whose colours represent indices. I do not know if LWMViewer has a "one to one" correspondence. If yes you could decompile the BGL, get a screenshot, edit some colours and compile back with SBuilder.May be this post illustrates part of what I am referring to:http://www.ptsim.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f...=150&p=4072Best Regards,Luis

Thanks, Luis. I am working now with LMW Viewer V2. I am able to edit classes but have discovered, as you said, that EZ-Landclass will not accept data unless it is 257x257 indices. LMW produces various files on saving - .ezl (for EZ-Landclass), a .raw file (? for SBuilder) an .inf file and a batch file. Not sure of the purpose of these last two. I will maybe give SBuilder a try with the .raw file (when I have 257x257 indices) - I know that I can right mouse click to create a transparent layer and keep the default. I am beginning to understand Scott's painting thing. Just a way of remembering which class is which. Am I right?Last thing at the moment: My island is small. What to do if there are not 257x257 Land indices?

Thanks, Luis. I am working now with LMW Viewer V2.

Where can I find this program? I can't seem to find it anywhere. Does it work for FS9 or only FSX?Best regards from Colombia,Luis Miguel

In LWMViewer2 you click save on the landclass editing dialog (F4) and it should pop open a box asking if you want to compile the area. Click yes and it will run the batch file which produces a .bgl in the same folder that your .raw, .ezl, .inf, and .bat files are in. Double clicking the batch file directly will do the same thing. Just move the resulting .bgl into an active scenery folder above any other lc in use for the area and you should see the results. If you want to re-edit the area click "open" on the lc editing dialog and select the existing .raw file, edit, and save/compile again.LWMViewer2 can be found on Jim Keir's site:http://www.jimkeir.co.uk/FlightSim/LWMViewer2.htmlYou can download a tutorial on lc editing with LWMViewer2 from the obsolete Vista Australis page linked below. Get the "VOZPlug SDK Part I" found near the bottom of the page.http://vistaoz.org/downloads3.htmlJim

LWMViewer2 can be found on Jim Keir's site:http://www.jimkeir.co.uk/FlightSim/LWMViewer2.htmlYou can download a tutorial on lc editing with LWMViewer2 from the obsolete Vista Australis page linked below. Get the "VOZPlug SDK Part I" found near the bottom of the page.http://vistaoz.org/downloads3.htmlJim

Thanks a lot, Jim. Downloaded files and reading the tutorial...Best regards from Colombia,Luis Miguel

In LWMViewer2 you click save on the landclass editing dialog (F4) and it should pop open a box asking if you want to compile the area. You can download a tutorial on lc editing with LWMViewer2 from the obsolete Vista Australis page linked below. Get the "VOZPlug SDK Part I" found near the bottom of the page.http://vistaoz.org/downloads3.htmlJim

Hmm...on pressing F4 the program does not offer to compile. A box opens with various options including Save. If I save it just saves, it does not offer to compile. I have the .ezl, .inf and .raw files together with a .bat file. I have MSXML4 installed and Bglcomp.exe although not on the same drive. The tutorial is excellent - thanks Jim, and thanks Koorby!

Hmm...on pressing F4 the program does not offer to compile. A box opens with various options including Save. If I save it just saves, it does not offer to compile. I have the .ezl, .inf and .raw files together with a .bat file. I have MSXML4 installed and Bglcomp.exe although not on the same drive. The tutorial is excellent - thanks Jim, and thanks Koorby!

F4 just opens the lc editing dialog is all, but normally when I click save on that dialog it asks if I want to compile so I'm wondering if you have your tools folder set up and declared in the LWMViewer2 preferences. (Koorby covers this first in the tutorial). In looking at one of the .bat files I see it wants to call up resample.exe and tmfviewer.exe so if it doesn't know where those tools are maybe it doesn't offer to compile?Incidentally I've got too many "C:\**" folders on the root drive already (C:\Maps2Bgl, C:\Flight One Software, C:\Imagine Simulation, etc) so I didn't make a C:\LC folder as Koorby instructs but instead I made a "Tools" subfolder in LWMViewer's main installation folder and put them there instead. Also, don't know if Koorby mentions it or not but take the checkmark out of "Lightsource" on the Control Panel (F3) dialog and you'll actually be able to see what you're doing as you work :( .JimEDIT: Also, that .raw file represents all the hard work you've done in landclassing a particular area, you can re-open it in LWMViewer2 if you need to re-edit something that didn't turn out the way you like it in the sim so don't let anything happen to it, make backups, etc. I didn't understand this and accidentally deleted one after I'd spent many hours landclassing thousands of acres in my home state and I had to start all over again. I now make a copy of it on my USB drive after every edit, I'm probably being over-cautious but after that act of stupidity I assure you it won't happen a 2nd time :( .

F4 just opens the lc editing dialog is all, but normally when I click save on that dialog it asks if I want to compile so I'm wondering if you have your tools folder set up and declared in the LWMViewer2 preferences.

:( Thanks, Jim. Up and running! Now I've got a suitably barren island. Problem was the Terrain SDK Tools were in the wrong place. Copied now to the LC folder. Backup advice noted!