I have been using ADE9x to modify a stock airport by adding a newly activated runway. I have added the runway, but the gound textures are bleeding through at one end.I am being told this is because I did not "flatten" the terrain before I placed the runway.According to everything I've read, ADE9x allows you to use polygons to create a "flattened" area. But after going through the entire 199 page manual all I can find are references to ADE9x's ability to create a flatten, but no step by step instructions on how to do it?Straight from the manual:

If Edit Individual Points is unchecked in the polygon properties box then the altitude box

is accessible and the value there is used for all vertices on the polygon. Generally this is

the method used to create a flatten for an airport. In some cases the placing of an airport

flatten will cause 'cliffs' in the surrounding scenery.

In the manual, the properties page of the example identify it as a "Flatten". This apparently is selected in the "Dialog Box" which I presume is the Tool Bar at the top of the ADE9x screen. In the property boxes of any polygon I create it either says "Exclude" or "Apron". I can't find any other choices.Appreciate any direction you may giveRandy

Hi Randy,Polygon flattens, excludes etc. are available only in ADEX. ie. when creating AFD files for FSX.

Okay,I downloaded the manual for ...9x and it says ...9x is capable of adding flattens. I didn't see where it said that tool was available only in FSX. Is that what you are saying? Even though ADE9x is for both FS9 and FSX that some tools only work in specific platforms?Does an earlier version that is FS9 only do flattens?If not, how do I flatten an area to prepare it for a stock airport modification by ADE9x?Randy

Randy,Your Quote is from chapter 15 of the ADE9X manual which clearly states at the beginning of the chapter that "Terrain Elements" are for FSX only.There are several ways to create flattens for FS9.One trick is to place an apron under your runway as aprons in FS9 will flatten the terrain to match the airport elevation.SBuilder is a tool I use to create flatten polys. It has a bit of a learning curve but once you get use to it you will find it can do many things like create airport backgrounds and flattens, edit roads, shorelines and other vector objects and much more. It is free and available at fsdeveloper.com where there is also a support forum. Another tool, by Steve Greenwood, that does nothing but create flattens is available here- http://home.earthlink.net/~smgreenwood/resources-g.shtmlYou can also add flatten switches to the scenery.cfg with Notepad, though you are limited to a rectangle with this method where the other tools will create custom polys.This is from an old document that I have, but do not remember where it came from. Disregard the FS2000 statement, this method also works in FS9.

How to use the flattening switch The Flatten switch flattens a given four-sided area to a single specified elevation. This solves the problems that might occur with backward-compatible scenery due to the fact that Flight Simulator 2000 uses a digital elevation mesh terrain system instead of the flat "seed" system from prior versions. The Flatten switch syntax is as follows: Flatten.X=Elevation,Latitude1,Longitude1,Latitude2,Longitude2,Latitude3,Longitude3,Latitude4,Longitude4 X is equal to a number between 0 and 9, but you must start with Flatten.0, then Flatten.1, and so on, up to Flatten.9. You are allowed a maximum of 10 Flatten switches per Scenery Area (thus the numbers 0-9). The Elevation is in feet above or below mean sea level (msl) and can be any number between -2000 and 99999. The Latitude and Longitude of points 1, 2, 3, and 4 must be entered in a clockwise or counter clockwise fashion about the four sided area such as: and must be in the form of degrees and minutes. You do not need to add the * or ' symbols to indicate degrees and minutes, and the shape does not have to be a rectangle. Any four-sided shape will work. The maximum size of a flattened area is 90 degrees of longitude and 45 degrees of latitude. EXAMPLE: This example flattens two separate but adjacent regions inside the scenery area to an elevation of 1000' MSL. [Area.100]Group=Your AreaID=Your AreaTitle=Your AreaActive=TRUELayer=100Local=C:\Your AreaFlatten.0=1000,N45 30,W120,N45 30,W119 30,N45,W119 30,N45,W120Flatten.1=1000,N45,W120,N45,W119 30, N44 30,W119 30,N44 30,W120

regards,Joe

Joe,Thank you so much for the info. I really do appreciate it.

clearly states at the beginning of the chapter that "Terrain Elements" are for FSX only.

Missed that part...my apologies, I was pretty tired by then... Randy

Joe,Thank you so much for the info. I really do appreciate it.Missed that part...my apologies, I was pretty tired by then... Randy

FS9 and FSX use different methods to create terrain polys. ADE currently can only use the FSX method. We hope to extend to FS9 in a future version

No Problem, Jon. I used Joe's suggestion of placing an apron polygon under the added runway. The terrain "tear" that was showing up completely disappeared on my screen. Just placed a very small (just barely bigger than the runway) grass polygon before placing the runway. The grass border looks good and the runway now looks great. I followed all my new taxiways and no terrain "tears" anywhere so no grass polygons needed there. It's looking good. I used ADE9x's building and object placer tonight for the first time. Looks nice. Awesome program!!!!:( Randy