Hi guys,this afternoon I was checking out some sceneries I´ve recently added. One of these was LGAV (Athens). Nothing spectacular but better than default. In its neighbourhood I found the old Athens airport (LGAT) which is overgrown by autogen houses and so on due to a better landclass file. However this airport is out of service since 2001 and I want to refect the RW and delete it from the scenery. How can I do this?

I do not think it is recommended to delete stock airport files, but rather to add an exclude file to prevent existing objects, runways, etc from appearing. I am no expert, so maybe someone else can give better advice.

The recommended method to delete anairport is by using the <DeleteAirport........../> element. This prevents it from displaying but doesn't affect the underlying files and so is reversible.See the BGL Compiler SDK for details of how to use it.

The recommended method to delete anairport is by using the <DeleteAirport........../> element. This prevents it from displaying but doesn't affect the underlying files and so is reversible.See the BGL Compiler SDK for details of how to use it.

Where can I get this BGL compiler SDK?

You can delete most of the scenery elements with the freeware airport editor ADE9X for FS9 and FSX.If the airport is visible at all you can close all runways. You can also exclude everything you want and add generic FS scenery objects to cover the space.This will avoid having to write the code yourself. Do an open from stock airport, search for LGAT, and double click it in the list. In the second line of icons the large yellow rectangle is an exclusion tool. Select it and drag the cursor around the airport. Click OK.Now minimize ADE and with Explorer set up on your FS drive set up a folder for this scenery such My Add-on Scenery, then under that a folder called LGAT_Exclusion, and under that a scenery folder. I don't think you'll need a texture folder for this.Now maximize ADE and click File\Save Airport. Navigate to LGAT_Exclusion and save the project for further editing with the suggested name adding to the suggested title Exclusion. Now click File\Compile Airport, add exlusion to the name, navigate to that scenery folder you created under LGAT_Exclusion and save the .bgl there.Open FS, do the setting Scenery Library, Add Area, navigate to the LGAT_Exclusion folder and you should be able to add it. It should be moved so that it has a higher priority (lower number closer to the list top) other than anything that adds airport objects to that immediate area. OK the change and close and start FS to reindex the scenery.LGAT is now effectively gone from FS I would think but has not touched your stock code.Is this what you wanted to do?Here is the site for this freeware editor which describes it and has links to the downloads for the program, manual, and tutorials:http://www.airportdesigneditor.co.uk/It comes with some objects you can add to the exclude object you just defined but I'd just let autogen fill in the area. If this does not do what you want then you could just take that added scenery out of your FS scenery library.Let me know if that works for you.It takes longer to explain than to do.ADE is a handy safe AFCAD type editor for modern designed airport scenery and does not presume to exclude existing scenery elements unintentionally. It also includes an approach editor which exposes waypoints that stock has or added by a developer used by FS to guide AI. To use it to modify an existing afcad type add-on file just choose File\Open from .bgl and navigate to that afcad type file. Make your changes and follow the same save and/or compile process to create a replacement afcad file.It can also work with the payware AFX files used by some add-on airport scenery designers. You'll see some mention in some AVSIM and Flightsim scenery library or afcad library descriptions as designed with ADE and this would be an appropriate editor.

One more thing. After you delete all visual elements with ADE, LGAV will still show up on your map and GPS because of the ARP (Airport Reference Point). There is no safe way to get rid of this. Some folks have edited the FS code, but this can be very dangerous. Others have had luck dragging the ARP to some out of the way place, like the middle of the ocean. Save and compile new non-airport.Bob

Where can I get this BGL compiler SDK?

All the FS2004 SDK's are available at FSDeveloper:http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/downloads.php?do=cat&id=10

Results with ADE:Not being an expert on this by no means, the exclude rectangle did not seem to remove afd items. The selection cursor does not encompass all items as you drag it so I went into AFCAD, dragged around the selection cursor to include everything, and then hit the delete key and saved this file renaming it to exclude.I loaded the airport but in spot view their were still buildings around.In ADE I opened the stock airport gain which gave me the runway/taxiway layout. I drew the exclude rectangle and OK'd it. I then used the selection cursor to write down the NW and SE coordinates of the rectangle. This file was not saved. In ADE I then opened the saved AFCAD with all of the runways, parking, etc., removed, used the ADE marker tool (+) to place marks according to the coordinates I put down, then used these marks to place the the exclusion rectangle and saved the airport project and compiled it to the .bgl.I then tried it in FS loading the airport with the aircraft on the active runway (nothing else listed which is correct) and in spot view it showed a big grassy empty lot with all structures removed.So the problem is in ADE in this case the exclude rectangle did not take out runways, parking, lights, taxiways, that were in the default scenery but AFCAD did. In ADE the exclude rectangle took out the non afd objects such as buildings (by exclusion of a polygon or whatever). Now if ADE had an all encompassing section tool to take out the afd objects, I could have done it all in ADE. It was just too long to pick out each of the total amount of afd objects in ADE. ADE in marking the coordinates to create the exclude rectangle did show the the location points of boats in the water just offshore of the airport that are in this default scenery so was able to preserve these items.Once I figured this out it wasn't bad at all.I'll put a query on the ADE forum.

Seems that it isn´t that easy as I thought, but I´ll try. Thumbs up for that much information!

I'll just add that I have been on the ADE support forum on FS Developer and got straightened out on limitations of ADE. ADE can do the process but it does not have the capability of doing deletes of multiple selected afd objects.It can hide scenery objects (buildings, etc) with an object exclusion rectangle.What LGAV download did you use? As long as I've got an empty lot now for LGAT I may as well add LGAV. :)

I'll just add that I have been on the ADE support forum on FS Developer and got straightened out on limitations of ADE. ADE can do the process but it does not have the capability of doing deletes of multiple selected afd objects.It can hide scenery objects (buildings, etc) with an object exclusion rectangle.What LGAV download did you use? As long as I've got an empty lot now for LGAT I may as well add LGAV. :)

I got it from there http://www.avsim.com/greece/scenery/ LGAV has even AES support.

I know you all have a solution. But it is indeed possible with ADE. I just did it and am left with the same grassy platform that AFCAD left. I did it the hard way, without using exclutions. Exclutions could have been used for parts of the job, and would have helped things go faster. Took less than 15 minutes, which may be more work than most folks are interested in, but you all probably took longer than that switching back and forth between forums and software.Bob

I just found the afd object count was too long to delete each one by single selection. It was just a personal choice. AFCAD just puts in automatically the various delete-all functions to override the default for the afd elements and rubber banding those duplicated afd elements (it automatically places back in from the stock or your loaded layer) with the rubber band technique was easier. Then with further scenery objects deletions in ADE I got rid of some hangars, etc., with the exclude rectangle.Since I am not modifying but deleting an airport I felt it was safe to use AFCAD for some of the work not worrying about unintentional element deletions.I do use ADE for all modifications now where I keep most of the afd elements. I have also used the ADE Approach editor for added navaids. For those that don't know, if you add let us say an ILS to a runway with AFCAD, your aircraft will see it but AI will not. If you add it in ADE it will create a default approach path and then in the Approach Editor you can redefine that approach. In other words in ADE approach waypoints can be added and modified including breaking down the approach into leg sections and defining the FAF and IAF points. (These waypoints and tags are in a different layer and are not visible. Localizers and ILS added in AFCAD will not show in the default GPS wedge view but those added in ADE will. That's one test where your concerned about AI actions.)

If you want that .bgl I created to install in your scenery lib at the priority position you wish PM me your e-mail address and I'll send it to you. If it doesn't work for you you can always remove it.To Bobbyjack:Once I got what was needed to be done down, using both AFCAD and ADE was a quick process for this type of operation. AFCAD did not remove the hangars, etc., which I removed with ADE.

Seems that it isn´t that easy as I thought, but I´ll try. Thumbs up for that much information!

RonzieAs I said, I knew you had already figured it out. I know your solution was faster than mine. I just did it as an exercise. I do try to use as few different pieces of software as possible to do the few things I do in FS. Mixing tools can sometimes cause more problems, especially if you don't know what you are doing(I may not). And I really don't do much in FS9 any more. As I recall, to create airports in FS9, I had to use more than one tool(at least that worked better for me). What I need to do can be done only with ADE, in FSX, anyway.In fact, deleting all those objects was the first time I had really used ADE in FS9. It worked just fine. Bob