Evening all,Decided to carry out some improvements to my local airport (Aberdeen, Dyce: EGPD). This is very much a "my first airport" attempt, so for the time being I've got no material to show off.Anyway, the question is this: In wed, I can add 3D objects from the library. But in WED I cannot view these objects or see precisely how they are positioned. It means that I constantly have to startup X-Plane, see the object, exit X-Plane, make corrections to position, choice of object etc... and then reopen X-Plane to see if I fixed it. It takes ages.....In short it's not a nice workflow. Is there any way of seeing how objects (especially buildings) are going to be placed in WED?As an example, when I place an object in WED, it's depicted as a "+" symbol. it turns out that this symbol depicts the edge of the object and not it's centre. I also have no idea as to the objects shape or size.Any pointers to the right workflow method?Anthony

You can view your scenery in Overlay Editor after it has been placed in the custom scenery folder instead of constantly opening and closing x plane.You can even move and delete objects in overlay editor.Download from here.http://marginal.org.uk/x-planescenery/tools.html

Also you can avoid restarting xplane by simply going to distant airport then make you airport object placement then return to your airport in xplane.Done without exiting xplane.

You can view your scenery in Overlay Editor

This looks promising. Now then, why can't Overlay Editor read my dsf file? (The one in Custom Scenery/EGPD Aberdeen/Earth Nav Data/+50-10) Compared the dsf to one in another custom scenery that loads OK, and the format looks the same..Manual doesn't lend itself to any clues..Aside from this topic, how do you copy what's in the windows 7 explorer address bar? This isn't a problem in XP.

For that kind of elaboration, you're better off going to x-pilot.com or x-plane.org and asking there. All I know of Overlay Editor is what I have imported from FSX and done basic editing. I'm not fluent in scenery.

I renamed the dsf file and it worked. Turns out that not all the default objects are being recognised by the overlay editor (in this case the hangars). Haven't figured out why it's not recognising all the default objects yet...Meanwhile, I got nosy. Downloaded and fired up google sketchup, and found that he Aberdeen Airport terminal and control tower are available to download in google warehouse (and a whole heap of other buildings in NE scotland). Opened them up and exported them to .obj format. Apart from missing textures, I'd say I've got a happy face! Those are two buildings that are unique to Aberdeen airport. If I can figure out how to paint textures in sketchup onto those objects, then I've got the makings of a project here.

Here's the typical preview window that will be available in the soon to be released WED 1.2 beta. It has control over rendering levels with preview of the rendering levels. So you can set your rendering level to say "totally insane" and get a preview in WED of what will show up...and you can set objects to only appear at certain render levels, thereby optimizing your custom scenery. It does not do 3D isometric previews like Overlay Editor, but of course Overlay Editor doesn't support any V10 features or previews of new formats. I have yet to need a 3D isometric preview anyhow.Tom KylerV10 scenery

Here's the typical preview window that will be available in the soon to be released WED 1.2 beta.

Drooling and salivating...

Here's the typical preview window that will be available in the soon to be released WED 1.2 beta

Now that looks like the business! I think waiting patiently is the best solution for me. Meanwhile..... back to sketchup and get some textures painted on those google warehouse objects.

That's pretty impressive, it looks to be well in advance of what we are currently using.

WED 1.2 is actually available here... not sure if it's an "official" beta release, or if it's a preview of sorts. Since it hasn't been announced, I'd say it's probably very much pre-beta, but hey - one can take a look at it...-Greg

Ya, had a look at it earlier this morning, seems fine. I did have an issue with it though. If after editing a scenery in Wed you save it and export the apt.dat it won't open in Overlay Editor, and least the scenery I tried this morning had issues. I could open it fine before any edits in Wed, but if I exported the apt.dat, it then wouldn't open in OE.Glen

Edited February 25, 201214 yr by Muskoka

Finally some preview shots of Aberdeen Airport:I'm using two custom objects here from google warehouse, the rest being default library objects or opensceneryx.Steep learning curve, paticularly with respect to texturing in Sketchup, but hopefully that will become easier.WED1.2 seems to be OK. Some crashes (which also happen in 1.1r1).Not to sure when I'm going to release this package, but on my to-do list:- Taxiway signs- Apron Markings for heliports (main terminal just completed)- Aircraft parking- Flying club buildingThen I should be in a state to release this as version 1.

I could open it fine before any edits in Wed, but if I exported the apt.dat, it then wouldn't open in OE.

I dont' think Jonathan is maintaining OE anymore...he might be, but if so, I am pretty sure he is way behind on implementing V10 features. V10 has so many new formats that it's no surprise that OE won't open files exported out of WED for V10. I would say that until Jonathan expressely comes out and says, "this supports V10", then it's safe to assume once you move to WED 1.2....forget OE for working with those projects.-Tom KylerV10 scenery

Hi Tom, now that I've played with Wed a bit more, don't see a need to use OE anymore, Wed does everything I need, I think.Glen