As the xp.org forum with all the answers has been down at least 8h so I'm runnin out of patience!

 

Anyway..

 

Im trying to design a (sort of) small scenarey. It's basically just a helipad but with some elaborate town-forrest-harbour-park-tower area around it. The helipad is also very wrong placed which is the frustrated (well) reason behind this endevour. The main issue is I'm confused how osm2xp, OE and WED is suposed to work together.

 

1. I download and convert the OSM area of my interest with osm2xp (v2.02) and hence also getting the XP file structure in the Custom Scenery Folder. As always getting conversion warnings but having tried several versions of osm2xp this is the best I can do. The conversion options you can see here, here and here.

 

2. I open up the master apt.dat in notepad++ and copies the data for the ESHT "airport" (yeah, worlds smallest one as it seems) and creates a new one, adding "I" and "850" at start, "99" at end, saving it in the new Earth Nav Data folder of my scenery.

 

3. I test it directly in XP. It looks like shite but at least it opens as opposed to the majority of the previous atempts and actually has some buildings! Amazing!

 

4. Exit and open the scenery in OE which not surpringsingly gives error and all "facades" are just red "outlines". How - and where - do you correct that?

 

5. I then open up the scenery in WED. Finds an backgrounds image of the area and add it, then imports the apt.dat and the only Def file in the folder to get, well most of, the fasades and the "airport" showing. Here I can shange the location of the pad but I'm not sure if this was the reason for the previous crashes in XP. I also notice some exclusion areas (rather big). Am I to remove them? Or just change them?

 

6. And finnaly, if I now want to add or change objects, facades or maby background textures how do you work? Do you add the objects in WED or in OE? Or both? Changing/Adding the location of of arports is from what I understand done soley in WED.

Hello,

 

Osm2xp just generates buildings / objects / forests , using a openStreetMap data source.

Those warnings messages warns you that osm2xp couldn't generate stuff with your file, it may be that your area of interest is empty in openStreetMap database.

You can check the map by yourself at this url http://www.openstreetmap.org/ .

 

Overlay Editor and WED are tools to place/edit buildings/objects in xplane.

It also appears you have your workflow in reverse. If you want to modify or build an airport this is not how I would approach it.

 

You could really simplify this by using only 2 programs WED for your airport/heliport and OSM2XP for your town.

Here are the basic steps (I will use KTPA since I'm from Tampa):

 

1) Create a new folder in X-Plane's Custom scenery folder.

You can name it anything you want but I would probably suggest using the ICAO reference code to make it simple to find.

 

2) Obtain a geo-referenced image of the airport you want to modify.

There are several ways to get such an image, I use a tool called NoniMapView which saves Bing/Yahoo/Google map images as jpeg files, and you will also get a reference .map text file. Save your image in the folder you created.

 

 

 

3) Open World Editor (WED) and import your Image.

If you've never launched WED it will ask you to choose your X-Plane folder, once you do that it will populate the window with a list of custom scenery folders. Select the folder you created (in my case I will select the KTPA folder)

 

 

 

After a few seconds the WED editor will appear. If you have your aerial image you can import this in now by going to View > Pick Overlay Image and the choose your file. If your image is a geotiff it will automatically place itself in the correct location. However, if you are using the image obtained from NoniMapView you will need to use the values in .map text file to precisely place the image in to the correct location.

 

*** I will make a second post showing you how to use the values in the .map file to precisely place your jpg image

 

4) Import your airport

If you are simply modifying an existing airport you can import it in from the apt.dat file that comes with X-Plane and is located in the Resources/default scenery/default apt dat/Earth nav data/ folder , or you can download the latest apt.dat from Robin Peel http://data.x-plane.com/get_data.html.

 

To import this data go to File > Import apt.dat and navigate to the location where the apt.dat is stored. Open the file (which takes about a minute to load) and the import apt.dat window will appear. Type in the name of the airport (ICAO identifier will also work) and it will filter through the list until it finds your airport. Select your airport and click the import button and it will bring it into the main WED window. You can do a Zoom Selection (View > Zoom Selection) to see the airport you brought in.

 

 

 

5) Save and Export your work

Once you've brought your airport into WED make sure to Save (File > Save) and then Export Scenery Pack (File > Export Scenery Pack)

 

Now you can continue to use WED to move/modify the airport layout, and add buildings and objects using Laminar's art assets, or a 3rd Party's art asset library such as OpenSceneryX or FF Library.

 

You can also use OverlayEditor (OE) at this point to as a guide in helping you to place objects since you can preview the scenery in a simplified orthogonal 3d view. Though I find it kinda unnecessary. But if you decide to use OE make sure you get the latest package (2.23 as of this writing) since it supports X-Plane 10's facades ... otherwise they will not show-up correctly in the viewer.

 

As for OSM2XP, this is a completely separate program that is for generating buildings outside your airport. I'll explain later a good practice on how to use them.

Please do the tutorial on how to import the .map data to WED. This tool makes everything so much easier!! If we can easily make the Image wito Geo Reference anyone can do their own version of their home town airport and more

Looks like the MAP file contains the lat/long coordinates of the corner points in both the degree minutes-decimal format, and the degree-decimal format which WED prefers.

 

Open up the MAP file in a text editor, and look towards the bottom of the file for (4) lines beginning with MMPLL. Those are the point longitude/latitude figures, and it looks like it is presented starting at the upper-left, and working clockwise...

 

 

MMPLL,1,-71.439800,41.733533

MMPLL,2,-71.413794,41.733533

MMPLL,3,-71.413794,41.709765

MMPLL,4,-71.439800,41.709765

 

From the top, this is point 1 at -71.439800 longitude, 41.73353 latitude

...then point 2, then point 3, and finally point 4.

 

Simply:

12

43

 

One would just plop in the JPG file into WED as described in the earlier instructions, and then just copy/paste the coordinates from your MAP file onto the appropriate corner points properties of the JPG in WED to set their referenced locations. Make sure to capture any minus signs, as they would represent west longitudes or south latitudes.

 

Once done, you'll likely observe the JPG has snapped to a proper location! Be sure to "Lock" the JPG into position once you have it properly referenced, as an inadvertent click and drag can easily move it from its proper location.

 

Easy stuff!

-Greg

Perfect! So easy wow!

 

I wish doing 3d models was also this easy!

Ha looks like Greg beat me to it!

 

Anyways to expand on what he said, you can also convert an aerial image to an draped polygon in WED ... meaning you can have an airport with an orthophoto texture below it. The only two requirements are:

1) The image can only be either a .png or .dds (which you can convert to using an image editor)

and

2) The image dimensions needs to be a power of 2.

 

The following texture sizes are valid

512x512

1024x1024

2048x2048

4096x4096* Only in v10.10 and higher

 

Once you have your image in WED you can convert it to a draped polygon by going to Edit > Make Draped Polygons

 

Your new layer with a .pol file will appear at the bottom of the layer window (you should lock the layer to prevent accidental movement).

 

 

 

 

Once you have made a draped polygon you can continue to edit the .png. You do not need to redo these steps.

Yes thank you everyone - this is wonderful!

 

I created a new overlay (a little bigger) with that absolutely great little app NoniMapView and got the picture AND the MAP file which I DIDN'T have before. If I understand correctly, this is also very useful when you then want the OSM file from OpenStreetMap.org, using the lat/long coordinates. But as you said, OpenStreetMap is not necessary for the this overlay!

 

Also "the power of two" - one of those things I didn't know that I already knew! :lol: ! But as I also came across it in the xplane forum on topics regarding setting texture to facades and I hope to get back to you on that one!

 

But draped polygon - yes, noted! I used the png format in my previous overlay. But are you suppose to split it up in power-of-two pieces when doing this or can you use the overlay as one whole "polygon piece"? As power-of-two?

 

I also downloaded the newest OE (damn, they update quickly!) and the newest apt.dat from LR. As of this moment I've not yet fired up XP to see if they've corrected the ESHT helipad (or minimal "airport" :P) but otherwise I might need to do that before proceeding.

 

Otherwise, I think the OSM-thing will be important as buildings will be the major part of the scenery so I hope to be able to do that soon (correctly that is). Then again it might be good to move slow. It's nevertheless a nice diverse area which make it fun and challenging. In any case, I hope I'm not running ahead of my self! ^_^ ! It's much new info and I've not tested all yet but I'll soon get back with more! Aw yes,,, a little sleep perhaps!

If I understand correctly, this is also very useful when you then want the OSM file from OpenStreetMap.org, using the lat/long coordinates.

 

Interesting idea! I hadn't thought to use the orthophoto guidance with an OSM map instead of a photo.... that would make aligning items with the OSM roads a far easier affair, should the OSM data not be accurate or in sync with the orthophoto you might be using for guidance.

 

As a sidenote - how long until we get this feature functionality in the X-Plane world? :P

Incredible stuff guys! I really think this deserves to be pinned to every new X-Plane user to see and realize the power they have in their hands. So easy to do your home town airport, I just changed mine to match the runway length that was incredible wrong with the default scenery.

 

The only thing lacking is making 3d buildings. So I ask you, is there a easy way to do hangars, terminals, etc, that matches the real ones and not just some generic building? I don't want incredible details, just something with the right dimensions, a generic texture, that alone would make the airport so much more realistic! I tried Blender, but those 3d modeling programs is too complex, even if making something is easy, there's so much stuff, and you only use 1% of it, so confusing... And then I couldn't export the 3d to x-Plane.

 

Is there an easy way, like WED, to do this? Sorry If I'm asking too much, I'm just using this opportunity to get every information from you guys which obviously know a lot more thna I do

Is there an easy way, like WED, to do this?

 

Yes and no. How's that for a definitive answer.

 

"Facades" in WED are used to draw the outlines of buildings, and the system will fill in the rest with a 3D object of that size and shape.

 

You can see a facade here in my T.F. Green (KPVD) scenery I'm working on for myself...

 

 

The terminal, and the parking garages behind it are facades from the XP10 library. (The ramp equipment and jetways are standard library objects as well, as you might imagine)

 

There are some new hangar facades in WED with the 10.10 beta, but they are rather large and not terribly well suited for a smaller airport - they're even too big for me to use in my above PVD project.

 

So making the long story short, YES, you can create structures which follow the path and size you wish... but NO, there are limitations based on the size and texture styles which are currently available.

 

Tom has mentioned that he's interested in putting more focus on the facades available to us, so as time goes on we might get more capabilities.

 

-Greg

I tried building a facade but when I started X-Plane it gave me an error and quit. I think I didn't choose any texture for the facade in WED, that's probably why

I would file a bug report with Ben if that had happened.

Ok, I tried my new overley in WED and it was just a charm aligning it (higlight overley, "Select" menu "Select Vertices") using the coordinates! Well, except for som forrest regions that goes outside the frame (?).

 

The OSM conversions are still a mess. I had to use osm2xp v1.1 this time, others vs didn't work. And as always - incomplete. It seems to be related to the size of the selection your converting, or a bad osm-file (I've tried several exports). Perhaps it's also a include/exlude-thing in the converion (?).

 

In XP the result is somewhat interesting despite of the obvious work that needs to be done. I actually thinking of keeping one or two of these "avant garde" architechtures, as an artistic freedom! Roads are another problem. Or is this also related to the "Show with" options in WED? And it seems the new apt.dat didn't do much to the HP location :lol: (not really expected either)!

 

As a sidenote - how long until we get this feature functionality in the X-Plane world? :P

 

Now THAT would be a dream! As always FSX runs ahead in something XP desperately needs!

 

And nice work there, Greg! Love the skyline. The green groundtextures, was that something you added or is it XP default.

 

I tried building a facade but when I started X-Plane it gave me an error and quit. I think I didn't choose any texture for the facade in WED, that's probably why

 

Yes, that sounds familiar. Think I ran into that one too. But what I'm also missing in this context is a reference guide to the facades/objects, just as in OpenSceneryX DP, where you have pictures of the lot. Selecting "facade12" as resource in WED doesn't say much unless you go to OE for a look! (Or have I missed something?).

 

Z