Do you ever find it frustrating to fly to an airport only to find your approach to the runway impeded by tall trees or to (almost?) collide with a VOR or other object actually on the runway? While there's not much you can do about these objects on the first try, you can wield a virtual chainsaw/wrecking ball and remove them for subsequent visits with just a few simple steps:________________________________________1) Do a search in the Flightsim.com library for bgltkit0.zip and download it (sorry, couldn't find it at Avsim).http://img75.exs.cx/img75/1788/bgltkit0.jpg2) Extract its contents into a folder of its own.3) Download VB40032.DLL from this site] and place it in the folder into which you extracted the BGL Toolkit.4) If you have a sectional chart that includes the airport in question, refer to it to determine the magnetic variation at that field. Otherwise, open AFCAD v2.xx and then open the airport in question. Take note of the magnetic variation by double-clicking anywhere there isn't an object to find the variation in this box (just used my home airport as an example):http://img78.exs.cx/img78/8615/MagneticVariation.jpg5) Open FS and go to the airport/area in question. The airport I'm showing in this exclude is 2S9, Willapa Harbor Airport in South Bend (Raymond), Washington, USA.6) Slew over to the object(s) you'd like to exclude, + "S" and zoom to a desired overhead view, and rotate your plane so your heading is true north (360 minus east variation, 0 plus west variation).7) Without rotating your plane again (keeping it oriented to true north so your rectangle is bounded as you expect it to be), go to a point northwest of the object(s) that would include all of it/them if lines were to be extended true east and true south of your position. Write down the coordinates (no elevation needed).NOTE: In this case, this aircraft's heading (magnetic in the sim) is 341 because variation is 18.5 E (360 - 18.5 = 341.5).http://img71.exs.cx/img71/5487/2s9NW.jpg8) Again without rotating (it may be best to use your keyboard's numpad keys with NumLock off for this), slew down to a point southeast of the object(s) that would form a box when joined with the northwest point that includes everything to be excluded and write down the coordinates.http://img71.exs.cx/img71/8986/2s9SE.jpg9) Exit FS and start the executable file BGLTKit32.exe that you extracted in step 2.10) Click "I agree!!" to enter the program proper and then click the Exclude File Builder tab.12) Enter your coordinates in an accepted format (i.e., N 46 41.92), leaving the "Span" and "Total Area" boxes empty, and click Recalc. Check the box beside "Scenery Tiles and Objects" to exclude the visible scenery objects within the rectangle specified by the coordinates you entered.NOTE: If you're trying to remove only visible objects from FS, do not click on any of the other three boxes (even if you're trying to remove a visual VOR or NDB), as this was intended to remove the functionality of such facilities and not their visual presence in the sim.http://img78.exs.cx/img78/6374/BGLToolkit.jpg12)[/b Click "Create Exclude File", name your new .bgl file (no need to place .bgl after the filename, as BGL Toolkit does this for you), and place the resultant .bgl file in your Addon Sceneryscenery folder (or another folder activated in the Scenery Library in FS).FS will re-index its scenery files on startup, and you're done!!________________________________________This may seem overwhelming at first (lots of little steps), but before long you'll find that it's easy to do and remember. I find it very valuable to be able to clear a few unrealistic runway- or approach-blocking objects here and there from airports that I frequent (especially as a bush pilot ;-) ), and I hope you will, too.Happy flying,Kevin

An alternative in the FS2004 new style XML format is available - excbuilderv2.zip as a standalone exclude builder. A third alternative is SceneGenX - http://www.airportforwindows.com/ .You also need MSXML4.0 available from this site.I also recommend downloading the FS2004 SDKs from http://www.microsoft.com/games/flightsimulator/ , downloads, FS2004SDK.W. Sieffert

Thanx a lot Kevin and W. Sieffert, very useful tutorial.Rgds,Hamilton

Reallly old thread but just found it when I had to make an exclude. Great little program!It's actually a little easier even then described in the tutorial- since if you press the spacebar during SLEW mode your A/C will automatically line up with true north.I just fired up FS, slewed to the two "corners" that would define the exclude, and read the numbers off the screen and put them right into the program. Then i compiled the bgls, shut FS down, put the bgls into some scenery, and fired up FS again.Ruahrc

Ruahrc,Thanks for the tip. I'd found that out some time back and forgot that I had posted this tutorial using the time-consuming AFCAD method. Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you've found.:-)Have fun up there,Kevin

You can create your own .bgls quite simply as shown in the following snippet that can be created in notepad as xxxxx.xml.<?xml version="1.0"?>The exclude options that can be included in ExclusionRectangle are: excludeAllObjects = "TRUE" excludeBeaconObjects = "TRUE" excludeEffectObjects = "TRUE" excludeGenericBuildingObjects = "TRUE" excludeLibraryObjects = "TRUE" excludeTaxiwaySignObjects = "TRUE" excludeTriggerObjects = "TRUE" excludeWindsockObjects = "TRUE"where "TRUE" means exclude and "FALSE" means don't exclude.If you download the BGLCOMP SDK you'll have a file called BGLCOMP.EXE. Drag your xxxxx.xml file onto it and it will create a file called xxxxx.bgl. (Alternatively, you can use the Command Prompt "bglcomp xxxxx.xml" which will also shown error messages if you've made an error in the .xml file.) Finally, copy the .bgl file into .../Addon Scenery/scenery folder.

And, if you don't want to hand-code anything, it can even be much simpler than the first method.Just get ExcBuilder by Paavo Pihelgas, in the AvSim library. - fire up ExcBuilder - launch Flight Simulator - slew to the Northwest of the object that you wish to exclude - read the coordinates in ExcBuilder - slew to the Southeast of the object that you wish to exclude - read coordinates in ExcBuilder - generate exclude bglIt all takes about 30 seconds.Best regards.Luis