LWMDraw3 Final release

[Guest]

Hi ALLThanks for the responses and encouragement I recieved from the beta release. This final release should resolve a couple of issues that were of concern to a few beta users (I hope) and I've added another option to set the VTP Layer so you won't have to do that manually within the VTPSource.asm file.Here's the new release: (same hyperlink in the beta message post)http://www.flightsimnetwork.com/webads/lwm/LWMDraw3.zipBecause LWMDraw is created in the VB6 enviroment the vb6 runtime library files are required to be installed as well so if you are running Win98, 98se, or earlier Windows versions, or, if your runtime files may have gotten corrupted in some way you may need to re-install them. Here's a download link for those:Visual Basic 6 Runtime Library dll Files:http://www.flightsimnetwork.com/webads/dow.../VBRun60sp5.exeI'm not really excited to create an install package such as a Setup.exe that will install all the required runtime files for two reasons. One, it makes the upload and download file for LWMDraw much larger and Two, such an install package will place LWMDraw into the Program Files folder which I think is not very convienient for usage although it adds LWMDraw to the Program Group and one can create a simple shortcut icon and place that anywhere for entering the LWMDraw directory directly.A couple beta users reported a common dialog error which is used to open the Windows "Open" dialog window to get and place the image into LWMDraw. After re-inserting the dialog control (which should resolve that issue now) I've also placed "COMDLG32.OCX" into the LWMDraw directory. I don't believe most of you really need this file present so you can delete or move it to some temporary place and see what happens. If you recieve the common dialog error try leaving the .ocx file within the LWMDraw directory and make a copy and place it into the Windows/System directory folder as well and this should resolve that issue as well.Being we're into the Holiday Season I'd like to relate and extend my wish that you ALL have a wonderful and pleasureable Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thanks again so much for the nice comments and efforts to check out LWMDraw. Once we get though the holiday's I'm certain I'll be back to the drawing board as I still want further enhancements added into the LWMDraw interface.Thanks ALL so MuchKen

[Guest]

Hi ALLIf after you install LWMDraw3 and the vb6 runtime library files you still get a runtime error message. Please download and install the below Setup package which will install and register ALL files into your Windows version.LWMDraw3 Setup.exe installation package: 4.14mbhttp://www.flightsimnetwork.com/webads/lwm/pack0a.zipAccording to my research this package will get you up and running.Please EnjoyKen

[Guest]

Hi Ken, and thanks for this tool! It works very well. I had a small 'problem' when I tried to add a highway and a couple of smaller road types in the same square - everything turned out the same in FS, but then I found that I have to make separate bgl's for each road type. Works nicely.Some small wishes for a future version:*** Making the program remember all your settings (coordinates, road/line type last used, file names&directories) would make life a little easier on larger projects*** Optional automatic naming of asm-files (my suggestion: lod8 square + lod 13 square + two-letter code rd=road sh=shoreline + the fournumber code from your dropdown list - Would look something like 4350190645rd1087.asm). Again this would simplify keeping track of big projects including lots of lod13 sqares and different types of lines in each...*** Possibilty to switch the lod13 square numbers without having to retype and recalculate from the coordinates (once you start from one lod13 square it would be easier just in/decrementing the values to walk around your area)*** Automated combination of several asm files into one to decrease the amount of bgl files. You documentation showed how to do it easily with a text editor, but I'm lazy ... ;-)Two more questions that popped into my mind right now...- Railways - is there a selection for this? Forgot to look for it...- Islands - can I make an island in the middle of an existing lake or ocean using this tool?It's a very nice program indeed, and I will certainly use it a lot the next few days (weeks) to add roads and coastlines to my current EFHN scenery project! It will cover some 50+ lod13 squares with coastlines in more than 1/3 of them, three types of roads, railway and one little lake. BamceEFHN

[Guest]

Oh, yes - one more wish - a road vtp line made just of plain grass - to make the 'roads' for high-voltage powerlines. Those are very visible elements in dense wood areas. Another thought: I wonder if it would be possible to automate the placement of an 3d object api macro (a powerline pole) along such a vtp road at certain intervals, say every 150m or so? Would make quite an improvement for vfr scenery! BamceEFHN

[Guest]

This is what my EFHN area looked like in the scenery I made for Fly! Now i would like to get as close as possible with my MSFS scenery... and LWMdraw will certainly help me out with important parts of it!The city itself was made from satellite photography, the rest from maps. You can clearly see the roads and the amount of shoreline and islands... This area is about 20x10 km. BamceEFHN

[Guest]

Hi BamceThanks for the nice comments and the suggestions too. Such a list is worthy to take note of and keep for future reference. Once we get ourselves through the holiday season I'm sure I'll be back into banging my head against the wall trying to figure out how to implement some of your suggestiions. In the mean time I'm really glad that LWMDraw3 is a helpful tool for you and others. One of the first things on my own suggestiion list is to add a zoom and scrolling feature so cursor placement (accuracy) will be easier especially when working with multiple Areas and I've already been looking into creating an .ini file to save the project settings into. What's a priority and most important to me is to keep the LWMDraw user interface simple and easy to use so everyone can enjoy a quick enhancement of their FS Experience.If you visit this forum often you'll no doubt come up with about ten times the amount of suggestions because we're all just now learning many new techniques and processes within the BGL graphic language. There is already many message threads on the LWM and VTP subjects where you'll find some of your suggestions already possible to edit into the source files.Multiple LWM and VTP poly's are easily possible within the same source file as well as mulitple Cells and Areas within the same source file but LWMDraw just creates a one poly per file per LOD 13 Area at this point. Again if you visit this forum on a regular basis you'll certainly find these and other subjects of interest. Also as mentioned in the Help tutorial menu of LWMDraw3 I strongly recommend that you check out and read Richard's LWM tutorial lwmtut.zip so you'll have knowledge of what you can do with Cells, Areas and the parameters within the source files.----------------------------------------->Some small wishes for a future version: >*** Making the program remember all your settings >(coordinates, road/line type last used, file >names&directories) would make life a little easier on larger >projectsYes, I want this options too and I'm sure it'll become a part of LWMDraw in the future.----------------------------------------->*** Optional automatic naming of asm-files (my suggestion: >lod8 square + lod 13 square + two-letter code rd=road >sh=shoreline + the fournumber code from your dropdown list - >Would look something like 4350190645rd1087.asm). Again this >would simplify keeping track of big projects including lots >of lod13 sqares and different types of lines in each...I wouldn't even begin to rule out this option although it may not be in the same format as your suggestion. I think in terms of keeping the program simple to use long file names may complicate things for some users. At this point one can rename the source file after it's generation and I've been thinking already about making an input box so the user can name the source file before generation giving the file a name that the user gives him or herself. Frankly I'd like to see more suggestions on this subject as well and I'm sure I will.----------------------------------------->*** Possibilty to switch the lod13 square numbers without >having to retype and recalculate from the coordinates (once >you start from one lod13 square it would be easier just >in/decrementing the values to walk around your area)At the moment this possibility is out of the question as LWMDraw3 has to be told which Area it's working with and only works within a single Area, (one at a time), and that's the scope of LWMDraw3's intended development. I'm not at all discounting this possibility however because in time I for certain want to broaden the scope to enclude at least a single Cell and all 1,024 Areas that make up the Cell. No doubt there's room for more discussion on this subject. I think it's going to take the creation of a class object resource file, something of a data tablet, to expand the scope and at this early point in my programming knowledge I've not experienced creating or working with such class objects. I'm sure in time though we'll see this feature as well.----------------------------------------->*** Automated combination of several asm files into one to >decrease the amount of bgl files. You documentation showed >how to do it easily with a text editor, but I'm lazy ... ;-)One of the downsides to programming and FS scenery designing is it's all very time consuming and tedious. It's always been that way and it will always be that way. Again there is allot to be learned about the new features and options that came to us with the release of FS2002 and the BGLC graphic language. FS2004 will bring even more along with it and as time goes on I think you'll find yourself always learning new techniques and processes to enhance the FS experience. At this point and as mentioned within the LWMDraw3 Help tutorial file, there are allot more options available within the TDF file structures of LWM's and VTP's that LWMDraw3 does not include yet and I have along way to go in the learning curve for these and for programming as well. I guess we'll just have to see what happens in the future with this one.----------------------------------------->Two more questions that popped into my mind right now... >- Railways - is there a selection for this? Forgot to look >for it... >- Islands - can I make an island in the middle of an >existing lake or ocean using this tool?It seems I've read somewhere about adding Railway poly's but I did't notice this within the terraintextures.cfg file. I think if you try the forum search option you may find more information on this subject. For Islands I've done a couple of experiments and been un-successfull at this point but I do know it's possible. Maybe this is where Richard or someone can step in and give us some more knowledge. I'd certainly like to include that feature but my experiments resulted in having 35,000 foot tall spikes comming out of the FS earth. (with really long waterfalls)-----------------------------------------Thanks again Bamce for looking into and working with LWMDraw3. I certainly appreciate your comments and suggestions so please keep them comming. The LWMDraw development list grows with great ideas such as yours.Thanks Bunches :)Ken

[Guest]

Thanks Ken for another fast and extensive response. Yes, I have been following the discussions on LWMs and VTPs here, but so far the step to try using the knowledge has simply been too high (as I said, I'm lazy...). Your tool is the first one that combines the current knowledge into a tool that most of us with a little scenery design experience easily can use. I agree that you should keep the interface simple! The zooming option will be very useful, and I am looking forward to all other coming development on this topic. I'll let you know how my project develops (and be sure I'll be back with more needs :-cool )!BamceEFHN

[arno 1]

>Oh, yes - one more wish - a road vtp line made just of plain >grass - to make the 'roads' for high-voltage powerlines. >Those are very visible elements in dense wood areas. Can you not already achieve that by just selecting the grass texture (1183) for your line?>Another thought: I wonder if it would be possible to >automate the placement of an 3d object api macro (a >powerline pole) along such a vtp road at certain intervals, >say every 150m or so? Would make quite an improvement for >vfr scenery! It's of course for Ken to answer if he want's to do it :), but API's are SCASM things, so they can not be mixed with VTP things in one file. Of course the program could create two files, one SCASM file for the API's and one VTP file for the roads, but that might make the program more complex :). Also the coordinate system is different for the VTP's so that needs another conversion then.Arno

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Member Netherlands 2000 Scenery Team[a href=http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen]http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen/banner.jpg[/a]

[Guest]

BamceTo make LWMDraw a full fledged scenery designing program would certainly take more than just one (wanna-be) programmer like myself. The addition of features to include the adding of object macros and many other options will probably never happen with LWMDraw however it is simple to use and easy to learn and that's my first success in development of a progam such as this.Also and unlike many other programs, LWMDraw along with it's project source files are open source to any developing programmers with "Freeware" intentions and with that it's my hope that LWMDraw might be helpful for future upgrades to Airport, FSSC, GroundMaker, and TerraBuilder Lite. In that respect we'll hopefully have full fledged FS scenery deisgn programs with this new technology.Thanks again for your comments.Ken

[Guest Claviateur]

Very interesting tool, thanks so much for sharing it with us.My question is will it be possible in future versions to load a bitmap higher then 256x256?As I did a coastline using AutoAsm, I am now thinking to put shorlines with waves for it but my AutoAsm coast was done based on a Raw file wish is 1600x1200 pixels.Or is it a limitation in FS?ThanksMichel

[Guest]

Downloaded, unzipped and the final version and installed it, then pack0a, and unfortunately it seems that the runtime error 13 is back! Same behavior as before.... It works on my portable, but not on my home computer. Both are running XP pro.BamceEFHN

[Guest]

Well dang it anyway!! :(At this point Bamce I wouldn't know what or how to get your problem resolved. I'm inclined to think that something must not be right with your PC's settings or registry or possibly regional settings but I wouldn't begin to know what advise to give. For the most part and so far your problem isn't being a reduntant one in that no one else has reported what is happening to you (at least not yet). I certainly do hope you get it worked out and let me know what caused the error.Sorry but I feel helpless in this matter.Good LuckKen

[spotlope 0]

Hi Ken,Thanks for doing so much work on this project! I do a little light programming myself, and I can appreciate how much of your time and energy this must have taken so far. I've got one item to add to the wish list if you don't mind. Bear with me, because I'm not sure how much trouble this would be, but would it be possible to have a red (or white, or whatever color) 1px dot show up each time you click to create a point. Sometimes I get so caught up in tracing my roads or whatever that I forget where I started. Lame, I know, lol. Of course, adding the dots might then necessitate removing them if a point was removed from either list to the side. And of course the ultimate would be click-and-drag repositioning of the points -- but I wouldn't want to get greedy ;-).thanks,

[Guest]

Hi MichelAt this point LWMDraw only deals with single LOD 13 areas at a time which require the 256x256 pixel image. I'm certain placing shorelines to your coastline can be done using Richard's CellGrid files and ALLOT of screenshots.I'm uncertain what the future of LWMDraw will bring but I do hope to continue to develop it's scope to include a single Cell and with that it may be possible to load a 8160x8160 pixel sized image. At the moment my programming knowledge does not have what it takes to get such a job done but as my knowledge grows so will LWMDraw.I hope you'll find LWMDraw helpful in the meantime.Happy HolidaysKen

[Guest]

Ok Bill now your getting pushy :) (not really just kidding bro)Actually, that's not a bad idea. The first time I did the Bush Lake example was even before the first LWMDraw version. I had a template file from Richards LWM Tutorial and used psp to find the LWMPoints and doing that I made white spots on the image. It took over a couple of hours to get all the data points going through 4 LOD 13 Areas having to go back and forth between psp and the template file for each data point and that's exactly where the idea of LWMDraw came to being in the first place.I think being that the image thats loaded into LWMDraw isn't a texture or doesn't even reach FS itself it wouldn't matter if little spots were added or not and I really like the idea of being able to move the spots as well.Alrighty Then, this note is well taken and on the development list although like you at this point I'm unknowing of exactly how to add this feature but I'll bet at some point it'll be there.Super Regards and thanks for the comments.Ken