LWMDraw4 (Beta 3)

[Guest]

Hi AllNo big deal just some tweaking from beta 2 that should make the interface easier to use. I moved the editable Cell and Area textboxes to the "Draw Data Points" Tab and a few other small unnoticable changes.Here Ya Go:http://www.flightsimnetwork.com/webads/lwm/LWMDraw4b3.zipFor those of you giving suggestions for future upgrades I thank you very much and please keep them comming. I'll place them into the development list but I hope you'll understand that my programming knowledge is somewhat limited at this point so LWMDraw will remain just a simple plane-jane easy and helpful tool that deals and works within any single LOD 13 Area.If LWMDraw ended up a do it all program than how would we learn the BGLC language? By having to manually edit multiple Areas into one soure file (in order to have less bgl's) we will become more familiar with the code conventions and parameters giving us even more knowledge and with that I feel LWMDraw is a sucessful educational tool as well.One important thing I want to stay away from is making LWMDraw any more difficult to use. I believe a simple to use interface will make it's use much more enjoyable, functional, and educational. This is part of the scope of intended development. LWMDraw already does much more than I developed it to do for me as a Bush Pilot type scenery designer.I'm certain that our major scenery design programs such as Airport, FSSC, GroundMaker, and most likely Architect will be going to TDF file technology as it is what's default now within FS2002 and future FS versions. Those developers have probably forgotten more than I'll ever know and I hope they make the move soon as FS2004 will probably be comming to us this year and I'm uncertain how much backward compatability the FS developers are going to take away. I understand (and could be wrong) that the old FLAT seed scenery engine from FS98 and previous FS versions will not be supported and FS2000 supports those ground polygons. We'll see what happens!!!I hope you enjoyKen

[Guest]

Thank you for a great and timesaving program :-sun1I have just tried beta2 and I liked the water/land choise I just wondered if it would have been possible to add a zoom-function that doubles the size of the picture?I understand that zooming is difficult, but if you could have a choise of 256*256 or 512*512 for instance?Then its just a matter of divide the values by 2.

[Guest]

Hi KnutI've been experimenting with several zoom and scroll examples and getting the image to zoom is easy to do but the problem then goes to the Cell XY and Area XY Label display's. The values from those label display's are sent directly to the listboxes when the mouse click event happens. The listboxes and num Lines/Points boxes get printed into the source file(s) and so far I haven't been successful but as I continue to experiment and play I think I am getting closer to getting it worked out. (I hope)My next experiment will be to create a math Function for zooming then call the function from the PictureBox control that shows the image within the window. (dang I hope it works)I believe your on the right track. :)This programming stuff takes allot of hours. :(ThanksKen

[Guest gorchi]

Hi Ken!I advise You to not to bother for linear stepless scaling, just predefine max 3 steps, let say 1x, 1.5x, 2x. This will be enough. And then when calculating point, just get the point from the image, and divide it with the scale to get correct number. That is what I would do.I will download now your last beta. I am really looking forward to try it.Btw, will You update the programm so the image can span several LOD13 quadrants? I do not mind if the programm needs image, whith multiples of 256 pix. Your programm is really timesaving but when talking about roads, they can be straight for some quadrants and they are really long. I have to rework so many roads and I have no courage to cut a map from Atlas to approx. 250 parts to put all those really needed roads in... Working on Slovenian coast was also a huge project, and I used 50 images to do it.... If You need an ASM example how to merge some LOD quadrants together to produce one coastline or even that it croses 2 LOD8 quadrants, just say, I will send You the example!Next thing, I was thinking of is that number of points. You do allow it to change but I think it is pointless. User can't delete the line in listbox, it can be deleted with button only. And added only with a click on the screen. So I would propose, that those edit boxes where You count lines become labels without tabstops. You already automatically count points, no need to change it. You must only add a line in button clear listbox where You put 0 in label.The next thing it would be wise to add is somekind of safety issue. When there is more than abt. 220 number of lines for coast, I would suggest to paint them to red. Between 32 and 220 points You paint it red, try painting the label in Maroon or in dark yellow. Below 32, paint the label in green. Anyway, does it have any sense to show user when it has less or more than 32 points? I think the real maximum should be around 220-250 before FS engine or BGLC produces an error.I just remembered that I was removing the lines for coast where there were two identical lines (maybe You could do this optimization too?) and count was wrong. Then LWM just crashed and all the work was gone. By my Delphi experience I would suggest to use error traps on the points, where You convert strings to integer or floating points. In Delphi I use Try-Except for such cases. But do not use them too often!!!I hope I did not bother You too much with my suggestions but maybe You find some of them usefull. Keep up with good work!Best regards,Goran BrumenFS Slovenija 2002 teamhttp://slovenia.avsim.net

[Guest]

>Hi Ken! >>I advise You to not to bother for linear stepless scaling, >just predefine max 3 steps, let say 1x, 1.5x, 2x. This will >be enough. And then when calculating point, just get the >point from the image, and divide it with the scale to get >correct number. That is what I would do. I agree with this :-)

[Guest]

WeBad,Please DO NOT PUT "Remove Selected" and "Clear List" buttons near...PLEASE......

[Guest]

KenanI'm not sure I understand what your saying. Are those buttons too close to something? Are you a fast clicker?RegardsKen

[Guest gorchi]

Hi Ken,not only he is fast clicker, I am too... Maybe a warning popup window on "Clear all contents" would be nice... :)Best regards,Goran BrumenFS Slovenija 2002 teamhttp://slovenia.avsim.net

[spotlope 0]

Hi Ken,This is a little off-topic, but have you considered clearing the point count in the text field above the LWM and VTP point lists when "clear all" is selected? I use it a lot when jumping to the next poly, and sometimes, because I'm addle-brained, I forget to clear it. I can't think of a time when I'd want to clear all the points from a list but keep the count. Am I missing something? Just a suggestion. BTW, I just did a fairly large area of coastline (for me ;-)) in LMWDraw4 and it worked like a charm.thanks,

[Guest]

Yes a fast clicker. I was working on a long coast and about in my 6. or 7. Lod13 area I cleared all my VTP points. And I did it twice time today....(Yes now I am saving.)Some little ideas from me :)Maybe you can put "Clear List" button to the top of points listbox and "remove selected "button to the bottom of listbox.You can put a small "write" checkbox for VTP side and if we clear it, it doesn't add new points to VTP area for later clicks. So we don't need to remove some VTP points later.Is it posible to change the type and width of VTP lines any time I want from gui ,without editing asm file (beetwen the points).Is it posible to add remarks to listboxs and write this remarks between my points in asm file. So we can find which point is for what easier.Can you put a red pixel to where I click. Maybe red click for both LWM and VTP points. Blue for only vtp and Green for only LWM points. So I can see my points before writing them to asm file. Or only a Red pixel to where I click. For next version, is it posible to open larger files, for example 512*512 and work on 4 area at same time. Or unlimited size of bmp with a scrollable picturebox so we don't need to split your images and work faster.Thank you for this great tool.Kenan

[Guest]

Hello BillThat's really awesome news as I know you put allot of extra time and effort into your coastline project. Maybe I or we can get a peek screenshot of your efforts so we'll see some of what our future designing efforts will accomplish. It also sounds nice to me that LWMDraw "worked like a charm" for you. I'm still working on the long process to completely re-write the help and menu text at this point and still have a pretty fair distance to go on that but in the mean time you might want to check out beta 4 here:http://www.flightsimnetwork.com/webads/lwm/LWMDraw4b4.zipYou'll find several enhancements to beta 4 from it's previous beta version including having the "Clear List" buttons now clearing both the respective colored list box and number of Lines/Points text box all in one wack. I also added a small but useful feature to highlight any text or values within any text box when the text box becomes active. It only saves a small amount of time for each but when you add them all up in reference to a whole project it becomes a nice little feature. You might be supprised with what you find until I get the documentation finished up however I did place a text file with beta 4 to explain about all the menus, controls, and interface.Now it's my turn to thank you Bill and the many other talented and helpful people that come to this forum to help others because without you and them LWMDraw wouldn't be in existance. I specificly appreciate the efforts and helpfulness that Richard has given us all these many months and today Richard gave me a great enhancement to LWMDraw with permission to place his LWM Tutorial directly into the LWMDraw menu list. With that readily available to users LWMDraw is now greatly enhanced with knowledge to educate and introduce the basic BGLC graphic language. Frankly my little coding enhancements are nothing in comparison and with that LWMDraw is now a duel purpose tool being helpful in functionallity and educationally.I'll get back to you soon about your email and thanks again for you help and efforts.Ken

[Guest]

Hi KenanPlease download beta 4:http://www.flightsimnetwork.com/webads/lwm/LWMDraw4b4.zipI believe it will resolve several of your issues. Please note I've added a text file as well describing the menus, controls, and interface that should straighten out and make LWMDraw even more helpful. (I hope) Some of your issues won't be addressed with this version but I hope to someday make LWMDraw more functional and helpful.Thanks for you input my friendKen