Coastline maker

[Hornit 3]

I downloaded and installed this program. Read the tutorial. went and found the coordinates for my airport that I want to edit (rivers/roads). I then copy the new cell grid coordinates to the cell grid.txt file and go to drag and drop this onto BGLC.exehmmmm, can't seem to find it, its not in the folder that coastline maker is in....hmmmmm dont see it in FS2K2 folder. So i go download it from simviation, there it is. Now what do i do? Where does bglc.exe go and where does it put files that it compiles? I need to get the bgl to add the grid lines to the scenery so i can start editing, Im at a standstill til I figure this out. There appears to be nothing about it in the readme or tutroial for coastline maker. Pretty frustrating actually, hope to hear from those who have this working, thx.Hornit

[Guest]

Hi HornitThe below text is from the Instruction menu within CLM:----------------------------------------------------------Getting Started: Coast-Line-Maker first time setupCreate a new folder, and into it copy the CoastLineMaker.EXE file and the Documentation subfolder (with its contents) This is the folder within which you should also store any background map images and your Coast-Line-Maker data files (which have a .CLM extension).You will also require the following tools to complete a Coast-Line-Maker project, which should be copied into the same folder as above:a copy of the MS scenery compiler BGLC.EXE (from the Microsoft BGL compiler SDK available at: FS02DevDeskSDK15.asp) a copy of files TDFMacros.inc and TDFHeaders.inc - these files (by Richard Ludowise) are needed for successful compilation of the scenery and are included in the Coast-Line-Maker package a copy of files Cell_Grid.inc and 192_127_Grid.txt - these files (by Richard Ludowise) from his CellGrid2.ZIP are included in the Coast-Line-Maker package For basic troubleshooting information for Coast-Line-Maker (if you have any problems getting the program to run), please see README.TXT.I hope this helpsKen

[Guest]

Ken, its really cool that you've made a name writing code. I have your utility, and I'm going to learn to use it myself soon.Cheers,Bob Bernstein

[Hornit 3]

Ok I got the grid map for the LOD 13 cells to show up and i am now editing the roads and rivers. I am not making any coastlines as I am just trying to delete the existing road and river detail around the William Piper memorial airport in Lock Haven PA. I am slowly learning how to do this, it is definitely not easy to learn. I figured out that BGLC.exe should go inside the Coastline maker folder and it seems to work. I edited the cells and added some new roads and rivers in the proper places. I then saved the project and have it set to generate the LWM and VTP files and it saves them into the coastline folder. As I am not fooling with coastlines there is no LWM file for this particular scenery fix. I took the VTP file and dropped it into BGLC and it promptly generated a BGL file for me. I then created my own new folder for this scenery and added it to my addon scenery folder as i always do. Went into flightsim and deactivated the scenery file for the grid stuff and activated my new scenery with the fixed rivers/roads. Nothing happened, all incorrect roads/rivers are still there and no new stuff shows. I redid the files, and tried again, this time putting the folder into fs scenery folder, still nothing. I tried putting just the bgl file into the scenery folder and still nothing. Can someone show me how they work the preferences, and a step by step after you save the project to see what I am missing? I want to make this work, it would mean some really nice fixes.Hornit

[Guest Tony_A]

Hi Hornit, Took me awhile to get a successful BGL out of CLM. Just a few tips from some of my first mistakes.Make sure the bitmap you use as a background/template is exactly on the corners of the top-right, bottom-left LOD 8 cells and that you input the correct LOD 13 & 8 numbers. The first ones I did were skewed to a nearby but incorrect position because I hadn't taken enough care here.You don't mention in your post whether you excluded the current rivers/ roads in CLM. If you don't they will still show up.I setup CLM to make the BGLs for me (saves that dragging and gropping) then just transfer them to a "scenery" folder in a "Whatever Scenery" folder which I then install as any other scenery in FS2K2. Haven't had any problems with this.Keep trying, it's a bit hard to learn but well worth the effort. Tony

[Hornit 3]

Ok lemme see If I understand this, the LOD 8 cells are the smaller individual ones. The LOD 13 is the large one with many inside, Is this correct? And yes i did exclude the rivers and roads in the areas i did not want them.I am going to give it another try today. My scenery is on the edge of one of the LOD cells so i am going to shift my ref point to get it from a different set of coordintes. Im not giving up on this one.Hornit

[Hornit 3]

Succes! One thing I think I found out is you cannot try to work across an LOD 8 boundary. My scenery is right on the edge and I have had to make two seperate bgl's to work the road and river issues there. I have one small problem that seems to be very hard to overcome, and that is connecting the road and river segments in the edited LOD squares with the ones which are not edited. Takes a lot of trial and error tweaks to get them lined up. Is there any trick to this? I also figured out that if I am doing roads, I have to draw the new ones first, then use the exclude or I cannot draw them at all. Thanks for all the help, I guess I figured it out on my own though. Seems I overlooked one or two things, but for the most part it just took a few tries at it, now its working like a champ.Hornit

[Guest Tony_A]

Hi Hornit, good to hear you got a result!!! I haven't found any easy way other than tweaking to get the edited segments to line up with the existing scenery. Just a couple of tips if you get into lakes and islands. When you "click" in your coastline segments to make a lake click them in a clockwise direction or you will have to reverse the segment. If you do have to reverse a segment just right-click on one point then select reverse segment, this reverses ALL of the segment. If you do any islands click in your points in an anti-clockwise direction or you will have to r3everse them. Islands that are any further than 1 cell from an existing coastline will probably be filled with water. If you start doing a coastline, be careful, it gets addictive. regards Tony