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Guest TKessel

ASD 2.1/scenery programs for FS9

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Guest TKessel

No answer from Abacuspub tech support to my question a couple of weeks ago to them: how about a patch for ASD 2.1 to make it work better for FS9 (and even FS 2002)?It looks to me like ASD is no longer a "supported product," and I saw no reference to it at the Abacus site, so it may no longer be a product for sale, either.It's a pity, as I have used it for several years, and now have ASD source files for about 80 Ohio airports, which I am updating as much as I can to make compatable with FS9. Should be released in about a week.But if it weren't for Airport for Windows, which I use to define the surface area of an airport, and also need to "flatten" some areas, I'd have not been able to use my ASD airports in FS 2002 or FS9.Airport for Windows seems to be getting updated (as freeware). Is there any other commercial program like ASD was/is? I told Abacus I'd be glad to pay another $50 for ASD 3, but no response to me. Is Airport for Windows now the best there is?I'm tempted to build a couple of airports with Airport for Windows only, just to try it again(I used it for Ohio98, and must have done over 80 airports then, using AFW 2.00). I think I was using AFW 2.10, too. Then I switched to ASD for "future work." Now it looks like AFW 2.95 - build 165 has really grown, and ASD is falling back. I really liked the ASD ability to "import" Airport data right from the flight simulator, but Airport For Windows now has a taxiway building feature and many other things it didn't have when I left it as my main design program.Anyhow, I'm just curious as to what other people are using and like.:-hmmm Later,Ted Kessel:-wave

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>Is Airport for Windows now the best there is?I think so. There are other programs out there, but I still think that this one is the best for placing macros and stuff. Plus, it's free. I also use FSArchitect (payware) sometimes, but only for placing ground polygons. I found AFW 2.9 very easy to learn, and I think it'll come easy to you especially since you've used ASD.If you want to create your own macros, then Abacus sells FSDS2, which can also place them directly into the scenery. But, if you are going to learn modeling, then you might as well learn GMAX, which is also free.- Martin

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Besides Airport there also is FSSC (http://www.avsim.com/fssc) and GroundMaker (www.groundmaker.org). Those two are also freeware. I use FSSC now most of the time. GroundMaker has the best GUI in my opinion, but it hasn't been updated for a while, so it might not be the best choice anymore.I think ASD is really not an option anymore. It hasn't been updated for a while and the code it produces isn't up to date either.


Arno

If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can't be done.

FSDeveloper.com | Former Microsoft FS MVP | Blog

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Ted, ur taking me back to the old days. Boy, I was sure pumped the day ASD2.1 arrived in my mail box. Times have changed thou, and Abacus some time ago showed they weren't going to cotinue to invest in this project. Peter Jacobsen wrote the code for SCbuild, which was ASD without the payware marketing. Abacus may never have had the resources to modify ASD code, and Peter may have moved on...these things happen. Still, ASD hasn't been as good as free alternatives since fs2000 was released. Do yourself a big favor, put your copy in the museum! FSSC has the simplest interface imho....I find myself only using fssc (or airport) for when I wish to include an api macro. For everything else there are even better alternatives than that type of proggy. GMAX places objects quite well, ground2k is an excellant proggy for altering terrain and adding custom polygons. The terrain sdk for fs2k2 provides the tools for photoreal terrain.Best,Bob Bernstein

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Guest TKessel

Hi Jim,Thanks for that link. I don't remember seeing it there at ABACUSPUB before. I hope it's true, as it is a good program, but is getting rather stale compared to AFW and the other programs.If it is just a tweak for the update, that's OK, but I'd hope it is more of an upgrade. Anyhow, I'd better become more proficient with AFW, as "soon" is not defined, and ASD was not fully workable for FS 2002, either: no flatten command built in, or defining a ground texture or surface area so things didn't get too bumpy, for example.Later,Ted

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what left me very skeptical was the marketing effort abacus made to claim asd was a good product for use with fs2k2, but if you understood the latest in scenery design, you found ALL kinds of holes in the marketing. The message, as I read it, was that ASD will work...period. No attempt to provide optimized function which is being made available by others for FREE.I think Abacus is in a no win situation, and they know it. Now that the competition is freeware, how can they compete? The answer is, they can't, they know it, and they're willing to make a tiny marketing effort to wring out the last few sales from a dying product.Bob Bernstein

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Guest TKessel

Hi Bob,The only problem for me putting it in a museum is that I have over80 airports for Ohio that are all done (they were originally done for FS 2000 and FS 2002), and just need a bit of tweaking to make them work in FS9. I'm not quite ready to give up totally, I want to be able to keep that scenery good looking as long as possible (and it does still look pretty good). I'll upload it in about a week.Still, I do kind of regret going from Airport to ASD about 4 years ago, as at that time all my airports had been AFW-produced. I still have on my c: drive copies of Apt 2.00, 2.05f, 2.10 and 2.6, just so I can open/use my old apt files and they will have a "path" to the macros. All along I also used AFW for scenery for my virtual airline, when I only want to drop some macros into the scenery, not build the whole airport.For new work, unless ASD is really upgraded, I think I'd go back to AFW. Better check out FSSC, too.However, the ease of "importing" the airport data does make ASD a breeze to use when starting a new airport. But if ABACUS only fixes the import feature (ASD won't import FS9) and the "menu" feature for facilities, and doesn't have an improved taxiway tool (Airport really didn't even have a taxi tool when I stopped using it, just polygons that one could add the lights to), then I'd give up on it, for new "work."Later

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