AFCAD Buildings

[Guest Wecou]

I have been using AFCAD for a while and, as many of you know, you cannot import buildings into the scenery in it.How can I create an airport in AFCAD and then add some buildings or macros around it, what programs do you suggest, I'm currently using FSSC but its buggy and cumbersome.FSSC allows to build everything (including runways) but I'd like to keep using AFCAD for runways, taxiways and parking.Will it present a conflict in FS2004 having several BGL files in proximity (coordinates), how can I handle layers in the scenery.cfg file to make a scenery visible over anotherThank you

[arno 1]

You can very well use FSSC (or Airport) to place only the objects around the airport you made with AFCAD. Or if you want to use the Fs2004 format you can also use SceneGenX (but that is still in development).It will not be any problem to FS that you have multiple files, just place them all in the scenery folder of your project. You don't have to do anything special in the scenery.cfg as well then.

[Guest Wecou]

Thank you, I started making scenery last week, so I'm still a rookie, what exactly do you mean by "fs2004 format" and is SceneGenX a separate program or does it run within FS2004. Do you know if the AFCAD designers plan to have the macro or 3d object input feature in the future AFCAD releases?

[arno 1]

The intenal format of the BGL files has changed between Fs2002 and Fs2004 (but the old Fs2002 format is still supported). That is why some news tools, like SceneGenX, are now appearing that make use of them.Just like Airport for Windows and FSSC, SceneGenX runs as a seperate program. It just makes a BGL file with a different format.I think, not 100% sure though, that in the future AFCAD will also get the option to call objects from the libraries that can be made with GMax or from the default objects.

[Guest Larrycx]

HiIt may be worth your effort to learn enough abut Gmax to make FS2004 buildings just the way you want them. Its a lotta work to learn (hous & hours!) but worth the effort. The Gmax SDK has a good starting lesson on a house and you can go from there. You can texture (paint) your buildings with Paint Shop Pro or even MS paint which can make BMP 256x256 files and then they must be converted to DX-1 format with Imagetool included with the SDK. The example in the Gmax SDK will get you started with a lotta effort. You wind up with XML files which can be edited with notepad to place the desirted lat, long that you can get from FS2004 with Tcalc2004 by simple copy-paste. Then make BGLs with Bglcomp by dragging the changed XMLs onto the BGLcomp icon. Place the BGLS in addon scenery and the BMP (DX-1)s used for texture into Addon Scenerytexture. You can even use photo-realistic textures on the buildings by taking digital pix and with some work in Paint Shop get the 256x256 BMPs you need for texture.This is just another approach but has the advantage of custom design and in native FS2004 format. Whatever approach works for you is what to use at least initially. I used AFcad to rework my home airport from a gravel strip into its present paved form and added a number of existing buildings onto it. Good luck.Larry Costa