Changing Runway height

[Guest wildfire563]

Hi,Somebody pointed out that a new AFCAD with FFNE for MA55 had trees on the runway. When I looked at it, it turns out the default runway is 90 degrees to its actual direction, and the runway was at 90 ft (27m) (as noted by AirNav) while the ground in the area is at from 0 to 10 feet across the island the runway is on (a small island just west of Nantucket). So I created a new AFCAD using AFCAD 2.21, I removed the old flatten using LWMViewer and BGLC, and using Sbuilder, created a new flatten, a layer 7 poly exclude for the old airport background, and several excludes to remove the trees. The runway was created at 3 feet, and the flatten was created at .9 m. I did not create an airport background. When I go to the airport in FS, everything looks correct, except that the runway itself is floating in the air at 90 ft. If I go past the edge, the plane can drop down to the ground and you can see the runway surface (dirt) painted on the ground, but, as soon as I move the plane onto the runway surface, it rises up to 90 ft but the mesh remains at 3 ft.If I remove AP929170.bgl, the problem goes away. If I edit AP929170.bgl and set the original runway height to .91 m, the problem goes away (you have to fix a few com callouts in other airports to get it to recompile). If (with unedited AP929170) you add a parking space to the airport, now you can see the mesh rise up to the runway. Interestingly, the shape of the mesh looks like a cross between the object excludes and the flatten I created, even if I turn the files containing these objects off. I've had the AFCAD both with the airport reference point different from and exactly the same as the original ARP. I have tried it with the original ARP both inside and outside of the VTP exclude, with the new ARP as the same position as the default. The runway and flattens/original background/VTP Exclude do not appear to be near any LOD5 boundaries. The new "mesh" at 90 ft (nonexistant with no parking slots) follows the shape of the new runway, not the old. I have tried having the AFCAD file both in the same directory as the new flatten/excludes and in a directory with a higher scenery priority than the flatten/excludes.Anyone have any clues as to what else I need to do to change the height of the runway, without having to edit AP929170? It's one thing to have to instruct people how to remove the flatten, but if I also have to instruct them how to edit AP929170, I think that's a little too much.Here's the new AFCAD XML:<?xml version="1.0"?>

[Guest wildfire563]

<== Dummy, I found my answer right here in the forums. Thanks guys and gals, well guys, since I didn't see any gals respond to the thread (How come?).http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...24653&mode=fullThomas

[scott967 62]

I'm not sure what the final word on this is, but my experience is that if you put the "shortform" XML airport file in the same folder as the default AP file, it fixes the alt. I haven't tested, but I assume the filename must be "greater than" the default so it is read after the default.scott s..

[Guest wildfire563]

From what I have read and experienced through testing, FS uses the altitude it reads first for all instances of the runways for that airport. Therefore, it must be read before the default, and therefore must be in a scenery library that is read before the regional libraries. (You'll note that AF will be read before AP, hence, it works if you put it in the same directory as the AP files).I also think it is a better practice to not put files in the default directories. Makes it easier to manage what you have installed. Hence, I have a separate library for all altitude fix files. I think it may also be a good idea to create a separate AF file for each airport changed, in case somebody else wants to change the same airport. I don't know what the effect is of having multiple files versus a whole bunch of airports in a single file (performance, etc.).Thomas

[Holger 0]

Hi Scott,you're correct.Here's a detailed thread about how to move an entire airfield and overwrite flattens, etc.: http://www.flightsimmer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35920Cheers, HolgerEdit: Oops, crossing posts with Thomas. Thomas, moving add-on scenery entries in between or underneath the default entries appears to have odd consequences for some users too. Not sure why this happens but I assume that the scenery.dat files are not updated correctly. See this thread: http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...topic_id=240404

[Guest wildfire563]

Ok.Well I am a definite fan of FlightSim Manager. I use it every time I make a change to the library, and it seems to find and fix problems very often.I disagree that Scott was correct, however. I banged my head for quite a long time trying to fix the altitude of a runway until I came across the thread noted above. And the only way I could get it fixed was if my AFCAD was read first. Am I wrong?Thomas

[Holger 0]

Hi Thomas,unfortunately, most people don't use FlightSim Manager, so it's tricky to have that as a pre-requisite for a successful installation. Moreover, the issue with my original way of adding duplicates via a separate scenery library entry never was an issue on my system and only appears to be a problem for about 5-10% of users of my CRG package. In other words, what works for you or me doesn't necessarily work for others.You're absolutely correct with the order in which the AFCAD "duplicates" need to be read, however: the one with the adjusted elevation needs to be read first; after all that's the reason for this "trick" in the first place. I misread Scott's statement, sorry!Cheers, Holger